Tot School with Bo {Letter Bb}

Our time with Letter Bb (and now Cc!) was/is spread out over two weeks+ due to sickness. I'm still catching up with life (as I was sick, too), so this will mostly be a photo share + a few answers to questions I have had. 


Letter: Bb
Object: Ball
Color: Blue
Vocabulary Development Theme: Outdoor Fun

~Bo is 25.5 months old~ 

See Tot School Printables for the printables for this unit. 

Week 1

Mon. Feb. 11th

Letter Bb Basket




Dot Paint the Balls

Proud of his work! :) 

Dot Paint the Letters





Honey Bee Tree fine motor practice (the bottom to the tree was missing at the time, so we couldn't play. (It was a last minute idea spurred on by the bee puzzle!)



Tuesday, Feb. 12th

Color Blue Basket


Colors

Bo wasn't interested in coloring. So he used the scissors that I keep with his crayons to cut. When I tried to get him to color, he pushed the crayons away, picked up all the color ball squares, crumpled them up and threw them away! After a few more activities (and a few more melt-downs), I realized that Bo was not feeling well. Little guy was just not himself.  






Letter Bb Basket ~ I added "Upper & Lower Case Clothespin Clip" for Letter Bb (find it on Carisa's All ABC's page).






After our tot time, he crawled up to snuggle with a sick sis to comfort her. ♥ And then our whole morning made sense - he didn't feel well either. 



Fri. Feb. 15th

This was a Bo-directed tot school day. The boys called me from the other room to let me know that Bo was doing tot school all. by. himself. He had pushed the student desk over to the cabinet where I keep his tot school loot and helped himself! 

Dot painting Letter Bb Objects 


Week 2

Mon. Feb. 18th

Painting with Balls (See Ideas for Using ~ ABC Letter Crafts for more ideas!)





Bb/Ball 3-Part Puzzle


Sequencing


Letter Bb Basket 

(again ~ it's a favorite)



Bath Bin

I set up a dish pan with scrubbies, funnels ($Tree), sponge balls, and a squirt bottle for sensory exploration and concept building through water play! I brought out toys for him to wash, too. It was fun watching him playfully discover new concepts on his own. (Sponges hold water, funnels don't!) It is all about providing experiences.










(Shortly after he drenched his shirt he started spilling water, so I moved him to the floor so he wouldn't slip off the bench.)

Tues. Feb 19th 


Another favorite! {As you will see} 

(Those are yellow split peas - I used whole green peas in our letter Aa tub). 






This b is covered up by another card (the cards overlap), so for the letter Cc, I cut them smaller. 

Color Blue/Letter Bb Play-dough 


 

I helped him with Letter Aa, but let him do this one on his own.
I love how he filled the space inside the capital B. :) 


Cutting play-dough snakes with scissors. 
Colors

I was a little nervous to bring these out. I set the box of crayons out with the paper (didn't cut them out this time and didn't match them up). He didn't do much with them, but didn't throw them away this time. (Phew!)



Sun. Feb. 24th

Outdoor Fun {Indoors}

It was too cold to go to the park, so we played at the Y play land and Luke brought out some balls and a strider bike. Cool story: I won a Strider bike from Carisa and we loved it so much that Luke got a sponsor to buy some for our YMCA. We have 12 now and Y kids love them! Bo wasn't that interested... yet. He mostly wanted to climb and slide. 


Later that day, I noticed Bo was warm and took his temp and sure enough he had a fever again - 101. I didn't notice it until later, but he had the start of the classic slapped cheek look of Fifth's Disease (a common childhood disease). That morning Luke asked if he hit his cheek and I hadn't noticed that he had and later it all made sense as the cheek got pinker and his other cheek pinked up. 


Tues. Feb. 26th

Counting with Pom-Pom Magnets 

I can't remember if he was feeling well enough to ask or saw me putting trays together and wanted to play. But, he ran a fever again this day and napped on the couch on and off all day.  





All done. Decided he wasn't feeling well enough. 
I gave him a bottle of vitamin water that I had on hand for sick kids (I know it's not really that healthy, but sometimes when I am sick, nothing tastes good but Vitamin Water!). 




Older boys had dental hygiene appointments this day, one boy was coming home from his dad's and another was leaving right after. Older two boys were referred for surgical extractions {wisdom teeth} and appointments were made.  I was sick uhgain. Elli's cough worsened this week and that's all we did for Letter Bb Tot School. Though, I am grateful for little moments here and there and for all that we did do. 

Q&A

A reader asked what Mali and Elli are doing while Bo does Tot School, so I snapped a picture. 

Elli is working on Explode the Code. 

And Malachi is doing Mathletics
When they are done with any independent work I give them, they play quietly until I am done. 


Do you have a set schedule on what you like to do first? 

I have an idea of what I want to do each day and have the activities set up on trays ready to go, but I try to stay flexible so that my agenda doesn't get in the way of his natural curiosity and desire to learn.

Do you set out trays (ie tot school workboxes) each day or just bring pages/markers etc out as you go?

I bring them out one at a time, rather then set them out, but lately Bo has been asking to pick, so I lift him up to the wicker baskets on the red cabinet and let him choose what he wants. Because this is becoming a daily thing though, I will probably set them out, but up. I'm afraid he will mix them all up if I leave them within his reach - when he was littler, he wouldn't play with his toys - he would move them around. It would keep him busy for a long time just reorganizing them. I think he would do the same at this point.

Your trays! Where did you get them and how much were they?

I have Cool Craft Trays from Oriental Trading - 6 for $10. I bought two sets when Elli was 2 and they have held up well.

I recently bought a lap tray at Michael's for $4.99. Walmart has them too, but Michael's has prettier colors. (I started using it for Letter Cc). I like the lap tray because I can put things in the side cubbies. (It is like this one).

See Carisa's post Oh Where Are The Trays? for other alternatives.

Where did you get your tongs? Love those!!!

Amazon! Bamboo Toast Tongs. I love them, too. Bo likes to help in the kitchen, so I sit him on the counter when I cook.  Once, he tried to stick a butter knife in the toaster so I ordered them so he could help take the toast out safely! and they are perfect for his little hands.

About how much time do you spend with Bo?

For our letter Aa week, we followed the same time schedule outlined in my Big Machines tot school post and that is what I am shooting for each week. These past few weeks, however, and the next couple weeks, are not as scheduled due to sickness - all the little kids and I were sick on and off for four weeks! I'm still fighting off a little cough and Bo is too. He had fluid on his ears a few days ago and they were pink. Ideally, I plan to spend 45 minutes doing activities in the morning with Bo and 15 minutes of reading in the afternoon.

We are set to finish up letter Cc tomorrow. I think I have enough activities to divide it into two posts, so I'll try to share "Part 1" next week.

0 comments