Tot School

Ideally, I would like to have a theme for Tot school each week, but I haven't quite gotten that organized yet. So here is the random stuff we did. :) K and I played his Barnyard Bingo game a lot, which was a recent (and awesome) thrift store find. (I have just recently discovered the joy of thrift stores . . . I'm addicted!) It is very simple and he and his big brother can play it without my help too, which is nice.

He did this magnifying glass matching game (you look at tiny images through a magnifying glass and match them to the larger picture), which I got here. He really enjoyed this activity!

We did LOTS of puzzles. K has just recently gotten interested in puzzles, and he wants to do them all the time. This puzzle is actually part of a game called Rhyming Universe. You put the puzzle together and then use it as the game board for a rhyming game. He is of course too young to understand rhyming, but he still enjoyed playing the game (with me just telling him which words rhymed). I also picked up some puzzles recently from the dollar section at Target (I think they have 24 pieces) and he LOVES them.

We attempted to do some apple stamping . . . but it was a flop. K struggled with it because the apple was slippery. Also, he seemed kind of confused that I wanted him to paint with food. He just wanted to eat it. So when I turned my back to get the camera, he took a bite out of the top. That's why he's grinning in this picture. :)

Every time I let him paint, it turns into finger painting. He just can't help himself, I guess!

After the paint was put away, I did let him have a new apple for a snack. :)

Baby J's favorite activity is still putting things (balls, blocks, etc.) into other things like baskets and boxes. He is actually great at helping clean up blocks & stuff because of this! It's adorable. He really enjoyed playing with his new stacking cups that were a birthday gift. Sometimes the simple toys are the best!

K played a lot with his "tools," which are part of a Play My Way set that the boys got for Christmas last year. This kid loves to "fix" stuff. I love this tool set because they can actually screw in the screws with the screwdriver and pound in nails with their hammer. K is quite good at it!

We did a lesson on "Big" and "Little." To start off, I traced and painted his daddy's foot (he is such a good sport), then did the same with K's foot, and we compared them. This was an especially great comparison since his daddy is 6'4" and has quite a big foot! :) Then I gave K a tray of big and little items, and he sorted them.

Looking at the "tiny" dinosaur.

The objects all sorted (next to the feet we traced).

We read some "Daddy" books to go along with our big and little lesson. He really liked Your Daddy Was Just Like You (which we found at the library) and this book we made as a gift for his daddy for Father's Day last year.

We are really enjoying our Tot School time! Check out 1+1+1=1 for more tot school ideas!

Field Trip!
We were lucky enough to get to go to the lake with my parents and in-laws on Labor Day and we did some waterskiing and tubing, and of course just played in the water. Going to the lake is something my boys LOVE to do. With summer coming to an end, this was probably our last trip of the year.