Tot School

Tot School has been a little hit or miss lately.  I am in the middle of reorganizing so that I can return to doing more “Montessori work” with Bear.  I’ve deviated from my original schooling intent and am making my way back to our original path.  I have been reading my “how-to” guide and trying to figure out how to best achieve each activity without buying anything.

Alphabet

Bear knows her lower case and upper case alphabet and her letter sounds except for occasional confusion on the upper case F and E (she calls “E” /f/ sometimes).  She continues to amaze me with how quickly and effortlessly she learns material. 

This week, Bear has wanted to do her Dora the Explorer alphabet puzzle over and over every day.  I use the opportunity to practice her left and right.  (Is it normal that my two year old knows her right from her left?  I noticed the other day that she knows the difference between right and left.  It left me mouth agape; I was so shocked since I hardly ever bother saying the words.) I placed half the puzzle pieces on one side of her and the other half on the other side.  Then I say, “I spy the sound /a/ on your left.”  She finds the piece and puts it in.  She is subconsciously working on alphabetical order while doing this puzzle.

We made more alphabet tiles with foam letters (unfortunately we only have upper case).  We played I spy with these tiles too.

Numbers

We have been “working” more with numbers lately. 

Bear and I made a new craft foam puzzle.  We had a cardstock version, but this one is more fun.

We also made number tiles like the alphabet ones and played “Slap it.”  I call out a number and Bear slaps it, or she calls one out and I slap it.  She is working on number recognition from one to nine. 

She played with her bead counter, working on number recognition and numeral to number of object matching.

We continue to do calendar every day and I think Bear is picking up on the patterns of counting beyond ten.

Fine Motor Skills

Lots of work with the eyedropper this week. 

First, she mixed a full dropper or yellow with a full dropper of blue to make green.

Then I wondered if she would be able to squeeze just a drop of colored water, so I took a piece of parchment paper and drew some circles with a Sharpie.  After demonstrating once, Bear was happily engaged for a very long time.

I drew her 12 circles in a line and we counted as she squeezed her drops.

Lastly, I drew a circle Christmas tree and she squeezed red and green water to “color” the tree and decorate it.

Other Stuff

Bear has been playing doctor nonstop this week.  Guess who is her favorite patient.  J-jo.