Tot School-Catching up!

 

I’m starting to think that Tot-school entries are more realistic for me to do every two weeks instead of every week.  There are times that we seem to do a lot, and then other times that days go by and we’re busy doing so much other stuff that we don’t sit down and do anything specific.  I guess that’s why Carisa, the founder of Tot School has a section each week called “Life School.”  It’s the place that you include the everyday happenings that may not be planned, or really “school”-ish, but are still learning opportunities.  I’ve never blogged about bathtime, but that would be a perfect example of “Life School.”  In the bath, she learns a lot about water, temperature, pouring, her own body, cleanliness, etc.  Anyway.  Small tangent over.  ;) 

So in the last 2 weeks, our “Tot School” has included two trips to the library, two trips to the zoo, a new bedtime routine (that now includes reading for at least 20-30 minutes before bed each night!  This started by accident.  We used to read a book or two before bed, and one night we just kept reading!  So now, we’re reading books downstairs and not in bed—because otherwise it’s hard to say “last one!” when they’re still within reach or sight.  I LOVE reading so much and watching the joy she finds in books, so this change is welcome.), and going with me to the doctor’s office for an ultrasound (followed by shopping!). 

Anyway, more “official” tot-school activities include:

1) Spooning activities.  I can’t remember if I posted this in the last entry, so if I did, sorry!  This activity was pretty simple.  I showed Ella how to transfer the colored pom-poms from one bowl to the other using the spoon.  She loved this activity!  It sat out for at least a week, and she went back to it a few times to do it again.  She also liked throwing the pom-poms, because they’re soft and very light (and are safe for throwing inside!).  This was how I set this one up for her:

And then she did it!  She’s very skilled with a spoon when she eats, so I wasn’t surprised that she did well with this one.  (This was before bed one night, so she’s in her PJ’s already!)

She also liked a variation, using  a 1/4 teaspoon and some cereal (puffed corn).  After transferring everything to the second cup, she ate it.  :)   

2) Water pouring

Ella loves to pour water (or whatever!) from one container to another, so I gave her two shot-glasses and filled one with water.  I also gave her a washcloth to clean up any spills.  I think she would be happy to do this activity every day!  Keeps her very busy! 

Using the washcloth to clean up spills on her tray.  Then, since it was already wet, I asked her to wipe the table off when we were done!  

(I think I’ll be asking her to wash off the table again in the future.  It’s a great, easy “chore” that she can do!)

3)  Color Sorting

I printed these awesome Color-Matching Cards, cut them out, laminated them, and then rounded all of the corners (because they were sharp after I cut them out!).  It took a lot of work, but these have been used daily.  Before they were done, Ella was playing with the sheet of yellow cards (still waiting to be cut out after laminating them).  She was telling me about the pictures, and then found a basket that we have that was also yellow.  “Look mama!  Yellow!”  So, I went with it, and asked her if there was anything else that was yellow.  Before too long, we had a yellow basket full of yellow toys!  So fun!

When the cards were finally done (I think it took me 2 hours start to finish, over 2 days, to complete these!), she wanted to play with them.  I set up the color name cards (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple), and gave her a few cards at a time.  She carefully looked at each one and put it in the appropriate color column.  I was impressed (especially considering that at this point, she didn’t really “know” her colors, she would just randomly say a color name if you asked her what color something was). 

 

When she was done, this is where she had placed the cards:

She didn’t get through the whole stack of cards (she lost interest), but did pretty well I’d say!  And like I said, she’s been playing with these cards almost every day since.  And, I think she’s actually learning the color names!  Now, she’ll pick up a card and say “Orange!” or “Purple!”  She doesn’t know all of them (red, green, and blue still give her trouble), but she’s getting there.  ;) 

4) Blocks

We have a few different kinds of building blocks, and she really likes these!  I have no idea what brand they are, but they basically connect together.  I just happened to catch her at a very happy moment here: 

5)  Painting! 

I can’t even count how many times each week Ella paints.  If we’re bored or need something to do, she often asks to paint! 

Sometimes painting on paper turns into painting on hands… ;)  

We even tried painting with pipe-cleaners instead of paintbrushes, just to be different. 

…which also turned into more finger painting.  :) 

Some fun random ones: 

…and we found out that Ella will have a little sister! 

This “Little Sister” shirt will go perfectly with the “Big Sister” shirt be bought for Ella months ago…

Tot School

 

We missed doing a formal tot-school entry last week, but we’ve been keeping busy!  My grandma was in the hospital and we went out of town to visit her for a few days, so we’ve been pretty low-key lately (I think we’ll always be pretty low-key!). 

A few things we’ve been doing…

1) Eye-dropper Activities.  Ella continues to enjoy using the eye dropper!  My favorite thing about it is that it’s fast and easy to set-up.  It’s been perfect for her to do in the kitchen at the table while I cook dinner, or we just need something to do while we wait for something else (like waiting for her dad to finish getting ready so we can go out to do something fun as a family!). 

2)  Using a magnifying glass!  Ella has LOVED this activity!  Basically, it’s a matching game.  You have to use the magnifying glass to match the teeny tiny pictures with the larger sized photos.  You can download the cards with more detailed instructions here. 

3)  Cooking!  Ella helped me to make a rice-crispy type dessert.  She didn’t help a lot and got bored pretty fast, but she liked touching/playing with the marshmallows!  Good thing I had her wash her hands first…! 

 

4)  I forget what this toy is called, but she played with it at the table for a long time the other day!  She had fun moving the little beads around and problem-solving (she had to figure out how to move the toy or move her hands so that she could reach the different beads). 

5) Stringing Beads.  This is a set from Plan Toys.  It takes a lot of hand-eye coordination and is a perfect beginner bead set.  They’re nice and big, so great for little hands! 

6)  Matching Cards.  She loves to use these cards to match!  When we first started (a month or 2 ago), I laid the cards face-up, and asked her to match them.  Now, they are face down and she has to remember where the matches are. 

She’ll say, “Is this a match?  Nooooo……!” 

Introducing the eye-dropper

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks!  I’m trying to get out of the house as often as possible to avoid tantrums and boredom and laziness on my part! Also, it’s been so hot lately that playing outside just isn’t tolerable for long periods of time.  But, we’ve done some fun activities at home, too. 

I recently purchased a whole bag of eye-droppers.  I wasn’t sure if she would understand how they work—but I thought it was worth a try.  So one day last week, we did some color-mixing activities with them. 

Initially, I filled a tray with red, yellow, and blue, plus some empty slots to do more mixing.   

But then I realized that it would probably make more sense if we only used 2 colors to start with (and then later realized that using just plain water would have been a good place to start, too!).  So our next trial run included yellow and blue food coloring. 

It was a success!  Yellow + Blue = Green!  She got some good practice using the eye dropper and thought that the changing colors were great!

I made sure to do this activity on a plastic tray, because eventually, I knew she would dump it all out.  I was right.  :) 

We have done this several time since, and have used red and yellow to make orange, and red and blue to make purple.  As a bonus, I borrowed the book Mouse Paint from the library and we’ve read that several times too. 

We used the eye-dropper again yesterday for a different science activity—mixing vinegar and baking soda!  It’s very hard to see in the pictures, but when you add vinegar to baking soda, a chemical reaction happens, and it makes great little fizzy bubbles!  I wish I had Ella’s initial reaction on camera—it was priceless!  If I had planned better, I would add some food coloring to the vinegar, just for a little something extra.  ;) 

As you can see in this last picture, she’s really getting the hang of squeezing the eye-dropper.  I’m pretty impressed (although quite biased!).  This is a GREAT fine-motor activity, not to mention all the cool science that happens too!