Tot School Week 8

It was my original goal to start back to tot school with Sam on Monday but between Howie starting school back that day, a doctor's appointment, a grocery store run, and having to be at work at 1, I pushed it back to Tuesday.  I'm going to try have a bit more of a routine with her and "school" so she starts to know what to expect each day.

On Tuesday we started with praying and our bible story, I want to read a page each day of her little bible. And also worked on her memory verse from Sunday school which was "God is our provider".  I didn't think about it until Thursday but I could have done creation crafts with her each day since that's what we were reading.  Next week I'll read ahead and see what extra we can do.

 

After bible study we moved onto our new letter "M" and I was also trying to focus on the shape circle (although it really didn't work out like I had planned).  She used cotton swabs to paint her letter and worked on colors a bit with this as well.

 

She also "read" a couple of books to me.

 

Next was her favorite thing.  I've had some shaving cream in our hall closet forever that we aren't going to use and for some reason I feel like this was something we did in art class back in elementary school.  I just sprayed a bunch on the table and let her have at it.  She thought it was so fun to play with, I did attempt to show her how you can draw/write with it but she just loved the feeling in her hands lol which is completely appropriate for her age:). This is definitely something we will do again although I will probably take it outside and strip her down to her underwear and maybe add some food coloring to it as well.

 

On Wednesday daddy did her bible study with her before he left for work.  Then we did more with the letter M and colored her princess coloring sheets.

She was actually much more interested in eating the Cheerios. 

 

Thursday we just did our bible study and abc's then took advantage of the nice weather and played outside a lot!

 

Today is Friday and we will just do bible study and abc's before Howie and I both go to work then tonight take advantage of all of us being home and have some family time:)  

What are your Friday night plans?

Week 7 of Tot School

This week went a lot better than last week!  We got into a little bit of a routine and back with learning.

On Monday we spent some time at the park and then introduced the Letter J.

She loved making a pumpkin.

We also pulled out the pipe cleaners for some fine motor skills work.  I'm telling you these things are the best for occupying her while I try to do some housework!  And to make it even better they all tend to stick to each other so I just grab them by the handful and stuff them in a freezer bag for storage.

On Tuesday we headed to the library.  They cancelled story hour for the next two weeks because they are an early voting site but she still enjoys going to play and get a few books.  She's recently been obsessed with this car puzzle, she can do it all by herself now:)

Wednesday was one of my days off so we headed to the zoo!  One of our favorite things to do, while we were there we went ahead and renewed our membership. Definitely worth it!

Before church that night we decided to do a little baking.  I was hoping to find a pumpkin bread mix that would taste like the recipe from scratch that I have and this one tasted ok but definitely not as good.

Thursday we headed to the park since it was nice out and she played for a good hour and still didn't want to leave.  We stopped at the store on the way home and ended up getting some new play doh which has been a big hit!

Originally I had planned a baking post with a pumpkin recipe I had found on Pinterest but they did not turn out well.  It didn't taste terrible there was just no flavor.  I was pretty bummed because it looked so easy and tasty.

However on Friday, Pinterest came through with this shape/color sticks.  Ridiculously easy to make, Sam enjoyed playing with them but didn't quite get the matching concept.

I've noticed the last couple of weeks she has really been picking up quickly on the letters.  Before it would take her the whole week to remember the new letter now she knows it the first day!  Her vocabulary has also been increasing ten fold, everyday she's saying new words and putting sentences together!

Week 4 of Tot School

This week was a struggle people!  Even trying to get this post written.  I volunteered to work Saturday which is 6 days in a row and it messed with me all week!  But we did some stuff:)

On Monday I wanted Sam to try out some of the fine motor activities I had found on Pinterest but they were a little much for her.

She did enjoy eating the Cheerios though!

This one might work better with maybe a large spoon until her grip is strong enough for the tongs.

She still loves putting the pipe cleaners through the strainer holes.

We also introduced the letter F and number 4 and did a little painting.

On Tuesday we did our letter craft and then headed to the library for story hour.

Wednesday was rough because the first Wednesday of every month is potbless at church so we go earlier.  So besides Howie doing the calendar and letters that morning that's all we did.

On Thursday we did our weekly baking, it was a chocolate chip brownie dessert I saw on Pinterest.  Sam has really figured this baking stuff out!  She can open the butter and run the mixer all by herself.

Since I had Friday morning off, we decided to go to the zoo for a couple of hours.  Sam is really enjoying it more and more.  She knows so many of the animal sounds now, it's really fun to watch.  We bought the membership last November and have really got our money's worth out of it.

On another note, I'm torn about continuing the tot school posts.  It's the only thing I've posted about in the last month but it's getting harder to keep up 

with.  Let me know if you're enjoying reading them or if I should move on to other topics!

Week 2 of Tot School

This week we focused on the Letter D and Number 2.  Not going to lie on Monday I did not have a lot of motivation so I printed out a couple of coloring sheets with D and 2 and called it a day!

This picture was from Tuesday but as you can see the coloring pages were still on the table😬

On Tuesday I was much more motivated, we made a duck and went to the library although there was no story hour so we just returned our books, picked out some new ones and let Sam play.

Using glue is her favorite thing to do right now.

On Wednesday's we don't have much time between work and church so we focused on our bible lesson for the week which was Noah's Ark.  We read one of her books about it then made a craft.

Thursday's are our only real night at home so lately that's when we've been baking!  I bought stuff to make cupcakes while I was at work and we used leftover sprinkles from Christmas:).  There's quite a bit to teach her while we're baking such as following directions, counting, colors etc.  

And then of course the end result!

Friday was my night to close at work so we had the morning free.  We ended up at Walmart to get a new tire and I decided to go ahead and buy the stuff to make a felt board.  We got a big piece of foam board and enough felt to cover it, spray adhesive and Velcro.  This was the end result.  So far I've just cut out some shapes but the options are pretty unlimited.

On here it seems like I do all the teaching but really just the crafty stuff, Howie always reads to her before bed/naptime, works on flashcards with her, and reviews throughout the day.  It's definitely a joint adventure for us.

One more picture to finish out the post:  Sam helping daddy change a tire:)

Next week we are working on Letter E and Number 3, anybody have ideas??