Tot School Week of 2.25.09

Pack N Play and Blanket Time teaches a child to focus on one toy and enhances the attention span. It also initiates the understanding that what mommy/daddy/teacher/ect says to do is what you should do.  Normally during our blanket time, I give him one toy to play with for at least 10 minutes and he must stay on that blanket or in the pack n play for that amount of time with  one or two toys.

This week, I pulled the balls out that we used at his b-day party! It was a little more interactive that blanket time normally is, but he was IN the pack n play and LOVED it! (score!) 

Everything we did this week involved DUCKS! quack quack quack!

took our ducks outside, put the ducks down the slide, gave the ducks a bath, & put the ducks on hour head, toes, and nose

This is a great new toy that daddy got him! It's not a tot school toy, but it's super fun for and great for practicing those fine motor skills!

Reading Time: this week's favorite was a truck book that he got as a b-day present from a little friend! I am waiting until he starts saying TRUCK like our blog friend Wright

Seek and You Shall Find! 

Who knew I could tie a bible verse into Tot School!

I hid Green objects and little yellow ducks (I really tried to help him with 'duck' this week) in a big bowl of oatmeal! This was so fun learning a new texture and he got so excited when he found something at the bottom; he'd pull it out when a funny look on his face and then would show it to me! Precious! Of course, he also tried to EAT the oatmeal....oh well, guess I can count that as a snack for the day! 

Colored Sticks From Cup to Bucket: This was a great idea, that turned sour FAST!

He transferred the different colored sticks while I was repeating the colors over and over again, but after about five minute, he decided it would be more fun to eat them instead....which in turn meant colored dye was all over his hands....fun stuff! Oh well- two days later he was saying blue and green so hopefully it was some good reinforcement. And he LOVED dumping them in the bucket and taking them out.

He's Getting Better and Better about putting the qtips in the bottle! Often times he doesn't even need me to do it first!  

Shape Sorting! He's finding the shapes more intriguing, but the process of trial and error is VERY frustrating for the little man! He can get the circle in the circle hole, but when the square doesn't fit in the same spot- Game Over! It's good practice and he likes the blocks, and he likes the bucket, so one day, the two will go together. For now, we get as much time in shape sorting with mom as we can, and then it's just in and out in and out and bang the blocks about!

This kid will be buckling himself in his seat before i know it! 

Little does he know, he's LEARNING while he does this THREE TIMES A DAY!

Tot School Week of 2.20.09

Tot School Week of 2.20.09

R-man is 12.5 months old

*pictures are not in order of week's activities

Tuesday was music day! In the afternoon we played with our drums, bongos, and sing along stage while our new cd 'toddler tunes' played in the background. I was actually able to leave him with his musical instruments for a good twenty minutes and he played contently & independently with only the toys I provided him with.

Putting/Taking/Empty/Full: This was a great lesson while mommy was getting ready one morning. I placed a bunch of bibs and burp clothes in this old diaper box and he carefully took them all out, placed them in piles, and put them back in! While putting make up on (haha), I was telling him 'empty', 'full', 'out', 'in'....if anyone saw me, they would think i was looney, but R-man loves all that we do together!

Wednesday morning we had a little bit of time to do tot school before the AM nap and then it was off to gym class! Since we were going to get a ton of gross motor work done in class, I thought we would focus on fine motor skills. R-man played with q-tips which he thought were AWESOME and placed them in the bottle! He loved this and was so proud of himself (clapping) when he got one in! He eventually understood that he could do this with anything that had an opening so he started playing them i these round balls that have holes on either end! 

Go R-man!

Just a 'action' shot of R-man at music class! This was our late morning activity- music together!

The instructor uses a guitar which mesmerizes R-man! The rhythm this kid has is all because of this class! In this picture they are playing with 'shakey eggs' and singing.

Puzzle Time...the funny thing about the morning of tot school that we played with puzzles is that we were not supposed to be playing with puzzles. He found it, pulled it out, and started playing....I had an activity with pom poms planned that he had not interest in that day- but he did use the pom poms, placing them inside the holes were the puzzle pieces were supposed to go! Works for me! perfect example of playing while learning.

We focused on green this week and enjoyed painting with green yogurt for snack one morning.

This was a make up as I go tot school activity. He loves the basket, loves the balls, and loves throwing them....so we practiced throwing- not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing...but it also helped reinforce the idea of 'clean up' which I am ALL FOR!

Reading Time! The kid can sit for nearly half an hour with the books alone if i would let him!

Tot School Week of 4.13

R-man is 12.5 months old

week of 4.13

Transferring- I stopped by the dollar tree one day to pick up some things for this activity! I wanted to focus on 'transferring' from empty to full with R-man. We worked on this concept by taking pom poms in one bucket and putting them into another; then we did it with only one color. Not too long into the activity, R-man was looking for every pom pom he could find to put it into the bucket! He had so much fun playing with the little pom pom balls, especially when i dumped the bucket out on top of his head and ticked his cheek with them. 

Learning through Play- it's a beautiful thing!

Fine Motor Skills: R-man LOVES buckles! Whenever he is in the high chair on on the changing pad, i take full advantage of his desire to learn how to put the buckle together! He lets me manipulate his hands to hold the buckle properly and then put one end inside the other.  I think it's a 'boy' thing because he wants to know HOW IT WORKS (totally not a girl thing!).

Another 'random learning moment'...i was cleaning up R-man's room a bit and he was toddling around on the floor when he discovered his favorite thing- the HUMIDIFIER! (no joke.) I watched as he was, for the first time, intrigued by the dial that turns it up and off. He was trying to turn it, so I encouraged the learning process of "turning"! He has yet to put this new ability together with the ability to turn the 'key' that is in his car.

During Outside Time, we played with the shape sorter! He doesn't quite get the concept of shapes fitting in the same shape hole, but he so badly wants to stuff them in there- we're on the verge...:) After some time on the blanket, we had an older friend stop by who wanted to learn too. R-man was great- he shared his toys and would offer blocks to her to play with! adorable. We enjoyed our gross motor skills to the fullest while outside too. Walking, swinging, sliding, and even rode in an airplane! R-man's favorite part is to point at things he wants to do- i love that he can communicate with me!

Today we focused mainly on STACKING during tot school.

He loves to play with blocks but had not really turned onto the idea of 'stacking' them.

Four about a minute today, I saw him trying to put the cups one on top of the other

. They wouldn't stay there, so he got frustrated and left them for the stacking rings, but I though that was a MAJOR breakthrough! I can't wait to post about how this has improved in the next two weeks!

We spent time with our ring stackers again. Normally I hand them to him and he puts them in order, but today I let him do it his OWN way. There were rings on the star stacker and stars on the ring stacker and some in a bucket, too! I love that he is using his own creativity to enjoy his learning time. It's hard to get a picture of him doing this activity, especially sine he'd rather rip the camera out of my hand, so this is the after picture. When i clean them

 up, i stack the rings to the side so that he can put them back on if he wants to.

We also played with some building blocks.  At this age, the activity consists of choosing a block, banging it on something, exploring its shape and texture then throwing it 

away for a new block.  I maniuplate the blocks, stacking them, making towers, putting them in little cars that roll- i hope as he develops, he will see how 'i play' and try to use his own imagination. right now, we're exploring and discovering which is right where we should be. 

No pictures....but we also practiced our animal identification by singing 'old mcdonald had a farm' and stacking...although stacking is more like 'demolition' as that's the only part R-man finds fun right now!

Language: he's babbling as if he is trying to convey something, but no new words that I can readily make out! So far, this week i have heard (no, mama, dada, dog, book, more). Pointing a lot, though, and that is a sign of language development, so i'm not worried.

Tot School Week of 4.6

Colored Water: we played with a big tub of water and made it blue just like the ocean! we put blue bath tub toys in the water and watch them SINK or FLOAT! we used a 'basting brush' to wash the toys and get them clean! Then we splashed and felt how cold the water felt on our toes!  I love playing with texture and exposing Reid to new ways of learning! He loved placing the objects in the water that sunk to the bottom. If anything, I think the activity reinforced the word 'water' or 'wa wa' and started his thought process on the concept that some toys stay on top of the water for him to grab and some object sink to the bottom where he has to dive in to reach them.

Throwing: We did this in a two part game....first we rolled balls back and forth to grandma and practiced holding the ball and then letting go.  Then, during pack n play time, we asked him to throw us a ball. He eventually was able to throw the ball and not just drop it! He was so proud to see the ball go FAR! We tried to tie colors into this game, asking him to throw a particular ball color, but that did not go well, so we'll try to add that when we've had more color play later down the road.

Stacking: every morning we do our ring stacker two times and the skills are getting better and better and faster and faster! 

Shape Sorting: I am normally sitting right there with R-man during his learning time, but this afternoon, left him on the play mat with just a shape sorter and blocks with music in the background. This activity normally doesn't interest him at all, so I was very curious what would happen. As I rounded the corner to peek in at him, he was putting blocks in the holes through trial and error- moving from hole to hole until the block fit!  I did witness some frustration, but he stayed with it, until I walked over to him and stole away his attention, of course! There were about six blocks inside the box. Wow! I am so proud! I know we are a long way from id'ing the shapes, but the motor skills to put them in the proper hole is my current goal for him. (baby steps!)

Learning Happens All Day Long Not Just in Tot School: for example...

R-man is now putting the lid on the aquaphor lotion jar, correctly! I will take it off, he will go get it, and place it gently on top of the jar.

Tot School Week of 3.30

This was our first official week of tot school, but I don't think we'll really be 'in our routine' for another month. We're still working out our one year jitters, tantrum, and figuring out limits.

Activities This Week:

1. Music time: sang twinkle twinkle little star, over and over again, playing on the drum and xylophone

2. Color Identification: practiced colors where R-man would point to the color in the bath tub basket that I asked....He would only identify yellow, oddly enough. But I was proud that he was able to point to the object he wanted!

3. Finger painting with blue and yellow- this did not go well, i think we were too close to lunch time...we are going to try pudding and yogurt painting next week to see if we get a better outcome!

4.Fun on the Farm: R-man sat in his chair and i set up the animals on the table....we sang old mcdonald had a farm and popped up the animal when we said it along with the animal sounds! He didn't do it along with me, but was smiling and enjoying it....so i know something was sinking in.

5. Animal ID: we spread out all the animals that we have and did the song "ribbit ribbit went the little green frog one day" (it got hard when we got to zebra and giraffe bc i don't know what sounds they make!)...he was able to properly ID the duck, frog, zebra, cow, and elephant....everything else (monkey, lion, cat, dog is hard...) of course he knows a REAL dog, he just doesn't get the stuffed dog concept!