This Week In Tot School...

The older Will gets, the more and more I enjoy talking to him. He speaks like such a grown up and I love how thoughtful his conversation is now. He truly has insight on different topics and he especially likes to tell me about all of his "favorite" things. Recently, he's gotten really interested in talking about the days of the week... as in what he wants to do on which day. For example, he'll say "I want to go to Great Grandma's house on Sunday" or "Let's go to the park on Wednesday". I don't think he really understands this, but he does know all the days of the week and I'd really love to get/make him a calendar that I can personalize for him with his own little "schedule". That way he can see what's coming up and begin to understand how the weeks go. Also, since our discussion about sequencing events as "first, second, third", he's constantly telling me what we should do and in what order. For example, he'll say "first, we should read these books; then second, we should put on our boots and go outside to ride my bike; and third, we should come in and have a snack". Cracks me up.

Tot School this week was totally fun, if not academic.

We've taken a little break from our "games" this week to exercise our gross motor skills.

Hey, being active is important too! So we practiced running, jumping, hopping, (attempted) skipping, balancing, tricycling/pedaling, etc.

I should thank The Home Teacher for some of her cute activity ideas for toddlers.

We spend time outside EVERY day. Sophie enjoys having a personal chauffeur. We played lots of hide and seek.

Craig pulled out a board for us to use as a "balance beam".
I even drew in "grass" at one end and a "pond" at the other to add in some imaginative play.
(Ya, my artistic ability is incredible. I know.)
We got quite a bit of rain this week so, as usual, we had some flooding in the yard and fields.
Will took advantage of his favorite boots for their actual purpose and played in the puddles.

Bubbles.

One of the ideas I found (which Will was not all that interested in) was "crib sheet parachute". We put a foam ball in the middle and Craig and Will shook the sheet. Will was bored with this immediately.

But "toddler twister", on the other hand, rocked the house!

I cut out six different colored shapes and then I'd call out a specific one for him to put each hand and foot on top of. He loved this and it was more fun practice for learning right and left.

We took turns of course, so I'd ask him "where should I put my right foot?"

And he and daddy had fun coming up with answers that contorted me into a pretzel. :)

It's probably hard to see, but this was "limbo".

We used my exer-tube hooked around the coffee table and Will practiced climbing "over" and "under".

Jumping over.

Mommy's turn.

Mad ups. ;)

Another night we got out Sophie's scarves and her new music CD's and danced around to "I'm a Little Teapot" and "If You're Happy and You Know It". Will also attempted the "Hokey Pokey" - more right and left practice.

I tied some ribbon on to pipe cleaners for twirling "ribbon wands" while dancing.

Daddy twirls one around Will.

Impromptu horse back riding.

Not so much an active game, but Will loves riding the "lawn mower tractor" with daddy.

Toddler "tug-of-war" was on another night, using Will's jump rope.

We had a blanket-covered pillow in the middle for the loser to fall on.

Pull! Pull! Pull!

You're so strong!

Uh-oh! Mommy lost this round.

Afterward, Will and I were a team against daddy.

We got out his numbered egg carton again and shook the pebble inside.

Then whatever number it landed on, he'd have to do that many of a named activity, i.e. four hops, two spins, three jumping jacks.

We made a "garage" and a "tunnel" for his matchbox cars using empty boxes.

More playing outside. Will rides his bike EVERY SINGLE DAY. He has gotten so fast at pedaling and he loves to ask me "are you ready for my really, really fast race on my tricycle?" He's not racing anyone, but he rides to the trees and back and he loves it. He also learned the difference between mommy's "bicycle" and Will's "tricycle" - two vs three wheels.

Kicking the soccer ball - also a favorite.

Daddy likes this too... when he's not playing his own invented game of "bocce golf". Haha - don't ask.

Haha. I love this one of Craig. He was laughing at himself because he couldn't keep the soccer ball up in the air by kicking with one foot.

More balance beam.

And I didn't get a picture of this, but we drew numbers on the driveway with sidewalk chalk again and Will likes to run/jump/spin/walk backwards to whatever number I call out.

One other idea we didn't do was "cell phone hide and seek". It sounded like fun to me but Craig vetoed that game before we even started. You change your ring tone to something fun and then hide it and call from your house phone and the child has to "seek" out the ringer from it's hiding spot. Craig says that's a bad lesson to teach - that cell phones are toys. Ya, okay... but it would have been fun.

So we capped off our active-play week with a trip to Imagination Station on Saturday. This was our second visit, but Craig's first. On the way there, Will told Craig about all the things he needed to see - mainly the "ambli-ance" and the fire truck. It's been a little over three months since our last visit. So it surprised me that Will was telling us (in the car on the way over) that "the red button makes the siren and the blue button makes it go 'beep, beep'!" He remembered the buttons and what sound they make! And sure enough, he was right. Steel trap, I tell you!

Will would have spent the entire time in the fire truck or ambulance if we let him.

This is Will's other favorite thing here.

As usual, Soph just "hung out" and watched her brother - she loves the carrier. Maybe when she's walking, we'll come back again.

Outside, we played around on the steps and checked out the fountain.

And that was our week!