Tot School–“We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”

- Adam is 40 months old -

We finally actually did something for Tot School this week!  I started doing a Circle Time in the morning when I was ready to start Tot School and it really helped to focus my attention (not theirs…I’m the one lacking focus lately!) on purposefully playing and learning with Adam and Abby.  See this post all about it!

We are winding down our ‘study’ of books from the Before Five in a Row manual.  I only have one more left!  I’m fighting the urge to begin a Letter of the Week theme with Adam.  It’s just so much work!  But Adam really loves when I have things planned for him to do.  Which I’m worrying has turned him into a little robot who can’t think of anything to do on his own.  Any suggestions?  I want him to be able to play with anything and everything but he’s always asking me what to do and it’s driving me crazy!  I want to foster creativity and freedom but it’s not going too well.  Is there such a thing as a child who just likes and needs direction?  I suppose I really shouldn’t complain about that huh? :)

This week we read “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen.  It’s the classic story about a Dad and his kids going on a bear hunt and coming across all kinds of things that they can’t go over and can’t go under, so they have to go through it.  Adam really loved this book and now we reenact the story all the time on our own!

We watched a funny video on YouTube of the author reciting the book.  Here is the link.  On the page where they are wading through the river, they are each carrying their shoes, except for the baby who is riding on Dad’s shoulder.  I asked Adam why he thought they took of their shoes and then why the baby still had her shoes on.  It’s fun to watch him think about things!  Activities and ideas came from the Before Five in a Row manual and Homeschool Share.

Coloring/Patterns
He would only color one of the 3 strips.

Painting with “Mud”
We had chocolate pudding for our Monday night treat and the next day the kids painted with it!  Here Adam is “squelching and squerching” in the “mud”

“Yummy!”

I made a felt board and felt pieces to place as we went through the story.  Adam loved using this so I think I’ll be making more felt story pieces in the future.

Story Sequencing
Adam did pretty well remember the order of the story.
(see Abby’s feet on the right side….she is making school time VERY difficult!)

“Hooing and Wooing”
Adam’s favorite part of the story, the snowstorm that goes “hooo wooo”!

Counting Bears

Other things we did during the week:

Handwriting Without Tears
He did two pages where he worked on coloring and his crayon grip.

24-piece number puzzle.
He got frustrated and gave up right after this picture.

Kumon: Let’s Color! Workbook

I don’t know what got into him but he colored a lot this week!

After he colored the first page, I encouraged him to color small things in the picture instead of all over it.
Then he colored each of these ducks.  After the first one, he asked how to turn the duck back to white.  I explained that once he colored it, it was that color forever.  Then we had a nice talk about how we only color on paper because if he colored on the floor or the wall, they would be colored forever too and Mom and Dad would not be happy about that! :)  After that, with every duck he colored he said, “Ohp, now this duck is _____ forever!”

Adam’s First Drawing!
I encouraged him to draw a person and suggested he start with a circle for a head.  He then knew right where to put eyes, a nose, and a mouth.  Body parts….not so much!  He made me label them….including the pee-pee.  Such a boy! :)

He used several kinds of stickers this week, these ones are 7-Eleven labels (Daddy works for corporate 7-Eleven).  First he counted them and then asked me to write names on them and he stuck them in a coloring book.  This is the order he had me write them:  Adam, Abby, Mommy, Daddy, Nana, Papa, Grandma Great, Grandpa Great.  I guess that is is line-up of favorite people!

He had a lot of fun with our Garanimals memory game from Wal-mart. 

Playing Starfall.com and a matching game on my iPad.
He does either of these at least once a day.  It’s a good place to stick him when I’m trying to get Abby down for a nap!  I try to get him to have equal screen time between Angry Birds and educational games!

That was our week!  Busy, but good.