This week's Tot School

Nathan is currently 18.5 months old

This week we're almost back to normal tot school. With a whole household still on the mend we're doing lots of low key stuff, plenty of sleeping, and a few play dates! Here's our tot school week in review.

This week, I set out 6 activity trays and set them behind a gate. This way Nathan could see them and select his activity. I kept adding activities to the trays as the week went on and we finished an activity.

He say the play dough and was ready, but first had to remove his socks, and then put only one back on...

This idea is my friend Heather's... it was a little tough for him with cheerios, but next time with fruit loops it might be better. He was really in to eating one in between each one he put on! :) If you can't tell, it's noodles stuck in play dough and we put cheerios on the noodles.

I found the greatest mini tong thingie while in FL. Nathan could do it too! He transferred the corks into the bucket.

Drawing - a huge hit at our house and he's finally not eating the crayons - unless he's in the bath or bored. He did a great job coloring the frogs feet, back, eyes, etc...

with both hands!

Here come the boots! He's getting much better at this peg stacker. We worked on color identification and stacking.

Stickers! Great fine motor skill. He's much better at the foam stickers than paper. This activity was particularly fun because Nathan began to think outside the box...

and he pulled the stickers off the paper and put them on his boots...

and on his face - all over his face and they stayed like this until bath time!

Speaking of baths... here's some pouring practice! He loves to dump water on his head. The expression? Priceless!

Letter recognition in the tub.

This week we read lots of books - at least a hundred!

Nathan is a big fan of his puzzles still too.

All week, though, this puzzle has been a favorite. He loves to say "ambulance" and then squeal.

Another good puzzle with great reinforcement.

Our old friend the shape sorter came back out this week and I realized it's way too easy for Nathan. He zipped through all of the shapes naming them and their color.

We did color sorting this week and he was really happy with himself. He knew the colors and easily matched them with the right bowl!

Normally, I'm not a fan of playing with your food, but when my tot did this and said, "mommie, car, vroooooom" I couldn't help but praise his every creative thought!!!

We didn't just build with food, but also with his stacking train set.

This farm is also great fun for Nathan. I love the perspective of the camera in this picture. Yes, I admit, some days it's easier just to leave the snaps undone... all day!

We went to a great children's museum in a nearby city with some friends and the kiddos LOVED it. This contraption was Nathan's favorite. You shoved a scarf in the hole and the fast blowing wind propelled it around corners and around loop-de-loos and then spit it out a hole on the opposite side. It was so fun to watch the kiddos play here.

The other big hit, the Krispy Kreme machine. Izzy, Zachary, Caleb, and Nathan all loved putting the doughnuts in the slot.

We did lots of other stuff outside and around the house, but these were the pictures I managed to get and I'm really excited with how well the tray approach is going. Nathan understands that the items must stay on the tray and he also knows how to clean up the tray too!

Please join us and do tot school with your tot too! Head on over to Carissa's blog for more info!

What a week

What a week it has been!  Sunday, Chad left for TX on business.  Monday we played with Bethany and Izzy all day and saw Zachary and Kristin too!  Monday night, I started feeling horrible and by 9pm was in bad shape.  Tuesday morning, Bethany kept Izzy and I went to the doc only to find out I had a bacterial infection (most likely respiratory) and the flu!  CRAPOLA!  So when your husband is half way across the country and you're sick with a contagious illness what do you do?  Strap on a surgical mask (which I have worn all week) and call your mommy!  Our neighbor watched Nathan until my mom could arrive and she stayed until Friday morning tirelessly caring for Nathan and cleaning my house.  Nathan loved his time with Yaya and was perfectly taken care of.  Thank you mom for staying so long without a moments hesitation!  We're praying you don't get sick!

right after the doctor picking up Nathan from Bethany... feeling like poo

Yaya did tot school with Nathan every day!   I didn't ask her to take pictures, so you'll just have to believe me!  And as for what was on his plate?  Yaya hooked him up with manicotti, quiche, chicken, fruit, veges... plenty for a kiddo to love!

Hopefully I'll get back to 100% before long and be posting more again.  Until then, I'll leave you with a cute video of Nathan talking about Disney.

Tot school in Disney

Nathan is 18 months old

We had a very different week of Tot School this week because we were traveling.  I brought along some compact "tot school" activities and often, Nathan asked for tot school.  It was fun to see him jump right into learning in the midst of a vacation.  Why?  Because learning happens everywhere.  He didn't even realize we were doing school on vacation!  

Nathan loved looking out the window on the airplane.  It was great on the way back because it wasn't rainy and so he could see the puffy clouds and the land below.  He loved pointing to the clouds and thought that the blue blue sky was a lake.  He said "fly up sky" when we talked about riding in the airplane.

There were tons of sensory experiences all over Disney and the places we stayed.  He loved touching the rocks on the sidewalk, the different textures of walls, sand, dirt, and of course the animals...

and plenty of water.  This little kiddo loves to splash in the water and has no qualms about it getting in his face!

Speaking of water... this little one had plenty of opportunities to play in it!  The pool at the resort had a zero entry (meaning it was a gentle slope from 0 feet deep to 5 feet deep).  This was a great teaching tool because Nathan could decide how deep he wanted to be!  He learned some valuable lessons, with mom and dad close by his side, about where the deep water was and where the shallow water was.  He walked out as far as he could touch and then he'd say "deep" and turn around to go the other way.  Many many many times, he'd go too far or scoot off the side and the water was over his head and he did great.  He'd hold his breath and we'd scoop him up or let him "swim" to us for a few seconds.  I was so proud of his ability to hold his breath when he needed to. :)  His favorite water activity... blowing bubbles... see?

We did tons of letter identification where ever we were!  He loves to find different letters on signs, in magazines, and on the walls.

These Dr. Seuss letters are a huge hit and a great time consumer on the plane.  I think he knows about 50% of his letters now. :)

Along with letter ID, there was PLENTY of animal ID.  We had opportunities for this oh, about 200 times a day!

Some of these words were new and so cute... "peendwin"

"fishey" and "fishies"  For so long he's called a fish by it's "sound" and he finally started saying the name this week!

"tiket"

"buhdda"

Another great activity in the parks, on the resort, and on the plane?  Stickers!  They were every where we went!  He loved to put the stickers from Disney on his belly- and he always put them on himself upside down.

Books, books, books.  Nathan is starting to memorize his favorite books and it's so much fun!  I got some video of it the other night, but haven't been able to post it.  I will soon though!

We did many transferring activities this week as well since they are so compact.  He's learning his colors so well too!  Strange thing is, when asked what color something is, he almost always says green, purple, or black, regardless or the right color.  When he identifies the color without being asked, he says it correctly.  Not sure why, but it's a funny little qwerk.

There's always time for a donkey kick (handstand) or two!

Coloring made a huge transformation during our stay.  The first few days, it was more of the same scribble here and there, eating the crayons so many times mom takes them away, etc.  Chad worked with Nathan one night at a restaurant and showed him how to "color a shark" and apparently he watched intently as Chad colored the eyes, tail, etc.  On the plane ride home, Nathan colored this oppossum part by part, for the first time ever.  He didn't eat the crayon and he intentionally colored in each part of the oppossum naming the parts as he went along.  I almost cried.  Really.

This animal puzzle is another fun plane activity.  He's finally learned how to manipulate the animals to put them in the right way and he knows where to put the front versus the back.

Finally, Nathan has learned to count to 10 on our trip! He and daddy have been practicing this a lot as we've waited and waited and waited while in Disney lines. :)  This is the best video I could get, but it's no where near as accurate as normal.  He was tired after being at Animal Kingdom all day and just wanted to hold keys and to get out of his carseat!  This was also the 5th try to get the video and he was sick and tired of us asking!  Without further adoo, I give you "1, rock on!, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10" - yep, that's how he counts to ten.

A great week of tot school!  While it was great to look at our vacation and think of learning ideas, I'm really glad to be home and do tot school at our house.  It's not nearly as hot, the lines are no where to be found, and you don't have to pay to park!  I did however enjoy all the fun we had at Disney. 

I hope you guys are enjoying tot school with your little ones as much as we are!  Create a post about it and link up to Carissa's blog here and share your adventures!  If you don't know how to link the post, I'd be happy to help!  It's easy once you learn, however it did take Carissa sending me screen shots of each step! :)  I had no clue what a URL was, but now, I'm much more literate in these areas!