Tot School - Week 4

Sprout is 20 Months

This week we focused on colors and shapes. We spent most of our time focusing on colors, but we played games that were both colors and shapes.

We had a pretty laid back week around here. As Sprout and I caught the cold that JGD brought home from Alaska. So most of our time was spent taking it easy.

Tot Trays

Our Tot Trays this week include 

• Shape "Pattern Blocks" activity
• Cutting, Gluing and Stickers
• Playdough - with circles and heart shaped cookie cutters
• Lacing beads
• Bingo Markers
• A Transferring Activity from Tot Trays

Sprout enjoyed using her lacing beads this week.  She understands the whole idea of putting the string in the bead, but from there we need more guidance.  We will continue working with this one next week.

Sprout really enjoys using these dot markers in a 6 pack at Michael's. Maybe the whole "scented" idea wasn't the greatest idea, but we love them anyway! We found the printables for Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? and some other great Brown Bear activities at Making Learning Fun.

Sprout was able to match up the bigger pieces of this "puzzle." She really enjoyed walking around with the shapes though, which gave of us several opportunities to talk about the shapes she was holding.

Sprout hasn't used scissors before so this was completely new for her. We have these scissors so all she has to do is squeeze to cut. This is still tough for her but she really enjoyed trying. We will probably try these out too.

Now for the stickers, Sprout loved playing with her Mickey and friends stickers. She chose to put Donald on the paper, and then take him off!

Projects

This week our only real project was our stART project for this week. This project was based on My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss. See my post for more about this project.

Tot Books

We use the Brown Bear, Brown Bear Tot Pack from 1+1+1=1 a lot this week. Sprout didn't necessarily understand all of the components, but she had fun checking everything out. Her favorite activity from this pack was the Shadow Match from Making Learning Fun. I was really impressed with how well she did this, since she shows absolutely no interest in the traditionally matching activities we try. In the beginning, she needed a hint here or there to find the right shadow, but by the end of the week, she didn't need any help at all. I also think she loved playing with velcro that attached the pieces to their shadows.

Sprout also played with her Little Einsteins Tot Book a lot this week. For the most part she was just pulling out the matching cards and walking around with them, or pulling out the accordion activity, but I'm glad that she is getting more familiar with this type of activity.

Practical Play

Because we weren't feeling all that great this week, our practical play this week was mostly trying to get better (we're getting there slowly).  This meant we spent a lot of time trying to get liquids into Sprout.  She really enjoyed JGM's "Lemon Tea."  

Towards the end of the week Sprout decided she needed some exercise and started running laps around the island in our kitchen.  

She also decided that she needed to practice her stunt falls.  

We thought that some fresh air might do us some good so we went to the Florida Renaissance Festival.

Next Week

Next week's theme is All About Me.  I plan on focusing on body parts, clothes, home and family.  We are getting ready to get together with JGD's family for Passover, and they would be thrilled if Sprout could say their names.  Though I don't really think this is going to happen, we'll give it a try.  I made a book with all of Sprout's family members in it, and I'm looking forward to going through it with her.  She loves looking at pictures of people so this should be a lot of fun for us.

To see what other tots were doing this week go to Tot School.

One Step Forward?

Sprout is 20 months and we are not pushing the potty training thing.  Though she has used the potty and sat on it since she was around a year.  I have wanted to introduce it to her and get her used to using the potty before so that when the time came, she would be comfortable with the potty.  For a little while, I even followed some of the EC ideas, in trying to get her to use the potty, when I knew she was going.  This worked for a little while (and meant less diapers to change) and then Sprout decided that she didn't want to use the potty.  Which was fine, I laid off for a while, and then started her sitting on before baths, and reading potty books.

This has been fine, but I really haven't been pushing at all, as I got Sara Au and Peter Stavinoha's book Stress-Free Potty Training.  This book has a quiz in the beginning to help you figure out how your child's behaviors will effect potty training.  I find this helpful, but even more helpful was the way they explained when a tot would be ready for training.  After reading that I knew we had a while.

So after telling you all this, are you wondering what our step was?  Sorry, to have gone on so long above, but I thought the background would help.

Tonight during Sprout's bath.  She turned and stood up to get out of the tub.  I thought she had decided she was done, and asked her to put her toys away first.  Which she did, with this weird look on her face. When she sat back down to clean up, I realized why Sprout had wanted to get out of the tub.  In retrospect, I think the look on her face, was "uh oh."  She has gone on the potty in the past, but it has been a while, so I was a little surprised that she put everything together like that.  And she may have just wanted to use the floor and not the potty, but at least she knew that she didn't want to use the bath.

I know I'm crazy and getting ahead of myself, but I am really happy to have seen this step forward!

stART - My Many Colored Days

This week our theme is colors and shapes.  Most of the stories we have read are about colors, and Sprout has really loved My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss.  I had planned to use a different book for this week's stART project, but after seeing how much Sprout loves this book, I thought it would be a good book to use.

I love the illustrations in this book, and they inspired this week's project.  Sprout used cookie cutters shaped like people and body parts to do print painting.

Sprout definitely enjoyed this project, but has been a little stuffy this week.  So she is continuing her minimalist phase.  Here is her final project.

Want to see what other people did this week?  Go to A Mommy's Adventure.

Tot School - Week 3

Sprout is 20 Months

This week our theme was Dr. Seuss in honor of his "birthday" this week. What a great theme! There is always another project that we can do or book to read. We were quite busy this week!

This week we had some more defined activities, though mostly Sprout had a choice of what she wanted to do, and she made most of the activities into a game of her own creation. 

Tot Trays

I did set up Tot Trays this week to develop some activities that are more focused for Sprout. I found the idea for Tot Trays at 1+1+1=1. Carissa has so many great ideas, her site has really helped me to focus our play more.

Our Tot Trays this week include 

• Baby's Boo (from Growing Up Learning) --  This is to help Sprout with her compassion for others, while she takes care of Mickey when he gets hurt.
• Knock It Down (also from Growing Up Learning) -- Sprout really like this activity, as she go to throw a ball at cups that I arranged for her on the floor
• Playdough
• A bag of red treasures to look at and sort
• A Small Spaces activity from Tot Trays
• A Transferring Activity from Tot Trays

Projects

We started the week painting the Cat in the Hat's hat. This was Sprout's first time using an easel. I was very happy with how well she did. Though she does seem to be in a "minimalist" phase.

As an added bit. Curiosity may not have killed the dog, but he did have something to show for it. Now this wasn't Sprout's fault. Simon just got too curious and got in the way. (Though I've cleaned his head, there is still a pink tint to his fur in this spot.)

We also did a Green Eggs and Ham coloring page. I gave Sprout the green dot paint and a green crayon.

Our final project for the week was our stART project that went along with One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish.  Please check out my post on this project.  I would love to get more opinions on this kind of art project.

Tot Books
This was the first time we have used a Tot Book or a Tot Pack. Though in some form, I probably did have high hopes, I wasn't expecting all that much from these this week. Sprout has never seen them before and is very active. She is not a big fan of activities where she needs to sit and play with someone, using "directions."
I started using the Dr. Seuss Tot Pack I made. Sprout was interested in taking the matching cards out of their envelope and putting them back in, but that was about it. She found the Little Einsteins Tot Book I made, and wanted to play with that. She was a little more into this because she knows those characters far better than Dr. Seuss'. Most of his books are a little long for Sprout to sit through.

Practical Play

Sprout also had some "real world" learning opportunities this week.  She found a Mickey and friends magnet of the fridge this week, and of course was drawn to play with it.  She learned that magnets don't stick to cabinets (sorry about the camera strap in the picture, I was using JGD's camera, and I'm not used to the position of the lens).

We also "washed the dishes" this week. I had planned to make Oobleck, but never made it to the store to buy more cornstarch, so I decided to give it a go with what I had. It didn't work, and I was looking for another sensory opportunity for Sprout. So we washed dishes. I got this idea from Montessori for the Earth. Sprout had a lot of fun with this activity, and the mess didn't get too bad.

What did we read this week?
Well, we read several of Dr. Seuss' books. And we were able to finish most of the ones we read. Sprout even decided to read them on her own.

Next Week
I got jumbo lacing beads for Sprout to start using next week when our theme is colors and shapes. She found them, and wanted to play with them. I was quite impressed when she was able to lace one after I very briefly showed her how to use them. Then she dumped them all over the floor and we had a talk about treating our toys and properly and what happens when we don't.

To see what other people did this week go to Tot School.

stART One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Our theme this week is Dr. Seuss.  We chose to use One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish for our stART project this week. 

My original plan was to use Michelle the Muffin Tin Mom's idea for a project for this book.  While I was stapling the fish together for her project, I realized that D is in a minimalist phase and that she probably would not want to stuff enough paper into the fish to make the project work.  I definitely suggest checking out her project!

What I decided to do instead was to use contact paper instead.  I traced the fish onto the contact paper and taped to contact paper sticky side up onto a cookie tray, and gave D red and blue tissue paper for the fish.

After D was done putting the tissue paper on the contact paper, I cut the fish down and put the contact paper on construction paper.

Though I'm not normally a big fan of adapting a child's project to make it look like you want it to, I thought that this showed enough of D's work, that I was okay with it.  


To see what other people were reading and doing this week, go to A Mommy's Adventure.


I was an Early Childhood teacher for a 3 year old class, and the parents never understood why the year before it was very clear what all of their projects were, and the year I had them, it wasn't as clear.  Eventually, they began to see that it was because I let their children do their own work and didn't manipulate it to look like something else.  I have to admit it's not as easy to do with my own child, and maybe in part it is because she is only 20 months and needs a little more direction.  


What do you think?  Please, let me know in the comments.  I would love to know as I plan future projects.

Muffin Tin Monday - Dr. Seuss

I know that Dr. Seuss was a MTM theme several weeks ago, but I didn't do it that week, and our theme for this week is Dr. Seuss in honor of his "birthday" this week.

 Here is our MTM for this week.  Starting in the upper left and going clockwise:  Green Eggs and Ham, avocado because D is not a fan of eggs and we don't eat ham; One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, an open faced strawberry jelly sandwich using a fish cookie cutter; Cat in the Hat, hat made out of bananas and strawberries; The Tooth Book, an apple mouth (I used cut apple instead of marshmallows); Ten Apples Up on Top, 10 pieces of cut up apple; The Foot Book, a muenster cheese foot using a foot cookie cutter.

D ate Cat's hat quite quickly, and then used her hands on the jelly on the fish.  When she realized her hands were sticky, that was the end of lunch.  I was quite surprised as she loves avocado and apples, and is normally a fan of peanut butter.  Granted she was rather tired today as we had to get up early to get Jolly Green Daddy to the airport.

On the other hand she did say "sticky" when she was not happy about her hands.  Oh well, better luck next week.

To see what other tots had for lunch today go to Muffin Tin Mom.  Next week's theme is Yellow.