Tot School: S is for Stephen (Part 1)

I spent most of last week getting things ready for Stephen to learn the letters of his name. This first week we are focusing on the letter S, which, when I ask him what the letter is called, he says, "snake." But he does know what sound it makes!

Not all of our activities were focused just on the letter S. Instead, I used the idea of "s" to come up with some ideas of fun things to do. One thing I wanted to work on more was fine motor/sensory experiences.

Without further ado, here are some of the activities we've done so far. I'll soon be putting together a big post of all the things I did to prepare, including links to the printables I've been using.

Our second activity on our first day was to scoop beans from a bucket with spoons. I gathered all different sizes of spoons from the kitchen and let him scoop into those colored squares. He liked it, but soon it got really, really messy. As you can see, I didn't really clean off the table before we started - big mistake!

Initially, he was very careful about making sure the beans got into the squares... and then later he wasn't quite so careful.

We did "school" Monday afternoon when both boys were up because we had been at the doctor in the morning when we usually do it. Cohen was happy to play with the spoons Stephen wasn't using.

Our first activity had been to trace the letter S with dot markers. Stephen wasn't really into tracing the letter, but he did enjoy the dot markers (it was his first time using them). Our third activity was to make a snake with construction paper rings, but he was not interested, so we skipped it.

This morning our first activity involved tracing the letter S again, but this time we did it with pom-pom magnets. He loved doing this and did an awesome job putting the pom-poms on the line. I made these magnets myself with round adhesive magnets and pom-poms (all of which I got at Hobby Lobby). I taped the tracing sheet to a cookie sheet with masking tape. 

He especially loved the fact that when he picked up the cookie sheet, the magnets stayed on the paper! Christian is home today and he kept saying, "Papa show you!" (meaning he wanted to show it to Papa, because he was really proud of what he had done).

Our second activity today was a letter find. I made the sheet myself, using lots of the letter S and other letters (but none of the ones in his name), and I think that there were too many letters on the paper. We're going to try this activity again later this week, and I think I'll make the sheet with only about 15 letters. There was just too much going on.

Notice where he is resting the dot marker - paint tip down, on the tablecloth. Good thinking to have your nice tablecloth on the table today, Chelsey!

Nevertheless, he loved using the dot markers again and wanted to "show you" (aka me) what he had done.

Our third activity was to transfer little pipe cleaner "snakes" (in the shape of an S) from one bowl to another with a tweezer. He started out excited to try the tweezer, although he wanted me to help. Then he started just picking them up with his hands. But then at the end he wanted to try the tweezers again. I didn't get a picture of that, but at the end he wanted to do the magnets again - so we did! (Side note: I love his concentrating face here.)

Tot School, Third Day In

This morning marked our third day of Tot School with Stephen! We have been going strong so far, and I'm now spending much of my free computer time to look for more ideas. Probably the best part so far has been seeing him show a bit of pride at doing things on his own or trying something new. Christian has been at home the past few mornings since he's done with school for the semester (hallelujah, at least until his first summer class in two weeks), and Stephen loves to finish one of his boxes and "show Papa!" what he has done.

I'm trying to do different things each day, so I made a little sheet where I could schedule out what we do each week. At the end of the day, I've been jotting on that sheet what he liked, what he was OK with, and what he didn't like at all and didn't want to finish. That doesn't mean we won't do the things he didn't like anymore necessarily, but it does give me some ideas for ways to make certain things more fun. 

Yesterday his boxes included cutting, painting the letters of his name and connecting the letters A, B and C to make a triangle. He didn't love the cutting, but he did try it, and he loved the other two activities.

This morning his first box had a page from Let's Color! (Kumon First Step Workbooks). You are supposed to color in the white area in the middle of the picture (today it was an orange), and as you can see he's coloring at the top of the page. I'm not pushing him, as he normally will at least try a few marks in the circle before coloring the rest of the page. 

His second box had a puzzle spelling out the letters of his name. I made this for him a few months ago and found it while I was organizing our office area. I printed out his name using Fontwork in OpenOffice, stuck it on a piece of cardstock and put contact paper over it. I then printed out another copy, put it on cardstock as well, colored the letters and laminated them. Then I cut them out so he could match them. This picture shows his frustration at the letter P, as he couldn't figure out where it went since it was upside down.

But when he finished, he was really proud of himself. He put all the letters in the right spots all by himself!

Our last activity was to make the letters of his name using Play-doh. For some reason, he didn't want to do this because he didn't want to touch the Play-doh. This has never been an issue, so I just made a few letters for him and then we called it quits. 

I'm about to head to Hobby Lobby to look for a few more supplies. My plan over the next seven weeks is to spend a week on each letter of his name. Each week we'll talk about things that start with that letter, practice making the letter with different materials, and decorate a big version of each letter. Then we'll hang all the letters up together on a piece of posterboard and add a picture of him, and then either hang it up in his bedroom or in our office. I'll be posting about that here, as I hope it will include some good activities to get us by until the fall!

Stephen's First Day of Tot School

For the past week or so I have been scouring the Internet for ideas for things to do with Stephen during our learning time. Up until now, we have just kind of done one thing each day - like fingerpainting or Play-doh or coloring. But I wanted us to have a bit more direction and also actually work on learning things, not just aimlessly splattering paint on a piece of paper.

At the same time, I wanted it to be fun and something he would look forward to. The blog 1+1+1=1 was a huge inspiration. The author there uses small plastic trays with her daughter for each activity. For example, there might be some small blocks to build something on one tray, and then crayons and a piece of paper on another tray. The idea is for each tray to be self-contained and include everything that your child will need for that activity.

Instead of trays, I got some cheap Sterilite shoeboxes at Target (5 for $5). I had some leftover Velcro from a failed curtain project, so I used that to stick numbers on each of the boxes. I made the numbers using OpenOffice, cardstock, our printer and contact paper. I also made some little labels that have a thumbs up sign and say "All done!" so that he can stick that on each box when he's done. 

Here's a shot of our workboxes this morning, our first day trying them!

Box 1 contained: A pair of child scissors and a page from Let's Cut Paper! (Kumon First Steps Workbooks).

Box 2 contained: Our Down on the Farm Tot Book and some dry and wet erase markers and crayons.

Box 3 contained: The book Cock-a-Doodle-Doo (checked out from the library).

Stephen was not too interested in the first box, but he did cut a few lines with my help. He was very eager to use the wet erase markers that just came in the mail. (They are Expo Vis-A-Vis Wet Erase Markers, and if you're looking for a set of them, this is the only well-reviewed set of dry OR wet erase markers I could find that actually included the color yellow!)

There were eight animal sheets in the Tot Book that he could color. Six of them were colored with wet erase markers, but the other two needed to be colored with white and pink. I also got a set of Crayola 8ct Dry Erase Crayons at Target, so we used the white crayon from that. The pink marker came from the dry erase calendar I have in our kitchen. Stephen is always wanting to see those markers, so he was thrilled to get to use one of them.

We did the animal coloring pages, then read the Barnyard ABC book that is included in the Tot Book. We also practiced counting some animals and then did some animal matching. After that, he was pretty much done, so we cleaned up and skipped the third box.

Here's a shot of some of his coloring pages. I was actually really impressed at how he tried his best to color on the actual image instead of just scribbling all over the page like he used to. He was also willing to follow the directions and color the animals what the sheet said to color them. 

I think our first morning was a success. It took us about 30 minutes to do what we did, and he stayed relatively interested the entire time. I hope that switching up what we do each day helps us stay excited about it!

Good Shepherd or Hired Hand?

The Lord has me on a rollercoaster lately... one day I'm all "Yay, motherhood!" and the day is awesome. And then the next day, or a few days later, I'm contemplating what kind of job I could get and where the boys could go to daycare.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this, and I think it's probably normal, even if it's not good. The grass is always greener on the other side. At the same time, I've really been trying to think through why I start to move towards the whole quitting motherhood thought process, and what makes the "I love being a mama" days the way they are.

In her book, A Mother's Heart, Jean Fleming says, ‎

You can be physically present and still not make a positive contribution to your children. You can be there, but not be ALL there. Your mind can be a million miles away, your energy and your ambitions drained by other pursuits. You can focus your attention on your "do list," the television, a good book, or decorating your home, and be oblivious to your child's needs.

The good shepherd cares deeply about his sheep. He willingly lays down his life for them. The sheep are his, and he loves them. But the hired hand has a different attitude. The sheep aren't his. Caring for them is only his job. And when a wolf threatens the sheep, the hired hand abandons them. He runs away because he has a shallow concern for the sheep.

We can either emulate the good shepherd or the hired hand in the quality of our commitment to our children.

This morning we went to the zoo. We have a membership and it's only about 15 minutes away, so theoretically, it's not a huge outing. But I've got a 2-year-old and a 1-year-old, and I was by myself, so it's actually a venture that requires a huge amount of energy on my part. Somebody is always wanting to be held, or get out of the stroller to see the animals better, or wanting a snack, or wanting a drink, etc. I knew it would be tiring, but we've been stuck in the house all week because of the rain and we all desperately needed an outing.

On the way home, I heard Stephen singing in the backseat, "Go zoo, see kah-ya, anna eye-uhn, anna graf, anna tiguh, anna muckey, anna foosh, anna yamama, anna goak..." (Translation: "We went to the zoo and saw a koala and a lion and a giraffe and a tiger and a monkey and a fish and a llama and a goat.") And every once in a while he would say, "Had fun! Zoo!"

And it really was fun, and it really was worth the energy exerted. And I think I actually had more fun than other times because I was more attuned to what the boys were interested in and excited about. Other times when we have gone I have insisted on seeing certain exhibits even if the boys haven't wanted to. Today we probably only saw about half the animals, but we rode on the tram (which Cohen loved) and I let them run around a large open space in the aquarium for about ten minutes.

Going back to the quote I shared, I realized today that the days when I'm more like the good shepherd, our days are so much better, even if the boys are having rough days. But the days when I act like a hired hand, when taking care of the boys is just some job akin to working at McDonald's, our days are, in a word, horrible.

Lord, make me more like you, the one true Good Shepherd!

Making My First "Tot Book" - Farms

I stumbled across the blog 1+1+1=1 yesterday, and I am in love. I know I will never do all the amazing things that Carisa does, but I am hoping to glean some really good ideas from her and use them with Stephen.

She has a million things to look at on her blog, but the first thing that really drew my attention was her "Tot Books." These are basically file folders based on a theme. Each folder has different activities that are appropriate for toddlers. When I looked through her list of ideas and saw that "farms" was one of the themes, I knew I'd be making that for Stephen.

Stephen loves farms. Like, loves. He talks about farms pretty much all day long. He's never been to a real farm, but I hope to do that one day soon.

Anyway, I spent a lot of my free time today making this Tot Book for Stephen. I am really hoping he likes it, because if he does, I will be making some other ones to take in the car on our road trips this summer. We're making one 9ish hour car ride in July and a 6ish hour ride in August, so it will be awesome if we have some fun activities to do on the way.

The picture quality on these is not awesome because I took them at 11 p.m. with only a desk lamp for lighting, but I think it gives a good idea of what they look like and how it works.

All of the things on the inside of the folder came from the Farm Tot Book. I made the sheet on the front of the folder using an image I found online.

As far as supplies needed, I used double-sided tape and printed the pages out on cardstock. I laminated almost all of the items with contact paper (because I had some on hand). The only thing I didn't laminate was the Barnyard ABC book. I hope that he will be able to use some wet/dry erase markers to color the animals.

On the top half of the folder there is a book with letters and animals (e.g. "C is for Cow). It is meant for the child to be able to read the book by himself. The other side are little sheets that are supposed to be colored. I laminated them so they would be reusable, and we're awaiting some markers in the mail that he can use to color them!

From top to bottom, clockwise, there is an animal matching game; cards with different numbers of animals; a nine-piece puzzle; heads and tails matching; putting tractors in order from smallest to largest.

I pulled it out this morning and Stephen was very excited. He loved reading the book with me and also looking at all the different numbers of animals. We spent about 15 minutes looking through it, and we didn't even do all of the activities! I'm glad my hunch that he would like it was right. Now I'm off to find another one to make today!