A New Week of Tot School- Week 2- Letter T

We are ready for a new week of FUN!! I had Lily entertained with a small puff balls and a water bottle... she was entranced! She loved putting the little balls into the water bottle. Then we would close it all up and she would shake it around. It was cute to watch her chubby little fingers doing the work. So fun!

Scarlett was ready to get out to her Tot work-boxes! She loves getting to choose what to do first!

I found the cutest Thanksgiving pattern game for Scarlett from File Folder fun. I copied it and laminated it but it made it almost too slippery!! Scarlett's interest in this was not so great... and I think it was somewhat difficult for her- but we made it like a song... I would sing the pattern to her and then she got into it more!

This is a Turkey Hand- Scarlett painted her hand brown and fingers different colors for the feathers. We have yet to put a wiggly eye on it and then send it to her grandparents!
Got this idea from The Ramblings of a Crazy Woman - too cute!








Gotta love shaving cream! I'm not shy with messes... I'm almost as messy as my girls- ha! So we got out the shaving cream and put it all over the table. Then, we practiced our capital letter T! She LOVED it- and was a bit surprised, I might add, that we could do this with shaving cream!

I found some pictures on Google search of turkeys and printed them out. On each feather, I wrote (with marker)the first letter of a color (in that color too!) Then ,Scarlett matched the feather with the color on the turkey. She loved pasting the feathers on- she told me the turkey was naked and he needed his feathers. Ha! Great color matching idea!!

This was fun- a very Montessori idea. Got the blindfold (sleeping blindfold- see the closed eyelashes on it!)at Dollar Tree a couple weeks ago. We are going to use it when we do smelling jars as well. Grabbed a bag I had and put in lots of random things for Scarlett to feel. She just giggled and really enjoyed this! She was pretty good too- sometimes she wasn't confident it what she guessed but she got them all right!

What's in the bag?

We had lots of fun today- I think my favorite part is just watching her peek in the boxes to see what new activities she gets to do. I am loving this!!

I do wish it was easier to post pictures on here... I am getting frustrated because I think I am just not saavy enough with the blogging. I have to post my pictures backwards and then type everything in. Plus if they don't all line up one might be deleted accidently and then I can't get the picture back without posting it again!

* Check out my blog for what we did on Thursday in Tot school TOO! :)

**Want more ideas! Check out 1+1+1=1's Tot School!!

Remembering our Family "Souls" this month of All Souls...

I've decided to start a little tradition during November for our family. We have so many beautiful family members who are gone and my little girls don't know anything about them. So (even though I will try to keep photos around of them all year) I decided to have a special nook in the kitchen during this month of ALL SOULS and honor our family members who have passed. It will be a more visual way to think and pray for them this time of year.

Of course, most important in our hearts is Uncle Robert ( my husbands younger brother who died in a mid-air plane crash while working on manuvers before heading to Iraq)- He is truly our hero and guardian angel in heaven.

xoxox

Day 2: More Letter T (with Aunt Claire)

Today (the second day) I have something last minute I am going to do with my hubby... so... I am going to do something that I am hoping Scarlett will like- I invited her Aunt Claire over to do her pre-k workboxes! yay!
We will see how it goes... but since this isn't a formal class setting I think it will be just great! But poor Aunt Claire has to juggle little Lily (1 year old) and Scarlett too. Since she doesn't have any little ones of her own yet it will be an experience! LOL
Here are the pics of what will be in today's workboxes- Lot of stuff from Confessions of Homeschooler this week- One of my FAVE blogs!
Here is what is in each workbox today! (Maybe I'll get lucky and Aunt Claire will take photos of the girls working in each box today as well- fingers crossed.... )



Box 1- Turtle Floor Mats- today she will mostly likely just find the color shell that her aunt calls out... we are just beginning to recognize numbers. (from Confessions of Homeschooler)


Box 2: Writing activity- tracing the dotted lines... and on the last page there is a quick cutting activity as well (Confessions of a Homeschooler)



Montessori Activity- Make a pipe cleaner bracelet- sting the oval pony beads on the pipe cleaner (she will love this one!)

Box 4: Size sorting with Turtles- small, medium, and large.... (thanks to Confessions of a Homeschooler)

Turkey Match Folder Game- from File Folder Fun- just registered there and have only begun to search this site- but looks good so far!

Leaf Rubbings... who can go wrong with this? :) Scarlett went out and found some "pretty leaves" yesterday. Today she will put the leaf under the paper and rub a crayon on top of the paper to make a leaf picture on the paper-MAGIC!! lol

Day 1 of our Tot School!

Today Scarlett was very excited because she knew we were going to do "school"- and she just couldn't wait! We are using a very basic (very revised) version of the workbox idea. I have 6 plastic shelves ( from Big Lots) and in each box is one activity that Mommy and Scarlett will do today. I let her pick whichever box she wants. Because we have very big cars and we never use the garage we have converted it into a learning/play room for the girls. We bought two really large rugs from Home Depot- on deep deep discount and cleaned out the garage the past 2 weekend, then rolled it out. I have a rectangle activity table that can lower pretty low and I purchased some preschool chairs as well. I have 3 very large shelves (that are built in the garage) that I am using for games, art supplies, paper, activities, and music. I also have a 5 drawer file cabinet that I am using for filing everything I do (because next up will be my little one, Lily!!) It is also holding somethings we won't normally use or my recycled boxes, egg cartons, etc for random art projects throughout the year. So here goes!! Day 1 : We started around 9:30am (waayyy later than I will usually start...!) Scarlett happily skipped out to the garage and we started with the calendar and the day of the week, month and date today. Amidst all of the excitement we forgot to pray first( oops!) We will definitely be doing that every day from now on . I think Scarlett and I were just so excited for all of the activities and the newness of it all.
Here is what my TOT workboxes look like:

DAY ONE- What is in each WORKBOX?


Scarlett's candy from Halloween- today we just sorted it BIG/MEDIUM/SMALL
(then she got to eat one!)

Color Match up with the words ( I got this from one of my favorites- Confessions of a Homeschooler)

This one I have seen in various forms on lots of blogs and website-So I made up my own with stuff that I had! Spooning the puff balls into each individual egg carton hole. She loved it!

Letter T "tree" I forgot who's blog I used for this but we tweaked it a bit- we just talked about the letter T- traced it with our finger and then ran outside and found leaves to glue on the tree.

Cutting practice- from the Kumon cutting book (got it at Target) - lots of fun!

Ghost matching letters (this was supposed to be used last week- but it didn't get finished). Unfortunately I can't remember who I got this from either :( I now realize I need to put a sticky note on everything I copy so that I can give credit where it is due... I am learning while I do this blog today!! Promise it will be more accurate next time!!

Here's our calendar as well- we are going to talk about the day/month/ and date each day. Plus we have birthdays and holidays on the calendar. This month both of Scarlett's cousins have a birthday!!

After the workboxes were finished Scarlett and Lily danced to music and played with playdoh- their choice!

Today was great- everything seemed to go so smoothly and most important- she had FUN!

Check out what others are doing!

Why I started this blog...

I took this from my personal family blog because it explains why I am starting this blog as well. Thank you and Enjoy...
I decided to keep a private family blog for all the things we do as a family. But, I have fallen in LOVE with so many Mommy/Homeschool/Teacher/Craft blogs on Blogger.Com. They have given me so many great,creative ideas and have really got the "blood flowing through my veins again" in regards to teaching, writing, music, and being crafty (actually I am NOT at all crafty- I just love the "idea" of crafts and am fairly good at coming up with ideas- LOL!)Soooo that being said I am creating a blog for me to start documenting all the the things Scarlett and I are starting to do at home for her so-called "Pre-K" years. We are definitely not sending her to Pre-School. In my humble opinion, there is no need for her to go anywhere when she can learn everything she needs right at home with her Mommy, Daddy, and little sister too! At the age of 2, 3, 4, and 5 I think little ones need to be OUTSIDE as much as possible.... they need to use their IMAGINATION as much as possible (before it gets squelched by society too soon) and they need to be with their FAMILY as much as possible! Therefore, although we definitely will not have a rigid class schedule (even though I am obsessive about scheduling..) we will do a few things twice a week (Tues/Thurs at the moment) in the morning that are geared especially towards learning- lots of reading, music, fine motor skills, arts and crafts (Scarlett's fave!!), and counting/number/shapes types of things. Then, all the rest of the time all I want Scarlett to do is exactly what SHE wants while she is playing, and it doesn't have to be teacher-encouraged...We will see how it goes- I know that any activities we do have to be quick- 10/15 min. at a time... So this should be interesting!Anyway, I feel that to keep myself honest I am going to try and put lots (not all) of the things we do on my new blog titled: Somewhat Organized, Slightly Crafty Tot Teacher (and mom...).I know that choosing to do everything at home with my girls takes away from "Me Time"- or so they say.... but I LOVE to teach, want to be with my children, and am happier that I have ever been at this point in my life- so I say "What the heck!" Might was well try it out and see how things go. From what I have seen and heard from others, it seems like the right decision.One last thing... Many people get really caught up in the "socialization" aspect of kids who stay home for school... I have heard great arguments on this subject- one being that kids that go to school are ONLY interacting with THEIR age group and are stuffed in a classroom with the same kids day in and day out... their ENTIRE 18 YEARS!!! (Just reading that sentence makes me shudder...) My kids already interact with so many different people every day. They have a large family (lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins, oh my!) and Scarlett is already doing gymnastics (and possibly dance in the spring.)I can assure you, we will NEVER EVER be cooped up in this house for more than 24 hours- because I will go MAD!! LOL Getting out and doing things is what I like to do. My children are already more "socialized" than most. The actual scary definition of Socialization is something to the effect of : Having schools teach children to follow what is "socially the norm" in society today. Oh my gosh....if that is the case, then I definitely do NOT want my kids doing that!!- I could go off on a whole tangent on this one- but since the NORM at this point in Society is SEX, MONEY, and ME, ME, ME... ummm...I think I will be perfectly happy with our decision.

PS- I just want to say"thank you" to my husband- who is my rock.... He is the reason we get to do all the things that we do and I love him even more for that. He is my sounding board for all the things I do and think each day. He is the perfect soul mate, best friend, husband, and an awesome daddy to top it all off!!