Tot School... finally!

Nathan is 21 months old.

WOW! It feels like forever since I posted about tot school. We've had a few illnesses and tons of playdates, but not a lot of organized learning activities until this past week! I need to do an overhaul on our tot school stuff and get rid of what we don't need, so please excuse the mess in the background (the stacked tupperware containers) as organizing is a work in progress!

I found these great books at Costco and they are huge write on wipe off picture books. I got 3 of them (numbers, letters, and shapes/colors). This was Nathan's first attempt at these and I think he did well! When read the instructions, "circle the red apple" this is what he did...
Another Costco find, a long train puzzle that is self correcting with numbers 1-10! We started out small with just one set of numbers at a time (each set is 3 pieces)...
and then Nathan connected the number sets and put them in order one through four with some help from mom. He was so excited about the big puzzle and has come back to it many times during his free time.
Of course, these puzzles, while easy for him, are certainly a favorite. He does these daily and loves to do 5 or 6 in a row, asking for specific puzzles each time!

This is an old favorite (how old? see here) and Nathan loves to name the letter and what's on the letter. He did 80% of this by himself! Way to go buddy!
This was tons of fun for Nathan! We brought out the eggs again and this time I placed a ball or pom pom of matching color in each egg. He took them apart and discovered the ball in each.

Then I placed half of each egg in a line and put the other half and the colored ball on the tray and asked Nathan to put the right ball in and then complete the egg. This required patience and focus. He did well with the colors but had a hard time closing some of the eggs. He does keep coming back to this tray however.

Sticker fun... also lots of coloring this week.Another new activity. My friend Bethany found this fun set for us at a consignment sale! I drew three circles of different colors on the board and asked Nathan to sort the pieces into the appropriate colors.
Look at the focus on his sweet little face!
He really liked this!
Stringing beads on pipe cleaners is a challenge in and of itself, but when you add in sorting the colors onto the right color pipe cleaner, it makes even more of a challenge. Honestly, his favorite part was removing the beads and counting them!Kitchen fun! Thank you Carissa for posting about juicing in this post! It inspired me to do a little research of my own! While we don't have a juicer, we do have a blender and this blender and this post have radically changed our morning routine! Every morning I make smoothies for the family and often Nathan helps me. He loves throwing in the veggies and fruits and has learned some new foods like swiss chard and green leaf lettuce. I love feeling like our family is starting out their days with a healthy meal. What's in the smoothies? You probably don't want to know if you're the drinker, but... usually ground flaxseed, coconut milk or coconut/pineapple juice, almonds or walnuts or pecans, and then then fruits and veggies... say: a kiwi, a peach, a banana, 1/2 head of green leaf lettuce, one carrot, 2 handfuls of spinach, and a stalk of celery. Sometimes I add vanilla yogurt for a more creamy snack. We've eaten these every morning for two weeks and most mornings, Nathan begs for one! Amazing.
Doesn't look too appetizing does it?
Back to the "classroom"... This is another old favorite that we recently pulled back out. This time I pointed to the apple on the book and asked Nathan to push the button. He got a kick out of this and then changed it up a bit on me...
he decided it would be more fun to step on what I asked. It worked on his balance and helped him practice his impulse control (oh how fun it would have been to jump on the book but he delicately placed his toe or foot on whatever button corresponded to the picture I touched).
In the last month, Nathan has begun to share his love of books with his animals. This particular day the animal of choice was his bear. "bear" had to touch the things Nathan called out...

These magnetos are another favorite around here (thank you Kristin for continuing to let us borrow them!). Nathan loves to free play with them.

Can you believe he built this tower by himself? It was a painstaking process that wasn't successful the first, second, third or fourth attempts, but eventually, he did it! Way to go little man!
Boys will be boys right? Well, crashing and jumping are gross motor skills, so we'll call this a tot school activity. We also worked on "wait" and "jump" while all this fun was taking place!

Last but not least, tot school occurred at the park. Nathan climbed a rock wall a good 7 feet high, with me close behind (obviously not taking pictures), he dried off several slides still covered in dew, he climbed up, walked down, slid down, ran, jumped, and took turns! My favorite pics of his happened here...
As he begs for me to swing him higher, you can tell he's holding on for dear life and having a blast!
Okay, so the above pictures are my favorite of just Nathan, but this one below is my favorite of him and Izzy. They have finally learned to hold hands, and they are very good at it. They've covered long distances hand in hand and I pray this doesn't change any time soon!
For more tot school ideas, check out this post and all the others linked up to it!