Tot School: The Five Senses

We had a fun week of tot school this week. My camera battery was charged and I took lots of pictures of the boys. On Monday we did this activity. Sawyer did a pretty good job of telling me what he saw. I was also surprised at how well Jax did. I thought he would just say whatever Sawyer said, but he was able to name some things on his own. They both liked the googly eyes.

On Tuesday the boys followed me out to the garage while I took out the trash. It was thundering and raining, so I let them sit and watch the rain for a minute. Then I thought that it made a good five senses lesson. We talked about what it sounded like, looked like, smelled like, felt like, and even tasted like. They loved it!
We also did different taste, smell, touch, and sound activities this week.


They both liked exploring with this touch bucket

and Jax liked reading and touching this "Who do you love book?" This has always been one of our favorites.

I printed off a few match boards this week. This one has pictures of the boys on our water slide. They both liked playing with this.

One of Sawyer's favorite activities this week was hammering his number puzzle. He chose it almost every day.

I made these homemade nesting bags. I just put different size make-bags together so that the boys could practice zipping and unzipping. Sawyer did well with this, but was disappointed that their wasn't anything in the last bag. Jax did this with help from me.

We went to the zoo one day this week. Jax is such an animal lover. He points to all the animals and tells me it's name and the sound it makes. Sawyer just likes to run around and climb on everything.


I planned a few sensory activities for the boys to do outside. We made goop one day using equal parts corn starch and water. At first they didn't want to touch it, but once they did they were hooked. They made a huge mess on the porch, but enjoyed every minute of it. They also played with shaving cream.

Jax really liked scooping and pouring rice this week.

I have tried having them arrange flowers several times and they have never been very interested. Sawyer got into it this time though. I combined it with pouring rice and he liked that.

These are some of my favorite pictures from the week.

My sweet baby boy!

Sawyer has been working on getting himself dressed this week. He is doing a great job, even though he puts his clothes on backwards about half the time.
You can go here to find out what other parents did in tot school this week.

Sound Safari

Today we talked about the sense of hearing. First, I read the boys a book and then we went on a sound safari. I drew pictures of things we may hear around our neighborhood. Sawyer helped me think of a few things. I made a list for each boy.

I told them to put a sticker by each thing they heard. Sawyer helped Jax with this. We heard several things before we even left our front yard. They had a good time and did really well listening for all the sounds.

Here are their finished lists. They each heard every sound, but one. We will have to do this again sometime.

Taste Testing and Smelly Flowers

Today we learned about taste and smell. I had planned to talk about smell yesterday, but we went to the zoo instead. I started this morning during breakfast by having the boys taste test 4 different flavors of yogurt. I put them in cups and had them smell and make predictions about what flavor it would be. They both smelled, but I let Sawyer make the predictions. Then I had them taste and make another prediction. Then I told him what flavor it was. He did pretty good, but he got raspberry and blackberry mixed up. They enjoyed eating the leftover yogurt.

Next, I read them a book about taste and we talked about our taste buds. I put sour lemons, bitter cocoa, salty crackers, and sweet jelly beans on a plate. I asked Sawyer how each would taste and then let him try it. Then we looked at our taste buds in a mirror.

For smell we made these easy flowers. I had them glue a muffin cup on top of a cut out stem and leaves. Then they colored the flowers with markers. I sprayed the muffin cups with perfume and had the boys smell their flowers.

The sense of touch

This week we are learning about the 5 senses. Yesterday, we talked about the sense of sight. Those pics are still on the camera, so I will post on that later. Today I read the book about the sense of touch. We talked about our skin and how it covers our whole body.
The boys made a texture collage today. First, I traced their hands on paper and cut them out. I supplied all types of objects like feathers, pom pom balls, craft sticks, gel stickers, sandpaper, and more and had them glue them to the paper. They also glued on their paper hand. Jax is in the high chair, because he was not cooperating at the small table.

Sawyer did really with this. He started and then got distracted, but he eventually came back and finished it. He asked for his Thomas stickers and added a few of those. Then I gave him another piece of paper and he put stickers on it for about 20 minutes.


I also put lots of object with different textures in this bucket and had the boys explore them. I tried to get Sawyer to use his describing words, but he wasn't interested. They had fun trying to stick things to the sticky tape.

Last Week

Last week was a busy week, so we didn't do many planned activities. I ran a lot of errands with the boys and just tried to play and have fun with them when I had free time. I also couldn't find my camera battery, so I don't have a single picture from last week. I decided that Sawyer needs to learn to do more things by himself like dress himself, take care of his potty needs, etc. I know he could do these things, but he would rather me do them for him. At first he was not happy when I told him he had to dress himself. All last week I just laid his clothes out for him. I gave him lots of encouragement even when everything was on backwards and by the end of the week he was doing it all by himself. Now he won't let me help him if I try. He is so proud of himself.
He is also getting better about bringing all of his dishes to the sink after a meal and cleaning up his messes on his own. He is becoming such a big boy.
Jax used the potty for the first time last weekend. He was so proud of himself! He wants to do everything big brother does including wearing the same clothes. It is so cute. I don't want him to grow up too fast, though.
This week we are talking about the five senses and I have lots of stuff planned. I also found my camera battery, so I should do much better this week with posting.

Tot School: Week of May 18-24

Sawyer is currently 38 months
Jax is currently 20 months
We were a little off with our tot school this week. I kept my friend's kids every morning last week, so we didn't do all of the activities I had planned. We did however spend lots of time in her great back yard.
They had fun playing in the sand,

jumping on the trampoline,

picking peaches,

and watching roly polys.

We continued to learn about community helpers. One of the helpers we talked about was postal workers. I made mail bags for the boys. We also talked about how to address an envelope. Jax had fun coloring the envelopes.

We also talked about firemen. I knew this would be the most exciting for the boys. They love fire trucks! I had planned to take them to the fire station for a tour, but we didn't have a chance to last week.

I let them paint with red, yellow, and orange paint. I just put streaks of each color of a pice of paper.

Then I covered it with saran wrap and let them squish it around. This was their favorite part.

Then I quickly pulled the saran wrap from the paint. It was supposed to look like fire. I guess it did in a way. I probably didn't do the activity quite right. Oh well, they loved it anyway.

I also made this fire truck out of a diaper box one evening. It was not as cute as this one. I am not very crafty, but thankfully my kids don't mind. They had fun pushing it around, riding (sitting) in it, and putting their toys in it. They have been very busy putting out pretend fires this week.

When we were home they chose to do these activities: putting craft sticks in a water bottle,

building towers out of blocks,

playing with trucks and play-doh,


and playing with alphabet magnets.

These are my favorite pics of the week.

Sawyer catching some air on the water slide.

Jax loved hanging out at the bottom of the slide.
You can visit this site to see what other moms did in tot school this week.

Gone Postal

We are continuing to learn about community helpers this week. Today we talked about postal workers. When I asked Sawyer who brings us the mail he exclaimed, "God!" Usually that's a great answer, but it's not exactly what I was looking for.

I helped the boys make mail bags today. I just stapled construction paper together. Then I stapled on a piece of yarn for the strap. Sawyer wasn't interested in coloring on the bag, so I let him use stamps. Jax was happy to decorate using markers. He colored both sides.

Then I gave them some envelopes to decorate. I asked Sawyer who he wanted to send mail to and then I wrote on the envelopes for him.

They filled their mail bags with post cards, envelopes, and old junk mail. Then they delivered it to people's houses ( well, they really just left it all over the house for me to pick up later).

I think these are the cutest little mailmen I have ever seen.