Dumbo, Duck and Dog all start with Dd

~Bug is 25.5 months old~

It’s always a good feeling when you are setting up your calendar board for the week and the little one screams out the letter in excitement. That is how we started the week with the letter D. Bug enjoyed pointing out all the things he knew started with the letter D. He spent some time working in his lapbook to color a duck and to trace the upper and lower case Dd.

We had lots of books that included the letter D as well as some flashcards for the color blue which was this week’s color and one of Bug’s favorites.

Bug has now mastered the skill of sorting shapes on his color pegs. So as he sorts now we call out the color of the shape and what the shape is that he is sorting. He is really good at choosing the right shape when it is called out but not so much on trying to say the name of the shape. ‘Tiandle’ is my current favorite shape.

We have entered the land of the technical and Bug now enjoys using his electronic devices. Here he is using his tablet to work on shapes and his V-Tech to work on his numbers. No he really doesn't need two of these gadgets (not to mention mommy and daddy’s IPhones) but they were gifts and the variety of options between the three devices makes for a wider range of educational opportunities. Plus he enjoys it so much.

This week’s favorite image came from a birthday party that Bug attended for one of his little friends. We didn't realize it was a pool party until after we arrived but decided to let him just go for it and it produced the biggest smiles. Sometimes the best things are the unexpected ones.

Introducing a few new activities next week - So until then…

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A says Ahh

~Bug is 22.5 months old~

Momma’s been slacking a little with getting things posted to the blog but boy have we been busy. Bug has learned a few more letters and can correctly identify the A and O with no problem. When I ask him to say ‘A’ he says ‘Ahh’… which is what his leapfrog taught him. We have gone all the way through the alphabet a few times but he usually gets distracted when we get to the letter G. Then he goes off on a tangent about GiGi, our dog, whom he loves so much.

We did some art and science projects over the last few weeks. Here we made a wreath out of Bug’s handprints. We used pastel colors for Easter and then cut out circles and glued them together. The wreath got to hang on our new display wall for all of Bug’s projects.

We found these little grow in water animals and I couldn’t resist trying them out. Bug picked a green pill and we put it in the water and watched it grow. There were only a few instances of him trying to assist the animal out of the water. This one happened to be a rhinoceros which got a lot of attention throughout the day. The cutest part was Bug showing daddy when he came home. Too bad I didn’t get a picture of that.

Bug is learning to count and we had the perfect opportunity to see if he was comprehending the process while visiting the fair. He had a chance to win a prize by choosing three different ducks. So as he pulled them out we counted and on the third one he gave me this look like “now what?” BTW he won a stuffed monkey.

Reading is always a big part of Tot School for us. Not only do I read aloud to Bug he likes to ‘read’ to himself. His children’s Bible is never too far away. 

This year’s Easter basket included a few different books with learning options. Here Bug is reading his book on shapes. He can correctly identify the circle and almost always the triangle. The square and rectangle are a little confusing to him still.

Mommy’s favorite picture over the last few weeks has to be this one of us right before Easter services. Bug is all dressed up in his little suit. We opted for the Miami Vice look since he wouldn't leave the tie alone.  

Excited to see what happens next week as we continue to grow and learn through play . So until then…

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Week 17 - Motor Skills

~Bug is 19 months old~

This week started with the sickies but that didn’t keep Bug from learning. Matter of fact, he didn’t want to leave his classroom on several occasions. Our Tot Trays are working out wonderfully and really helps keep me organized.

We added a threading activity this week with pipe cleaner and pasta. Bug really enjoyed putting the pasta on the pipe cleaner and then taking it off. He preferred it when we both did one and would show me how when I ‘forgot.’

Bug has gotten very good at putting the rings on the correct way although he insists that the orange one always goes on top. He’s also gotten very good at these nuts and bolts from the Target $1 bin. (I love that place) 

Bug wanted to do a lot of reading in his bean bag chair this week. Sometimes he lets me read to him and other times he prefers to read to himself. I was able to get this extra shot of something that he must have found really awesome in that little book of his.

Putting shapes or objects of any sort is one of his favorite activities. He has gotten very good at using this cookie jar he got for Christmas. He has mastered the round, square and triangle cookies. The star he can get with a little concentration but the heart is still a work in progress.

We had a few warm hours one day so we took advantage and went outside. We picked up leaves and swept the sidewalk. Bug even turned the landing of his slide into an activity as he pushed the leaves through the holes. I forgot to bring my camera with me so this is the only shot that I got from our fun but it is my favorite for the week.

Looking forward to what the future holds… so until then.

Check out what other tots are doing with their moms here

Week 16 - Introducing Tot Trays

~Bug is 19 months old~

Happy New Year! This is our first week back since before Christmas and it was lots of fun. We finally introduced the Tot Tray concept and it went over pretty well. Bug was not overwhelmed with all of his Tot School toys being on the same shelf and actually helped pick some up before moving on to the next tray.

                                                                      

So here are this week’s Tot Trays:

            Top left            Color Sorting
            Top Middle       Using tongs with pom poms
            Top Right        Stacker Pegs
            Bottom Left      Nesting Bowls
            Bottom Middle Dot Painting
            Bottom Right  Shape Sorting Cube

The most exciting thing for me was the stacker pegs. I’ve wanted to add these to our collection for a while and Bug got them for Christmas. The look on his face was priceless as he discovered that he could stand them up in the holes and then pull them back out again. He did this several times just laughing the whole time.

Bug loves playing with his shape sorters. He has gotten really good with the squares and circles but still needs a little work with the stars and other odd shapes. One of his Christmas gifts was this little work bench that he can hammer shapes through. He prefers to just push them instead of using the hammer.

  

Dot painting was another big hit. He loves making marks on the paper. It make take a little longer before he gets the dots where they are supposed to be (mom did the ones you see) but he seems more eager to work on the paper now instead of just making colors.

Bug always has access to his Leapfrog doghouse and has taken a liking to the letter L. He wants everyone to see him put the letter into the doghouse and will push the button and then laugh along as it tells him about the letter.

My favorite image from our time off is this one where Bug is running away from daddy as if he will never be caught.

 Excited about what next week holds. So until then...

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Week 9- Chaos

~Bug is 17 months old~

Letter:      Dd

Theme:      Chaos

This week was a challenge as mommy had a very big event to prepare for which left less time for Tot School as I would have liked. Pictures are lacking as what little time I did have I didn’t want to waste a second.

Bug loves his new shape box and will now open it and take out just the shapes he knows and will show them to me and then put them in the correct spots. We do this a few times throughout the day since it is one of the toys I have let come out of the classroom this week.

Bug started working on his first “look and find” book this week. The finding part is pretty easy for the animals he already knows but the matching part a little more of a challenge. He really has his butterfly down and always wants to point that out.

We also revisited the color blue this week as Bug pointed out several things that were blue… or “boo” as he would say.

During all the chaos I am a little embarrassed to say that he got way too much tv time. The good news is that it was all Veggie Tales and Leap Frog shows so at least there were lessons behind them.   

So until next week…

Check out what other tots are doing with their moms here