Tot School - Week 7

Andy is 37 months old


I'm a bit late with my Tot School post this week. Andy and I slept over at my parents house this weekend and we had a wonderful time visiting. I did daily blog posts for Tot School most days last week so I'll link to them and mention the highlights so if you read something you're interested in just click on the link to that days blog post.

Monday
- Homemade Montessori Sandpaper Numerals
- Nature Drawstring Bag

Tuesday
- Caterpillar Numbers Project
- Baking Peanut Butter Biscuits and 100's and 1000's biscuits

Wednesday
- At the Park: Picnic and Expedition
- Open Ended Art

Thursday
- Mommy's Little Helper
- stART
- Foam Finger Puppets

To see what others have done for Tot School this week visit 1+1+1=1

Tot School: Thursday

So much for Spring being here (snort)! We woke up to the sound of rain outside and the wind was howling all day. And as for this evening, well, as I sit here I can hear it pouring with rain outside. So much for Spring (snort)!

Anyway we made the most of the weather again and kept busy with lots of housework today. Andy was a great little helper and I was really proud of him. He played a lot with his Tot Trays and other toys when not helping me with housework...


After he played with each thing he packed them all neatly away without me saying a word. I praised him each time though to show him that he's neatness and obedience is not going unnoticed.

He asked to go to the park so with it being so cold and the wind howling outside we bundled up real warm and blew all the way to the park, played with clattering teeth, and blew all the way back.

We read The Bad-Tempered Ladybird by Eric Carle today and Andy made a ladybird out of paper and a cd for his stART project...


And last but not least we made some foam finger puppets from a kit I bought for him...


Andy had fun helping me cook supper this afternoon. He chopped the zucchini's real nice, did his regular supper prep chore - chopping garlic, and ate half a bowl of grated parmesan :)

We went to the library and got some great books so I'm off to take over from Daddy now and do another hour of bedtime reading. Better get a cuppa :)

Tot School: Wednesday

Andy started the day off by playing with his water Tot Tray outside and helping Mommy with housework. For his mid-morning snack we made his favourite fruit and yogurt face after all ready eating an apple and 2 oranges (to say he loves fruit is an understatement)...


And then we set off on a long outdoor 'expedition' to the park. We had some juice and toasted cheese sandwiches for a picnic lunch and finished the meal with some of our 100's and 1000's biscuits we baked yesterday...

Andy enjoyed playing on the miniature but fun jungle gym... :)


And off he went with his Nature Bag to go collect some 'Treasures'...


He 'fished' in 'The Bubbley Stream' (as he calls it) and proudly brought his 'fish' to Mommy...


And he had stacks of fun with his new magnifying glass which he got in the post from my friend Jerushia and her girls. He found spiders and bugs and ants but unfortunately no matter how much I explained he still thought it was great fun to examine each and then give it a great big squash with the side of the magnifying glass... boys will be boys...


When we got home he put all his 'treasures' onto a tot tray and examined them. He found little flowers (without petals) and the inside looked like white eggs and he was so excited about this phenomenal find...


We also did our Open Ended Art project for this week and the theme was black and orange...


I'm so glad that Spring is finally here.

Tot School: Tuesday

Today was a typical beautiful Spring day and due to the weekend and yesterday being so wet I had 5 big loads of washing to do so Andy painted while I sorted out and started...


Andy did a numbers craft this morning by coloring in a caterpillar printout...


And them we went through each number discussing it and feeling each by using our Sandpaper Numerals...


and then Andy pasted it onto a large sheet of black construction paper...


He then pasted some random foam numbers around his caterpillar...


The finished project...


He asked to spoon his beans (one of his favourite tray activities) so he took it out of the Tot Tray Supplies draw and proceeded...


He spent most of the morning outside and Tian his little 2 year old friend popped round for a visit so they had fun outside too.

This afternoon we decided we wanted to bake some cookies and Andy did a great job helping...

Mixing 100's and 1000's biscuit dough...


Mixing Peanut Butter Biscuit dough...


And the end products...


So after an afternoon of baking, many loads of washing and playing outside in fresh air and sunshine, Andy wanted a soft house before bath time so we made one in his bookshelf corner...


And he 'read' books and used his Rooster Torch...


Bath Time! And the end to a lovely day. :)

Tot School: Monday

Today was a very cold, dark and rainy day - not at all the Spring weather we're supposed to be having. So Andy and I made the best of it and kept busy indoors.

I made Andy a set of Montessori Sandpaper Numerals. I asked my Dad last week to cut pieces of hardboard for me with his machine and we went to go fetch it this weekend. I printed out some numbers, onto scrap paper, and had to alter the numbers 4, 6 and 9 slightly to make it like the Montessori Sandpaper Numerals that you buy.

Printed numbers (I used the upside down 6 as the 9), hardboard (cut to 11cm x 9cm), sandpaper...


To trace the numbers I drew the outline of the reversed number with a pencil onto the back of the sandpaper...


I cut out all the numbers and placed them onto their bases to be glued...


I glued them with clear drying glue suitable for wood and put them under a heavy book to be pressed. When they were dry we put them onto our tray to enjoy...


Andy absolutely loves this. We focused on the numbers 0 - 5 today and we traced each one a few times while saying what number it is...


Then I set them out and asked Andy to e.g. "find number four" he then pointed out the number tracing it and repeating the number while tracing...


He asked me if he could paint so he spent some time creating whales and sharks...


Tea time I gave Andy 2 oatmeal biscuits to have with his Rooibos tea and left the packet on the counter so next thing I knew he had served himself the remainder of the packet...


Of coarse I gave him a few and packed the rest away so when I looked again he was 'recklessly' looking for them...


I spent most of the afternoon sewing on Andy's pajamas and his cousins 7th birthday present and I also made this drawstring bag for Andy to collect things from nature in it when we go on walks...


Some close ups of the embroidery I did...




Because it was a very rainy day and we couldn't go for a walk Andy asked if he could put his beans in it...


Admiring Mommy's handiwork... :)

Tot School - Week 6

Andy is currently 37 months old

My Tot School posts were getting far too long, and even then I felt like I didn't get in all the details, so this week I did some daily posts so if you're interested in reading them just click on the link I will provide.

Here is a brief overview of our week:

Monday's Tot School

Tuesday's Tot School

Wednesday:

We spent most of the day sorting through cupboards and Andy was a great help. He loved helping me sort out my sewing cupboard and sorted the threads and buttons very nicely...


We also did our Open Ended Art project.

Thursday:

We did some random Tot Trays including our stART project...


On Friday we spent the whole day visiting my sister and her girls. She hosted their homeschool nature study group in the morning so I baked some choc chip cookies while they were busy and we served it after lunch.

This post was so nice and quick and easy to put together! I find doing daily posts allows me to express everything at my leisure instead of cramming it all into one loooooooooong post once a week. :) And you don't have to read it all if you don't want to. ;)

To see what others have done for Tot School visit 1+1+1=1

Practical Life Tuesday

Our day started off with Andy's request before breakfast to 'play Baby Elastics'. I was just starting to have alarming thoughts of baby dolls being stretched to it's limits and rejoicing that we don't own any baby dolls when Andy said, "you know Mommy, what Wowo plays with me". Wowo is his Aunty Rachel and thank fully I recalled that on her weekly visit she plays 'Baby Gymnastics' with him so I proceeded to follow wild maneuvers demonstrated by Andy until it was decided that breakfast was to be served.

Andy did great with sweeping today and was only tempted once to hit the broom on the wall after sweeping. On previous occasions the broom was used for more brutal purposes and thus it was packed away high until he could use it properly. This seems to have worked wonderfully because on seeing the broom revealed his face lighted up and he declared that he "won't hurt anyone" and swept the lounge for me like the dear little boy he is :)


He loves 'ironing his own clothes'. He goes to his cupboard and fetches an item of clothing and unfolds it on the way to the ironing board. He then irons it, folds it up and then takes it back to his cupboard to fetch another item. When he does little household tasks as this it is amazing and adorable to observe how much he learns from watching me do these same tasks. I love the way he smooths the fabric with his free hand so that all the creases disappear.

Andy helps me with nearly all the cooking and baking. He's starting to be more of a real help now that he's getting older. Last night he was actually very helpfull with chopping the sausages for our Italian pasta so while I was busy with other preperations he patiently chopped them into slices and all I had to do was add them to the pot. Today we baked some biscuits and I don't even have to help him any more cause he rolls out, cuts and places it all himself. :)


And of coarse he ices them himself too...


The Tot Trays that we did today were great and when I was busy with housework Andy asked for his favourite audio book (The Giraff, the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl) and sat doing his Tot Trays at his school table.


We made this easy yet effective homemade game this morning by cutting paper towel rolls into different sizes so as to practice size sequence...


We re-did our I Spy Bottle after reading a very helpfull blog post by One Hook Wonder. We first took a photo of all the items before placing it into the bottle and then I enlarged it and printed out a copy. Andy has such fun with this. He points on the picture what he can spy in the bottle. A brillent idea!


And of coarse we had to put out our peg game inspired by Growing and learning by leaps and bounds because it's more tricky than all different colors and I believe that repitition results in perfection...


This evening we spent a cozy hour or more curled up on the couch together and I let Andy talk, and talk, and talk to his little hearts content with my full attention. He talked non-stop on various topics and I love to hear his views on things (he has many) and love to encourage him to express himself by occasionally asking a question which is always enthusiastically answered and at length. One of the things he said (and which is an example of how his imagination and reality often collides) is, "Remember when you saw me swimming in the water with all the fishies and the shark ate me up (with a sigh) I wonder when we're going to the beach again." Now I have never seen Andy swim because he refuses to and we don't force the issue and all his limbs are still in tact so no shark eating occurred so we both looked at each other and cracked up laughing. He's such a joy to be around and I enjoy his company so much. But esspecially being at home and together all day I believe it is very important to take time out of daily household chores and even Tot School fun to sit and have a face to face chat with nothing else taking our attention. We communicate all day long but these special talks with Andy makes me appreciate him so much more and lets me see and understand how he thinks and what a darling individual he is.