This Tot School post is going to be a bit random :-)  There is no real theme, and it is a few weeks worth of fun all rolled into one post.  We have been busy already this summer (hence not much blogging) and had about 10 days at the beginning of May/end of June when we were on vacation to see family.  But here’s just a sneak peak at a few of the thing we’ve been up to in the last few weeks :)

The Little Touch Leap Pad continues to be a hit!  We found a new book for it at a flea market while we were visiting family.  It is The Little Blue Engine that Could, which is one of Isaac’s favorite movies!!  And at $5 for a new LeapPad book, I couldn’t pass it up!  Needless to say he was very excited to try it out!

We have been working on the letters I and J  the past few weeks.  Here is Isaac working on matching up his shapes.

He also breezed through sorting the capital and lower case “Jj”.

Isaac is learning to play games for the first time! We had finished watching Jonah: A Veggie Tales movie when I remembered that we had the Jonah Go Fish cards! 

So I set both of our hands face up on the table and taught him how to play.  It was so cute to hear him say, “Go fish mommy!”

I combined the themes of I for Inchworm and J for Jellybean to play this number/counting game ;-)  We used our jelly beans to place on the white circles on the leaves to work on our counting, and then used our inchworm numbers to match up the correct number.  I think Isaac’s favorite part was eating the jelly beans afterwards though ;-)

One of the sweet ladies from the church blessed us with some fun treasures from her teaching days!  Here is a Melissa and Doug Alphabet train floor puzzle.  Isaac absolutely loves trains, so this was a huge hit and he wanted to play with it as soon as he saw me bring it out!

Sister got in on the fun too.  And it was all good until she decided to tear it all apart, which um . . ended with both kids on the couch until they could cool down and mommy could put the puzzle back together again :)  (Yea, there was a bit of screaming going on . . . it could have gotten violent!)

Putting in the last piece!!

In one of the boxes of treasures I also found this Hi-Ho Cherry-O game!!!  We have had fun playing it and learning number recognition and counting!

Isaac also likes to put his cherries on his tree with the stems upside down.  It cracks me up!

That’s all for now.  I have lots more pictures from the past few weeks, but I’ll take a break for now. :) 

All the printables were from Erica’s Letter of the Week Curriculum!

To see what other Tots and their moms are up to this week, visit Carisa and the official Tot School Blog!

Isaac is 39 months

Miriam is 22 months

This week was a little busier than I had expected it to be, but isn’t that normally the case?  Every week I tell myself, next week it will slow down!  But that slow week rarely shows up!  It was a good week though spending lots of time with friends and family.  We only had 1 official day of Tot School, so we will be continuing to work on the letter “Ii” for this next week also.  Isaac likes to confuse it with “Hh”, so I think we need a little more time with this letter. ;-)  (He also likes to call it “Y”)

The “Official” Day

My kids love playing with these things!!   

Isaac requests all the time to make the letter using his magnets. 

After I introduced the Letter “Ii” to them using our pom-pom magnets, we did some review.  Here Isaac is making the letter A ;-)

Is she going to be a lefty??

Although I think it is kind of interesting that from the start, Miriam has done a better job of holding a crayon in her hand while Isaac still holds it with his fist.  I’m wondering when is the right time to correct this and to teach him the right way to hold a pencil?

Below he is making a railroad track with his crayons :)

We worked on some lacing too.  Isaac requested the cow while Miriam worked on the pig.  He is doing really well getting it through the holes easily, but I think next we will work on getting the lace pulled all the way through.  

I was busy helping Miriam, so I didn’t have any pictures of her working on her sheep.

Learning Through Play

We had our Leap Frog Phonics train out and the kids loved playing with it.  The batteries are in need of changing, so Miriam followed my example and helped to give the train a push when it was having trouble going up the hill.

She loves to wear her brother’s boots! I think we need to get her a pair of her own! Below Isaac is busy making a fence ;-)

A Weekend with Aunt Hollie

We always love it when my sister can come in for a visit.  Unfortunately we don’t get to see her too often since she lives 5+ hours away :(  She was gracious enough to hang out with the kids Fri and Sat evenings so I could be with Aaron as he was involved with a wedding.  

My children think these letter squares need to be worn as necklaces. 

Miss Miriam and her big brown eyes!

Let me introduce you to “Joe Dog”.  He is by far the favorite stuffed animal in the house!  Miriam asks for him before naps/bedtimes, and he now also goes with us on long trips.  She loves to snuggle with him.  Below she is putting him down for a nap in the baby’s swing.   

I had the privilege of getting to keep Baby M one day this past week.  The kids absolutely adored her!!  I had to keep reminding them that she belonged to someone else and was going home at the end of the day!  (Isaac has already asked for her to come back!)  It was fun to see how they might act once their baby sister arrives.  Here Isaac was gently rocking the swing back in forth while he watched Thomas.  I thought it was so sweet.  He did a great job being gentle!

The printables form this week are from Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler! 

To see what other moms are doing in Tot School this week, check out the official Tot School blog!

Isaac is 39 months

Miriam is 22 months

I didn’t get a whole lot of pictures from this week, but we had lots of fun working on the letter Hh.  Isaac learned it quickly and had fun at the same time. 

We Love our Magnets!

I lost count of how many times Isaac wanted to “make the letter H”.  He loved making the letter with the pom-pom magnets!

Miriam loves playing with them too.  Thankfully I have more than one cookie sheet and plenty of magnets to go around!

One day Isaac decided to use one of his tools to help him place the magnets on the letter.

Bottle Cap Fun

My kids play with these things for hours!  The only thing is by the time they are done, they are all over the living room!!  But we work on colors and counting and just have fun playing.

Pattern Building

Isaac did great with this and called out the color of each hippo as he put it on the page.  

He then decided to make a “bridge” with them.  It has been fun to watch and observe him the past few weeks.  He has been very creative and imaginative!  He is always building bridges or shapes out of random things.  His favorite medium to use is his food ;-) 

Fun with Colors

He is doing great with his colors!!!  He knows all the basic colors now and verbalizes it too.  I’m going to have to come up with something a bit more challenging for him! 

Here is a fun clip of him working on his color matching.  Every time I watch it, he cracks me up.  He is such a great little guy.   

Miss Miriam

  Just a few shots of my baby girl checking out her books.  My mom picked up this little boxed set of Baby Einstein alphabet board books at a yard sale a while back.  I keep them on the changing table to keep her occupied when necessary and we work on our letters too  ;-)

To end our week we watched “Horton Hears a Who” and had Hamburger Vegetable Soup.   (This movie is now a new favorite of Isaac’s ;-)

All of our printables from this week are from Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler.

To see what other moms are doing in Tot School this week, check out the official Tot School site!