Tot School- Easter…

Another busy week doing Tot School. Noah is 16 months old and last week we loosely followed an “Easter” theme.

Unlike a lot of Western and Christian holidays Easter has NOT taken off in Japan- it is only a matter of time before they catch on to it of course it would be just another commercial opportunity to sell chocolate, cute bunnies and chicks and more but seeing as what they have done with Valentine`s Day (and it`s spin off, White Day) as well as Christmas I think Easter fever will kick in eventually!!!

I am still learning what interests Noah and what sorts of things he will focus on for five minutes or more as opposed to some things which he gets over in less than a minute or two. I have been struggling with discipline lately and I know he is really too little to be disciplined or to understand the consequences of his actions but I am trying to work out a way to make him understand what he can and can`t do with the activities (like with a sensory bin he should try to keep all of the items on his mat or near his mat and not pick them up and take them elsewhere) and also trying to limit his climbing, at least onto places like the dining room table or the tv shelf (I let him climb all he wants at the park) – I am trying to use positive reinforcement as well as redirecting his actions for example if he climbs I explain that he can`t climb, it is dangerous and he might fall and I move him back to a safe area and say “Let`s read a story instead” or “Why don`t you play with your blocks”…..Parenting is definitely a learning curve. If anyone has any book recomendations or resources on this please let me know! I have found in the last week if he does something “bad” like climbing up onto the dining room chairs or table that if I say “Noah get down please” and when he looks at me I say “good boy, that`s it” then he gets down…

I am reading “The Absorbent Mind” by Maria Montessori and have revisited some books that I have either read of flicked through before including How to Raise an Amazing Child (Tim Seldin) and Teach me to do it Myself (Maja Pitamic). I am finding The Absorbent Mind a bit hard to follow so am taking my time so that I know I am getting it- there is no rush.

Sorry, bit of a ramble there- back to Tot School!

We started the week off with some reading about Easter- next year I will try to get some books more about the story of Easter. Noah`s favourite was the Karen Katz “Where are Baby`s Easter Eggs” which was no surprise as he loves her books in general.

We then worked on some crafts- The first one I got from here and I just put some glue on the basket and let him put the eggs himself- we talked about the colours. I had some ink as well and we were going to add some fingerprint “eggs” also but he didn`t like it when I tried to put his thumb print onto the paper (I guess because I had to hold his hand quite stiffly) so we only did it once and then I left it- maybe when he is a bit older.

Then we did an Easter Egg collage- this is Noah`s first collage!! He enjoyed it! He just sort of threw things on to it (I had put glue on the egg shape already) and when he was done I just shook it a bit to get anything off that wasn`t on the glue/egg. He loved the tissue paper and the stickers.

And some colouring… (I got colouring pages from different places online)

Later in the week we made an Easter basket (he coloured in the bunny ears/face with crayons, and put stickers and tissue paper on it himself- I had pre covered the milk carton in construction paper and made a handle and stuck the rabbit face on before we started (since he coloured it earlier in the week)

Also some more colouring and we got out the dot markers and did some E is for Egg worksheets. He is getting more interested in using the dot markers for colouring instead of just putting the lids on and off (although he still enjoys this!)

On different days we had some Easter themed meals and snacks.

The lovely Joey from Origami Living sent us some Easter pasta- I made a lemon cream chicken pasta with it and it was delicious. Noah enjoyed it too and even ate leftovers the next day for lunch (me too!)

Later in the week I made a bunny snack for Noah as well.

Another “Easter” themed activity we did was putting plastic eggs in and out of an egg carton. Noah liked this- he also liked putting them in the bag (which they came out of). He could open them but couldn`t close them by himself though (not properly anyway) and this frustrated him a little bit. I used the same eggs for our Easter egg today. I set them up with matching colours but he was not interested in this aspect of it all.

Today we did an Easter egg hunt so that Noah could use his basket- he got really into it and was happy to “find” eggs in the living room and put them in his basket (and when he run out of space there, into a bag!) – He got to eat his first ever Easter egg!

We tried a couple activities we have done before again.

One was the counting bears- I only put out two colours this time but he still wasn`t interested in sorting them himself. He watched me do it though and I exaggerated the colours of each bear which he thought was funny but he was more interested in moving them all from one container to another- I let him play with this for awhile as he liked doing it even if he wasn`t interested in sorting them- I know he will be eventually!

Beading was something else we did- again he liked putting the beads in containers more than actually threading them but I gave him a large chopstick to try it with as well and he seemed to enjoy that more as of course it was a bit easier. I left this on his shelves for a couple of days and he took it down a couple of times to play with it again.

Noah LOVES his mat- it features in a lot of these pictures. It is just a mat I picked up at Ikea (I need to get another one as this one now has marker etc on it and needs a wash) Whenever I get the mat out he tries to sit down (I always ask him to sit before he touches the activities/starts and he does) before I even finish unfolding it or he tries to help me unfold it (I have tried letting him do it- he is not quite there yet with the coordination- he does enjoy helping me though). He knows when the mat comes out too that he is going to get something interesting to do- at least that is how I think he sees it. Last night I finished off a using a parmasen cheese container and I washed it out, removed the label and left it in the rack to dry and when I saw it this morning I knew Noah would enjoy putting something in it so I got the straws out and sat him down, showed him once and then left him to it while I fed Shion. He sat for more than 20 minutes putting the straws in- only getting frustrated once when he had finished putting them all in and wanted to get them out (I showed him how the other side of the cap opened and he could take them out himself easily)…..An impromptu activity but one I knew he would like!

The mat definitely makes him focus a bit more on the activity at hand- when he gets up to go look at something else or read books I usually pack the activity away and the mat away- sometimes he will indicate that he isn`t finished yet though and will come back to it to play some more. He is pretty good about keeping the activities on the mat too which is impressive for someone his age.

Some Practical Life activities we worked on were helping me with the washing (If I say “ta” he hands the next item to me- he likes to pull everything out of the washing basket and put it back in too- I used to tell him “no” but he ALWAYS puts everything back in so now I just let him), putting nappies in the bin, putting his water BACK on his highchair (so he knows where it is whenever he wants a drink- he has gotten VERY good at this) and giving me his milk bottle when he is done instead of throwing it (when he is finished I say “Ta” and he picks it up and gives it to me. Sometimes he carries it to me if I am in the kitchen or tries to put it in the sink himself). Teeth brushing is another- he loves to brush his teeth (or more his gums!) and I let him do it for about 3 minutes himself first before it is “mama`s turn” to do the front teeth and he has gotten very good at letting me help him but also he loves to watch me clean my teeth. Another activity was wiping up spills- which I actually set up on the mat.

This is something I thought he would enjoy because when he spits his water on the floor (luckily this phase seems to have passed!) I would give him a teatowel to wipe it up himself after he watched me do it a couple of times and he loved doing this so I thought practicing with a sponge would be good for him but the sponge didn`t wipe the spill up very well and he couldn`t get the water out of the salt and pepper shaker himself so in the end I put the water on the tray and gave him a “wipe” to wipe it up with. This was much more successful but he got over it quickly.

Other toys that got used a lot this week-

His wooden ring stacker

The Spring/Easter sensory bin

Wooden bus shape sorter (He got his own mat out and bought it to me and so I layed it down for him and he went and got the shape sorter himself- it was after we had finished up with the dot markers and I put it away but he decided to get it out again!)

This coming week we are going to look at some “transport” themed activities- Noah is getting more and more interested in his cars and trains and his recent facination is bikes. There is a tricycle at the park we go to next door and he loves to rid on it (They are second hand toys that have the parks name written on them in marker- a lot of sand toys, a couple of balls and two little kids tricycles)- he can`t read the ground yet to move himself so someone has to push him but he loves it. He loves to climb on and off it and inspect the wheels as well!

Check out 1+1+1=1 for more ideas and to see what others have done this past week during Tot School.

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