Back to School

Samuel is 24.5 mths

It has been a looong 4 months, with me being bedridden and in hospital for the first 2 months and not feeling so great for the last two. Needless to say, there has not been much happening in the way of Totschool (or any school for that matter!)

I am now 24 weeks and feeling almost human again so we are getting back into the swing of things as the new school year starts.

Our theme for February for the big kids is the Ocean, so I made Samuel's sensory box to match.

There was lots of feeding of sea creatures happening this week, complete with sounds effects!

We tried to do some mathcing of glass seashells, but Samuel ha no idea and was more interested in trying to put them between his toes! He did however enjoy pushing them around in his dump truck for the rest of the week. We might try again next week.

The big kids were making sea urchins out of playdough and toothpicks and Samuel wanted to join in. He spent ages carefully poking toothpicks in and was so proud when he finished. He carried around for the next 30 mins or so. We needed to go to the shops and he insisited on bringing it, so held on to it for the car ride and the entire time we were shopping. Not so sure it is the safest toy for a 2 year old but he loves it and has played with it multiple times this week.

A week of ocean study wouldn't be complete without a trip to the beach. The weather has been sooooo hot this week but we found a nice mild day and took Nanna and Grandad to the beach for the morning.

We also made the most of a few cooler days and spent heaps of time outside playing with all the bubble supplies left over from Samuels' Birhtday Party the other week. All three kids had a blast and spent a good hour outside playing with the bubbles.

So nothing too structured this week. We are getting back into things slowly and will add a bit more structure next week.

To see what others are doing for Tot School this week head on over to 1+1+1=1.

Circus Fun

Last week we headed down to Dwellingup for a little break and to help out with a group of Sudanese refugees on a special camp. Their theme for the children's group was the circus so Paul went to help out with some circus skills and I chased Samuel around!!

The kids had a great time camping (pretend camping in a chalet) and joining in the fun activities. They even got to perform in the concert. Liam was a little(ok a lot) stage shy but he eventually got up and did some tricks with his Dad which is huge for him.

Liana as usual had no problem getting up and performing. Plus she got to get her face painted by the awesome Morris Jacobs!

The highlight of our holiday for Liam had to be the train. We were staying right near the Hotham Valley Steam Trains. We got there just after the train finished for the day, but we got to check out the train and have a play with the points and other technical thingies that I have no idea about. Good thing Paul knows what he is talking aboout!

Tot School - Red

Samuel is 20.5 months

After a looong break from totschool we are back! For the next few weeks we are learning about colours. Last week we did red. Here are some of the things Samuel did.

We went on a red treasure hunt and collected as many red things as we could find in the toy room.

We threaded red pasta onto red pipecleaners.

We used our dot markers to paint a page of red things,

and we painted our RED page.

We did a contact paper collage of red materials.

Samuel coloured in his red minit. book.

And we used our red pom pom magnets to play with the do a dot page.

The older two are learning about the rainforest so Samuel decided to join in and help paint a box for their rainforest model. Not red, but good fun anyway!!

Nothing like sitting in the weeds ahh, flowers for some morning tea.

And my favourite photo of the week, My two little cheeky boys!

To see what others are up to this week head over to 1+1+1=1

Tot School

Samuel is 16.5 months

We continued with our farm theme again. I am planning on doing a different theme each month simply because I just don't have the time to change Samuel's activities each week and organise the big kids. Samuel doesn't mind so we are all happy!! That being said, I don't have many photos to share as Samuel has been sick all week and mighty grumpy so there was not much Totschooling happening this week.

We played with our Old McDonalds Farm set made from egg cartons and toilet rolls. We put the toilet rolls on and off the middles of the egg carton and sang old McDonald a hundred times!! We also used them to identify the different farm animals.

We spent a lot of time playing with the musical instruments. He loves music, especially when we get the instruments out.

He loved playing the boat that Liam and Liana made for him and wouldn't get out even after they tired of pushing him around the house!

We did do a few other things like lots of reading and a few jigsaw puzzles but I don't have any other photos unfortunately. However, my favourite of the week was his first taste of a jam donut - yum!!

To see what others have done this week head over to 1+1+1=1