Tot School

Nathan is 22 months old.

This weeks tot school was so much fun!!!!! We started out with group tot school with some friends which we'll do every Friday. This week it was at Kristin and Colton's house and she led some great activities including bowling! Nathan loved this and it was a great precursor to our family/friend bowling outing on Saturday. This activity focused on hand/eye coordination as well as turn taking.

Also at group tot school we worked on cutting playdoh. The kids were so cute sitting around the little table. Nathan still likes to stab the playdoh but understands the concept of cutting. We also colored fall leaves as a group! Thanks Kristin!

Back at home, we played with Nathan's new "racers" as he calls it. He loves to send his cars flying down the spinning tracks. While doing this we worked on colors of cars, size (too big/too small to fit in the slots), waiting, and counting.

Then, Percy, our owl puppet came to join us. Nathan is just getting in to puppets and they are so much fun to use for modeling of kind words and kind hands (this seems to be our theme these days). He's beginning to grasp what kind means and does well with Percy and our other puppet friends. :) He's beginning to transition this into play with others too! Nathan is such a rough and tumble little guy and sometimes he forgets that tackling and tickling are very different! Hopefully Percy will help us out with that! :)

Also, we worked on stamps to practice counting, gross motor and fine motor, as well as self control! It's so much fun to "crash de stamp" instead of pushing it down on the paper in a controlled manner. :)

One of my favorite things about this week was all of the outdoor fall activities we did. We incorporate learning into everything we can, and I think most parents do this without realizing it. While at two different farms this week, we learned some great outdoor lessons... like...

big versus little with tractor wheels...

how to push vs. pull a wagon...

counting pumpkins...

loving the feel of corn, throwing it, digging in it,

and laying in it! This was such a fun sensory activity!

On the second farm, Nathan learned more about tractors and big wheels and loved looking at the tractor when the hayride was stopped and going (of course when it was going he was seated).

He got to touch so many animals here and loved learning about their feel. This is a baby chicken.

a baby goat - he said "da goat is soft like Bailey"

goat herding?

Gentle touches with this duck. Her feathers were soooooo soft!

Petting a baby sheep and learning that a lamb is a baby sheep.

Hmmm, there were several lessons here... what a cow eats, what a baby cow looks like... and what an electric fence looks like and how not to touch it! Thankfully he didn't even have a chance but he did learn that "dat fence will shock you and hurt you".

Our last stop on the hayride? A hay maze. This maze was much bigger than the corn maze we did earlier in the week but we had fun learning about dead ends, the feel of the hay, and how good mommy is at carrying a tired toddler over the hay (not through the maze) and to the end of the maze!

The last day of tot school this week, we had tot school in our big tent. Nathan thought this was so much fun!

Fill and spill with beans

puzzles

pushing the pom poms through the small holes (I can't remember who's idea this was but if you'll let me know, I'll link you up on the post! Thanks for the great idea!)

Matching the colored bear to it's picture.

I finally found some of the oreo matchin' middles and they were much tougher than I thought they would be for my little man. We stuck to a few easy shapes and he liked them but said he would rather eat them. :)

This was a great week of tot school and I'm hoping to finish getting organized and set for a next week! Check out what other moms and kiddos are doing at their tot schools by checking out this blog... www.1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com

Wordless Wednesday

Fun on the Farm

On Sunday, we headed to a local farm to enjoy the slower pace of country life on a farm and to take part in some fun fall festivities. Of course Nathan was elated to see the pumpkins. That surprised me because you might remember his traumatic pumpkin pose last year...

Nonetheless, he has forgotten his mommy stuffing him in a slimy cold pumpkin and has quite a fondness for them this year. He loved trying to pick them all up and saying "biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig one" when they were too heavy. Eventually he found one that was just his size.

And one the perfect size for mommy to carve and put him in... just kidding. I don't think my 22 month old would have any piece of that!

There's always time to stop and smell the flowers. In fact, the other day we were at the park and Nathan said, "mommy, you want to stop. smell the roses? Yeah" So funny. I'm not sure where he heard that, but it was hysterical!

Such a big boy!!!

Nathan loved climbing on all the old tractors and driving them! He was also fascinated by their huge wheels.

Of course, all city folk are going to gather round the tractor for a family pic...

see? our friends, Michael & Ethan & Lauren, posed on the tractor too! We met them there for some good fall fun.

This cow train was so cute! The cows are made out of barrels and Nathan loved riding around the farm in his very own barrel!

Of course Mommy and Daddy squeezed into the cows for a ride too!

The second time, Nathan decided he wanted to go by himself, not just solo in the barrel, but solo on the cow train. So Chad and I watched from a distance as our little one looked so grown up on his own mini roller coaster. He had a great time and we got all teary eyed at how big he's getting, and sooooo fast!

Climbing the hay mountain with daddy

Nathan got lots of Daddy time on Sunday and was loving it. I adore watching them together.

There was a huge silo full of corn and it was so much fun to play in.

We buried Chad first and then just about everyone in the silo became one with the corn in some way or another.

Including our little man, who loved the feel of the cool corn.

Look at the green sign in the background above my head... is throwing the same as tossing or dumping? I don't think so. Hee hee!

Chillin with daddy.

The corn maze was a huge hit and the kids loved running through the "lanes". Nathan liked to touch the corn and we just loved running and watching him navigate the kiddo maze like he ran through corn every day!

Nathan did have a few quiet contemplative moments... it was so unusual to see him sit so still, so of course, I had to take a picture!

We are so excited that fall is here!