Tot School- The Beginning

I promise my child has not disappeared.

I am not ignoring her.
We are having fun crafting and learning together.

I just may have sort of not blogged about it.

My bad.

Now that we are sort of kind of settled and back into our regular routine Maddie and I have officially started Tot School. In the past we have done Tot School-ish activities but never officially stated we were doing it or linked to 1+1+1=1 but we are now. I am setting myself some lofty goals of getting a post up once a week about our weekly school activities and hopefully I can stick to it!

We started this week off with some great activities planned and even had everything revolving around a beach/water theme. Maddie was THRILLED to be having school at home and was eager to learn and work.

Our week began with a giant jar of shells {$1 at the Christmas Tree Shoppe}. We sorted, we organized, we made patterns. I was surprise how engaged Maddie was with the shells! By the end she was making some of her own patterns that impressed me. ABBCABBC anyone?

Of course after spending a morning playing with shells she needed to draw some of her own too.

I had been holding on to this little box and bag of shells for a few months now and I thought it would be a perfect little project for Mad. She meticulously placed each shell in its perfect place- her words not mine. The plan was to use the box later to hold some special shells we collected on a trip to the beach.... yeah we still haven't made it to the beach yet. Oops.

I had a box of mermaid Shrinky Dinks hanging around the house since last Christmas and figured this would be the perfect time to break them out. While Maddie decorated and colored I whipped up a cute little ocean play mat for the finished product. Too cute!

We used our Ocean Math Mat, big dice and clear stones to play a little number matching game.

Midway through the week I recycled our winter sensory bin rice and beans and tossed in some shells, rocks and plastic sea creatures. Maddie spent hours at the bin this week! She loved making designs with the shells and making castles.

Our coffee filter fish was a big hit. Washable markers, a spray bottle and coffee filters are always a win!

We used the Fish Color Word Matching File Folder set a few times. I encouraged Maddie to match letters and sounds but she was more into matching the fish shapes and THEN looking at the words and letters.

I made our own math mat this week with numbers 1 through 9 and Maddie practiced counting out the correct number of stones for each box.

Maddie also enjoyed gluing sandpaper shapes together to make a sandcastle. Thanks Christy for the idea!


Printables from this week:
Mermaid template {TheBestKidsBookSite.com}
Number 10 Printing Practice Page {Making Learning Fun}
O is for Octopus Printing Practice Page {Making Learning Fun}
Fish Color Word Matching File Folder Game {Making Learning Fun}
Ocean Math Mat {Making Learning Fun}

Books we read this week:
The Boy Who Wouldn't Swim {Deb Lucke}
I Love My Pirate Papa {Laura Leuck}
Sophie's Castle {Heather F Levine}
Toy Boat {Randall de Seve}

Looking for some other ocean themed activities?
Salty Starfish
Tissue Paper Collage Mermaid