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.