August 24, 2010

Tot School Tuesday

We're easing back into our regular Tot School programming. The big boys start their speech school daily on the 25th, so I'm not really doing organized Tot School with the littlest of the littles until then. There are still lots of learning activities that we do daily, but the big boys are a bit "over" working with the little kids, so it works best to do it when they are away.
We did some baking (and tasting).
Cash shocked me when he sat down to play one of big brother's matching games. He was a pro!
And was super proud of his skills!
We did a lot of stacking and building with our waffle blocks. This is Holden's favorite!

We sorted mail in our shape sorter mailbox.
And matched colors using this puzzle.
We blew bubbles...
Played with sticks...
Whipped up some homemade Play-Doh...
Worked on our cutting skills...
And did a little drawing.

For the last week, I've really worked on getting a good grip on Big Brother Time. This is the time in our house that Stone is awake and everyone else is asleep. We work hard on our Pre-K skills during this time and also really focus on some games that push him in the fine motor department, an area in which he is a bit delayed.



We have a curriculum book that we follow and do a page in daily. Right now we're focusing on colors.  I'd really like to transition to the Raising Rock Stars curriculum, but we're just not "there" yet.

We also have a set of fun, homemade pre-school games that we pull out daily. This one focused on sorting, and since the pieces were small it was a great fine motor activity too.
We sorted by like items, but as the year goes on we can use this same set to also sort by color, shape and texture.

We also worked on matching upper and lower cased letters.


Once they were matched, we flipped them to reveal a surprise.


The surprise on the back is a picture of an item that's name begins with the letters matched on the opposite side. Stone LOVES this and it's been super fun for me to see his phonics emerge.


He worked on some letter matching-a favorite!


And we completed a couple rounds of sequencing cards.





Stone is great in the kitchen, so he loves helping me whip up batches of homemade laundry detergent. The grating doubles as a super fine motor activity.


Stone loves Big Brother Time, but he loves being a big brother even more. Here he is making sure his love of puzzles is handed off to the younger set.

We have so many exciting things happening in our fall curriculum. Make sure to check back to see what we're up to, and if you're new, read here to see what we've done in the past!

5 comments:

ASC said...

We used our preschool activities in a bag daily all summer - E loves them! Such a cool idea ... and they will be useful for a long time! Fun, fun, fun!

Love, Me said...

I'm so in love with your children!! Can I come over for Tot School Tuesday sometime??

Anonymous said...

What a busy week! I guess that is what happens with four little ones. Great job! I'm going to suggest playdough and cutting this afternoon for my children.

Kristen said...

Lots of good stuff! I particularly like how there is a suprise picture on the back of the letter matching cards. Great way to add an extra element of fun to a learning activity!

Bets said...

The elementary teachers of your kids will kiss you all over for doing all this with them at this age!
Another great sorting activity (that you can make yourself) ... maybe after some practice with the sorting you're already doing:
Draw (or make on the computer) small, medium & large sizes of circles, triangles & squares. Then, inside them, make some "empty", some striped and some with polka-dots. Cut out shapes (maybe laminate). The kids can sort by size, shape, or pattern. So many different possibilities.