Totschool with Pixie this week

Posted on 26/04/2014 by Momma Jo

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~Pixie is 32 months old~

Pixie is LOVING Tot school. We worked on this week’s trays after her afternoon nap when she is refreshed and the big kids are all done with their lessons and are outside playing. Her favourite is the pompom, fine motor skill tray. She played with it numerous times this week and I’ll be keeping this activity on her shelf next week.

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Pixie is now building a 9 piece puzzle with very little assistance. The puzzle she has came with a full size poster that we currently use as a guide under the puzzle pieces. Once she has mastered building the puzzle without any assistance, I will take the poster away.

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She is definitely a little puzzle monster. These have been so much fun for her. She didn’t struggle matching the baby and parent animals at all!

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She loved the butterfly colour matching activity too. She did this activity over and over again 🙂

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A new activity I made this week, was the fine motor kebab stick. I made holes into a plastic bottle lid and showed her how to push the sticks through the hole. The sticks are a tight fit and she had to work to get them to go into the hole. She didn’t enjoy this activity very much and only did it once. I’ll put it away and include it again in a week or two.

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I just love watching her play with the dinosaur sensory box and her Animal Barn shape set. I love how she makes the animals kiss ♥

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Of course we couldn’t have the sensory box out without a little mess, LOL

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I let Pixie cook with me for the first time this week, she got to cut the mushrooms for our dinner. She loved it and cut quite a few. Just look at the concentration!

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Totschool: DIY Fine Motor Skills

Posted on 08/02/2013 by Momma Jo

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Pixie is 17.5 months old

Pixie is a very demanding toddler and I often find it difficult to get anything done. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only momma who sometimes struggles to keep a demanding toddler busy when you want to cook, clean or just drink a hot cup of coffee.

I came across THIS on Pinterest and thought I’d give it a bash and see if Pixie likes it.

What you need:
Small feta cheese container, cleaned and dried
Mini pompoms (I started off with 10 and now we have about 80 all together for this activity),
Scissors and patience.
Directions:
Cut a few holes into the lid of the feta container big enough to push the pompoms through.
Pop the lid back on and show said toddler how to push them through and viola!

Happy toddler content with keeping herself busy 🙂 Pixie has been at it for over an hour now 🙂 I just keep taking the pompoms out of the container for her. She is sitting on the floor next to me right now as content as can be 🙂

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See more Toddler resources HERE

Letter Pointer craft

Posted on 18/07/2012 by Momma Jo

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I saw these really cool letter pointers, by A Differentiated Kindergarten, on Pinterest a little while ago and decided to have Koko and Fifi decorate their own pointers for when we do letters every day.

I had bought 4 tubs of these letters a while ago, put them away and forgot about them.

While Noo was at his maths lessons with Bimpa (my father in law) and Koko had finished his lessons for the day, I inserted a bamboo skewer into each letter. I then gave the kidlets some glitter glue to wild with. They loved it.

Koko has blue and orange letters and Fifi has purple and green letters.

See more Grade 0/R/Kindergarten Resources HERE

I’ve linked up to

Tot School Planning

Posted on 22/11/2009 by Momma Jo

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Koko is 31 months old

Practica Activities: Age Range – 2 – 3 years

This week we will be doing the following (from the Practica Parent’s Manual)

1. Major Muscles and Co-ordination

Balance and Laterality (Chapter 7.1.6, 10 & 29)

2. Fine muscles and Art

Hand-eye coordination (drawing & threading)
Manual dexterity/Creativity (play-dough & sand play)

3. Visual Perception

Colour Consistancy/perception (Colour of the day)
Visual Closure (shapes)

4. Auditory Perception

Auditory discrimination/conceptualising/association (loud/soft, object sounds)

5. Mathematical

Counting to 10

6. Language and Thinking

Classification (Chapter 7.6.2)
Active Language Development (Chapter 7.6.6 & 24)

Practica

Posted on 22/11/2009 by Momma Jo

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WHAT IS PRACTICA?

Practica is a completely comprehensive programme, which offers parents more than 4000 age-appropriate games and activities to play with their child from birth to 7 years old. These games focus specifically on the balanced development of all 50 the skills needed for school readiness, while providing unlimited family fun times. The programme is available in English and Afrikaans.

I bought the Practica system when Noo was 3 years old and instantly fell in love with it and when I was pregnant with Koko I bought their Pre-Birth Programme and subsequently used it in my pregnancy with Fifi.

Practica can be used from pregnancy right up to 7 years old. The manual is the heart of the Practica programme and contains thousands of ready-to-play games. All you need do is page to the age of your child and start playing! Games are described practically and easily, informing parents which skill is being developed or practiced in each game.

The whole programme is packed in an attractive, durable wooden toy box (Approx 81x32x44cm – size of old army trunks). Apparatus are of a high quality and most are packed in durable wooden boxes with sliding lids and plastic bottles. Many of the items and all of the cards are unique to Practica and not available elsewhere. Cards are all laminated and will not tear or become dirty. The activities in the Parents’ Manual make use of all the apparatus over the whole 7-year period that Practica is used, ensuring maximum value for money and overall balance in development which is not achieved by buying ‘loose’ toys.

Colour Recognition and Fine Motor Skills

Posted on 22/09/2009 by Momma Jo

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~Koko is 29 months old~

Today we worked on his colour recognition and fine motor skills. He loves this activity.

First off I start by showing him how the activity works and then he completes the tray a few times.

After all the working, he is allowed to play around and discover other activities that can be done with his craft blocks and sticks. He spent the better part of 2 hours on this today.