Spinner's End Primary (at The Linton Academy): 28 Months

Open-Ended Art: Pumpkins (a little less late)

I drew and cut out shapes to make a jack-o-lantern:

RockerTot then glued and placed the pieces where he wanted them:

Here he is... proud of his finished project:

Check out what others are doing in their Open-Ended Art projects at Mommies Wise Little Bookworms.

1 thoughts

Open-Ended Art: Black & White (a little late)

This was supposed to be our first Open-Ended Art post a few weeks ago, but RockerTot got sick and I'm just now finding the time to post again.

RockerTot cut chunks and strips of white card stock. He then punched holes in some more chunks of the same card stock with a single hole punch. The hole punch was new and proved difficult for his little hands. I had to punch many of the holes for him.

He then glued and placed... glued and placed... glued and placed to his heart's content.

Here is his finished piece (very open-ended and VERY abstract):

Check out what others are doing in their Open-Ended Art projects at Mommies Wise Little Bookworms.

0 thoughts

Pre-Writing Cards

**I do NOT recommend allowing your tot to use any of these items unsupervised.**

I was inspired to make these cards by RockerTot's Kumon My First Book of Tracing. He loves this book and asks for it almost daily... sometimes several times per day.

I wanted him to be able to stay with the simpler exercises at the beginning of the book (which he's finished) for a bit longer before moving on. I decided to make some cards that he could use over and over again. (Since he is a lefty, I plan to let him use wipe-off crayons instead of easy-smearing markers. Edited to add: I've found that the really cheap, off-brand crayons wipe off easily from whiteboards, lamination and such. Washable crayons work well, too.) I made these with card stock, sticker dots, a black marker and a few crayons. The card stock was cut into fourths.

We plan to begin his handwriting with cursive instead of manuscript when the time comes. The basic cursive strokes inspired these. His instructions are to always start at the green dot and end at the red dot. He must touch any yellow dot in between. He must not touch the purple/pink/blue/grey/etc that surrounds the black outline. That seems to keep him between the lines.

He is only tracing these with his fingers for the moment. I'll allow him to try with a crayon if he wishes when I get a new roll of clear contact paper to laminate them.

4 thoughts

Hanging at the Pumpkin Farm...

2 thoughts

Roll the Dice Sticker Game

**I do NOT recommend allowing your tot to use any of these items unsupervised.**

I made this game for RockerTot. I used a sheet of card stock (any paper will do, I only had card stock on hand), fuzzy dice (with the connecting string removed) and some stickers. Any types of counters and regular dice could work, though. We bought the fuzzy dice (for automobile rearview mirrors) so that RockerTot could have fun with some safe dice.

6 thoughts

Tot-School

RockerTot is currently 28 months old.

aka ScholarTot

RockerTot placed masking tape on his card stock "canvas" before sponge painting. He loved playing with the sponges.

He was having so much fun, that I gave him another sheet so that he could just finger paint.

Here are his finished masterpieces...

This was a tray that RockerTot loved. It combined many things: fine motor skills (using the bamboo tongs); counting and sorting (I didn't care which erasers were used, but he had to group them). You can download his counting sheet here. The erasers came from the Dollar Tree. I got the bamboo tongs for $1.00 at a flea market. You can read about how the tongs were customized for his grip here.

RockerTot has been asking to play Boggle, Jr several times each day lately.

He enjoyed playing with his Number Puzzles. Our tray was set up with the numbers in one side and the counting squares in another. He would choose one from the counting square side and then count the squares. He then had to find the corresponding numeral.

RockerTot asked to help make cinnamon pancakes. They were yummy!

He also did some make-believe real-life activities...

.... hammering a nail...

... mowing the lawn ...

Mamoo (my mother) took RockerTot to her friend's house to see some animals. He loved petting their three goats. They were very friendly.

He liked watching the goats eat.... but...

... he was most excited to chase the chickens around the yard.

He had a blast on the playground at his cousin, Mal's 4th birthday party:

... sliding ...

... climbing ...

... balancing ...

... pointing (with his mouth full) ...

While working his dress-up bear puzzle, RockerDad snapped this photo. I didn't even notice he was doing this (notice the bear's outfit on his tummy and the shoes between his toes).