Tot School

Nathan is 17.5 months old

We had another excellent week of tot school! It was quite different from most because we spent the majority of it at my folks house in VA nestled on the beautiful shores of Lake Gaston. Before we nestled in, we did do some tot school at home! Here are a few pics from tot school at home.

Refining "blow" while playing a recorder (meanwhile working on balance while wearing one shoe).
Two part automobile puzzles. Nathan LOVED these new puzzles! When you correctly match the front and back of the vehicle you can hear the sound of the vehicle. Very self motivating! Also, great rewards!

We moved on to stringing buttons on a pipe cleaner. Great for color ID and fine motor.

Next, we tried spaghetti noodles in a spice container. Nathan had too much fun breaking them into little tiny pieces before putting them in the container. Oh well, at least he finished the task, just not in the way I'd imagined.

3 part animal puzzles

stir sticks into Styrofoam

lacing these cute little animals lacing beads... the lacing activities were all Nathan's idea and I love that he enjoys these!

On to Tot School at the Lake...

working on letters with Daddy

Bubbles with Yaya... learning to sit and watch, sit and wait, and pop while sitting.blowing bubbles with Yaya

drawing with sidewalk chalk with Yaya

Yaya had a great idea. She drew big shapes on the ground and had Nathan stand in the... "oval" or "square". Great idea! We followed up the next day by having him jump on different letters! Great idea Yaya! 2 part puzzles with Daddy

Wonderful time with animals all week. We've seen horses, cows, baby birds (mom has two nests in her yard that we check on daily, goat, birds... but this one topped it all. We saw something swimming across the cove and couldn't figure out what it was. Yaya followed it and it turned out to be a baby bunny!!!! Did you know bunnies could swim? We sure didn't. It barely made it to shore (exhausted from swimming a long way) and just laid there. Yaya and Bailey took good care of it! Bailey licked it many times and Yaya picked it up (it was so exhausted it just went limp in her hands) and showed it to Nathan (who amazingly was quite uninterested - probably because he couldn't pet it), and then she took it into the woods and made it a nest to recover in. :) Sweet animal lover, Yaya is! Here are the pics.

Kisses from Bailey

Nathan and Bailey watching, Bailey is much more interested... her mothering instincts turn on in a heart beat!

Enough wild animal adventures... more tot school at the lake!

Nathan got several new pair of shoes that he could learn to put on himself. One pair are these rubber boots and HE LOVES THEM. He wore them all day long the first day we had them! He loves pushing this toy around. It makes a jingling sound and it was actually mine as a baby! He loves to push it around!

Learning that we smell flowers, and we don't pick them! Especially when they are Yaya's potted plants!

Working on IDing letters and animals and putting puzzle pieces in. This melissa and doug alphabet book is awesome and we really enjoy taking it places.

You didn't actually think that we'd go all week at Yaya's without a new toy did you? Well, the animal barn finally belongs to Nathan. We've been playing with the animals all week.

Touching different shells and listening for the ocean. Nathan liked all the different textures of the shells, and this one was a favorite.

Looking out the window waiting for the rain to stop... incessantly saying "boat boat" and asking me to sing "it's raining it's pouring..." He's also beginning to learn that different things belong to different people. In this case, Papa's boat and Nathan's boat. :)

Putting one block in each cup.

stickers

Reading with daddy before dinner one night. We did lots of reading this week.

So, have you begun doing Tot School with your little one? Join us! Check it out at 1+1+1=1.