Mommy & Me ABC Breakdown

We have been using the Mommy & Me ABC printables during Tot School for a while now.  However, I realized recently that because we divide them in to two weeks, and we almost never use all of the printables during a given letter, I have never shown ALL of the printables for a letter in a single place.  To make it easier for you to plan your alphabet units, I decided to make a breakdown of all of the printables.  If you have any suggestions for new ways to use any of these, or other printables you would like to see, please shoot me a message!

Baby and Mommy Cutouts

This page just has a picture of the baby and the mommy of each animal.  I print them, laminate them, and add a magnet for the bulletin board.  I plan to play sorting and matching games when them once I have them all made.  I am thinking games like matching the baby to the mother, writing the names of the animals on the board for him to match the pictures with, and eventually making categories like "mammal" or "lives on land."

Baby to Mommy Tracing

Pretty self explanatory.  The idea is the kids practice tracing to get the baby to its mother.  I put mine in our dry erase center with either washable dry erase markers or crayons.  You could also just print it and have your kids trace directly on it.

Play Dough Stamping

These dough pages have pictures of things that start with the given letter.  The idea is to put a blob of play dough on the beginning letter and then stamp the letter.  We personally have the lowercase stampers from Lakeshore Learning.  You could also use alphabet cookie cutters or little stampers like these.

Letter Clipping

These cards have a capital or lowercase letter at the left and the child needs to find the corresponding letter.  I print this on card stock and laminate them to use with clothespins, but you could also just have your child circle the correct letter (maybe with a dry erase marker?).

Color and Shape Habitat Word Match

There are two "habitat" pages for each animal.  One has shapes and one has colors.  There are little animals that each have a colored shape on them.  The child then matches the animal to the habitat that says that shape or color.  Xander liked this activity at first, but has now outgrown it, so we do not really use it that often anymore.  For a non reader, I have seen a clever mom just add a shape or color dot next to the corresponding word on these pages before giving it to her child.  I have also added these pages in Spanish!

Cutting Strips

These are just strips of paper with pictures of the animal on it.  I bought some training scissors for Xander to practice cutting the animals apart.

Lacing Cards

The printables include a sheet that has a large mother and baby of the animal, as well as an upper and lowercase letter.  After I had created all the printables, I stumbled across some bulletin board letters, which I ended up using for the lacing instead.  I print the animals on card stock, laminate them, and use a hole punch to create the cards.  I found these great laces from Oriental Trading Company.

Bottle Cap Matching

Each letter haw two bottle cap matching pages, one for upper case and the mommy animal, and one for lowercase and the baby animal.  I print them on card stock and put them in a page protector with some bottle cap letters I made (with these bottle caps).  I usually only give him uppercase or lowercase letters at a time, but you could mix them for a bigger challenge.

Size Sorting

The size sorting activity just has multiple pictures of the animal in different sizes.  Kids can practice arranging them biggest to smallest or the other way around.

Case Matching

The case matching activity comes involves sorting a bunch of letters into "mommy letters" and "baby letters."  It includes a page of letters to print out, but you could also use magnets, lacing beads, letter tiles, foam letters, or whatever else you have around.

Puzzles (Two and Three Part)

Each letter of the alphabet has two and three part puzzles.  I print them on card stock and laminate them.

Magnet Page

There are two magnet pages in the printables, one for uppercase and one for lowercase.  I use them with pom pom magnets, round magnets, or magnets I made with gems.  (I made them by hot gluing crafting gems to circular magnets).  I try to include at least two colors so that he can put one on the uppercase letters and one on the lowercase letters.  You could also use these pages with Do-A-Dot Markers.  Xander's favorit is to use magnetic bingo chips and a wand to pick them up after.

Number Cards

There are number cards for 0-10 in each of the printable sets.  You could print some paper numbers to go with, or we use plastic number tiles.  I usually give him half at a time.  Lately I have been using an overhead marker to write the number on the back of each card so that we can also go through them like flashcards (which he actually likes better).

Other Activities

Sensory Bin
Xander LOVES his alphabet sensory bin.  I colored some alphabet noodles and added a bunch of spoons and pourers.  Each week I add a bunch of the puzzle pieces, magnets, and other examples of the letter on which we're working.  I also usually grad the animals from his toobs off the shelves.  It makes for great practice pouring, spooning, etc.  He also enjoys hiding the animals under the noodles to play hide and seek.

Stamping
To go along with our alphabet themes, I got some great see though uppercase and lowercase stamps and washable stamp pads.  Sometimes we add foam alphabet stickers to his creations.

Alphabet Pegboards
Before starting our alphabet themes, I ordered Xander some alphabet pegboards.  I choose lowercase since those are more prevalent.

Alphabet and Animal Toys
Here are just a few of the other alphabet or animal toys we have and like.

How I Taught My Baby To Read

I FINALLY caught Xander reading on camera!  I have been wanting to for a while, but he isn't always cooperative when a camera is out.  I was thrilled to get him in the right mood!  I am so proud of my little guy and how well he is doing!  Anyway, I recently posted it to my personal Facebook account and had some inquiries as to how we did it, so I thought I would share.

Xander is 26 months in the video

Let me preface this by saying that I understand that there are plenty of people out there that will criticize me for teaching my baby to read.  I've heard a variety of arguments from "let them be babies while they can" and "he will be bored in school."  I have my list of counter arguments, including that my son will not be one of the 40% of kids who struggle to learn to read in school, but ultimately, its a personal choice, just like choosing cloth or disposable diapers is a choice.  I am not saying this is what all parents should do, just what we did.

How We Did It

Really, I did a variety of things with him and I think it is likely all contributed to him being able to read so well for his age.  There was no drilling or testing.  The whole process was easy and fun for both of us.

Immersion:

I knew I wanted Xander to love books, so I made an effort to make books and words a part of life from the time he was very young.  As soon as he was mobile, I made sure he always had access to books by setting out board books on a low shelf.  Now that he is older, he has a shelf of books on every level of the house, which I can rotate as needed.  I read to him frequently.  If the font on the page is big enough for him to see, I run my finger under the words as I read them.  We make frequent trips to the library and completed a 1500 Book Challenge just last month.

On top of reading a ton of books, I have also made sure he is always exposed to words.  As a baby he watched Your Baby Can Read movies and I did some high speed flashcards with him.  He also watched Your Baby Can Discover.  Now that he is a little older, he has moved on to the Your Child Can Read movies.  I don't think any of these movies could have taught him to read as much as he does, but I do think they gave him some great exposure (and let me get a shower every day.  Single mom, remember?).

Little Reader:

When Xander was an infant I read How To Teach Your Baby To Read by Glenn Doman, which introduced me to the idea of high speed flashing.  While I didn't follow Doman's exact plan, I did stick with the whole word approach and the flashing method.  Basically, you show the child each word as you say it (cheerfully) very quickly, no more than two seconds each.  The words should be in lowercase, with the exception of proper nouns, because that is what is most prevalent in written language.  The words also need to be large enough that young eyes can interpret them instantaneously.  

I started making my flashcards on poster board with giant red markers, but soon learned that they were time consuming to make and I was clumsy with the big flashcards.  Then I ended up finding Little Reader, which is probably the best investment I have ever made as far as early education. Then I printed most of my flashcards from there.  I tried to flash him a set of words daily, but did not quite have the time to follow a good, consistent schedule.  

When Xander was about 15 months we really started working on reading through Little Reader.  It is a program that teaches reading and vocabulary in a method very similar to that described by Doman, only it includes pictures and videos as well.  It comes with about a year of premade lessons, but you can also make your own and parents can share them through the forums.  Each lesson takes less than five minutes, and they recommend doing two lessons a day.  Xander only does one of the premade lessons a day and then I try to do some category flashing with it.  I turn the audio and video off and flash through a category of words as fast as I can while still being clear.  It takes about 30 seconds to do a category.  I have also made categories of words and pictures to go with his interests.  Since he loves Thomas and has a ton of Thomas books, I made a category to teach him all of the trains' names.  Recently I started flashing him sight words, which has really improved his reading skills.  He likes going through all of the categories so much, I will often do them multiple times for him at a sitting.  For older words he already knows, I just turn on autoplay and let him watch while I clean or get something quick done.  It used to take him longer, but now he can learn a new category of words is less than a week of flashing.  I can't make new categories nearly as fast as he can learn them!

Reinforcement:

I try to make games to reinforce a lot of the words he has learned.  We play matching games with toys, flashcards or 3 Part Cards, which he loves  (you can download the ones I've made here).  We also use little plastic animals to play with his Sight Words Zoos (description about halfway down on this page).  We jump on words or act out words.  While none of these games actually teach him the words, they do serve as fun reinforcement.

Jumping on the words as I call out an animal name.

When we're reading books together, I have started having him read the words he knows.  Some books, that means every word.  If he is tired or not in the mood, I will definitely still read to him.  What blows me away is when he reads words I never actually taught him.  There are a lot he has figured out just from being read to .  While I'm not sure all of those words would transfer to other contexts, reading in context is still a valuable skill.

All in all, I did my best to set him up with the best learning environment possible.  I spent 5-10 minutes a day flashing him words, but only if he was in the mood and wanted to see them.  I encouraged him and gave him the opportunity to learn.  It totally paid off.  While he still can't read everything and isn't completely smooth, I am thrilled with how well he is doing.  If I can teach my baby with my crazy schedule, anyone can!

H for Hippo

Xander is 26 Months

We are currently working on our Mommy & Me ABC units.  This week we focused on the letter H and hippos.  Unless otherwise specified, all of the hippopotamus printables are from my Mommy & Me ABC Printables, which are free as we complete them (for a detailed list of all the materials in the printables, check out this post.)

 His white board had some hippopotamus cut outs, some alphabet magnets, his fridge phonics set and a wooden magnet of a hippo (similar to these).  His shelf had some books (Hippopposites, All about H, and Hippopotamus) a fabric H, the hippopotamus from his alphabet zoo, and a few hippos from his toobs.  Above the shelf were some flashcards from 1+1+1=1 and a glow in the dark hippo.

Tracing

Hippo Number Cards

This tray had the hippo number cards from 0-5 as well as some corresponding number tiles.  I also wrote the quantity for each card in overhead marker on the back so that we could flash through them before matching them up.  He seems to enjoy the activity a lot more since I started flashing first.

Size Sorting

Xander practiced putting the hippos in order by size.  I am happy to say he has finally grasped the concept!

Play Dough

This play dough tray had his letter h dough stamper, a couple h cookie cutters, a hippo cookie cutter, a play dough mat, and some dough.

Magnet Pages

This tray had the magnet page printables and some pom pom magnets.  I gave him two colors of magnets so I could have him put one color on uppercase letters and the other on the lowercase.  He likes doing these on his alphabet storage desk.

Pounding the pom poms.  Not sure why.

Pounding Sight Words

For this tray I wrote some of his sight words on a note card and used masking tape to attach them to his Pound a Peg toy.  Then I would have him hit a particular word.  He LOVED it!

Other Tot School Fun 

Little Reader.  This was the Winter Words Lesson I made (there are also matching vocab cards here).  I don't usually let him click through new lessons on his own, but I wanted to snag a pic.  Usually I turn off the audio and we flash through them as quickly as possible for the first week of a new category.

 We did lots and lots of coloring this week.  I got him some twistable crayons and he now prefers those to normal crayons, even though they are much more of a challenge for him.  I am happy because it is helping him work towards a better grip.

  

 Having to clean up after getting a little too enthusiastic with the markers.

 Stacking pegs in his alphabet pegboard h.

  

For more hippo ideas, check out my Hippo Pinterest Board

2013 Tot School Schedule

Recently I posted an update to my goals for Tot School.  Having these overarching goals is a great guide for me, but I also needed a more specific breakdown of how I would accomplish these goals. This semester is going to be even more intense for me than the last (honestly, freaking out a bit), so I really wanted to make sure nothing gets lost in the shuffle.

I will still be using the Mommy & Me ABC units I created for Xander's Tot School.  They provide a theme and structure to the weeks, as well as help with letter and case recognition, phonics introduction, matching, reading, fine motor, etc.  We will be doing one to two weeks per letter, depending on how many activities I have planned.  (I am always looking for new activities to keep Xander challenged, so if you can think of any I should add to the remaining letters, I would love to hear your ideas for adding to the units!)  

I will also be including other activities to help develop various skills.  I hope to do some of these activities daily, while others may only happen every once in a while.  I hope to eventually make a checklist, and will post it for you when I do!

Reading

Little Reader

3 Part Cards 

Sight Words Games

Your Child Can Read DVDs
Reading lots and lots of books together!

Math

Little Math

Flashcards from Mommy & Me ABCs

Manipulative Play (still avoiding counting)
Puzzles

Fine Motor

Tracing

Coloring & Painting

Cutting & Gluing
Sensory Bins - scooping, pouring, spooning, etc
Clipping

Lacing

Toys:  Latch Boards, Drill Set, stacking blocks, building train tracks, etc.

Spanish

Kid Start Spanish

Little Reader (I NEED to make some lessons!)

Playing with Grandma

Music

Note Flashcards

Note recognition with piano/xylophone

Trebellina

Your Baby Can Discover

Alphabet Play Dough Mats

I will be back to our regular Tot School posts next Monday.  In the meantime, I gathered all of the play dough mats from the Mommy & Me ABCs into one file.  There is one for each letter of the alphabet.  Each mat has three words beginning with that letter of the alphabet.  We use the Lakeshore Learning lowercase stampers.  You could also use alphabet cookie cutters or smaller stampers like these.  Since we use the mats with each letter theme, I also try to include the corresponding animal cookie cutter.

You can download the mats here.

Mommy Motivation

I don't generally write posts just about me, but with the new semester around the corner, I need to get myself motivated again.  I have been trying hard to remain positive and optimistic about it all, and maybe you can add to the momentum!

As most of you know, I decided to go back to graduate school to change careers after my divorce.  Last semester was my first official semester of grad school.  It was crazy and stressful, but I managed to pull it off better than anticipated.

As hectic as last semester was, this semester takes it up another notch.  On top of 15 grad credits, I have 12-15 hours commute time, and 3 or so hours of practicum (in yet another town).  Plus I need to be the best single parent I can to my amazing son, plan and execute Tot School lessons, exercise, shop, cook, clean, and attempt to have a personal life (something I have just recently been allowing myself to do again).  I am starting to freak out rev up for the months to come.  

I know I am fully capable of accomplishing it all (and I am incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to even try). It is amazing what you can do when you have no other choice.  I just need to find ways to sustain my stamina/motivation, because I really don't want to let anything slip.  

My question is, what do you do too keep your energy up?  How do you find the motivation and drive to get up and do what you have to do every day, even when it seems like too much?

Tot School Goals - 2013 Reflections

Last spring I wrote a post about my goals for doing Tot School with my son.  All of those goals still hold true, but I thought it was time I reflect on where we are and where we want to go this year.

#1  Develop a Love of Learning
I am so happy to say that Xander truly does love learning.  He drinks in information, whether I am trying to teach him or not.  He is fascinated by new things and loves new vocabulary units.  I love knowing that not matter how hard I try, I will never be able to teach him new things as fast as he wants to learn them.  I hope to continue to foster this love of knowledge by making learning fun for him, not taxing or tedious.  

#2 Develop a Love of Reading & Familiarity with Words
Thus far, mission accomplished!  Xander LOVES books and reading.  He is somewhat selective about the books, but will sit and have me read to him for hours.  He also loves to sit and read to himself.  His vocabulary far exceeds what I would have expected for his age and he is reading more than I could have hoped.  Even our doctors have commented on how articulate he is for his age, which is especially surprising given that he has had chronic fluid in his ears for the last year.  He can read a few hundred words, although I'm not sure the exact number because he is always reading me words I didn't think he knew.  (I really wish he would read for the camera!!)  We are still doing the whole word method, and I plan to continue for the foreseeable future.  However, I think he is starting to figure out some of the phonics on his own.  I hope to get him really comfortable with the sight words this year to improve his reading fluency.  I would love for him to end the year reading full sentences rather than just reading the individual words of a sentence.

We will definitely continue using Little Reader, the program to which I attribute most of his reading skills.  I will continue making him personalized lessons, time permitting, of course.  I also plan to continue using the 3 Part Cards to reinforce the words I teach him.  Now that he is a little older and capable of more, I would like to incorporate more word/reading games.

This picture just had to go with this post!  I love how on Christmas morning, when he was literally surrounded by new toys, he stopped to read his new books.  (Proud mama!)

#3  Develop Fine Motor Skills

Honestly, I have no idea where Xander is relative to the "norm" for fine motor skills.  He can color and do a little bit of tracing, but not very well.  I know I need to make an effort to improve these skills, because they are our limiting factor.  It seems like a whole world of preschool-type activities and workbooks open up to us once he is able to try writing.  However, he just turned 2.  I realize we have a while before his motor skills catch up to some of his cognitive ones.  It isn't a race, so we will get there when we get there.  :)