Black Sheep Week (22 Months)

The first half of Black Sheep Week was spent on vacation.  We had a wonderful time!  We spent a lot of time hiking and playing with long-lost friends. Tot School is all about child led learning through play and that is exactly what we did for 8 days in the beautiful state of Colorado including the zoo, botanical gardens, mountains, trains, planes, trolleys and the list goes on...

While away our "sensory box" was a giant sand box in the mountains. Mr. Little Man loves digging and was thrilled that he had a giant place to play in the sand.

 

Our condo rental was in an amazing village.  There were all kinds of fun things going on, a street fair, street circus, life size Jenga & connect four (so cool!).  We also stumbled upon this giant chess set!  Since our vacation started in White Dog week and ended in Black Sheep week, we combined the two a lot during our trip.  This was the PERFECT black/white combo.  While he didn't care much for moving them around, he was amazed at the knights... we would say, where is the black horse/white horse.  He loved this game.

We also found this animal display and Mr. Little Man was amazed. He must  have stood and looked at them for 5 minutes.  I'm sure his little mind was thinking, where are their faces!? He loved the bear, even tried to hug it as we left.  Black Bear, Black Bear, Where is You Face?... beginning of a new EC book!? No?

I set up put tot school on the fireplace ledge.  We had the Tot School On-The-Go kit in the basket, our BBBBWDYS book, a portable chalkboard and some flashcards of black/white animals.

 

He finally showed some interest in the heads&tails flashcards from Carisa's printables.

 

We went to the Denver Zoo which was absolutely amazing!  Mr. Little Man loved the animals but did not love the carousel.  Well, he liked the Panda Bear... until we started going up and down.  I thought it was cute that out of all the animals he chose the black/white animal to ride! Coincidence? He LOVED seeing "brown bear"... a combo phrase we say a lot and got to see in real life.  This bear really posed like this... how funny!

Flash forward a long day of travel and too many delays to speak of and we were home! Mr. Little Man was sick with a really high temp and not himself. He enjoyed some some activities with me but he mostly spent the last few days of Tot School drinking water, sleeping and snuggling mommy.

Set-up:
We played hide & seek each morning with our Black Sheep... this still hasn't gotten old!

 

For his anytime play, I laid his BBBBWDYS book out as usual with the Black Sheep on display.  I also left the white/black balls from last week (White Dog Week) out.  Lastly, I made some pipe cleaner necklaces for his little stuffed black bear.  I thought he would enjoy putting them on and taking them off since he often grabs the necklaces at school and plays with them, but he was not into this at all.  I don;t know if it was too easy, boring or if it was that fact that he was sick but he didn't even bother to play with this for the 3 days it was out.

We are loving the quiet time basket when Mommy cooks/cleans the kitchen.  One evening I  had it all set up with the alphabet and he pretended to count each letter, "da-da-da-da-da-da" etc.  He enjoys playing with these a lot.  By the weeks end, he had discovered the art of throwing them and watching them slide on the kitchen floor. Hence, I will restock the quiet time basket for the upcoming Orange Goldfish Week.

Lessons:
One day I made him a play space in a giant box that had a black themed sensory box inside and cozy blanket. He loved the giant box and had little to no interest in the sensory box. This was the first time I had ever done a color themed box of items like this.  I see them on Tot School blogs all the time and other children always seem to enjoy them so I thought it would be a nice thing to try.  Unfortunately, he didn't care for it at all.  Because he is so sick, I plan to try it again with Orange week next week.

 

I did try unpacking the box and it did make him come back over, climb in his giant box and sit down to look.  That was about as far as he got besides picking up a few flashcards.

We also did a lot of chalk board drawing on our chalkboard table.  He used white chalk and practiced his circles and lines again and again. 

 

What We Sang:

We sang our song for the week, Baa Baa Black Sheep, quite a bit this week.  He really likes the song and danced along, 103 degree temp an all...

 

What We Read:

BBBBWDYS- for the 1000th time  

Good Dog Carl by Alexandra Day

Carl's Snowy Afternoon by Alexandra Day

Go, Dog. Go! by P.D.Eastman

Moo, Baa, La, La, La by Sandra Boynton

Panda Bear, Panda Bear What Do You See? by Eric Carle and Bill Martin Jr.

 

A Few Parting Notes: 
I have read a few posts where moms have explained that there are days, sometimes weeks where you feel like all your efforts with your children seem to be going right over their head.  They speak of moments where their child make s a connection and it is just an amazing experience.  Well, while we were gone, Mr. Little Man started to find signs around us, especially in the mountain village, and would run his finger under each word and say "what is dat?" I would read him the word and he would then ask me about the next one.  This was a cool moment for me where i saw that a love for learning and reading was beginning... so awesome.  He also, started to 'write his name'. He makes three symbols on the paper, the number of letters in his nickname, and then would run to us with the paper and say "I did dit!"  I am so proud of my hardworking, fun-loving little man and look forward to seeing more light bulbs go off soon!  Cheers to Tot School!

Linking To:
Tot School Gathering Place

Tot School On the Go!

We are heading off on vacation in a few days and will have 8 days in the beautiful state of Colorado. My husband and I knew Mr. Little Man had an amazing week ahead of him and would be exposed to all sorts of new things.  He would have so much fun to have flying, being in the mountains, seeing old friends and more. I didn't plan to do Tot School while we were away but did want to bring a few things for those moments when Mr. Little Man has some down time and may just need something fun and familiar.  I decided that since we would spend half of white dog week and half of black sheep week on vacation, I would bring a little of each and teach them together while we were away. However, with all of our fun tot school activities to choose from, this momma was worried she'd go overboard and over pack when TS was not going to even be a big focus for us.  SO... that's when it hit me!  I would bring a travel sized TS kit, full of fun things he really loves to do. 

How did I do you ask?  Let's just say, there were over a dozen activities in a kit about the size of a jar of peanut butter.  I'm so happy with how it came out and can't wait to have these fun favorite activities in the hotel for Mr. Little Man. 

So... Here is the kit!

 

I figured it was hard to judge the size so... here it is next to a jar of peanut butter.

Here are the contents of the kit...

Inside our TS On the Go Kit is:
1. 10 black pompoms
2. 3 white pipecleaners
3. 4 picture/alpha/numerical blocks (with dogs and black/white items depicted)
4. 12 flash cards (6 white/6 black)
5. 1 bowl
6. 1 colander
7. 10 dried red kidney beans
8. 1 can with a hole in the lid

Here are some up close pictures of the contents:

 

We will use Carisa's printables, both the head&tail ones and the picture flashcards from her BBBBWDYS printable pack (see here).

 

 

 A wooden bowl from Mr. Little Man's play kitchen and 12 black pompoms for counting or matching to the flashcards or most likely throwing :)

 

 

 OK, so this is what got me hooked on this project: the steamer tray from our baby food maker happens to fit like a lid on the kitchen bowl.  This was discovered by accident one day while playing! Here there are three white pipe cleaners to play with the 'collander'.

 

 

 Four wooden blocks to stack, count, name the shapes and seek for them too (which is his favorite!)

 

 

I knew if I was going to travel with a few key TS lessons, this HAD to be one.  I use coffee cans and buttons, beans etc. at home and Mr. Little Man absolutely loves this activity.  The coffee can seemed like a big waste of space so I looked through my pantry and I realized one of our baking powder cans was sitting in the back of the pantry and very old... so I poured out the contents, made a cross shaped hole and added some kidney beans.

And there you have it... a kit to allow us to continue with some familiar and favorite lessons while 2000 miles away.  I will of course bring some books too and in his carry-on, we'll have crayons, paper and our new travel chalkboard. I had so much fun making this I just had to share in case anyone else may have use for some TS fun on the go. I sure had fun making this, if you can't tell, but we'll see what Mr. Little Man thinks in a couple days!

Linking to:
Tot School Gathering Place

Purple Cat Week (22 Weeks)

Parenting with a Purpose... what a powerful statement. I discovered this phrase on a wonderful blog called The Educators' Spin On It.  This quote perfectly depicts our goal as parents in our home.  It's a big job but my husband and I are loving every (sometimes exhausting) minute of raising this little person.

Set Up:
We used a few of the Brown Bear, Brown Bear Printables from Carisa's site this week. I put them up for him to play with and move around, working on his fine motor to get the pieces in and out and also to reinforce our theme.  Purple is not a common color in our house, to say the least. I needed all the purple I could get in order to expose him to it so hanging these color swatches and flash cards was a nice pop of purple in our play area.

I also put out a few simple purple play ideas out for him to play with at any point during his week.  This proved to be very fun for him and, while extremely simple, he went back again and again throughout the week to play with them in new and creative ways.



The purple egg carton has a simple latch to open it and he loved doing this himself.  Inside were two purple rings from when he was little. I put them in connected and he enjoyed trying to separate them las I had demonstrated. This is not something he mastered this week but I will do this again as he enjoyed the challenge.

The purple blocks were simple blocks along side a putting hole from a plastic golf set. He had little to no interest in these at first, even though he loves to stack and knock down blocks.  About half way through the week, i started changing the structure and making new designs with these same piece.  This got his attention and he started trying to recreate some of my structures.  This one below was a favorite... "WOOOOOOOW!"



We continued with using the cardboard pictures as a hide & seek game every day. He still loves to wake up and find the character.  This purple cat was a favorite... I found him "feeding" the cat his wooden food during one of his free play times. So cute. One morning we put the cat "in" a cardboard block tunnel.  Within seconds of finding him, he crawled up and sat in there with the cat.  I could not get the camera fast enough but man, it was adorable.  PS we are NOT cat people so this is as close as he's getting to a cat at home.

Lastly, I had filled the pallet rates with our purple and cat themed books (list of them below).  We read a lot this week and loved every minute of it. 

Lessons:
We had a few lessons that went great and then a few that were a bust. Purple proved to be a tough week for us... however, we had a lot of fun and he did say purple twice.  Mommy was so proud!

We used some of our wooden block set, about 8-10 blocks.  I found the two that had cats and made sure they were in the tray.  We spent time naming all the animals/objects while we looked for the cats.  he enjoyed this a lot... he is really into the I-Spy thing these days.  I'm trying to incorporate new ways to encourage and support this love of finding things.

Another way we did so was on a purple search.  One day, I gave him a tray and we searched the play room for purple items.  He was easily distracted but really did love this activity. We were able to move and explore so this little 22 month old was thrilled.  He loves to move!  I loved doing this with him and we will definitely do this again. Here is what we found... (Like I said before, not much purple around here :))

Yet another hide and seek game coming!  We made a sensory tray out of almost expired white rice from the dollar store and some purple pom-poms and other purple items in the rice.  He played with this three different times throughout the week and was surprisingly tidy with it!  I usually play sensory trays on the floor so its a quick sweep to clean but I gave the tab;e a try and he did great! he was so focused on digging for the pompoms and scooping with the hollow blocks that he didn't even think of the mess opportunity.  Daddy and Mr. Littleman had a blast with this one and spent a lot of time counting the 5 pompoms as they found them... again and again and again.

We used the purple pompoms yet again in a scooping activity.  I put 3 recycled cardboard cups on
a tray with the pom poms and a purple spoon.  He seperated out the pompoms a few in each one and then passed them out to Mommy, his dog and himself  to "eat".  He then collected them, put them into the tray and started again. He is really good with a spoon while eating but these furry pompoms were tough to gather on this small spoon so he sometimes used his hand to guide him.  He was so focused and really enjoyed this tray.

 Along with the big pictures of our weekly theme characters, my friend gave us a big cardboard poster of Mr. Littleman's favorite page in BBBBWDYS.  I put a pom pom for each color in a small container and put this ona  big tray with the poster.  I turned my back for a minute and he had started to match the colors! I hadn't expected him to figure this out without my suggesting it though demonstration but he did! He realized really quickly that it was "funny" to put mis-match the colors and spent the rest of his time making me (and himself) laugh out loud at a green pompom on a purple cat.  He surprised me, I have to admit, at his color matching and it was an awesome moment. It made me feel like even when I think these colors are going over his head, he is retaining it all. This whole this is helpful after all :)

We spent a lot of time outdoors this week because it was really hot!  He loves to run and play but he took a moment to pick mommy a purple flower.

We had the pleasure of sharing tot school with Mr. Littleman's cousin and best friend, Smoochie!  Smoochie just turned 1 this month so the boys are 9.5 months apart.  They are already as close as brothers and love every moment together... we are so lucky to live 10 minutes away! I made Smoochie a tray full of purple items and he LOVED going through the tray.... he must have spent 20 minutes on this tray.  This is a LONG time for a 12 month old!  Mr. Littleman on the other hand did NOT like his tray.  I'd drawn a bunch of grape and the goal was to put the pompoms where the grape outline.  I don;t know if it was that his cousin was here or that he didn't like the tray but he had no interest.  I tried demonstrating and then leaving it for him to see but he still had no interest.  I think I will wait on this concept and try again another time with another week.

Practical Life:
Mr. Littleman continues to "make his bed" on his own after he gets his diaper changed.  This really just means throwing all the blankets and stuffed animals back in his crib but he methodically does this each morning, and after each nap, without me even asking.  I am not sure where this came form, I never make my bed!

He also has officially mastered feeding the dog.  He opens the container himself and gives three full scoops, closes it up and then tells the dog he is released to eat.  I wish I could capture the face he makes while he does this and after the fact.  He has such a sense of excitement and pride that it melts my heart. It is amazing what a little toddler can do if you enable them to...

We also worked on taking off our shoes... which took about thirty seconds.  However, putting them on is a work in progress!

Reading:
We read a lot this week.  In addition to BBBBWDYS, we read the following books:
Muriel Barclay de Tolly's Puma goes to The Cliff Walk
Paul Galdone's version of The Three Little Kittens
Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon
Laura Numeroff's If You Give A Cat A Cupcake
Amongst some other household favorites.

Mr. Littleman loved the Puma book!  It was a fun story about Newport, Rhode Island and has a black cat on each page named Puma... what do you know, finding the cat on each page was his favorite part!

Linking to:
http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/2013/08/tot-school-gathering-place-week-33/



Tot School Plan: Update!

I spent some time thinking through our original TS plan (see the original post and plan here) and made some adjustments now that we are a month or so into the whole concept. Since I launched this blog, I have had (much to my surprise) a lot of viewings on this original planning post and general interest in the organizational approach that I took. I decided that I would dive a little deeper into that in hopes it may help someone else who decides to start this amazing Tot School venture. So here it is...

I didn't think we would need to spend a whole week on each number 1-10 because we already use numbers each day, one way or another with counting, in books etc. I also decided I wanted to incorporate some shapes and body parts soon. I assumed he knew his body parts but thought he would have a great time playing and reviewing. As for shapes, he started drawing circles lately and seems really interested in shapes so I want to encourage and support that natural interest. Basically, I figured we would be talking about numbers and shapes in our everyday life, and throughout tot school so why not spend a week setting the stage (beyond what he already knows). I figured one week with numbers 1-5, another with numbers 6-10, a week of shapes and a week of body parts would be a nice assortment. I had set myself a goal of 1 year  of pre-preschool so to speak; 52 weeks of TS with my sweet little toddler. So, with this change I had some free weeks to fill. I added some holidays into the mix that I thought would be a really fun thing to learn about, for the whole family.  I have decided to go ahead and include the detailed schedule here. This could change again and again, who knows. However, to my busy mommy brain this just makes sense for now... it allows us to expose him to lots of concepts through child led play and exploration.

So what does it look like...

WEEK #	Week Start	Week End	Curriculum	Topic	Sub Topics
1	7/13/2013	7/19/2013	Colors	Brown	Bear
2	7/20/2013	7/26/2013	Colors	Red	Bird
3	7/27/2013	8/2/2013	Colors	Yellow	Duck
4	8/3/2013	8/9/2013	Colors	Blue	Horse
5	8/10/2013	8/16/2013	Colors	Green	Frog
6	8/17/2013	8/23/2013	Colors	Purple	Cat
7	8/24/2013	8/30/2013	Colors	White	Dog
8	8/31/2013	9/6/2013	Colors	Black	Sheep
9	9/7/2013	9/13/2013	Colors	Orange	Goldfish
10	9/14/2013	9/20/2013	Colors	Pink	Pig
11	9/21/2013	9/27/2013	Colors	Grey	Elephant
12	9/28/2013	10/4/2013	Body	Body Parts	Head to Toe
13	10/5/2013	10/11/2013	Numbers	1, 2, 3, 4, 5	See Notes
14	10/12/2013	10/18/2013	Birthday!	Birthday Party!	Balloons, Cake, Etc.
15	10/19/2013	10/25/2013	Numbers	6, 7, 8, 9, 10	See Notes
16	10/26/2013	11/1/2013	Holiday	Halloween	See Notes
17	11/2/2013	11/8/2013	Shapes	Circle, Square, Rectangle, Triangle, Diamond, Heart, Star
18	11/9/2013	11/15/2013	Letters	A	Apple: Fruit
19	11/16/2013	11/22/2013	Letters	B	Ball: Sports
20	11/23/2013	11/29/2013	Holiday	Thanksgiving	See Notes
21	11/30/2013	12/6/2013	Letters	C	Carrot: Vegetables
22	12/7/2013	12/13/2013	Letters	D	Dragonfly: Bugs
23	12/14/2013	12/20/2013	Letters	E	Eat: Meals
24	12/21/2013	12/27/2013	Holiday	Christmas	See Notes
25	12/28/2013	1/3/2014	Holiday	New Years	See Notes
26	1/4/2014	1/10/2014	Letters	F	Fire: Safety
27	1/11/2014	1/17/2014	Letters	G	Globe: World
28	1/18/2014	1/24/2014	Letters	H	Happy: Emotion
29	1/25/2014	1/31/2014	Letters	I	Ice: Cold Weather Fun
30	2/1/2014	2/7/2014	Letters	J	Jellyfish: Ocean
31	2/8/2014	2/14/2014	Holiday	Valentine’s Day	See Notes
32	2/15/2014	2/21/2014	Holiday	President’s Day	See Notes
33	2/22/2014	2/28/2014	Letters	K	Key: Locks/Latches/Knobs
34	3/1/2014	3/7/2014	Letters	L	Liter: Green Living
35	3/8/2014	3/14/2014	Letters	M	Money: Money
36	3/15/2014	3/21/2014	Holiday	St. Patrick’s Day	See Notes
37	3/22/2014	3/28/2014	Letters	N	Nurse: Professions
38	3/29/2014	4/4/2014	Letters	O	Open: Opposites
39	4/5/2014	4/11/2014	Letters	P	Pole: Fishing
40	4/12/2014	4/18/2014	Letters	Q	Quack: Farm
41	4/19/2014	4/25/2014	Holiday	Easter	See Notes
42	4/26/2014	5/2/2014	Letters	R	Run: Movement
43	5/3/2014	5/9/2014	Holiday	Cinco de Mayo	See Notes
44	5/10/2014	5/16/2014	Letters	S	Sorry: Manners
45	5/17/2014	5/23/2014	Letters	T	Tent: Camping
46	5/24/2014	5/30/2014	Letters	U	Uncle: Family
47	5/31/2014	6/6/2014	Letters	V	Vehicle: Transportation
48	6/7/2014	6/13/2014	Letters	W	Wood: Nature
49	6/14/2014	6/20/2014	Letters	X	Xylophone: Music
50	6/21/2014	6/27/2014	Letters	Y	Yesterday: Time
51	6/28/2014	7/4/2014	Holiday	4th of July	See Notes
52	7/5/2014	7/11/2014	Letters	Z	Zipper: Clothing

I took an amazing organization plan from Carisa's 1+1+1=1 blog (click here for her posting).  I changed the concept a bit to fit our needs but it is essentially the same: we will cover a letter, a word that begins with that letter and a general theme that the word fits in.  So A, Apple: Fruit. Thank you to Carisa for this weekly letter plan!

Each week's actual activities, whether it be a letter, a holiday, shapes etc, is something I plan as the week approaches... or on the fly if that is the time I have to plan.  However, having this outline gives me some guidance as to what fun things we can explore together.   The idea that a year will go by and we will have had some sort of fun and learned about, in some way shape or form, all of these things is awesome... maybe I can be the kind of mom I always wanted to be and work full time (Or so I need to keep telling myself :))

For those of you who aren't familiar with this Tot School thing, this is not a time where we make Mr. Little Man sit down and learn something. This is the complete opposite actually!  With this schedule, my husband and I introduce our Little Man to real world concepts through play, on his schedule and based on his development stage and interest level at the moment. The schedule is just for themes and organization... its not indicative of the time we actually spend together.. that is free and just plain fun! The schedule helps me stay organized... this mommy brain is pretty full these days.

Oh, and thanks for reading! I am blown away by how many viewings are happening each day!  I was writing this to have a memoir for our family... but if some other parents can get inspired and get some ideas too, all the more reason to stay up late and type :)

Linking to:
http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/2013/08/tot-school-gathering-place-week-32/