26 April 2009

Tot School--H Week

Tot School
Isaiah is 38 months

Finishing up the letters in Isaiah's name this week.

H is for....

Holy
Our verse for this week was I Peter 1:15  But as He Who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct (ESV).  Since this is still sort of new for us, I'll say again that I didn't make Isaiah memorize this; we're still working on getting him to say please and thank you and peoples' names, so I think memorizing a verse this long would be a little hard for him yet; however, he is doing a great job learning his children's catechism, but that's for another post.  For this week, we talked about this verse every day (and mama memorized it) and ways that we can be holy in our daily activities.  For Isaiah we talked about obedience and how he can obey God when he obeys mama and daddy; but how mama and daddy also must obey God!

Hannah
Our Bible story for the week was about Hannah and Samuel.  I didn't do nearly what I had hoped to do with this story, so maybe I'll be able to remember my ideas and do them on the next go around.  We did read the story of Hannah in the Bible (in English and Russian!).  We talked about her prayer and her promise to God, and how she kept her promise to God.  (Then we prayed for a baby, too!)

Happy
Isaiah was very happy to have a play date with his friend Lydia, at last!  Lydia's mommy and I had been trying to get back into our regular play dates for a while now, so we were all happy to have one again.


Honey
And what better snack could you have than Honey Nut Cheerios, I ask you?  I think that I was just as excited about this special treat as Isaiah was, maybe even more!

Handprints
Of course, we had to make handprints.  This is actually the first time that I have ever made a print of Isaiah's hands.  He seemed to be a little confused, but complied anyway.  Then, of course, he wanted to touch everything else before I got him cleaned up.


Hats
We read the great book Old Hat, New Hat by Stan and Jan Berenstain, thanks to Grandma S.  I had planned on making hats like some in the book, but Isaiah decided to take several really long naps this week, and with other activities already scheduled (and amazing weather!), we ran out of time.  I think I'm going to try to incorporate the hat idea with other letters though, because Isaiah is really into hats lately!
I know this picture is out of focus, but I couldn't resist it!  He was just so cute wearing this knit hat around the house on Friday as he helped me clean.
And he had to wear this orange hat while sitting in his favorite spot on Saturday morning as we waited for Daddy to come home.
Ok, couldn't come up with a legitimate "h" word for this one, but here is an example of his current obsession.  This Little Man LOVES ziploc bags (too bad z is at the end of the alphabet!).  If he sees me get out a bag of something he asks for the bag, not because he wants what's inside (I'm finally learning) but because he wants to try to open the bag, take out what's inside then put it back inside and start the whole process over again.  So this time, his snack went from plate to bag to plate to bag, with a few bites taken in the process.
Helper
We did some big grocery shopping on Friday, and Isaiah was my big helper as always.  He likes me to hand him the products, then he puts them into the basket for me.  He does a great job!


Ham
As in ham and cheese blini, which is sort of like a crepe with ham and cheese inside.  He got this as a treat on Friday for lunch, and he ate it while watching Letter Factory.  We haven't had the video for very long, but he seems to enjoy it.  He has finally started repeating the sounds with the characters, but I haven't noticed yet any letter recognition, but much more sound recognition.


Hammer
Isaiah played with his hammer a good bit this week, but when I asked him to help me hammer his H to the paper for his big name project, he was NOT interested.  He had seen the small box that holds his little containers of paint, and he wanted to play with that instead!  So after we got the letter attached, probably the fastest art project ever, he was happy to remove the paint containers and put them back in.


Haircut
Isaiah's hair grows remarkably fast, so I take care of the cutting.  I'm always amazed at how different he looks after a haircut, so here's a before...

...and an after.


Helicopter
I found this great Chinese made toy at our store for less than $1, and it actually worked! (sometime I'll have to explain that comment.)  Although, don't pull the string in a room with tall refrigerators behind which the spinning circle can fall and be lost--this thing can really fly high!  I couldn't get a good picture of it because I was enjoying myself too much. :)


Hang
We got to hang Isaiah's name on the wall in his room at last!  You can tell that later in the letters I was trying to get a little bit more creative.  Maybe we'll do it again sometime; I'm sure that this won't last forever.


We're a pretty musical family, so I enjoy focusing on songs that have lots of words with our letter of the week.  Some of our favorites from this week were:  Happy and You Know It, Holy Hands, Hallelujah Praise Jehovah, Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes and just plain humming, which worked especially well on all our walks in the park where the paths were bumpy and you could hum all sorts of interesting things while we bumped along.

Hot
Well, ok, not really hot, yet, but relative to what we have been experiencing, I have felt really hot on our walks this week.  Thankfully Isaiah is no longer in the polar suit!  Hooray!  Now that he's not all constricted in the great big thing, he can sit up straighter and enjoy watching the cars go by, which seems to really hold his attention!


We also watched some youtube videos of hippos and hamsters, but I think that's all for this week for us.  Head on over to 1+1+1=1 to see more great Tot School ideas, and you'll also get to see Carisa's beautiful little girl!


7 comments:

Goat Gal said...

I just loev that your posts are letter themed. What a creative way to teach.

Mozer said...

What a clever idea!

CristyLynn said...

Thanks, for the comments! I wish that I could take credit for the letter theme, but it's not original to me. I first saw it on www.moziesme.blogspot.com where another mom does it with her adorable little girl! I try not to do the exact same ideas that she has done, but sometime you can't help overlap, I mean there are a limited number of words that begin with the same letters. :) You might have already seen her on the Tot School link-up, but if not, be sure to check her out!

Mozi Esme said...

Wow - you've found a ton of things for H! I love the name on the wall... And tell me - did you have to smuggle the Honey Nut Cheerios from the US? I hated not being able to get Cheerios in Mozambique. :)

mom slawson said...

It's wonderful what you're doing with the Tot School, especially adding the Bible verses etc. You really keep Isaiah stimulated! You're SOME mom.

me said...

very beautiful - your blog is wonderful!!! I'm glad I stumbled on it tonight!

CristyLynn said...

Thanks for the encouragement, ME. You are a great knitter, it seems! :) Always nice to "meet" new people this way.