January 11, 2011

Tot School Tuesday - We don't do sick days

The boys passed around a bad bug last week.  We had high fevers, lots of snot and a little bit too much time indoors, but we survived.  Contrary to our normal stance on the television, the boys spent a lot of time in front of it this past week.  Probably more than they usually get in a couple-month's time.  They discovered Toy Story (1,2 and 3), and I discovered that there are parts of Toy Story that I'd rather not hear my almost three-year-old repeat.  

"Shut up Buzz, you're an idiot," just doesn't have a great ring to it when said by a little.  I've always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Disney movies... we'll file this recent lesson under hate.

 Onto Tot School...In between the television marathons, but still donning our PJs, we did a lot of new activities.  A great homeschooling mama that I know from church blessed us with many hand-me-down pre-school and kindergarten activities that her daughter was no longer using.  Her daughter happens to also be on the spectrum, so a lot of the activities included manipulatives are were right up Stone's alley.



We focused on "What Goes Together," and used a lot of tools from this concept kit.  This was a new tool to us and the boys really had a lot of fun with the games and activities provided within the kit.  Here's Stone playing the included matching game...the kid loves a spinner!


We also pulled out our Grasshopper Kits and took turns with the different activities.  Holden really loves to go "fishing" for the pom-pom balls.  His fine-motor skills blow my mind!


Stone rolled out the play dough into snakes...


And Cash chopped the snakes into little bitty bits!


We also made a few original creations... Cash made a dog bone, so I crafted a dog.  See it?  No, it's not a dead lizard, it's a dog.  Come on!  Use your imagination!


Holden made an airplane.  I love this photo!  You can tell by his face EXACTLY how his airplane sounds!


Daddy had a day off work (PERFECT when you have a house full of sickies) so he worked with the boys on the fine art of MightyMind.  We're missing a few pieces from our set, so he couldn't unleash his full skills on the high-level cards, but the boys learned some things from the master.


Another new-to-us toy was this Lakeshore Beginning Sounds Tile Kit.  We played following the directions for a while, then Stone and Holden had fun spelling out their own words with the tiles.  Since the box has repeats (3 letter A's, 2 letter B's, etc.) spelling your own words can easily be done without incident.


We've shaken up Big Brother time a bit and Stone even has a new check card to follow his activities and make sure he completes each 30-minute step of time (trace work, game, independent reading, free play).  I went with a visual check list and incorporated photos of him doing each activity.  I laminated it so he can use a dry erase marker to check it off each day. He really enjoys showing Daddy what he completed at the end of each day, so it's been a great motivator!

2 comments:

Allison said...

I love how intentional you are with play! I can't wait to fill my house back up with kids. I provided a bit of respite last week so that was great.

Midlife Army Wife said...

I'm SO thrilled you are enjoying the hand-me-downs! That just makes me feel so good to see the kids using them.

I know what you mean about the Disney movies and feel the same way. (I hope that quote isn't still hanging around your house!) Having the Disney logo does not make it automatically ok. I let Emily watch Toy Story 1 at the library and I had forgotten how scary the neighbor kid was. She did NOT like that. So we skipped the next two.

When she was little we limited TV a lot. Now we let her watch more, but it's all DVDs that we own, or ones we approve on Netflix since we don't have TV service. Thankfully she still loves Barney, the Wiggles, Diego and Veggie Tales so we are safe for a while. :)