Tot School

Nathan is currently 16.5 months old

We've had a short week of Tot School because today we're headed to the beach!!!!!  I'm sure there will be some tot school activities going on today and while we're at the beach, but you'll have to wait until next week to see those! :)  I'm sure the 5 of you who faithfully read my blog (and I'm SOOOO honored you do) will be able to stand missing one day of activities. :)  I digress... so this week, we did many new things!

Daddy got Nathan the game Connect 4 for Easter and thought we could use it in Tot School.  He was right!  We worked on putting the chips in the slots and color identification.  I've not told him if you slide the bottom to the right all the chips fall out!  Shhhh!  That's our secret!

Window clings have also proved to be a great item of the week (minus the one butterfly Nathan ate and later I figured out he thought they were vitamins).  Great for fine motor and creativity as he can plan where they go.  They do look appetizing, so beware if you try this at home.

We had fun playing piano, as we often do.  PaPa, these pictures are for you!  Nathan has learned to sit at the bench by himself and he's very proud of this accomplishment.  He'll walk to the piano and say "play. seat. yes."  So sweet.

This new puzzle has been a huge hit and surprisingly he is very good at it.  His favorite letters are the O and the Q because they are circles, but he's able to do this puzzle with about 40% accuracy.   And a note on shapes, Nathan has begun to find circles and ovals all over the place.  For example, today we were walked past Ross and he said "oval" and then "another one" as we passed the second sign.  Kid's a genius I tell you! ;)  

Using an empty bubble container (another of this weeks favorites), 

and the wand, we worked on "in"...

and "out"

Doing some exploring in the yard

Nathan has learned how to blow bubbles from the wand and the bubble maker toy.  I'm so proud of him and he is too.  He loves to practice blowing bubbles, even with no solution.  He also puts his face in the bathtub water and blows bubbles.  

Puzzle time again... note the shirtless child... we've had a few struggles with wearing a shirt the last few days.  I say you have to pick your battles, and this is one I'm certain is not worth fighting when we're playing inside!

Window clings...

Putting feathers into a Styrofoam circle... a good 20 minutes he worked on this over and over and over.  

Toothpicks into a spice container... awesome fine motor and pincer grasp practice.  This is also a great restaurant toy since it fits so nicely in the diaper bag!

I finally found "do a dot" paints and Nathan really enjoyed this... however, he wanted to put the tips in his mouth.  I warned him that if he did it again, the paints would disappear...

and as you can see from the blue lips and the crayons, the paints were short lived.  We'll try again tomorrow.

The drawing was quite a hit, and yes, that "O" was drawn by my kiddo!  He was very proud of it too and said "O mama circ (translated = circle)".

Sticking Popsicle sticks in play-doh

Puzzles designed to teach him to match the front half to the back half.

Mom, I like this Tot School stuff!

Tiny little alphabet puzzles.  Awesome idea from Rocker Tot's mom... many of these are her ideas!

More feather poking

Nathan loves to "draw" and anytime he sees a pen, he'll ask to draw.  I've started letting him do so more often, especially when I'm trying to make a meal and don't need him hanging at my knees begging for a "bite".  Works out great for both of us!

Some snuggle time with Bailey.  I think it's important that we teach our kiddos to love and respect all of God's creation, even our puppies.  So we talked about how to be kind, gentle, and how to love Bailey.  In the end, he gave her a hug, unprompted.  So sweet.
Well, this tot school activity came out of desperation.  I have NEVER given my child a bath in the kitchen sink.  I have no problem with other people who do, and now understand why, but for almost 17 months, I've firmly said no because there are just too many yucky things you put in a sink.  Well, this morning, I was trying to unload the dishes and wash and dry the pans and Nathan kept getting into the dishwasher.  I realized it was because he didn't have another task to occupy him and I needed to provide more structure for him.  So, I cloroxed the sink, filled it up with water and dish soap and let him help with the washing.  He loved it and stayed out of the dishwasher and happily occupied for at least 15 minutes.  The only bad thing was he about drowned himself when he filled up a 32 oz water bottle with soapy water and tried to drink it, and in the process poured it down his nostrils and all in his eyes.  He quickly recovered though and did it again a few minutes later.  :)

Next, I went out of my comfort zone a bit.  I do NOT like to get my hands dirty, and haven't since I was a kid.  Nathan is very similar in fact and I want to expose him more to sensory things that make your hands "dirty".  Out came the shaving cream and the finger paint and in the high chair went a fully naked baby.  He LOVED it, though at first was a bit put off by his hands being messy.  He liked to swirl the paint in with the shaving cream.

I thought it would be fun to give him paint brushes to hold and drag through the paint.
He took me litterally and "painted with his new brush".
Oh well!  At least he was enjoying his time and learning about textures and colors as well.


As you can imagine, not liking my own hands to be dirty, I wasn't about to carry him all the way upstairs to the tub, so back in the sink he went.  He sure looks sad about that huh?  While in there, we worked on the parts of a sink, "on" and "off" as well as body parts.

I love this clock!  We've had it for a while because of Nathan's love for clocks but it seemed a bit overwhelming for him because it has 12 different types of shapes to fit in the holes so we've not had it out in about a month.  Today, he pulled out the box and said "clock open yes", so you better belive I opened it right up.  He sat down and began to place the shapes into the CORRECT holes one by one.  I was amazed at how he studied the shapes and then looked for the appropriate hole.

Without any help, he managed to put all of the pices in and clap for himself!  Nathan I am so proud of you for doing this!

Putting wheels on his trucks and driving them around.  (Fun side note - this lap desk was mine as a kid.  Thanks mom for saving it for me!).
Puzzles and marine life ID
Stickers, which he did so much better with this time.
And of course, some gross motor work!  Kiddo loves to climb and is pretty good at it, although he's not mastered climbing into the kitchen chairs like his buddy Zachary.


To top off our great week, our good friend shape sorter.  Chad and I watched him with this one day, and he would pull a shape out of the trap door, and turn the cube to the right side and put the shape in the hole.  He did this for every one he pulled out, while saying many of their names. Way to go little buddy!

All in all a great week with some new things!  Nathan is doing really well overall and we are so excited to head to the beach!  We'll talk to ya'll soon!  Please leave us a comment to say hello!  Check out all the other folks doing Tot School as well! To do that, click here.