Shapes Tot Pack

This is the beginning of Bee's Shapes Tot Pack (click the image to download PDF). I've only made things and added things made by others that Bee can currently do and use but there are so many other great shapes resources out there that could be easily used too.  Here is what we've done...

First things first we have a shape train! Bee loves trains so I figured why not make each car carry a shape. I've only cut out the yellow shapes for right now and once he knows what all the shapes are and how to match them correctly I'll cut out the other colors as well. This way it isn't too overwhelming to start with. The idea being that he adds the shapes to the appropriate train car. : )

Next we have the shape matching on other images. This idea I actually borrowed from First-School.  This site has several pages made just like mine. I however found these cute clip art images for pictures Bee already knew so that the shapes would really be the new item.  Bee chooses which of the four he wants to use and then matches the shapes (with much prompting because he mainly knows circle, heart, and star).

Finally I printed the shape puzzles from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  Bee's still not very interested in puzzles so right now I put them together and we just talk about what shapes they are.  Nothing too crazy but I'm going to keep them available to him!

There are so many other great shape activities out there and as Bee's interest and ability increase I'll add more activities to his tot pack. Hope you all enjoy. Please leave a comment if you use my PDF during your tot school time!

Tot School (19 months)

~ Bee is 19 months!

 This week has been a very productive one as far as tot school is concerned! Which is a miracle considering we went to Six Flags too!  In these two pictures Bee is playing with his new cutting toy by Melisa and Doug. I found this brand new at a consignment sale and am so happy I bought it. Bee LOVES cutting the food and pretending to eat it! He's been really into pretend play lately which is a HUGE developmental milestone!

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 This is Bee's latest Sensory Bin! Right now it is mainly Easter things but will eventually be turned into the Spring Bin.  As you can see Bee had a great time making an absolute MESS of my living room. He liked scooping out the eggs, opening them, pulling out all the grass, getting in the bin, throwing the grass, finding all the animal hidden in the bin, and finally (in the end) helping Mommy pick up every piece of grass on our SHAG carpet!

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 I feel this week we've finally made some progress on a number or different skills! Bee has FINALLY started stacking his circles, octagons, and squares on different pegs some of the times! He doesn't do it all the time yet but he is definitely getting there so we've been making an effort to play with his stacker a lot and I'm making a huge effort to really use a lot of helpful vocabulary for him while we're doing it.  He's also started stacking his blocks on his own during his independent play. He's been able to stack blocks for a long time but not until recently would just do it without prompting. So that is pretty cool!

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 As mentioned we've been making a lot of progress this week.  That includes in the area of our felt board.  With Humpty Dumpty, Fidgety Fish/Ocean Friends/ and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Bee is now able to grab the correct pieces from a pile (most of the time) when we are reading about that piece in the story.  He then either plays with it a little bit (as seen above in the right hand picture where he is sweeping the mouse) or puts it immediately on the felt board.

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Finally this week we've been working a lot on different shapes. I realized the other day Bee knows not only circle but also heart, star, and triangle/rectangle (sometimes).  This knowledge came unexpectedly when Bee pointed to shapes on my clothing and told me they were hearts and stars. AND HE WAS RIGHT!! So naturally I decided it's time to really work with him on shapes! So I made a tot pack which I will blog about separately.  In this picture Bee and Daddy are talking about shapes before Daddy left for work. It is my favorite from this week!

As always, check out what other tots are doing in their tot schools!

HSV Garden Challenge Update

 

Our garden has not come as far along as I would have liked! I don't think planters will end up being made as we are really BUSY and expecting a new addition in a MONTH.  We also planted out cherry tomato seed about three weeks ago and the little sprouts that popped up have DIED! :'(

But we have a lot of rhubarb popping up in our outside pots as well as daffodils, tulips, and a hyacinth blooming. : )  In our front yard ALL of our plants have started growing (that includes 20 or so plants.) 

Our little Bee is loving anytime he gets to water the plants! We've also done several other activities involving plants.  We are using the matching cards created by Homeschool Creations to aide our learning of garden vocabulary. 

I also saw a great idea on The Adventures of Bear on how to create perpetual celery! I'm really looking forward to trying that and getting celery growing for my little man! 

This is the only picture I have showing our Garden's progress! It was taken during Bee's Backyard Egg Hunt.  From left to right this picture shows our awesome rhubarb, some tulips, daffodils, and a hyacinth (blends in with Bee's leg).  I haven't taken a pic of the front yard but I'll work on that for the next update. Bee typically works with the pots in the backyard anyway.  I will also work on getting pics using the Garden Pack matching cards. 

Great Gardening Friends!