Tot School - 24 months

(Blogger takes forever to upload pictures, and then it's a big pain trying to move the pictures around. I realized that making quick photo collages in Shutterfly Studio is a lot easier for me. I've seen it on other blogs, but I guess I'm slow to catch on... I think it cut my posting time by more than half. YAY!)

Sunmaid Raisins Play Book

Alex found this book on our shelf a few weeks ago, and he is just starting to realize what he can do with it. Each page features a picture decorated with raisins, and also has one picture with no raisins. Kids use real raisins to complete the blank picture. Alex can do it (sloppily, of course) but has a hard time completing a picture without eating the manipulatives! ;)

Cars...again.

This wasn't even meant to be a car game; it just kind of came to be. Alex LOVES it, though! He asks to play with this every day, usually multiple times. We've tried it again with blocks, and he's a little more interested if we take turns putting blocks on the correct color.

Matching

Carisa's Tot Books include a book about Thomas The Train. I know that Alex isn't really ready for a tot book, but he's starting to get interested in Thomas now. I decided to print 2 sets of the shape cards for him, and we turned it into a matching game. One copy is glued to the folder; the other set of cards is laminated, cut and stored in the little pocket. Alex just has to set the pieces in the right places. I'm learning the names of the Thomas trains, and Alex is matching pictures. Eventually, we'll start focus on the shapes, too.

Cooking

I was making pork chops breaded with Ritz crackers, so Alex go the job of smashing the crackers. The rolling pin was a little too heavy for him. Next time, I'll just let him go at the crackers with a toy hammer!

Sequencing

I googled Curious George, picked an image I liked, and printed it in multiple sizes to create a sequencing game. Alex understands big and little, but he has no clue what to do with the 2 medium sized Georges. I guess we'll just keep working on big and little for now. Maybe I'll make a few more big and little George, and we'll use it as a sorting game.

The Letter B

I gave Alex chunky crayons, but he's not really interested in crayons. He couldn't wait for me to cut out the letter so he could glue it onto the paper.

He absolutely loves to use Bingo markers, though. He thinks opening the twist caps is very fun. He was doing well at stamping inside of the butterfly until I walked away to get the camera :)

Name Recognition

Carisa suggests this activity using bottle caps, but we didn't have any, so I used frozen juice can lids to make the letters in Alex's name, then printed a matching sheet with his name & picture. I really didn't think Alex would like this, but he had a lot of fun setting the letters in the correct spot. (As Alex gets bigger, I'll make the names of other family members and bind the pages into a book...although I will have to switch to bottle caps for that!)

Snow Play at the kitchen table (last week, actually...)

A lady from church mentioned "snow cream" on her Facebook status, and we had to try it...yum! We also made a little snowman & built a tower of snow blocks.

Singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, Toes" and doing the motions

(well, Mama was singing...Alex was doing the motions)

We also made B-sandwiches, blew bubbles in the bathtub, and a few other things, but I loaned out the USB cable that connects the camera to our computer...so I can't get the photos on here. Oops!

To see what other tots are doing this week, check out: