Week 20 - What a ride?

~Bug is 20 months old~

Week 20 – where has the time gone? We introduced some new things this week in Tot School. The first new introduction was water paint. Bug LOVED painting the letter Aa as we talked about things like apples and anteaters. We also introduced play dough – although apparently more got into his mouth then we originally thought. This one might be put back on the shelf for a while.

 

We took advantage of a nice day and took a field trip to the zoo. We also got a chance to take Bug’s cousin with us and together they enjoyed looking at all the animals. We even got a chance to see the aforementioned anteater. (Not a good picture since he kept turning his backside to us)

Thanks to The Activity Mom we have a new color sorting game. Of course, we started with orange and blue (Go Gators) and although it took a little prodding Bug quickly picked up the concept.

This cool little train brought lots of smiles while we learned how to spell his name. Bug brings the train to me often and will put his finger in my hand so that I can help him pick out the correct letters.

If you haven’t had a chance to explore feelings with your child then you are missing out on so much fun. We tried using Bug’s feelings lapbook but he preferred practicing the faces in his book.

 

Lots of fun on the horizon… so until then.

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Week 19 - Cold Weather while under the Weather

~Bug is 20 months old~

This week was a toughie. Through a destructive attitude and a horrible cold we got very little done in the terms of Tot School. We did get a chance to play with Bugs stacking pegs and actually got a few of them in the right color section.

We also got some reading in with his hard books as well as some nice Bible stories.

Mom’s favorite this week: Due to the cold weather and Bug not feeling well there was a lot of snuggling this week.

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Week 18 - Music Appreciation

~Bug is 19.5 months old~

We jumped into music appreciation this week with all of Bugs musical toys. He can now identify each of his items by name but we are still working on matching them to the identification cards.

The xylophone was used to make music but also to learn colors.

Make a beautiful noise is certainly what he did with the maracas. It was hard trying to get a picture of him with them because he kept running around shaking them. I think that he enjoyed them the most.

We worked hard on his tracing this week. He is getting much better at trying to connect the objects on his letters but still loves to color like crazy.

We took some time to play Baby Einstein First Instruments. The concept is still a little lost on Bug but he really liked listening to the different instruments.

Mom’s favorite this week:

The weather has been pretty nice here lately so we took a walk and gathered leaves.

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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.

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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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~Bug is 18.5 months old~

This week presented a little attitude and some destructive tendencies. Not sure if Bug was ready for Christmas vacation or what but we were able to get a few things done.

We worked on sorting his blocks by color. He still needs a little encouragement to get them started but once he gets moving he works right through them. However, once he was done… they went everywhere.

Bug finally mastered this little timer. He has been trying to turn it for weeks now but hasn’t quite gotten his fingers to cooperate. We worked really hard and finally he understood where he had to place his fingers to get it to turn. He took his new skill and mastered the screws. 

Bug spent a lot of time reading this week. He read some on his own and some with me. He will pull them all out and meticulously go through each one until he finds the one that he wants. Then he will crawl up in my lap and ask for 'more." He likse to point out items in his color book and tell me what they are. We did this a LOT.

 Daddy got to participate with some apps this week. Bug can now turn on the IPhone and use a few apps. There may be an IPad in our future.  

In preparation for our annual Christmas party, Bug took pleasure in helping stir some of the cookie mix. Pretty sure he enjoyed eating them more but it was fun sharing a tradition and can’t wait to continue it through the years. 

We are officially on Christmas break and will start again after the New Year. So until then…

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Week 13 and Week 14 - Wow

~Bug is 18 months old~

Letter:      Pp

Week 13-14 has been combined due to the shortness of both weeks. Week 13 was short due to our vacation to Disney World which was really nice and week 14 was shortened due to the unexpected arrival of Bugs new cousin.

We finally picked up a cookie sheet for Bug to play with his Leapfrog doghouse letters somewhere other than the kitchen. He loves that he can stick the letters to something other than the fridge.

Bug can now sort his eggs almost all the correct way. He still doesn’t understand that the faces are different but he now knows that each egg has its own place in the carton.

We did get in a little work on the letter P. He likes it when I help him trace but still prefers to color with the bottom of the crayon. We are hoping to get some Dry Erase markers for Christmas.

Thankfully Bug really likes for us to read to him but he also likes to read to himself. With all the shuffling back and forth he was content with reading in his car seat to help pass the time.

These colored shapes that I picked up at the Dollar Store have really gotten their money’s worth. Bug plays with these multiple times a day. Although we haven’t really gone over the color yellow (officially) that seems to be the color that he always wants. We are working on saying the colors as he takes them out of the bag but yellow is still a little difficult.

Another Bug favorite is his cube sorter. He concentrates really hard as this toy actually has similar holes but each shape only fits into one hole. He will take a shape and work diligently until he makes it fit the correct one.

With all the craziness of the last two weeks we decided he needed some play time and took him to an indoor play area at the mall. He loved climbing on all the toys and gabbing with the other kids.

Looking forward to a slow week coming up. So until then…

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