Tot School Update - 32 months

And so begins our monthly "Tot School" updates for 2012.

"The Queen" is 32 months old and is excited to learn new things each day. I have committed to blogging once a month about our learning adventures.
My focus for our "Tot School" will be on early literacy & math skills, sensory activities, seasonal crafts, nature experiences, and if I can get my act together - tot trays. I have the best intentions with setting up tray activities but haven't quite been consistent with it!

Reflecting on things the Queen is doing now:

• Letter Identification - identify 20/26 upper case letters. Can identify 9/26 lower case letters, all which happen to look identical to their capital letter counterpart (c, o, s, w, u, p, z, x, v).
• Letter Sounds - Has associated a person's name with almost every letter of the alphabet! Often tries to 'sound out' words that she's reading but starts every word with the /p/ sound. It's so cute but I refrain from laughing because she clearly is focused and working hard!
• Numeral Identification - can id numbers 1-9 but sometimes confuses 2 as a 1 or 5.  
• Matching numerals - is OBSESSED with playing UNO and is very proficient at matching Uno cards 0-9. Insists on playing Uno 3-4 times daily and has a fit if she doesn't get a Skip card in her hand! 
• Counting -counts orally to 12. Can count a set of objects to 4. Has 1:1 correspondence to 4. 
• Reading - pretend reads many of her favorite books. I read aloud to her at least 30 minutes a day and she listens as her brother reads aloud.  She will browse her board book collection in her crib in the morning and will often pick a couple of books, "Me read this one." 
• Colors - knows all the rainbow colors and pink, black, and white.
• Shapes - names and id all the basic shapes, often forgets the word rectangle. Can sort shapes by more than one characteristic (i.e. sorts all the squares and then sorts by size or color)
• Fine Motor - had lots of fun this month with beading pipe cleaner snowflakes. Can independently put hair ties onto her door knob. Has begun to snip with scissors but still developing the proper grip for scissors and pencils.
• Gross Motor - began swim lessons this month and I've been impressed with how she follows directions. Keeps up with active games with her brother. Refuses to go sledding and prefers to play games indoors.
• Behavior - testing her limits and has gotten really good at pouting out her bottom lip, folding her arms across her chest, and saying "Hmmph." Her second favorite saying is "It's not fair." Overall though she is a happy go lucky kid most of the time.
• Art - her favorite activity has been doing stickers. I had several fun winter crafts planned but she prefers her own projects and not something I've prepped for her. Much of our 'art' time is spent with her in my craft room reorganizing and looking for things she wants. (I need to make that space more kid-friendly since both the kids like to play in there. It was my big project for the month but it's taking me way too long to finish.)
• Crib - the Queen is still in her crib. Hoping she stays there for as long as possible.
• Potty training - still in diapers...need to focus on this ASAP!
• Communication - I can understand 95% of what she says. She often will ask in multiple ways if someone doesn't understand her.

Next month's focus for the Queen:

Potty Training

Fine Motor work

Letter sounds 

Pick a few lower case letters to match to capitals

Open ended art

More sensory experiences

Next month I promise to make this post a bit cuter with pictures!