Tiny Tot Time

Isaiah is currently 22.5 months

Bookshelf

We use the Ikea Trofast system for both Olivia and Isaiah. It works so great because for Tot School we can just use the shelves, and then going into Kid School, we substitute the drawers and have a perfect set of workboxes.

*Disclaimer: The following pictures represent moments in a little bit of a rough week. Both kids were sick, Isaiah being the sicker of the two. Don’t let these pictures lead you to believe what isn’t true…I should have gotten pictures of grumpy Isaiah too, but when he was grumpy I was holding him in my lap with one hand and working with Olivia with the other…

Isaiah gets to choose what he wants to play with off of these shelves. Some of the shelves got played with multiple times (the stacking blocks and shape sorter), while some of the shelves were not even touched (the “N” shelf and cutting fruit).

On top of the shelf:

• LeapFrog Tag Reader Junior with Sesame Street Alphabet book
• LeapFrog scribble and write. In the past weeks he has chosen this a lot, but he didn’t very much this week so I’ll be rotating it out of his options.
• Manhattan Toys See and Put Birdhouse
• Melissa & Doug Pet Sounds Puzzle

First shelf:

• Melissa & Doug See and Spell
• Various “N” items

Bottom shelf:

• Melissa & Doug Shape Sorter
• Various Cutting Fruits including Melissa & Doug Cutting Fruit and Kidoozi Garden Fresh Fruits & Veggies
• Melissa & Doug Stacking Blocks

    

Books

While JP is deployed, we are living with my parents, so we do school in Olivia’s room. Which actually works out just fine. It’s a nice big room that has her queen bed, an upright piano, the school table, and both kids’ shelves. And the bed provides a comfy & snuggly place for reading too!

“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle has been a favorite of Isaiah’s for over 6 months now.

Table Work

Isaiah didn’t really want to spend much time sitting at the table with us (probably because I kept wiping his running nose). But the little time he did he produced these two Dot Paint Masterpieces. I downloaded them from 1+1+1=1 Blog here.

Isaiah’s Picks

These are toys and activities Isaiah found to play with on his own.

Shape sorting wooden blocks by Imaginarium.

He’s been pushing this stroller and a shopping cart around a lot lately.

     Running on the bed (if he wasn’t so cute, I definitely wouldn’t post pictures of our unmade beds). I don’t normally let him run on the bed…but, this was a result of some sick/grumpy moments when I needed to focus on Olivia, and he was only happy doing this.

His beloved Montessori Cylinder Block was right by his side most of the week.

Counting the cylinders with his feet. This silly boy cracks me up every day!

Tech Time

Isaiah loves the iPad!!! We all love the iPad!

Getting in a little exercise while playing his Eric Carl Very Hungry Caterpillar Ap.

This week Isaiah got more iPad time in than usual because he wasn’t feeling well. It’s one of the things he likes to do even when he’s sick.

 

  

Sensory Bin: Nest

This week’s sensory bin was all about birds and nests to go along with our MFW Kindergarten science unit about nests and Animal Homes. I actually reinvented a flop of a sensory bin from a few weeks ago that was supposed to go with our Leaf science unit – both kids took one look at it and walked away. This time around it went over much better.

In our bin we had:

• a variety of silk leaves I bought at Michaels
• leaf felt stickers I bought at Michaels
• trees from the Tree Toob (these didn’t get played with at all)
• insects from the Insect Toob (these get played with all the time, whether they are in a sensory bin or not…Olivia’s a bug loving princess!)
• a birdhouse I picked up from Michaels
• gold pom poms
• nests, birds, and miniature eggs also from Michaels
• tongs
• small white paint tray

Here’s Olivia first feeding the birds a caterpillar, and then next she was hiding the birds in the birdhouse from the attack insects. I’m not sure how she got into the attack bugs, but I guess it did go along with one of our themes of God providing different homes for different animals for protection.

 

Even though I try to encourage group play with the sensory bin, they just aren’t always interested at the same time. I could not pull Isaiah away from his Montessori Cylinder Block (I purchased this at Montessori Outlet a while back and is one of his all time favorite toys. This is Part 1, and I’m getting ready to buy another part to give him more challenge as he has mastered this one).

Isaiah was most interested in transferring miniature eggs from the nest into the small paint tray and counting as he went. He did this over and over again. It was a great activity for him, and I was really surprised at how well he did the one-to-one correspondence counting. It was the first time he has done this skill.

I’ve tried having him use large tweezers to work on transferring objects and fine motor skills, but he couldn’t get it at all; so, I bought these miniature tongs, which are much easier to grasp and squeeze. He gave it a try, but after the first try he put them down and didn’t try again (notice his cylinder block right by him…this was a constant companion for him this week).

I thought maybe the eggs were too small for using the tongs, so I switched out the eggs for these gold pom poms. Again, he tried, but then he opted to use his fingers.

Sensory bins are fun and great, but have taken me a lot of time, energy, and money to put together…so, this one is going to stay out for the rest of the month and into November. I have some pumpkins to add into it next week, and then maybe I’ll pick up a few Thanksgiving items to add to it, but for the most part we are going to try to get some more use out of this one and maybe pull back out the apple bin.

For more great ideas on sensory bins visit:

1+1+1=1

Totally Tots – What’s in the Tub

Counting Coconuts 

SpartanGirl Sensory Activities for Kids