September 14, 2010

Tot School Tuesday

This week daddy was home and helped us learn about opposites and do a little cooking.  We love having our daddy home and feel so blessed that his company allows him to buy vacation time to spend with us.  There's nothing more fun than daddy-led Tot School!


The littlest of the littles worked on going in and out of the pantry.  This entertained them forever!  It started as a game with mommy where we talked about the words and their meanings, but carried on into a full hours-worth of fun while I cooked dinner and did laundry.  I usually don't let them play in the pantry, might have to change that rule!
We then worked the concept a bit farther and put all of our dished into the sink.  They actually threw them in, basketball style.  Thank goodness we use plastic dishes!
They were SO proud of their newfound skill, and I'll have to admit that I am too!
Then we stood on our chairs and had some playtime in the water - our weather here has gotten hot and humid again and it's been too hot for afternoon play outside, so a sinkfull of water is always a good way to pass the time!
We made our bowls full and empty...
Analeigh worked hard on emptying her bowl spoonful by spoonful...
We also talked a lot about light and dark using the blinds.
The blinds are another thing that I usually don't let them play with, so it was a neat novelty that they were allowed to for school purposes!

We also worked on hard and soft, light and heavy and open and shut, although I didn't get pictures of all of those activities.  Stone thrilled me today with a sentence, "This hammer is heavy and hard when I hit it on my head!"  While I hope that it didn't take a self-induced thump to the head to figure it out, it sounds as if he's got his concepts down!

Stone spent hours this week playing games with daddy and working through some new learning apps on my iPhone.  His favorites this week were his Super Why game, Cranium Cariboo Island, the Goodnight Moon game, Barnyard Uno and his Grasshopper Kits.  Daddy had fun learning all of these new games and getting to spend Big Brother time with him.

The bulk of our cooking time was spent making pizzas with daddy. Yummy!
Stone really liked watching the yeast do it's thing in the warm water...

He waited patiently to help add the other ingredients...
Then the littles stepped in to help roll it all out..
We topped it all with some spaghetti sauce, mozzarella and spinach and had a feast at the splash pad while listening to live music from a jazz band.  Super fun Saturday night!

To see what mothers around the country are doing to help their kids learn through play this week just click here!

2 comments:

Anna said...

What a great, complex sentence from Stone! I love seeing your tot school activities. :)

Jennifer said...

Oh, the sentence about the hammer made me laugh!! So awesome that daddy got to participate in school too!

Visiting you from Tot School!