Tot School- Body & Feelings…

Noah is 23 months old & Shion is almost 11 months old. Bit of a hodgepodge couple of weeks but we did some fun stuff! So busy this time of year and with the boys birthdays coming up as well as Christmas and other commitments we have been out of the house a lot. Some of our activities this past couple of weeks were to do with my body and feelings.

Looking forward to starting some Christmas Tot School. Just finished putting together the advent calendar – there are little notes with some activities as well as some that say “book” because I wrapped up 12 Christmas themed books {mostly new, we only had 2 or 3 in our collection} and the boys can unwrap one every second day leading up to Christmas and on the other days we will bake cookies, watch Christmas dvds, do arts,crafts or stickers, learn some Christmas songs and more. I am slowly putting together some ideas for the next month – still a fair bit of prep to do but I have work this weekend so I have to finish my prep for that first.

Art & Craft

 
Hand prints {this is finger painting shot but we got some handprints as well. Realized I didn`t upload the photo though}

I really wanted to let Shion have a go as well and also to do feet prints but I would of needed an extra set of hands and our weekends have been so busy that we didn`t get to it. Maybe another time. Noah requests to do painting a lot recently so I know that our birthday present to him {an easel, new paints with chalk board on the other side} will be well received! He sits in Shion`s highchair to paint to keep things away from Shion but the easel should help with this as well.

Marble painting- This was a huge hit!

Self portrait- There was a mirror on the table but you can`t see it here. He thought it was funny that I put a mirror on the table.

Putting lids back on the markers is just as much fun as using them- look at the concentration.

We did a face collage- I found a printable sheet with eyes, mouths, ears etc {quite monteresque!} and cut them out- we did the first one together so I could show him what they were for and then I let him go with the glue and eyes, mouths etc galore. He loves any work where I let him use glue!!!

Stickers {can`t have a week without stickers!}

We even practiced some body parts by me telling Noah to put stickers on daddy`s cheeks, chin, feet etc! {Yes he is really asleep…and no he didn`t wake up!}

Another time he practiced on himself.

Lots of drawing as usual- here he is telling me to colour with him!

Practical Life & Fine Motor Skills

Looking through the photos I realized we didn`t do much practical life work- well nothing that I documented. I am encouraging Noah to try and undress himself and put his own shoes on, he loves to help sweep and he does a great job of helping to clean up his own toys. If he wants to request to do something else {that may be out of reach because of Shion} then he always cleans up and then points out what he wants as he knows I will usually say clean up first before getting down his play food and utensils or his crayons. I also let him choose what he wants to wear most days by giving him 2 choices- he will usually have some jeans or something out but I will hold up 2 or 3 jumpers or jackets and he will choose which he wants and he helps to clean up the bath toys and wipe down the bath when he is hopping out.

Some things we did do.

Fine motor skills work tracing lines {for his “F” sheets- F is for Foot from 1+1+1=1} – He understands this concept but is not there yet and just wants to try to colour the pictures so we trace together and then he colours.

We did some bean pouring

He had quite a few spills this time as he was in such a rush but he cleaned each time.

If Shion is napping then I can put out a couple of activities on our bottom step for Noah to choose- he knows to put them back if he wants to try something else. We don`t have the space to keep things out continuously but I try where we can.

We tried tonging again as well- this was a lot more successful than in the past. Noah used his hands as well but he really tried hard to get them with the tongs first.

Open & Close basket I made a couple of weeks ago made another appearance as well.

We also went on a family trip to the zoo over the weekend and the petting zoo was a good way to show Noah how to be gentle with animals. He loved the guinea pigs {he only wanted to pat them though, he did not want to try and hold them} but also wanted to pat all the other animals. He had no fear and would of climbed in to the monkey enclosure to pat them too if I had let him

Here he is being gentle to the goat {When I said be gentle he switched from a full flat palm to one finger!}

We will definitely be going back to this zoo sometime soon- quite cheap and only a 10 minute drive from our house. Also had a train that kids could ride with their parents and a park so Noah got out a lot of energy and had a great time. Due to the size as well he could walk freely as it wasn`t too busy or too big.

Math & Sensory

Colour sorting paddle pop sticks made another appearance after Noah caught sight of them in the cupboard and went to get his stacking cups to show me he wanted to do it again. Really this is too easy for him now but he really seems to like it.

We also did a fruit/veg colour sorting activity {I got the idea from The Activity Mom}

Noah also dressed a little man I made out of felt.

My felt skills are shocking! My cutting skills are worse!

This falls under language as well but we did some matching exercises with body parts. I got this print out online but I can`t remember where- if you have a link for it please let me know. Noah knows all of the body parts in these pictures and enjoyed matching them up! The book in the picture is a recent favourite as well.

Language

I am trying to focus a lot on language with both boys. If you have read other posts you would know that Noah is not a talker and this has been a big stress for me lately mainly because especially in recent months his inability to communicate makes him so frustrated and I want to help him. I know he understands {A lot!} but he can`t seem to form many words instead relying on signing and pointing and noises. I try to get him to say words when I know what he wants- like if something rolls under the sofa and he can`t reach it he just starts screaming and pointing and I say “Noah, what should you say if you want my help” and he says “mama” and then signs help. I tell him to say “mama, help” – He can`t do the help sign properly though and instead kind of does a cross between more and train {two signs he uses a lot!}. We encourage him to say a lot of different sounds and he loves his ABC book a lot and he can make the sound of over half of the letters when prompted {several he can do unprompted like the phonic sounds for the letters in his name as well as G, B, F and S}

Here he is doing an F sticker sheet I made and looking at his ABC picture book at the F page.

We also talked about feelings- he has several books that touch on this. He LOVED the Happy/Sad monster book with the masks {I think it is called Glad Sad monster?}- Here he is separating happy and sad pictures of babies and kids {I saw this idea on The Princess & The Tot} – He didn`t really get what I was asking him to do but he loved the pictures especially the ones that included him or his brother. We read Happy Sad first {you can see it in the edge of the picture}.

The F letter basket {with fishing game} was a hit and Shion enjoyed it as well. We did some worksheets later the same day from 1+1+1=1.

As usual we read a ton of books! We have story time before nap and bed but Noah will often bring others to read at different times. He definitely has clear favourites though!

Baby School

I was a bit lazy with organizing stuff for Shion the past couple of weeks. Here are some recent pictures of him though- he is finally getting more into books {instead of just trying to eat him. I really never had this problem with Noah.} and I have had quite a few deliveries lately so giving him a box to play with turned out well! He was learning about object permanence here because when I put things inside the box he knew to look for them and could climb in and then crawl backwards out!

He is also working on his pincer grip with finger food!

Gross motor skills are always getting a workout as well!

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