~Ladybug is currently 32.5 months old~
Ladybug has a new Tot School set up! I switched the home school room around a bit before Christmas break and had it all ready for our start back in January. I wanted her to have a desk, so she got K’s old desk {which also used to be Pac’s-it’s from Ikea years ago}. I moved it up near her Tot Trays and made a little corner for her. You can see our pocket chart hanging behind her desk so I have a place to display her items, as well as her All About Reading poster on the wall. So far, this set up has worked beautifully.
We have 2 brand new things we are doing for school now, All About Reading Level Pre 1 and Animal ABCs.
Here is her desk set up for letter A. I purchased the Scholastic Alpha Tales book set, which is where the letter Aa book you see is from. The items in the pocket chart are all available for free here on the Animal ABCs webpage. I added a tiny alligator we had from a Little People set too. 
We also had a few alligator books off to the side in her pink basket. Here are some alligator ideas for you…
As you will see, my tot LOVES to write. She honestly blows me away with her desire to trace, color, draw, and write. Neither of my boys were like this. The “extras” were developed because of her intense love of writing and tracing. Because her Tot Time Notebook was such a hit, I decided to go with a similar plan for her Animal ABC work. The pages for the current unit are all in a 1/2” 3 ring binder, inside of sheet protectors. She uses her click markers and eraser to work through her pages whenever she wants to! This past week she did each page at least 4 times, probably more!
Here are a few action shots…
The coloring page is pulled out and we worked on a few alligators per day. She usually likes to do this as team work, which is fine!
She worked with me to make the letter craft, which is basically an open ended project that you can do whatever you want with! We chose to watercolor the letter A, and then glue down the alligators. She helped me cut on the thick gray lines and then I trimmed out the rest of the alligators while she painted.
We let the A dry and then I cut it out. She helped me glue the alligators on and then we glued the big letter onto blue paper. She absolutely LOVED the finished product and wanted to hold it for a very long time!
See more ideas for using the letter crafts!
Special Note: PLEASE remember that most tots will not enjoy this type of work. Ladybug is unique in her desire to do these types of things. When Krash was this age, he would barely sit at a table for a few minutes, let alone do tracing worksheets! I only do this type of thing with Ladybug because she practically begs for it. It is “her thing” and I just follow her lead. All children are different, just have fun and follow your child’s lead at this stage!
We are taking our All About Reading Pre Level 1 lessons slowly. I introduced Ziggy the Zebra and she really liked him but didn’t want to touch him! Krash enjoyed playing the rhyming game in lesson 1 with us and it was a great bonding time for the 2 kids as Ladybug absorbed information from watching Krash, and Krash got an excellent review.
Ladybug asked for Ziggy a lot and wanted him to color her letter A activity with her. Pac snapped these pics of Ladybug and I working together.
For now we will be moving our All About Reading lessons along with our Animal ABC v units. I have no letter of the week plan, just plan to switch letters when she is ready-meaning when she gets “bored” with a certain letter’s activities. This week she stayed interested in letter A all week long so we stuck with it! All About Reading Pre Level 1 goes through the upper case alphabet first and then the lower case. We are following with their plan.
Ladybug got the Scrabble Alphabet Soup game for Christmas and LOVES it! Of course, we modified the rules a lot but have our own unique tot game. We take turns scooping and then taking our letters out one by one and naming them, “I got a P!” I got a G”!” She loves it!
Our Design and Drill Center is a BIG hit, BUT our drill broke after one day. I am so sad and have sent an email to Educational Insights to ask for a replacement. Hopefully their customer service will be good! I really love this toy, if the drill works!
One of my mom’s friends gave us this adorable moon balancing toy {used}. I couldn’t find the exact one online for sale, but did find this beautiful item on etsy, while browsing for a link to share here. All 3 kids are loving this simple toy!
The Play House {linked to Amazon, but don’t buy it there! I saw it at Kohl’s for less than $20} was a BIG hit for Ladybug for several days, and still is. She has colored and played so much!
Oh how we love the iPad, and our bean bags. What a great combo. I remembered to snap a few shots of L-bug in action with the pad this week.
In these shots she was playing Starfall, Candy Count {we only have the free version}, and Shape Builder. These are 3 of her very favorites, she chooses them a lot! See more iPad apps we love here!
The face on the left is her “no picher” face, I love it!! She was working on her Tot Time Notebook and wanted me to leave her alone!
