Tot School - C is for Community Helpers!

This was our C is for Community Helpers Tot School week! Zeke was 23 months old when he completed this week. You can tell by his clothes which activities he did on the same day. 

Fill the Garbage Truck!

I made this little worksheet for Zeke. I put a wooden number on the sheet and he had to count out that many garbage bags (black linking cubes) to put in the garbage truck! He can't recognize his numbers yet, so I would put the number down and tell him what it was. Then I would give him the correct number of linking cubes for him to count out. I helped him with counting, too.

Community Helper Vehicle Matching!

I got these Melissa and Doug wooden vehicles from Amazon for less than $12. I found clip art of the same type of vehicles and tried to get as close of a match as I could. I laminated and cut apart the cards and Zeke had to match the vehicles to the cards. He loved this and has really enjoyed the wooden vehicles.

Pattern Building!

I found these Build It! Pattern Cards from lll. I printed and laminated them, but Zeke was not too interested in this activity. Daddy even got involved, trying to spark some interest, but this was not his favorite. He loves linking cubes, but he doesn't love following patterns yet. He did love these three piece puzzles from Learning Journey. I pulled out the ones that were community helpers and he would do these over and over again.

Bandage the Bear!

He loved this activity, which required matching colored bandages to the bear. I laminated these and added Velcro. He also did the doctor three piece puzzle.

Positional Word Practice!

I used the hospital and doctor printables to work on positional words with Zeke. I would ask him to put the doctor over the hospital, under the hospital, beside the hospital, behind the hospital, etc. He followed the directions really well and knew his positional words better than I expected.

Some of Zeke's worksheets:

He dot markered the C and c and the hospital page.

He put community helper vehicle stickers on his C and c.

He traced lines.

He put star stickers inside the dots on the policemen and policewomen.

He colored the hospitals the correct colors.

We had a great week learning about Community Helpers! 

Tot School: B is for Baby!

This was our B is for Baby themed week which we did a few months ago. Zeke was 23 months old when we completed these activities. We are using Moms Have Questions Too toddler curriculum along with my own tot tray ideas and some of my own worksheets.

Pink and Blue Bead Thread!

Pink and blue were our theme colors this week (pink for baby girls, blue for baby boys). I poked a skewer through a blue and pink paper cup and put pony beads of the same color in a bowl for Zeke to sort by color. He had to thread each pony bead on the skewer of the matching color cup. It was a challenge, but it was a fun way to work on those fine motor skills!

 

Baby Bottle Pom Pom Push!

I bought a cheap pack of three bottles with a blue, green, and yellow lid. By removing the nipple, it made a really great pom pom push container. I placed pom poms in the three colors for Zeke for sort by color. He loved this and did it several times!

Party Favor Sorting!

I picked up several bags of baby shower party favors from the Dollar Tree. I put them in this sorting tray (also from the Dollar Tree) and had Zeke sort them by color. We were also going to sort by image, but we never got around to that.

Baby Item Picture Match!

I found several baby items around our house (luckily my daughter just had a baby so that helped!) - a diaper, a rattle, a pacifier, a bottle, and a bib. I printed out a page with pictures of the items and Zeke had to match the items to the picture. He also wanted to wear the bib, suck on the pacifier, and drink from the bottle.

He also had several worksheets to complete such as:

Color the baby the correct color:

Placing blue dots on the B and b:

Dot markering with a pink and blue dot marker:

Tracing lines:

Sorting babies by size:

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Tot School: A is for Apple

We completed this week of Tot School several months ago, but I never got around to posting about it. Zeke was about 23 months old when we worked on this theme. I am using Moms Have Questions Too Toddler Curriculum, but I also add in fun tot trays and extra worksheets for Zeke because he loves to cut and glue, color, and use stickers!

I like to start out each day with what I call "Tot Trays", but lately Zeke has been more interested in worksheets than hands-on fine motor activities. You'll see a pretty good mix of both type of activities.

Apple Sorting!

I gave Zeke some red and green pompoms and a red and green pool ring. He had to sort the "apples" by color. Sorting by color is one of Zeke's favorite activities, and it's actually the first toddler school activity we ever did!

Apple Seed Counting!

We used the apple printables in the curriculum and black pony beads to count out apple seeds. Zeke doesn't recognize his numbers yet, so I would say, "This is a three! Let's count three seeds for this apple!" and we would proceed to count out three beads.

Build the Letter A!

I gave Zeke an outline of the letter A and he had to use red, green, and yellow "apples" (linking cubes) to build the A. He also sorted them by color into the matching bowls. Then he put red and green dot stickers on the A and a worksheets.

Poke the A!

I had this block of styrofoam, so I drew an A on it and gave Zeke some cocktail toothpicks. He had to push the toothpicks into the letter A. This was a great fine motor activity and he loved it! We repeated it with other shapes later on.

He also had several fun worksheets like these:

Finish the Pattern - his first introduction to patterns!

Tracing Practice - some of these are cutting practice worksheets, but I use them as tracing. 

Shadow Picture Matching - matching pictures to their gray shadows. 

Dot Markers - he loves using dot markers!

Sorting Apples - he loves sorting by color and using glue sticks, so this was a fun activity for him.

I plan to blog about each of the letters we have done so far - we are on J this week! You'll see how the worksheets keep increasing - Zeke loves them!

Do you have tot school with your toddler? 

Homeschool Highlights - End of 2020

I know I have been absent lately. Most of my most recent posts were reviews for The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew. I declined to join again for 2021 for several reasons. While I really enjoyed receiving and using a wide variety of homeschool products, it is very time-consuming and time is not something I have an excess of right now. Here is a rough overview of what's been going on in my life the past few months.

October 22, my oldest daughter Mikaela gave birth to a baby boy! Daniel Wyatt Wilson weighed 7 pounds, 5 ounces and was 19 inches long. He is now two months old and the cutest baby ever! He had a rough patch for several weeks of crying and being an unhappy baby, but it seems like he has turned a corner lately. He has been smiling, laughing, trying to coo, and generally in a better mood. 

Mikaela has decided to go back to high school in person (she was doing virtual and it's had a lot of difficulties). She's a senior, so she only goes until around lunchtime. I'll be watching Daniel for her. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I teach at my cottage school. My mom comes and sits with Zeke, and she will also sit with Daniel now. Thursday and Friday I'll have him at home. 

We also decided as a family not to celebrate the world's holidays and celebrations, and instead to observe the Biblical Holy Days God outlined in Leviticus 23. This has been a challenge in some ways. Christmas was always a huge deal to me. It feels strange right now, December 25, to be writing a blog post with no plans for the day except lesson planning. I have such a peace about it, though. I don't want to get into the why's because it's a personal thing for our family. Not everyone will feel the same way, and that's totally fine! I may write a post about it soon.

We did celebrate Hanukkah this year, even though it's not one of the Levitical feasts. I think it's a great time to reflect on your relationship with Jesus and rededicate your life back to Him, just like the Jews rededicated the Temple after reclaiming it and restoring it. I didn't take any pictures, but we did light the candles each night (we missed two nights because of basketball games) and say the blessings. I did a few extra things, like making envelopes with the nightly Scripture readings and an 8-Night Countdown Chain with fun activities, like baking Hanukkah cookies and having a movie night with treats. I gave the kids gifts each night, which I will likely not do next year as it got expensive. Or if I do, it will be one big gift and then smaller gifts.

I have taken a break from my Instagram account due to the new policy regulations. I don't think I'll be going back to it. It's actually been a relief not to have to post toddler trays each day - which was the premise of my account. I still do the toddler trays, but Zeke enjoys them much more without all of the photo-taking. I plan to put his weekly tot school on this blog, though. 

Our cottage school is going well! I have lost some students due to various reasons (financial mainly), but we are still plugging along. We use Mystery of History for history, which is great because it's written for three days a week which is how often we go. We are using Properties of Ecosystems for science right now. I did switch most of the kids to Math Lessons for a Living Education, and they are loving it. Grammar is just a mix of worksheets and fun activities.

We also read and write poetry, having a quiet reading time each day, monthly book report projects, and more fun stuff! I have really enjoyed it, but it is exhausting to plan for and teach other children besides my own. Mikaela was helping me teach the Kindergarten and 2nd graders, but now she won't be there. I will be teaching them all. I'm trying to work out a schedule/plan to do this.

Zeke has been using Moms Have Questions, Too Toddler School Curriculum. It is a letter of the week type curriculum. We will be starting the letter H next week. I'm going to try to post A through G over the next few weeks, as well. Maybe a letter a day until we get caught up? He is fun to do tot school with! He turned two on Thanksgiving this year and had a Brown Bear, Brown Bear birthday party.

I'm going to try to post the Weekly Homeschool Highlights each Friday (but I haven't had a great track record so...). Link up any homeschool-related post below!

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