Tot School August 22

Hi! We had a good week in Tot School this week. First we worked on the letter L. We worked on a couple of L projects. A Lion:
And a Ladybug.

We started working with pennies and nickles, as described in Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready. I don't think Crumpet really understood, but he was also surrounded by more interesting toys, so his attention span was pretty short!

We went to a preschool nature class at a nearby Nature Center. One of Crumpet's biggest problems is socializing with other children. He is very shy, and instead of hiding, he usually gets mean in groups. It is my goal this year to get him accustomed to spending time with groups of kids without freaking out. He actually did really well at this class. He had some friends there which helped. He didn't participate in most of the activities but also didn't run out screaming! Progress! He did enjoy the craft at the class, which involved coloring a cloth dragonfly.

And he used his "spyglass" to look for dragonflies:

At home, he helped me get my chores done. Here's Crumpet shucking corn. We do this a lot in the summer, so Crumpet is getting pretty good at it!

He learned to sort silverware.

Crumpet has become very interested in taking pictures with my old digital camera. Most of the pictures are of his thumb covering the lens, but he's slowly improving. He's learning to avoid his thumb and take a picture of an actual subject, not just the wall!

I introduced number rods this week, from Mommy Teach Me. Crumpet decided to use them to make letters - he made H and X.

He didn't really enjoy using them to count, and didn't want to sort them by size. Check out the scrunchy face and thumb in the mouth! It was difficult and made him uncomfortable.

He did some tracing of shapes that I drew. He did really well with this.

Crumpet spent a lot of time building with his magnet cars this week. I walked into his room one day and was surprised to see that he was building a truck according to the picture instructions that came with the set. I didn't know he could do that! Of course, once he saw me, he couldn't do it any more and needed help!

We'll be away next week so there probably won't be much tot schooling going on. Have a good week!

McRuffy kindergarten curriculum arrives!

I went crazy and bought Crumpet's kindergarten curriculum 2 years early... It was on ebay for half of what I would pay for it new so I just went for it. The box arrived yesterday, and I'm really pleased with it. I chose to use McRuffy's math, science and phonics programs. I'll add Five in a Row, and a few other odds and ends when we get closer to the beginning of school. I wanted a program that taught mostly through the use of games, manipulatives, and experiments because I'm pretty sure Crumpet is going to be a hands on, learn by doing, kind of boy! I'll have to use this curriculum on a daily basis to know for sure, but it looks perfect so far. I'm actually considering starting some of the science soon. The program looks pretty straight forward, even for a 3 1/2 year old. We talk about the world around us all the time, and do simple projects, but Crumpet still has questions, and I'd love to have him discover the answers by doing his own science experiments! I'll write some posts about how it goes when we begin (I still have to buy the science and math manipulatives, which are reasonably priced but not within budget just yet!)!

Tot School August 15

I was totally unmovitated this week so most of "Tot School" was life school, or something Crumpet decided to work on by himself! I'm hoping I'll feel more energized when it gets cooler, if it ever does. Georgia has LONG summers!

We went to a little petting zoo, where we got to feed the goats. Crumpet loved this.

He practiced screwing nuts and bolts together.

We did work on the letters J and K. There are jellyfish on the J's, which you can't see in the picture at all, and kissses on the K's.

He painted a picture of the Jungle and glued animals onto the painting. This was the first time I've ever gotten him to paint something specific, and I was so excited. I'm not so sure about the fox in the cave in the jungle, or the upside down parrot, but it was Crumpet's jungle after all...

He played in his little indoor sandbox. We love this toy!

We went to the lake and played in the sand and did some swimming. It was 104 degrees that day, so this was a great way to stay cool. We had a lot of fun, and happened to run into friends while we were there, which made it even better.

Crumpet played with his peek-a-zoo toy at last. I thought this was the best toy ever when I bought it, but he has never shown any interest. But this week, he chose it on his own! It has different latches to open and close, and it teaches shapes, colors and numbers.

And we added food coloring to water and mixed colors to see what would happen. Crumpet is always asking me what happens if he mixes certain colors, so I finally got my act together and showed him. He loved it!

A slow week in tot school, but we had fun. Hope you did too!

Sated

Wow. So, one of my current obsessions is wandering the homeschool blog world to find new and interesting curriculum options. There's just so much great stuff out there! Imagine my delight when I discovered that Life with my 3 Boybarians is hosting a "NOT back to school blog hop" all through August and one of the topics is curriculum choices! There are 150 links to other blogs, so guess what I've been doing all afternoon? But now, I must stop. My brain is full, and I think I might be tired of researching curricula. For today anyway! But if you also have this addiction, follow the link!

http://www.my3boybarians.com/2009/08/not-back-to-school-blog-hop-curriculum-week-2009/

Tot School August 8

This week in Tot School:

We worked on the letters H and I. We put hand prints on the H's, created a House and tree from shapes (Crumpet glued them on, so it looks a bit like the house has been hit by an earthquake...) and we made an ice cream cone complete with sprinkles for our I.

We went on a Hunt for Insects.

We played with puppets a lot this week.

Crumpet decided to sort his diapers (sigh, still in diapers :)) by pictures, and then we counted them and talked about more and less.

We learned about how the Earth's rotation causes day and night using a flashlight and a globe. Crumpet thought this was really neat. (from "Slow and Steady, Get me Ready")

We finally tried painting using spray bottles.

We built a lot of forts this week.

We practiced taping a variety of objects to paper. Crumpet found this very difficult and gave up quickly. Crumpet loves making pretend cakes with playdoh and blowing out his birthday candles.

We made a paddle from a paper plate and a popsicle stick and used it to chase balloons around the house. Crumpet loved this and it kept him active for a long time, on several different days. When the paddle broke, we used wooden spoons which worked even better.

We had a fun week. Hope you did too!