Tot School Tuesday

This week was ripe for learning.  With a few more responsibilities on my plate, I'm learning to work some life lessons into the kids' routines, while still keeping some true learning and Big Brother time in the forefront.  I don't have it quite perfect yet, but we'll get there!

 Stone has been working on the sound of "f" in speech therapy.  It's a hard one!  His teacher made some copies from this book for us, and we've spent some time coloring and labeling the objects.  We've also pulled out the "f" section of our Kaufman Kit and he enjoys working with the flash cards.  It works best for us when I make a game out of it and provide him with loads of kinesthetic input in between... i.e., we run in circles and pick up the cards or hide them and go on a hunt.  He really does better (especially with drill work) when we aren't just sitting still.

 Games have been the highlight of our afternoons lately.  Our favorites are: Elefun, Five Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Super Why, The Wiggles and Cranium Cariboo. All of these are pre-reading games, so the kids can all get in on the action.  I love the turn-taking skills that games build and these specific games have so many learning activities built in.

 Our Nanny walked in the Susan G. Komen Three Day, so we used our art skills to create a banner to cheer her on!

 More fun with "f"!  A good friend tipped me off to the fact that our library has pre-readers and step readers.  They keep them in the juvenile section (for older readers), so I had totally missed them before.  There are whole sets of phonetic awareness books, so I picked up quite a few "f" focused books, as well as books focusing on "b" and "p," since those are the sounds we most recently worked on and are still working to master.  Stone has loved them,  so I'll be doing this more often.  Our list for this week included: Mop Top, My Flower Garden (the sound of FL), My "f" Book and Bathtime for Biscuit.

 Speaking of kinesthetic movement, our daddy totally rocked, creating an obstacle course with picture directions.  The boys loved it!  Stone especially, he ran and ran and ran.... around the island...

 ...through the tunnel...

 ...under the pillows...

 ...under the tape...

 ...and into the pillows...

 All of the instructions were hand-drawn and numbered.  The kids all did really well with it.  Holden needed a little bit more help following the numbers, he's still learning the order of written numbers, but he has them down verbally!

 We invited our neighbors over and got crazy with shaving cream.  Holden LOVED it!

 Gabby was a bit hesitant at first,  but she got  into it, and found all of the hidden macaroni noodles in the plate 'o shaving cream.

 Did I mention Holden loved it?  Or the fact that I am in love with this photo?

 Little hands searching for hidden pasta!  All the way up to the elbows!

For more of our Tot School activities, click here.  To see what moms across the globe are doing to teach their littles through play (and to steal some great ideas) visit 1plus1plus1equals1.