At the beginning of the week I put together my list of things to do each day and although we didn’t do them all the way I had planned, we still had fun, tried a few new things, and figured out that little boy Kaleb is still absorbing information left and right.

Shocking, I know.

We tried making a Tot Book {Nemo} this week since preschool time with Zachary is focused on underwater. Kaleb loves Nemo. And although he’s not quite understanding the concept, it’s great that we can keep the book on hand to use in the future too.

The goal was to put stickers on the paper. Two stickers ended up where they were supposed to while the rest ended up on arms, noses, the table, and I’m sure I’ll find more later somewhere else.

I found some great magnetic ‘fishing’ puzzles at a yard sale for 50 cents {gotta love the spring bargains!!}. Getting the magnets to slow down and connect can be a little tricky, but Kaleb loved the bugs!

Laurianna made Kaleb his own little game when she was creating at the children’s museum {and Kaleb loved it}. She drew a shape on a little envelope and then cut/colored out the same shape for him to stick in each pocket {too sweet ~ and she was so proud of herself!}.

We pulled out a pocket chart that props on the table {found it at Walmart a little while back} and had fun playing with the numbers 1 through 3 {interpreted as Mommy counted over and over again while Kaleb had fun shoving the numbers and pictures all over the place}.

We put together the Nemo Tot Book. Ummm…Mommy, put the lapbook together while Kaleb helped by coloring after he was handed the right colors to use on the color cards. Zachary {the big brother} was learning about the ocean too this week, so Nemo tied right in and we read lots of ocean/underwater books together.
We read the book Over in the Ocean {such a cool book} and sang it to the tune of “Over in the Meadow”. Every.Single.Day.

I put together a little Tot Tool for Kaleb using paper clips and foam strips {click here to see how I did it ~ under 5 minutes if you don’t have a child interrupt you}. Once he figured it out, he had a blast matching the colors and getting the paper clips to stay on the foam.{There is a similar Tot Tool on the Totally Tots blog }.

The potty chair was returned to us this week and is now sitting in our bathroom. Kaleb likes to think that he knows how to use it. I found him one night before bedtime, with the bathroom door closed, just like this:

When I asked him what he was doing, he said “I poopin’!” And for the record, he did, but unfortunately it was while he was still fully clothed. *grins* Just a little more work in this area.

Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts.

The big news this week is PEDALING – all by himself!! :) Kaleb finally figured it out and has been riding around the backyard and taking rides with us too.

I have some two piece puzzles that match ‘what belongs together’ (i.e. socks/feet, toothbrush/toothpaste, etc…). I only pulled out 4 puzzles so that he wouldn’t get overwhelmed/confused. We won’t mention the fact that I can only find six out of the many puzzles…since there are at least six puzzles missing their match.

We pulled out the ring toss game to match colors and also play. Kaleb didn’t want to try it from a distance, so we just sat nearby and played for a bit.

Kaleb loves the emotion bears. He has so much fun dressing up the bears (and matching/making outfits), but was so funny to watch imitating the different emotions that the bears show. He kept pretending that it was Daddy – and for some reason kept making Daddy cry all the time.

We pulled out the lacing beads and Kaleb did great naming several of the shapes (circle and star). He LOVES the stars!! We’re still working on the names of the colors though!

The lacing beads served a double purpose and we ended up building towers with them too (with the eventual knocking down of said towers – doesn’t every toddler??).

We did other activities too this week, but ended up our week celebrating all the HOT weather (90’s) with a water gun fight. The kids got the little guns while Mommy and Daddy got to use the super soakers. By the end of the afternoon, Kaleb was s-o-a-k-e-d because he kept asking to be hosed by the soakers. :)

That’s it for this week! I’m off to plan for this week since I found some fun puzzles at a yard sale!! Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts.

Kaleb has been disappearing and reappearing with tubs of his school toys and telling me what he wants to do {i.e. dumping it all over the floor and then pulling me to ‘come’}. This next week I really want to plan 3 specific activities to do with him each day ~ ahead of time ~ and let the rest of the day go where he leads/directs.

I found some mini building blocks at a curriculum sale ~ which Kaleb happily ripped out of the box to play with for approximately 6.3 seconds.

After his unenthusiastic response to the blocks he discovered his sister’s purse sitting nearby and decided that looked like more fun. Since it technically involved snapping and ‘fine motor skills’. Besides he was having fun.

Another fine motor opportunity presented itself when someone under the age of 8 left a pair of scissors sitting out and Kaleb found them. Even though I didn’t set up this as a teaching time, he was practicing those cutting skills ~ and it was just a coloring book cover.

We pulled out a bunch of our bug lacing cards to do too ~ attention span was fairly short again, but he did do a bit of the grasshopper before moving onto other fun things!

Our biggest learning experience this week involved REAL bugs…of the mini ant variety. Kaleb has been freaking out every time he sees a tiny ant. Literally. Screaming like a girl ~ hysterically. While it’s been pretty funny, it was also getting a little old because the ants just don’t want to go away. We finally taught him that he can squish them ~ you know, since he’s BIGGER than they are and all!

Here he is showing us one of the ‘crickets’ {as he calls them for some reason}:

And here he is in full action ~ hunting and killing.

The ant-killing feat alone makes this week a total success in my book.

Oh yes, Amen!

Kaleb is also really starting to talk up a storm and pull so much together. One giant run-on generally ~ but hearing him talk and talk in that sweet little voice is just precious!! And along with the talking, he is becoming so much more of a little ham to go along. His facial expressions just crack us up {and the little stinker knows it!}.

Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts.

Kaleb started actually pronouncing his ‘s’ this week – so his ‘yea’ turned to the sweetest little ‘yes’ (or really a ‘yeth’). Just to cute. He is coming into his goofy personality more and more, making us laugh at every turn.

I pulled the plastic eggs apart and Kaleb spent some time first matching the colors and then matching tops and bottoms of the eggs together.

We pulled out two bags of pom-poms and an egg coloring tray (all Dollar Tree) and used the tray to sort the pom-poms by color.

Then Kaleb used some chalk eggs to draw on black construction paper.

I made a paint swatch matching card using nine different colors and clothespins. It took Kaleb a little bit to get used to opening the clothespins (and keeping them open), but after help on the first few, he figured it out and matched them all.

Kaleb pulled out the shape matching/sorting puzzle and wanted to work on it, so we did! :)

We pulled out the paints this week too – and used q-tips to paint a few pretty pictures.

After reading this ABC post on Totally Tots, I printed off the coconut tree template and stuck it on our dishwasher for Kaleb to play with. Kaleb had fun picking up letter and trying to name the letter or color.

That’s it for this week. Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts.

Believe it or not, Kaleb didn’t know how to climb out of his crib (or at least didn’t dare) until he saw a clip of a baby on America’s Funniest Videos. Nice, huh?

Because Rick and I were going away for a few days and didn’t know how he would handle the whole ‘freedom to roam’, we decided to wait to move him to the bottom bunk until we got back. While we didn’t say that, the kids kept reminding him that when Mommy and Daddy got home he would get to sleep in his big boy bed. So not an hour after we were home and said it was bedtime, he climbed up on the bed and covered up.

And he’s been there ever since! There haven’t been any major problems and it has been so sweet listening to him and Zachary talking to each other and playing together in the morning before they get up.

But it is the end of the crib era ~ and I’m still a little emotional about that. The extra room is nice, but that ‘baby’ aspect is gone {sigh}.

Next week…more actual school happenings. :)

Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts.

He suprised me with some of the things he has apparently been learning while I was blissfully unaware – go figure. He was stacking pegs one at a time and counting on his own. I sat listening while he counted to TEN! The little stinker! Of course if I ask him to count for me any other time, he sits and thinks for a moment and then shakes his head and says no.

This day ended up being more Kaleb-directed. He had too much fun pulling toys out and playing to his hearts content. As always, he kept trying to put the pegs in the wrong holes (on purpose) and would just giggle and then put them in the right places.

To go along with our “I am the Good Shepherd” verse this week from Totally Tots, we made little cotton ball sheeps. I found the idea at Kids Craft weekly awhile back and have been holding onto it for some time. Just too cute!

We used our sugar shaker to put spaghetti noodles into. Kaleb really enjoyed for a bit until his older sister showed him that he could chew on the noodles.

Apparently I felt like living on the edge and decided Kaleb must be full, so we pulled out the glue stick and some green construction paper to make shamrocks. This craft lasted until Kaleb decided to try and eat the glue stick.

We have the Wii Outdoor Challenge mat and Kaleb likes to think that he can keep up with the big kids – and it’s just too fun to watch him play along.

I found some plastic frog and lizards at Target this week and we used them to sort into piles by what they were. Kaleb also had fun lining the frogs up and letting me count them for him – and then he would mess them all up. :)

That’s it for Tot School this week! Just to let you know, I have a great giveaway in store for my blog readers this coming Friday (the 27th) – worth $300!! Be sure to stop back by and see what’s in store!

Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts.