first ever tot school post.

i've been lurking on this blog carnival (is that what they're called? i'm so far behind on my internet lingo!) called tot school. it's mainly tons of really creative stay at home mamas who post what they're doing with their toddlers in their home.

i love it. i get tons of ideas for samil - and even for amely. and since one of my goals this year is to be more intentional with samil's (and amely's) education and stimulation (and to watch less tv) this tot school hits the spot.

and i've been wanting to post our activities for a while. like for the past two months since i found it and started stealing ideas :) but... the camera is broke. and the good part about tot school blogs are the PICTURES!

alas. this fancy new laptop of mine (hi dad! i love it!) has a webcam. and said webcam lets me take snapshots. horrible quality for printing, but will have to suffice until i get off my butt and take the camera to the shop.

we did a ton of things this week. we didn't really have a theme, but it is independence week here. in fact, today is independence day.

-- we dyed rice red and blue to make flags
-- painted a flag
-- read some spanish books about the padres de la patria
-- counted the banderas dominicanas (flags) in the
neighborhood

sara, our little neighbor, came down yesterday and we made bead necklaces. i thought that just taping the end of some string to make it hard would make it easier for samil to thread - but we've done no threading activities before and it was HARD for him. i'm going to buy some pipe cleaners and work on that. sara (who is 8 months older) LOVED IT and kept telling me her necklace was for her mommy because she's so amorosa y bonita (loving and pretty). in the end, though, she loved the necklace so much and decided to keep it for herself. HA! samil laced like 6 beads and lost interest.


i gave samil an eye dropper and some green water (green is his favorite color) and had him drop droplets on these tubtoys (you know, the things to stop slipping?) it took him awhile to figure it out, but he loved it! he played at it for like an hour!



i made this toy a few weeks ago. i just covered an old formula can with construction paper, and then put strips of different colors all around it. then i took seven clothespins (seven colors of paper!) and glued some construction paper strips to them. cut a hole in the lid the size of a clip and VOILA! color matching, small motor skill development, and FUN! i've taken it with us to the doctors and the supermarket and it keeps him pretty entertained.



we're working a lot on matching because mommy really wants to get into patterning soon (i love patterns, i'm a geek, i know!) my aunt (i think? maybe my mom) sent me these AWESOME handy manny flashcards a long time ago. they've got shapes and colors (and the colors are so cute, in the silhouette of the tools from the show!)he is getting way better at matching.

what a marathon post! next week will be shorter, i promise! click on carisa's blog to find out more and find blog's from other families in the tot school!