Tot-school | Week 8 | Letter HNovember 12, 2016
This week’s tot-school…
…was compact!
Letter H was awash with ideas as there are so many great H related things we could use. For the printable pack we went with Horse (which Adam calls a ‘horsie’) and house, but that didn’t stop us from adding activities using hearts, hammers and even Hoppity Voosh from the TV show Bing! (Separate post coming for Hoppity Voosh)
This week we had something in the family diary every single day. If it wasn’t someone coming to see us it was half days of one parent. Tot-school was often shorter because of this, sometimes happening in the evening and while we got through loads we actually spent less time than usual doing tot-school.
The pack I’ve made is available for download at the end of the post.
This weeks read more questions:
Horses was a great theme though we identified well with all the H words and the now familiar word spinner proved popular. Hammers proved popular too and a renewed love for his toolbox has appeared.
Glue. While Adam loves applying the glue he likes the loose pieces aspect and while he rarely repeats a craft he wants the option. Also the hammer activity with play dough under the sheet was great, but wobbly tees had us folding the play dough in half, twice, to get the right thickness!
I’m hoping to cover the whole alphabet but planning to stop for December and do Christmas related bits instead. We travel mid December for 2 weeks with grandparents and would rather pause to enjoy other activities with family.
A two year oldNovember 10, 2016
Last month Adam turned two.
We bought him Lego Duplo which mummy and daddy Adam is having lots of fun with.
I loved Adam’s first birthday party with the hordes of people and the slight chaos of having so many non verbal kids in one room. I loved the homely feel and seeing Adam’s toys being really well used. I loved making decorations and laying the table with the dream of a pinterest worthy spread. It was hard work. This year I couldn’t face it.
Instead we hired a soft play place, got a friend to make a simple cake, and left the staff to run after the kids (for the few minutes they let us out of their sight). I figure he won’t remember so we didn’t need fireworks on the cake (potential scare averted), or party games, or pretty decorations around the house that he’ll probably just wreck. It was bliss and without all the frills of a party to purchase it wasn’t as crazy expensive as expected. I’m well aware this level of ignorance won’t last though.
Now we have a very verbal toddler, with all the associated energy we are having real fun exploring the things toddlers do, like jumping in puddles and pretend housework. Every object is a new word, perhaps 2 and he’s eager to soak them all in. The world is there to explore and discover. Mummy still struggles with the question of nursery, with the lack of peer play, it’s a tough call either way.
And so you’ll find us at the train set, or building blocks. We may be scribbling over pictures beginning with a given letter or dancing about to whatever music comes our way, or no music at all.
Tot-school | Week 7 | Letter GNovember 5, 2016
This week’s tot-school…
…was custom made!
I found the letter G really tough to resource. We’d used the word ‘present’ for Adam’s recent birthday so none of the ‘gift’ based resources would work. Alternative packs had ‘girl’ or ‘goat’, neither of which he instantly recognises. The most solid G word he has is ‘giraffe’, so I made up my own sheets. Monday was a roaring success, dampened only by the word giraffe not starting with the ‘guh’ sound. *forehead slap!
After some thought I recognised it really wasn’t a big deal. It’s evident that he’s really not learning his letters as much as the letters are a theme to hang the weeks activities on. So while I made up sheets for the more phonetic ‘gloves’ we used mostly the giraffe ones. Sharing is caring… so if you’d like the pack I’ve made it available for download at the end of the post.
One of the big aims of this week was to have something to show. F had focused on fish and while there were lots of tactile resources to file there was nothing to put into his weekly display folder. You’ll notice this week had 2 letter crafts!
This weeks read more questions:
We loved the giraffe theme. We found giraffes everywhere round the house when we started to hunt. While colouring pages are usually something I expect to get shrugged off this one was actively engaged with. We also did really well with adding glue to shapes, following the shapes of the letters much closer than expected.
The tweezers were a total fail and the gloves match page proved just too tricky. Though he managed to get the first 2 sets of gloves he started to struggle to differentiate the patterns. However he did like the gloves themselves and upon realising they would be stuck to the lowercase ‘g’ he switched from placing them to removing them!
Tot-school is a beautiful thing and the resources freely available are hugely varied. Most are hoping to give their children a window into phonics and pre-writing skills, others are very sensory orientated. When I recognised I could easily create custom versions of the printouts, tailored for our activities, it seemed a good experiment to invest in.