Tot School Tuesday

This really isn't an "official" Tot School Tuesday post, like I said, we've had a lot going on and, unfortunately, some of our structure has fallen off.  I love structure, so expect us to get back into official Tot School next week.  It's funny, you would think that taking something off your plate would make your life a lot easier, but I find that removing curriculum and structured play from our days brings on a lot more chaos and disorder.  My kids expect me to be down on the floor playing with them and they love learning toys, they aren't good at watching television.

So, in place of our normal Tuesday postings, I thought I'd give you a look at two of the things that the kids tend to gravitate toward, even when left to their own devices.  Lately, this magnetic wooden alphabet set has been getting a lot of use.  I use it with the little kids for color, name and letter recognition, and Stone has really worked on mastering small and large letters with this set... add a cookie sheet and you are super set for hours of fun!

Another great color matching activity is color sorter.  It also works great for shape recognition since there are different shapes to sort.

I really think that open-ended toys are the best for our family.  Toys that talk or have only one specific purpose don't seem to last too long here!  Of course, this wouldn't be a complete post of our favorites unless I mentioned books.  And by books I mean any and all books, remember this?