Our first "science experiment" was to test a theory of air pressure. First I showed Will that if I placed a piece of cardboard on top of a small, glass jar and flipped it over, the cardboard would fall off. And if I filled that glass jar with water and tipped it over, the water would pour out. But if I filled the glass to the brim with water, firmly placed the cardboard on top, flipped it over and let go of the cardboard, the air pressure basically suctions the cardboard to the glass and keeps it in place.
I'm sure he didn't really "get" it, but he still thought it was cool. Hey, I'm just putting the info out there - he'll grasp it better in the future.
This week, we focused on a lot of fine motor activities to strengthen the pincer grasp. When I think of pincer grasp, I think of 9-ish month olds learning to pick up cooked peas and Cheerios from their high chair tray. But a strong pincer grasp is necessary for a child to correctly hold a pencil when they learn to write. According to an article I read, many children enter kindergarten with an incorrect pencil grasp and it becomes very difficult to repair. Think: holding the pencil in a closed fist or in any form other than the "dynamic tripod grasp". Many of these activities are designed to develop pre-writing skills.This week, Will transferred pom poms between two bowls using tweezers.
And then used a strawberry huller to transfer smaller pom poms into an ice cube tray.
And then he and I took turns with each of those tools matching two of each color pom pom side by side in the tray.
The itty bitty pom poms are pretty difficult to pick up with either tool, so instead he just used his fingers to drop lots of tiny pom poms into an empty water bottle.
And then shake/dump them all back into the bowl.
On another evening, Will practiced using scissors by cutting on marked lines on colored straws. He's used scissors before but never with any suggested purpose. This was the first time he's ever tried to cut something in a specific way. I'd like to work more with scissors and specific cutting exercises soon. But I still don't know if I need special scissors for lefties. Anyone know?
He had his mouth open most of the time he was doing this.
Then he took a red pipe cleaner and threaded each piece of straw onto it while making an AB pattern. You can also see on the tray that we practiced snipping a strip of paper with marked lines on it too.
Another great pincer grasp activity is coloring with broken crayon pieces because it forces the child to hold them in a correct position instead of in the closed fist. He's still got his pointer finger wrapped around too much here, though. I didn't try to correct him or give any direction here. I just asked him to color and watched how he handled it.
This is much better.
Our next "science experiment" was called a "wave bottle". I squirted about 1/3 cup or so of baby oil (from a bottle I got when Will was born and pretty much never used) and the same amount of water into the bottle and then added a couple drops of blue food coloring. We shook up the bottle and watched the color blend and swirl while we made "waves".
Then we set the bottle down and watched as the water and oil separated and the blue color only stuck to the water. It doesn't bind to the oil so there were two layers inside the bottle: blue water on the bottom and clear oil on the top.
Pretty cool! Then we just shook it up again and made some more waves. 
I borrowed a couple books about volcanoes from the library this week. This one (pictured) and another called Why Do Volcanoes Erupt? Will and I just browsed the pictures and talked about some new vocabulary words like lava and erupt. We also watched a couple brief video clips on You Tube of volcanoes erupting.
Then we used these directions on Kaboose.com to make our own volcano. I used the reader tip about adding a couple drops of dish soap. I've also since found these directions and think they seem a little cooler.
Measuring baking soda and spooning it into the "volcano". He also had to level off the measuring spoon with his knife, as you can see. That required a little assistance.
Stirring together the water and baking soda.
Pouring in the vinegar, and....
...watching our lava flow. Probably would have been cooler with a little red food color.
While Will was "drawing a volcano" on a notebook, daddy came over with a surprise. He told Will to close his eyes and open his mouth. Craig gave him a grape and asked him to guess what it was. Thus, beginning several rounds of a taste-testing game. :)
They went through: grapes, strawberries, cheese, crackers, pickles, carrots and salami, I think. :)
Another book I checked out was by a super cool author name Tana Hoban called Cubes, Cones, Cylinders and Spheres. There are no words, just interesting pictures with various shapes. This helped reinforce our recent shapes lesson, but also added a new one: a cone. Aunt Casey recently lent us a container of wooden, geometric solids so I put those four specific shapes in a basket and Will decided and named which shape he saw on each page and then placed that wooden solid on top of the page. This author has lots of books that similarly teach interesting concepts. One we borrowed for next week is called More, Fewer, Less.
Our next "science experiment" game was called Sink or Float? I filled his Bilibo toy with water and gathered lots of random objects and we hypothesized whether they would sink or float before setting them in the water to find out. Our examples included: a marble, his Croc sandal, a plastic, linking letter, a foam car, a metal matchbox car, a fork, a toy boat, and a bowl.
He guessed correctly on all but one item, I think? And I thought the linking letter would sink, but I was wrong!
Finally, we placed the bowl in the water and then guessed how many marbles it would take to make the bowl sink. I don't remember Will's guess, but the correct answer is 47. :) 
And finally, daddy did a Tot School activity with Will outside while mommy was helping set up for the twins' birthday party this weekend. It was actually the task we drew from the Practicial Life jar last week and never got around to: transfering water with a sponge between two containers. We used the beach pails from Cora's birthday favors and Will soaked up water from one and squeezed it into the other.
So that was Will's week of learning fun. It's actually "To Be Continued..." because there were lots of things we didn't get to. Next week we're going to play with oobleck and talk about solids vs liquids. We're also going to do several different activities to classify and categorize different animals and things by certain criteria. For example, one thing Will learned this week that didn't earn any picture-taking was the word (and meaning of): nocturnal. We talked about animals that sleep during the day and are awake while Will is sleeping. He understands this and can say the word very well, but I'd like to incorporate a sorting game using pictures of various animals that we can sort as nocturnal and diurnal. We've also been talking about mammals and what classifies a mammal. And I've requested a book for us to read that helps explain the concept of living and non-living things. I'd like to do a sorting game with that topic too. What else? Oh, animal habitats: land, water and air. Plus various other odds 'n ends that have nothing to do with science.
See! There it is! :)
Replacing the lid, only to remove it one second later and retrieve the block. Oh, and we changed the cylinder to a sphere this time because she was having a hard time gripping the cylinder and pulling both her chubby little hand AND the block out at the same time. P.S. - that darn tooth just came through and her tongue has been out constantly just like the last time she was teething.
When she struggled to pull the block out vertically (her hand was a little too big for the mouth of the jar when holding the shape), I showed her how to tip it over and let the sphere roll out. She liked this and also liked putting it back in horizontally.
She finally let me pull her bangs back and also enjoyed the new twist of padding the bottom of the jar with large pom poms before dropping in the shape.
Checking out her family flashcards again.
A quick snap of the ever-growing curls that I love.
On another night, while Will was playing with play-doh, Sophie pushed the lids into the slot of an empty wipes container. She LOVED this game too. She'd play with it for a long time, then crawl away briefly, then come back to it again and again.
Another good exercise on precision and fine motor skills.
After she dropped them all in, I opened it for her and she liked seeing that they were all still in there.
And a "just because I love her" picture 'cause she looked so cute. She has been loving it when we walk around with her holding our hands. Mostly she walks holding just one of our hands. Pretty soon!...
I have to add, because I'm starting to feel guilty of borrowing others' ideas and not giving them credit, the majority of our Tot School games come from ideas I find on the other moms' blogs. I do come up with some of my own activities. But a large majority of the inspiration comes from moms who have much more time available at home (and experience because many of them are/were teachers) to do this stuff. Then I just tweak it as needed to fit our life and schedule. I know I have mentioned this before. Thus, I don't really feel like it's plagiarism (especially because it's all just having fun, and I don't stand to make anything off of this stuff), but I choose not to "link up" each time (like many other bloggers DO) because MY blog is still a mostly private, family blog. The Tot School blogs I read are mostly written strictly about Tot School work and very little family details. In fact, many of them don't even use their child's real name, but rather a code name to protect their privacy from their gazillions of followers. Anyone can view my blog if they know my address (I'm not searchable) or link me from somewhere, so I never comment on the blogs of Tot School moms I don't know and I don't link my blog to their's when I write these posts.
And then used a strawberry huller to transfer smaller pom poms into an ice cube tray.
And then he and I took turns with each of those tools matching two of each color pom pom side by side in the tray.
The itty bitty pom poms are pretty difficult to pick up with either tool, so instead he just used his fingers to drop lots of tiny pom poms into an empty water bottle.
And then shake/dump them all back into the bowl.
On another evening, Will practiced using scissors by cutting on marked lines on colored straws. He's used scissors before but never with any suggested purpose. This was the first time he's ever tried to cut something in a specific way. I'd like to work more with scissors and specific cutting exercises soon. But I still don't know if I need special scissors for lefties. Anyone know?
He had his mouth open most of the time he was doing this.
Then he took a red pipe cleaner and threaded each piece of straw onto it while making an AB pattern. You can also see on the tray that we practiced snipping a strip of paper with marked lines on it too.
Another great pincer grasp activity is coloring with broken crayon pieces because it forces the child to hold them in a correct position instead of in the closed fist. He's still got his pointer finger wrapped around too much here, though. I didn't try to correct him or give any direction here. I just asked him to color and watched how he handled it.
This is much better.
Our next "science experiment" was called a "wave bottle". I squirted about 1/3 cup or so of baby oil (from a bottle I got when Will was born and pretty much never used) and the same amount of water into the bottle and then added a couple drops of blue food coloring. We shook up the bottle and watched the color blend and swirl while we made "waves".
Then we set the bottle down and watched as the water and oil separated and the blue color only stuck to the water. It doesn't bind to the oil so there were two layers inside the bottle: blue water on the bottom and clear oil on the top.
Pretty cool! Then we just shook it up again and made some more waves. 
I borrowed a couple books about volcanoes from the library this week. This one (pictured) and another called Why Do Volcanoes Erupt? Will and I just browsed the pictures and talked about some new vocabulary words like lava and erupt. We also watched a couple brief video clips on You Tube of volcanoes erupting.
Then we used these directions on Kaboose.com to make our own volcano. I used the reader tip about adding a couple drops of dish soap. I've also since found these directions and think they seem a little cooler.
Measuring baking soda and spooning it into the "volcano". He also had to level off the measuring spoon with his knife, as you can see. That required a little assistance.
Stirring together the water and baking soda.
Pouring in the vinegar, and....
...watching our lava flow. Probably would have been cooler with a little red food color.
While Will was "drawing a volcano" on a notebook, daddy came over with a surprise. He told Will to close his eyes and open his mouth. Craig gave him a grape and asked him to guess what it was. Thus, beginning several rounds of a taste-testing game. :)
They went through: grapes, strawberries, cheese, crackers, pickles, carrots and salami, I think. :)
Another book I checked out was by a super cool author name Tana Hoban called Cubes, Cones, Cylinders and Spheres. There are no words, just interesting pictures with various shapes. This helped reinforce our recent shapes lesson, but also added a new one: a cone. Aunt Casey recently lent us a container of wooden, geometric solids so I put those four specific shapes in a basket and Will decided and named which shape he saw on each page and then placed that wooden solid on top of the page. This author has lots of books that similarly teach interesting concepts. One we borrowed for next week is called More, Fewer, Less.
Our next "science experiment" game was called Sink or Float? I filled his Bilibo toy with water and gathered lots of random objects and we hypothesized whether they would sink or float before setting them in the water to find out. Our examples included: a marble, his Croc sandal, a plastic, linking letter, a foam car, a metal matchbox car, a fork, a toy boat, and a bowl.
He guessed correctly on all but one item, I think? And I thought the linking letter would sink, but I was wrong!
Finally, we placed the bowl in the water and then guessed how many marbles it would take to make the bowl sink. I don't remember Will's guess, but the correct answer is 47. :) 
And finally, daddy did a Tot School activity with Will outside while mommy was helping set up for the twins' birthday party this weekend. It was actually the task we drew from the Practicial Life jar last week and never got around to: transfering water with a sponge between two containers. We used the beach pails from Cora's birthday favors and Will soaked up water from one and squeezed it into the other.
So that was Will's week of learning fun. It's actually "To Be Continued..." because there were lots of things we didn't get to. Next week we're going to play with oobleck and talk about solids vs liquids. We're also going to do several different activities to classify and categorize different animals and things by certain criteria. For example, one thing Will learned this week that didn't earn any picture-taking was the word (and meaning of): nocturnal. We talked about animals that sleep during the day and are awake while Will is sleeping. He understands this and can say the word very well, but I'd like to incorporate a sorting game using pictures of various animals that we can sort as nocturnal and diurnal. We've also been talking about mammals and what classifies a mammal. And I've requested a book for us to read that helps explain the concept of living and non-living things. I'd like to do a sorting game with that topic too. What else? Oh, animal habitats: land, water and air. Plus various other odds 'n ends that have nothing to do with science.Moving on to Sophie! Pretty soon, she's going to be the "tot" in our Tot School and Will's going to need a new category: Pre-school learning! I'll still continue to work with him after he starts school, but he's not really a "tot" anymore. (Tear.)
Sophie's main points of learning right now (besides developing large motor skills) are: In & Out and Open & Close games. So much entertainment and fine motor focus goes into this work and she just loves it. So I just keep trying to provide lots of variations of the same type of game. Here, I'd given her a mason jar and a wooden cylinder. I set the cylinder beside the jar and the lid on top (unscrewed). Then I showed her how to remove the lid, drop in the block and replace the lid. So ridiculously simple, I know, but she LOVED it! She did it over and over. 
This game teaches her:
This game teaches her: 1) that object A fits inside object B
2) cause and effect: if she lets go of the block, it falls down (gravity) into the jar...
3) ...and makes a cool sound
4) that the block still exists when it's not in her hand and she can easily reach inside and repeat the fun!
See! There it is! :)
Replacing the lid, only to remove it one second later and retrieve the block. Oh, and we changed the cylinder to a sphere this time because she was having a hard time gripping the cylinder and pulling both her chubby little hand AND the block out at the same time. P.S. - that darn tooth just came through and her tongue has been out constantly just like the last time she was teething.
When she struggled to pull the block out vertically (her hand was a little too big for the mouth of the jar when holding the shape), I showed her how to tip it over and let the sphere roll out. She liked this and also liked putting it back in horizontally.
She finally let me pull her bangs back and also enjoyed the new twist of padding the bottom of the jar with large pom poms before dropping in the shape.
Checking out her family flashcards again.
A quick snap of the ever-growing curls that I love.
On another night, while Will was playing with play-doh, Sophie pushed the lids into the slot of an empty wipes container. She LOVED this game too. She'd play with it for a long time, then crawl away briefly, then come back to it again and again.
Another good exercise on precision and fine motor skills.
After she dropped them all in, I opened it for her and she liked seeing that they were all still in there.
And a "just because I love her" picture 'cause she looked so cute. She has been loving it when we walk around with her holding our hands. Mostly she walks holding just one of our hands. Pretty soon!...
I have to add, because I'm starting to feel guilty of borrowing others' ideas and not giving them credit, the majority of our Tot School games come from ideas I find on the other moms' blogs. I do come up with some of my own activities. But a large majority of the inspiration comes from moms who have much more time available at home (and experience because many of them are/were teachers) to do this stuff. Then I just tweak it as needed to fit our life and schedule. I know I have mentioned this before. Thus, I don't really feel like it's plagiarism (especially because it's all just having fun, and I don't stand to make anything off of this stuff), but I choose not to "link up" each time (like many other bloggers DO) because MY blog is still a mostly private, family blog. The Tot School blogs I read are mostly written strictly about Tot School work and very little family details. In fact, many of them don't even use their child's real name, but rather a code name to protect their privacy from their gazillions of followers. Anyone can view my blog if they know my address (I'm not searchable) or link me from somewhere, so I never comment on the blogs of Tot School moms I don't know and I don't link my blog to their's when I write these posts. So, once again, you can find a plethora of ideas and other Tot Schooling blogs at: 1+1+1=1.
1 comment:
1. Love Sophie's black and white outfit, complete with matching clippie!
2. She has some adorable sitting positions also. :)
3. I feel the same way about the whole "linking up" stuff.
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