Toddler Fun

Now that "the babies" are here, I'm realizing "go play" to the youngest isn't going to work nor is having them join us at the table to color and such. Miss L is 15 months & Miss H is only 13 months (or 14 now, I have to go look). Needless to say, I can't have them running around without watching over them, but I can't not do school each day either. Although, some children (who will remain nameless) wouldn't mind that in the least. ;-)

I have been reading two blogs lately in particular that deal with "Toddler School." In fact, one is called "Tot School." There are some really great ideas over there about how to incorporate learning with your toddlers. Carisa has even made up some "Tot Books" which are miniature lapbooks. I'm planning to start doing some of those with J this year - especially the Thomas the Tank Engine one - his favorite!

The other blog I am really enjoying is called No Time for Flashcards. This one is VERY good. Her son is 20 months so older than Miss L but a lot of it can be adapted to either Miss L or J. I love this website.

This is my first attempt on Tuesday with Miss L.....

We started with the chips can and straws. I had punched holes in the cover but she had a hard time with that. However, she spent at least 15-20 minutes putting the straws in & out of the can. She did try putting them through the holes in the cover but the can ended up on the floor more than not. She loved this activity so it's a keeper. We'll keep working on getting the straws through the holes in the cover too. I need to find a smaller container as well.

Next I pulled out our counting bears and cups. I started out with all five cups and all the bears. I soon realized this was way too crowded for this little booster seat tray so I took a couple of the cups away and a lot of the bears. She had a great time putting them in the cups....

dumping them out of the cups.....

more dumping out of the cups.....

and I spent a lot of time telling her not to eat them. ;-) You can see she was having fun.

The bears lasted for another 15-20 minutes or so. Then I took the bears & gave her some poker chips to play with (we use them for counting). She liked filling the cup & dumping these out as well, but I think I should have had a different activity in between. She tired of this in only about 5 minutes. I think it was too similar to the bears.

I then got her a few blocks to play with. She stacked them but also did this...

Yup - she got ALL the blocks beside her. LOL

The last thing I tried was putting shaving cream in a Ziploc baggie inside a quart baggie. I tinted it with red food coloring. She was NOT impressed. In her defense, when she saw me with the food coloring and the boys kept SAYING "food" coloring, she wanted to eat. Miss L & Miss H started doing their fuss song. I decided to quickly finish up & have a snack!

Overall I think I'm on my way to keeping Miss L happily occupied during our school day. Miss H is still a bit too young for quite a bit of this, but she is quite happy to play in the playpen or sit on my lap so it works for now. As she gets older, we'll add her in as we can. However, I only have Miss H until December so I'm not sure how much she was benefit from our Tot School.

Any more ideas? I currently have this book out of the library & I'm finding some great ideas in there as well. I'll be posting more as I make them up & document our day.