Saturday, July 31, 2010

Tot School

Kayleigh is 29 months

Tot School

Hello fellow Tot Schoolers! I hope you all had a wonderful week.

Ours was last minute, disjointed and unorganized. As usual. LOL We only did two days of tot school. Kayleigh didn't feel like it. Which was a shame because she's been obsessed with the book Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and I was a good mom over the weekend and got together Carisa's Five Little Monkeys Tot Pack for her.


On the first day, for the most part, she ignored the things that I set out for and raided the bins for her own activities. So here's Kayleigh's version of a perfect tot school day.

Drawing on her Melissa & Doug Chalk Board. She said they were circles. I can sorta see that.




Playing with Magneatos . They were all "red" that day. In case you were wondering. :o)


And, of course, her all time favorite toy, Melissa & Doug Nesting Blocks. They're good for stacking, knocking over, and helping you ignore Mommy as she points out the letter A.




Lastly, she tried to stand on her head. Good times.





At the end of the week she asked to "play games" which is what tot school is to her. This time I had a little more say in the matter.

First I reeled her in with something that she hasn't seen before. The Melissa & Doug Bead Sequencing Set that she got last Christmas but we hadn't used yet.
I just let her explore the toy on her own. I didn't even show her how to use the pattern cards. She rewarded me by saying "I got a skare" everytime she picked up a square. She believes in postive reinforcement. =o)




Then she choose the KinderReady Eric Carle String Along set that I put out earlier in the week. I just put out the stringing beads and string. No pattern cards yet. Although they are REALLY cute. She's been getting better at lacing beads but she was off today. She laced one and declared the activity "all dont." (She adds a t sound to the end of every word that ends with 'n'. I don't know why but it cracks us up.)


Next she pulled our icecream shoppe sensory tub off the shelf. She played with that for a long time. I love this bin so much. It's the easiest clean up ever!


She served...

Sipped on an "icecream float" complete with her improvised straw. A long spoon from the Dollar Tree.



She even practiced pouring. And I didn't cringe when she did it, like I do when rice is in that tub. I'll probably never recover from the rice being in there.

Then she got in trouble when she was finished because she didn't want to clean up her mess. So she went to time out and somehow hurt her wrist. I don't know how, I was ignoring her per Super Nanny's instructions.


After her release, and an ice pack, I slid in some of our Five Little Monkeys activities. And she did them for the first time in history. Finally all my printing and laminating wasn't in vain! There's hope for the Christmas, Brown Bear, and Hungry Catepillar packs yet. I'm excited that they will be able to come out of storage in the future.


We read the Monkey Counting book a billion times while she nursed her wrist with ice. She liked page three best. The monkey in the middle looked "angwy" and that intrigued her.


Then we played with the Monkey Body Parts cards. She loved that. We played it three times. I read the card to her. She showed me her body parts. And she insisted that she had a tail like the monkey.







Then I got out the Counting Book again and took it apart. I placed #s 1-5 on the ground and gave her some little monkey erasers from the Dollar Tree. She placed an eraser on each monkey for some 1:1 correspondance and counting practice. She did a pretty good job. I was expecting her to dump bunches of monkeys on the cards and call it good. It's harder to make a mess with only one working hand I guess.





And now for my favorite shots of the week. Kayleigh has taken to eating with only a certain spoon. A baby spoon. You know those coated Gerber spoons. Now keep in mind that as an actual baby she barely used these spoons. She would not eat baby food of any kind. Whether from the jar or something I made myself. I doubt that, if you added every bite she swallowed, it would be equivilant to 5 jars of stage 1. I find that ironically funny. She went through a similar phase with bottles. Wouldn't take one when we wanted her to. Six months after weening the child from nursing and suddenly she wants milk in a bottle. Life is never dull with her. LOL




Be sure to visit the other tots at 1+1+1=1.






12 comments:

  1. Oh my, how CUTE is she with her Monkey Tot Pack!!?? I love that she finally loves it! I too, will be taking some of the old ones out again for Krash this year, I think he will really like some of them even more now that he is older!!!ow

    ReplyDelete
  2. I LOVE the gold slippers she is wearing, too cute! I really like your ice cream bin, and I think we will be trying that soon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love that straw picture! How cute! Where did you get those cones? I really like them!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love how you used the little monkey erasers! They only have lions and turtles at our Dollar Tree, I'll have to keep my eyes open for the monkeys. My kids hurt themselves in time out, too. It amazes me how they can get hurt sitting still!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm so glad to find your blog through 1+1... I have a 26 month old and we are going to "officially" start tot school this fall (fingers crossed).

    Did you find the monkey erasers recently? We will be on the lookout.

    Sounds like your little one has lots of personality! :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your posts are my absolute favorite to read. Hands down. BTW, I totally see a circle on the chalkboard.
    We did a few things from the Monkey Tot Pack a few months ago and Sophie loved them too! Must be something about monkeys.

    ReplyDelete
  7. She is just such a cutie! What great activities you have for her!
    Jessica

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love your ice cream shop sensory tub! Perfect for the summer months!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ya'll had a great week. My little monkey seems to get always get hurt in time out too!
    I love the Monkey tot pack. Such a cute activity. We love 5 little monkeys too. I even let my little monkey jump on the bed while we were singing the song and now I wish I wouldn't have...lol.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow! For only doing 2 days you sure got a lot done! We didn't do anything this week with g-ma in town. Where did you get those cute cones?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hahaha, you just totally cracked me up!! I know this post is so old but I found the link through Carisa's blog. My son is currently 22 months old and I gave him his first lap book today. He loved it! But he sounds a lot like your little one {used to be at least!}. Not very interested in sitting down and learning! I'm so glad I found this post. Made my night!

    ReplyDelete

We love your comments. It makes the girls giggle even more.