Earth Day

We went to Earth Day at the rec center.  There was a local elementary school there.  Wiggle’s Big Bubba was there for the Boy/Cub Scouts booth.

 

Wiggles is imitating the big kids.  The teachers were trying to get the kids to sit and be quiet for lunch and a historian to speak.  Wiggles did this in about 5 seconds…the 5th graders…well, the historian had to get on to them a lot.

Wiggles petting a gigantic snake and a ferret. 

 

Wiggles also got to tour a fire truck. 

We are on a break from school work with the big kids…so our reports are mainly life school for now with lots of field trips.

Throw Away Thursdays

Wiggles learning to cut.  We are working on just using 1 hand, but he has a hard time with it.

 

Doing color wonder with Buzz Lightyear.  We love
Toy Story here.

Throw Away Thursday

  

Here Wiggles is tracing his Sandpaper Letters.  He is doing super well at tracing and saying the sound of the letter.  I think we are about ready to do some corn meal writing during review week with LHTH.

I had to put this one in.  We didn’t have a Children’s Bible reading in our lesson plan for LHTH today, but I had already pulled the book from the shelf when gathering what I needed.  Wiggles didn’t want me to put it up even though we didn’t “need” it today.  He wanted Abraham as he tried to get the book.  So I handed it to him.  We have been reading about Abraham in it and he sat down and started to read it to me.  I couldn’t make out much but all the men in the pictures were Abraham as he “read” to me.

Here is Wiggles using his Dr. Suess Alphabet cards.  I love these.  They are set up like the book.  Big A Little A What begins with A.  Alligator with a Dr. Suess pic of an alligator.  Also, they are tactile.  Similar to the way I teach him with the sandpaper letters. 

 

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3239861

I love the Dr. Suess beginner cards.  They have shapes, numbers, opposites.  Lots and lots to choose from and they are fun.  They have teaching ideas included.  So far I have the alphabet and shapes but plan on getting more.

Throw away Thursdays

My house is a disaster area. Literally, it is a pig sty. I let Wiggle Worm work on several things while I did dishes. I still have to sweep and mop, but plan to wait until tonight when no little ones will dirty it right back up.

Okay, I just had to put this old pic of big brother Bubba doing this same exercise when he was 3…he is 6 now. They are 3 part cards for colors.

Here is Wiggle Worm being introduced to them for the first time! He did really well. I think I will start out with just the primary colors next time though. We got confused with orange and red and blue and purple. So we might start out with just three and work up.

This is an up close so you can see the exercise. The one card has the color and name of the color. The tot then matches the color to the color/name card.

I originally downloaded this file from childcareland.com. I can't find it in the free printables anymore. I am going to email and see if I can get a link to post here if anyone else wants to use this file too. I laminate mine. This exercise grows also b/c I have a set of cards that has a blank part at the top with the word for the color at the bottom and the child matches the color part to the word (showing they can read the color name and match it with the color without the control). I will take a picture of it soon. I will have my 6 year old do this as color words are part of his sight words.

I borrowed this idea from 1+1+1=1. I used a Cane’s kid’s drink cup and Wiggle Worm put those tiny pom poms through the straw hole. This lasted a while.

Close up of him pushing the pom pom through the hole.

This is big Bubba (at 3) doing his Melissa and Doug stacker. Alas, this stacker did not survive to be passed on to Wiggle Worm. I did buy a M&D round rainbow stacker the other day and wanted to get a pic of Wiggle Worm doing it to put with this pic in the post, but Wiggle Worm would not oblige me. Maybe I will get the pic and edit this post.

I am going to go through big Bubba’s pics from toddlerhood and glean ideas from them (insert evil laugh here). I had made so many Montessori style 3 part cards and have most of them laminated. I think it is time I pull them out and Wiggle Worm is introduced to them.

Throw Away Thursdays

We did our foam alphabet puzzle. I bought this for $1 at Walmart. I took all the letters apart and punched out the letter and we worked on one letter sound to its shape at a time. What does the M say mmm, what shape is the M, put it in Wiggle Worm...
This is my really cool watercolor set by prang for under 3's. It comes with a drape and a fat paintbrush. The watercolors are huge (as you can see) and very spread out so the colors don't get mixed up. I took a picture of it all pretty before we use it and it isn't pretty anymore.
This is Wiggle Worm looking at the butterfly and us talking about the b-b-b sound.
Finally, Wiggle Worms favorite part...we are painting. We are supposed to print out a B for him to watercolor paint with LHTH. I am using the Abeka Letters and Sounds N workbook pages for these exercises and just doing the instructions for LHTH. Last week was to put beans on the letter. This week is to watercolor.Our finished watercolor. He colored the butterflyand the B as best as he can.We were supposed to put the cups on the colors and add the bears. He kind of did his own thing.We sorted our colored popsicle sticks.Tot School went okay. He was kind of ornery and we both had allergies today. So it was short and sweet.

Throw Away Thursdays

We didn't do a lot today. We worked on our flash cards at our own pace. He loves the touch and feel cards. We have several sets of Baby Einstein and he will happily sit and pull them out and say the names of them or ask me if he doesn't remember. These are neat b/c we talk about the touch parts. The fur is soft, the elephant skin is smooth,...We also did a lot of outside time today with our big brother and sisters.

Throw away Thursday

We may as well have skipped Thursday this week. We did absolutely nothing Tot School or really tot productive today. We did go out to lunch with another Mom and her son, 4. So I guess I could stretch that into being a playdate of sorts.
It wasn't a total waste though. I found lots of good buys at Target and Big Lots and took pics of my latest additions to our Tot School "curriculum."

This is my new stuff

After looking at all the blogs using these items, I decided now was the time to buy.

These are neat little "pinch" bowls I found at Target. I think I may use them with pom poms, tongs, and color sorting...This is one of my good finds for $8 at Big Lots...It is an ice bucket with scoop and lid. The white bucket comes out and I am planning to use it to practice scooping and transferring beans.

My 2nd favorite of the day, this was $9 and it is so neat b/c the lid has a slit like a piggy bank and the child puts the "cookies" in and then pulls the lid open and dumps them and closes the lid to start again. The "cookies" are numbered 1-5 so you can teach counting and number order once they have moved past the motor skills of the toy.

We threw a fit to have this one right away. Big Sis is helping Wiggle Worm out with it. She wanted to teach the numbers and number order right away...but contented herself to just helping Wiggle Worm figure out the basics.

I have pretty much decided that we will only do LHTH on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This keeps my Tuesdays open for Tinytown and possibly my Thursdays open for some Mommy time with my friends and their kids too.

So, I guess we will be doing Tot School on M,W,F and Tuesdays at Tinytown and Throw Away Thursdays from now on out.