Tot School-Morning #1!

Hey out there! I know, it's been a while! I have no excuses, except I didn't feel I had much to blog about. I'm sure I did, or could have, but oh well...moving on!

So recently I discovered Tot School! Look it up! It's all over the internet and it's awesome! It was invented by a mother (her child actually named it...haha) but it was invented over at 1+1+1=1! Go check it out! Basically Tot School is teaching young toddlers using play. That's it. It's watching them play and teaching them along the way. That's my take away anyway! Anyway, today was my first morning working on it with D! He isn't quite 15 months yet, so I was slightly afraid he wouldn't be interested. I was afraid for no reason! D LOVED it. I followed his lead. I had been planning this for at least the past week (for this entire week, not just today! haha)

The color of the week is red. That's the center of our entire week. I'm going to introduce the letter "A" as well. I am not expecting D to retain or master these colors, letters, etc. It more or less makes me feel fulfilled as a Mommy and makes the day go by faster! The morning flew by! I intend to start everything morning at 8AM with him.

Our first activity was simple. Cut up red construction paper and scrapbook paper in a bin. I thought it was going to be too boring for him but I was so wrong! This kept him occupied for over 20 minutes! I was only expecting MAYBE 5 minutes!

D was just checking it out. I picked up a handful of paper and let it fall back into the bin.

Then he tried to do it too! 

I gave him a red measuring cup (afterall, the color of the week is red!) and told him to scoop up the paper. 

Aaaaaaand, he loved it! Obviously he got paper everywhere, but I just picked it up and put it back in the bin and he never even knew the difference, haha :) 

So this is definitely a must do activity every week! :) Big hit! 

I let D run around for about 10 minutes before he was curiously looking for the next thing Mommy was going to bring out. Rice and foam letters and shapes from his bath toys! You can color the rice red if you'd like, but I just used it straight from the bag. 

Yes, I was fully aware that doing this in a carpeted room on a table might have been very dangerous! :)

But I did it anyway! Afterall, what's a little mess?! 

I would cover up the numbers, letters, or fish and then ask D "Where did the _____ go? Can you find it?" and wait for him to unbury it! 

This is what he did when he found them, lol! He would put them up to his face and I would say "you found the ______! Great job!" He would do his famous cheese face and go back to "digging." 

This activity also lasted over 20 minutes! I was super impressed with his attention to these activities this morning! I did have to take a few minutes to vacuum the rice that he flung everywhere (he thought it was funny) but clean up really wasn't a big deal at all!

The best part is that these things are VERY cheap to do, even if you don't have any of the items! I bought the bin (I used the same one for both activities) at the Dollar Tree! The construction paper can also come from the Dollar Tree, but I bought a bigger package at Wal-Mart. The letters I had from one of D's birthday presents but you could make your own, or use something else! The red measuring cup came in a set I got from Wal-Mart for just over $1! If you know you're going to do any of these activities my advice is to buy a little at a time so the cost doesn't get overwhelming! :)


Last week we bought a whiteboard so I could use it for Tot School (Mostly because I've always been obsessed with whiteboards....true story, ask anyone) :) And D LOVES it! He's always trying to draw and write on it. He only uses it when I am in the room with him, I would hate to see what the white walls would look like if I even left him for a minute!

I would LOVE to tell you that the red lines were from him under the board, but they are not. Those were all me, I took the marker away from him, cap off, forgot all about it anddddd....yeah, wrote on the walls. Haha, oops! 

Yes, he is hugging his puppy. He then proceeded to pretend to snore and be asleep on the puppy! :)

D wanted to play with his dance and learn puppy, so I let him! We danced, and sang and clapped! He recently discovered this toys full potential and has fallen in love with it!

This totally looks like a selfie......it is not, haha. I took this while we were playing! 

We finished up our morning with a baby preschool DVD we got from our local library. He was totally into it! I don't have an issue with him watching more than his allotted 1 hour of tv time if it's educational. This was a DVD on colors and shapes! 

So, to sum it up, my morning flew by and my house did not look like it was hit by a tornado! Score! And "Tot School" is all about having fun and playing but learning at the same time! Enjoy!