Tot-School- Red Week

Tanner is 16 Months

This is my first week linking up with 1+1+1=1's tot school gathering.  I'm still trying to figure everything out so I have been searching the web for ideas for this week's theme.  I figured I could start with colors and work my way up to letters in  few months.  Tanner is still a little go-go-go, so I'm trying to just go with the flow and not force learning on him if he isn't ready.  

I am a nurse, not a teacher, so I am new to ideas on how to teach using play.  I've gotten most of my ideas so far from 1+1+1=1, The Kavanaugh Report, and You Are The Roots.  Hopefully with time I will be able to come up with some ideas on my own. ;)

Tanner figured the best thing to do with his Red sensory box was to flip it over and pick out the cars.

The next tray I had set up was a pom pom push.  I made the hole in the top of the container just a little too small so the pom wouldn't just fall into the container.  This was one of Tanner's favorites this week.  Although he was a little upset that shaking the container after the poms were in it didn't make any noise. 

Surprisingly this was the first week Tanner actually enjoyed play-doh! He kept asking for me to open it and sit with him at his table.  He stamped shapes into it, rolled his cars in it, and of course, tasted it.

The magnet board was just okay.  He was interested the first day, but after that he just preferred trying to eat the magnets.

Dry-erasing is slowing starting to get interesting.  He realized Friday that he can wipe the color away.  (And I'm thankful the marker easily wipes clean off the top of his table). 

I knew this activity was going to be too hard for Tanner right now, but I had the materials so I just went ahead and made it now, so I can have it ready to go in the future.  It is a ribbon with a button on the end.  And the point is to thread the ribbon through the foam pieces.  Maybe we'll try again in a few months.

I found a recipe on pinterest for homemade finger paint. Tanner hated it!  He did not like getting his fingers dirty.  I'm sure it was the consistency.  

Another flop this week was dot painting.  It could have been because we were doing it at the end of the day instead of the morning.  Or he just didn't want to sit still long enough.  We'll try this again in a couple of weeks.

I've been cleaning up our office and decorating it for tot-school.  And while I was organizing some trays, I snapped a couple blooper pictures.  

I am so excited to be working with Tanner like this.  I'm really enjoying it, and I think he is as well.    Next week=Orange week!

Tot-School (15 Months)

I've been meaning to post these pictures for a month.  But I figured it would be ok to post them now (late).  I'm working on putting together ideas for Tanner's 16 and 17 month Tot-School.  

I've waited until Tanner seemed ready to sit down and do activities with me.  Up until now he was too impatient and wanted to run around.  But he's really enjoying his activities now.  I have bookshelves set up in our office that have trays on each shelf.  And I put the different activities on each tray.  When it's time for Tot-School, or when Tanner seems interested in them, we pull a tray off the shelf and do the activity.  He may spend 10 minutes on one activity and 2 on the next.  The most important thing right now is to not push him.  If he's not wanting to play, then we move on.  

 This was the first thing I made for Tot-School.  Way back in December.  The magnets aren't very strong so I'm sure I will be redoing them eventually.  Tanner likes them.  He prefers to take the shapes and throw them on the floor though.  Tanner knows "star" so he is constantly saying "taar" when he sees this puzzle. 

This next activity was a hit!  Tanner's favorite!  I cut coffee stirrers and lollipop sticks to different sizes and added some popsicle sticks as well.  The coffee stirrers and lollipop sticks go into the small holes on the container and the popsicle sticks go into the larger hole.  Tanner loves shaking things that make noise.  So to make it more exciting, I tell Tanner to close the lids when he is done so he can shake it.  

This activity is just a transferring type game.  He takes the tops and puts them into the different containers.  

There are different colored stars in the spaces on the paint palate.  Eventually I hope to work with tanner on coordinating the right color pompom with the star.  But right now, he enjoys just transferring them back and forth.  

The last two activities I don't have a lot of pictures because they made a mess (especially the rice) so I needed to have my hands free. They are both sensory boxes.  Tanner didn't care for the first one.  He preferred to pick out the tops and have me spin them on the table. 

Nothing is safe

Tanner has grown 2 inches in 3 months. This means nothing is out of his reach. I just found that out the hard way.

I have lotion sitting in my bedside table to put on my legs and hands since the winter weather has been so dry. Tanner use to not be able to reach it. Key words: use to.

I was putting together a shopping list in the kitchen when I saw Tanner doing something strange in the living room. He had the lotion bottle. Upside down. Banging the pumping mechanism on the carpet. He not only got the bottle off of the table, but figured out how to get the lotion out!

I ran to him and grabbed the bottle and realized there would be some cleaning to do. Lotion on the carpet and the couch. A trail of lotion dots down the hallway. Lotion dots on the bedroom floor, on our bedskirt (how? I have no idea), lotion on the TV screen, and ceiling (again, I have no idea how!)

I guess it's time to toddler-proof the house some more!