Date: August 23 – August 27, 2010
Source: Bright Beaming Resources
Hello! This week’s tot school is somewhat disorganized. Most of the days, Mavi doesn’t feel like doing it. He just wanted to draw, read his books and watch his Leapfrog videos. So what I did was just allow him to do whatever he wants to do during our activity time instead of giving him some sessions. Then there were times he would grab my hand and would ask me to play. When he says that, he meant tot school. He would point to my activity folders and sit on his desk. It’s amazing how he knows our routine!
Anyway, our sessions would just take about 30 minutes… one in the morning and the other one in the afternoon. But there were times that he wanted more activities and that would take about an hour per session. There were also times that he’s not interested with my planned activities . So I have to shift to another one that could get him interested. That’s why when I plan for an activity, I usually prepare multiple exercises to serve as buffer in case he doesn’t feel doing the other one.
MONDAY
THEME: PIZZA
From: No Time for Flashcards
We started the week by making a pizza paper craft. One of the easiest and fastest snack/food to prepare is Pizza. This has been a favorite meal of Mavi as well. He loves to eat the crisp dough with tomato sauce, but doesn't eat the toppings yet.
Here's how we did it.
TUESDAY
COLORS/SHAPES/SIZES:
I got this color puzzle from this site. It’s pretty amazing how can other mom’s create such wonderful homeschooling materials! I honestly don’t have time to create such for my son, that’s why most of my materials are sourced online.
Quilt Color Puzzle. I placed the quilt on a cardboard then covered it with a transparent tape since I don’t have a laminator or a contact paper. Then I cut each quilt into halves to form a puzzle. Note to self, I should get a zigzag scissor next time to make the puzzle more interesting.
Observations: He’s quite adept in matching the pieces. But he’s having a hard time to put together the two pieces. He gets frustrated if can’t put together the two, he’ll start whining and eventually will lose interest in the activity. We ended up playing a matching game using these puzzle. I’m not sure if it’s because of the materials I used. The puzzle doesn’t snap the way the normal puzzle pieces do, so I am thinking that he wants that with this one too.
Using my flashcards (shapes), I created a sorting/matching game. I purchased some cardboard paper and cut them according to the shapes/color as seen below. I made 5 pieces for each shape.
I presented the flashcards to my son, and laid out the cardstock shapes. First, I showed him what to do, matching the right shapes and colors to the flashcards. Then I asked him to do the same.
Observations: My son love this game so much! The first time I gave this activity to him, he matches all the cardstock with the right shapes. He keeps telling the name of the shapes as he places it on the flashcards. It’s so cute! The second time I gave him the activity, it didn’t hold his interest that long enough. I was thinking that it was too easy for him already since all the shapes look the same so he can easily identify all of them. My objective next time is to create cardstock shapes in different sizes or in different colors to make it a little more challenging for him.
When it comes to color recognition, he still get confused. Sometimes he can point or identify the right color and the name of the color, but there were times that he would just say “blue”.
WEDNESDAY
LETTER: BIG LETTER Q
This week, Mavi discovered the art of how the alphabet sounds. I’d like to credit Leapfrog Letter Talking Factory for this. For two weeks, my son has been watching this everyday. It’s okay with me because he’s learning how the alphabet sounds! So now, every time he sees a letter or whenever we do our letter crafts, he keeps on singing in a tune the sound of that letter :P
For Letter Q, here’s how our activity goes.
THURSDAY
NUMBERS: COUNTING CARDS 1 TO 10
For the first time, I created a homemade playdough. The recipe is everywhere on the internet and it’s easy as 1 2 3.
This week I wanted him to “feel” the numbers, and of course, we used my playdough.
Observations: He was fascinated with what he can do with the number cutter. I got it from SES Creative. My son loves to form letters and numbers using the playdough, he’s happy with what he can do with those cutters! Up until now, he is still learning how hard he has to press on the playdough to make the cutters cut. But he’s always thrilled when we would pull away the extra dough to reveal a number that was left behind. There were also times that he’s more interested in playing the cut-out dough more than cutting them hehehe.
PS. The homemade playdough lasted for 24 hours only. The next day, it turned out moldy so I have to throw it away. My verdict would be, use the store-bought Play-Doh instead. Less mess, less work and besides Mavi knows that he can’t eat it, so it’s safe.
FRIDAY
FINE/GROSS MOTOR SKILLS: BEADINGS and SMALL SPACES
BEADING. Mavi got so interested on these beads (abacus) in his table. One day, he just removed them and started to put them back together on the stick where the beads were attached. I didn’t get him any beads/lacing materials yet because the ones at the store is very expensive and he’s not yet interested on the activity. So since he’s loving this activity, I have no intentions of putting back the abacus on its proper place hehehe… for now, we will be using the beads for our beading/lacing activity.
.Observations: This has always been a difficult activity for Mavi, the beading and the lacing. I guess, it requires a lot of fine motor control for a 2 year old. I have to show him how to do it at first, and have to help him in putting the beads right into the stick. When he got the idea, he insisted on doing it on hiw own, but I still have to help him quite a few times. I like this activity because it helps a child to learn how to concentrate to string the beads together. The only problem is that, somehow, I have to make him use a string or a shoe lace so I can put a gimp.
Observations: He loved it instantly! He started doing it one piece at a time, but he quickly learned that he can drop multiple sticks at a time hehehe.
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