Tot School Weekend Play

We've had several super-relaxing, no-plans weekends lately.  And we LOVE it!  Both kids battling some school-exposed germs, tired from the over-stimulation of the school week and craving some time at HOME without scheduled commitments, has lead us to keep our calendar pretty much wide open.  Our time at home has been mostly unstructured - free play without television, except for the occasional library movie - and they've even gotten into helping me more with a little cleaning if kept in brief periods.  I'll take it!  On this particular weekend, however, we broke out some new and old Tot School materials in the morning and dug in. 

A butterfly matching file folder game:  one half of each butterfly is taped down to the inside of the folder and Sophie had to match the laminated other half to it's appropriate spot.

Will worked with math flash cards and Unifix cubes.

Sophie threaded pony beads onto different colored chenille stems poked into a styrofoam disc.

Beginning letter sounds: letter magnets placed on different images on top of a cookie sheet.

A "Hot or Cold" file folder sort.  She did awesome with this.

A digraph sort for Will.  "Ch", "Sh" and "Th" bags to sort various images that begin with those digraphs.

"Building" shapes using labeled popsicle sticks and templates drawn onto card stock.

Diamond and square: 

Pentagon:

Rectangle:

Parallelogram:

Matching fruit - half to whole - file folder game.

Leaf matching game:

This was originally Sophie's, but Will took over and "guided" her through it.  ;-)  Upper and lower case letter match.

We didn't get outside this morning but a little physical play to get their bodies moving is so helpful in making nap time easier.  So I remembered some silly stickers that came with our last helium tank for birthday party balloons.  I blew up two balloons and let the kids pick some silly facial feature stickers to decorate them with.  Then they got really into a stimulating game of don't-let-the-balloons-touch-the-ground.  :)

And yes, it worked.  They both conked out for naps.

 

On Sunday, the kids made birthday cards for Craig while he was outside working.  Will's cracked me up with all the goofy wording he chose for his card.  What a nut.

Making homemade (felt) pizzas before bath time this evening.

I've been meaning to break out the puzzles again soon.  I miss doing those!