Tot School

Nathan is currently 19 months old

This was a short week of Tot School because we are headed to Yaya and Papa's house! It was a very fun week, though filled with a few new activities!
We brought back out the latches board and Nathan is much better at opening and shutting the doors. He can do a few more of the latches too.
Stringing blue and yellow straws on blue and yellow pipe cleaners. Great activity for color matching and recognition as well as fine motor! :)

This didn't go as I'd imagined it would, but it was still fun. I though Nathan would be able to hold the caribeaner open and hook the binder rings on it, but he couldn't keep it open. So instead, I held it open at different angles and he put the binder rings on it. He liked this one.

Magic grow bugs. This took a bit longer than Nathan wanted, and he created a splash zone while waiting for the capsules to dissolve.

Once they came out of the capsules, he loved looking at them, squeezing them, identifying their name and color, and playing with them in the water.

Drawing with tadoodles crayons and markers. If I tape the pages on his tray, he's able to be much more independent... until he rips them off to color on the other side. :)

Paint with water! :)

Our first folder game. I found paint samples at Lowes and attempted to laminate the paint samples by using an iron. My friend Kristin was successful. I was not. So this one will need to be redone. Needless to say, Nathan loved it and correctly matched all the colors on the first try! :)

This activity is inspired by my friend Rose and her tot Colin. You can check them out here. Nathan loved the balls of play-doh I made for him. He ripped them apart, put them in the container, dumped them out, squished them together... over and over and over! Thanks Rose!

Making art work for daddy. We did the sponge painting last week and this week Nathan wanted to put animal stickers on. We found animal stickers representing the animals we saw in Disney as a way to say thank you to daddy for taking us! :)

Connect 4! This was a winner this week and we worked hard on taking turns (mommie turn, nay nay turn) and recognizing black and red.

As always, puzzles are a big hit around here. These chunky puzzles, Nathan can do independently. They are really easy for him.
He can also do his name puzzle by himself, although sometimes he mixes up the N and the H which do look alike in this puzzle and sadly, the H fits in the N hole so it's not self correcting. At any rate, he loves it and it's great to hear him say the letters to himself.
The puzzles with the tiny knobs are easy on one hand and tough on the other. He does a great job locating where the pieces go, but has a hard time turning it to fit in the hole because he insists on using the knob. :)
one to one correspondence... one ball in each cup.
This is Nathan's ABC book. I made it on snap fish using photos of people he knows and places we've been and items/animals we've actually seen. I added the letters in photoshop. He loves this book and looks for it every day.

The ABC book is a hit, but not as much as the truck books. He has two and loves them both. He's learned most of the names of the trucks and it's so fun to hear him shout "big rig!" as we're driving down the high way, or to hear him name fire truck, excavator, road train, logging truck, digger, bull dozer, and cement truck as he looks through the pages. He knows a few more, but to be honest, I can't remember their names! :)

I swapped out some toys in the playroom this week and created a reading area for Nathan. He loves going in the tunnel and sitting in the school bus on a big pillow to read. It's also fun to catch him in the tunnel reading. :)

So, as a mom, I'm sure many of you have stepped out of sight for a moment to answer the phone, pee, or fold clothes. Right? Well, our playroom is the central area of our upstairs and all the other rooms branch off of it. I usually keep the other doors closed and when Nathan sneaks into one of the rooms he's never sneaky and I hear him. Until the other day.

I was putting up laundry in my room and Nathan was playing in the bonus room... I thought. I keep his extra toys (the ones we rotate in and out) in the guest bedroom closet. They were neatly stacked in there, until little man, discovered my hiding spot. This is what I discovered when I came in. He didn't even notice my arrival, or the photo being taken. I just heard him talking about Mickey and reading him a book he'd found in one of the bins. :)

Some times this week, I've found Nathan peering out of the bottom of the blinds in the kitchen, gazing into the back yard. This particular moment, I asked him what he was looking for and he said "Bailey poopie yuck". I suppose he was memorizing where the land mines were so he wouldn't step in them while playing. Too funny.
Sensory time! I love playing in the rice bucket outside because the clean up is so easy.
Of course, there was room in tot school time for tons of friends. We're working on learning to share, take turns, ask politely, and to be kind. It's so fun to see these kiddos together!
We also had some jumping fun one day this week. This is a great picture of Izzy tackling Nathan and tickling him. He's laughing hysterically, although it's a little tough to tell from the photo! :)

We had a great week of tot school and I encourage you to do this with your kiddo. It's so easy and super fun and a great way to spend quality time with your kiddo. Join the rest of us moms doing tot school here!