Tot School (19 months)

~19 months.

This will be a summary of the past two weeks! I've been bad about taking pictures so a lot of what we did was not recorded on camera.  I did get a couple of some activities though so those will be what I highlight.  A lot of what we did is nothing new. We played with Pom Poms, Pipe Cleaners in a colander, Reading A LOT, and we are still trying to reinforce the letters A, B, and C before we move on to D, E, ...

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 This is part of our work with reinforcing the letters A, B, and C.  Bee continues to love painting with the Dot Markers.  I printed some coloring pages from First School and added the letters A, B, C on each one so Bee could dot the letters and we could make the sound or name the letter each time.  I also used printables from 1+1+1=1. to reinforce each letter individually. We have still been attempting to put together letter puzzles but Bee continues to be uninterested in them.  I think this next week we will attempt just matching the letters rather than trying to put them together as puzzles.

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 We've been practicing kicking a lot! Clearly Bee has decided that he would rather be a goalie and insists on throwing the soccer ball. He did finally kick it a couple of times.

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More work with our felt board this week. I decided to make a felt story for "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie" By Laura Numeroff.  In the right hand picture Bee is using the broom felt piece to sweep our couch! We also laid out our pieces as we read the story. : )

 This is our felt board activity for Fidgety Fish. I've shown this one before but Bee is just so excited in these pictures and so active I had to share them!

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We've also done several painting activities lately (more to be shown when I do our Easter post). But this was using leftover paint from a Bunny Craft we did. Bee loves painting and getting paint EVERYWHERE!

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In the last several weeks we've done a lot of singing activities with Bee. Many of them are adaptations from songs sang at Gymboree.  In this picture Bee is wearing his apron and rolling his arms to a Rolly Polly song.  It's lyrics are 

"Roly Poly, Roly Poly, Out, Out, Out. (Move arms out)

Roly Poly, Roly Poly, In, In, In. (Move arms in)

Roly Poly, Roly Poly, Touch your Nose. (Touch Nose)

Roly Poly, Roly Poly, Now lets Touch our Toes." (Touch Toes)

We've also been singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Row Row Row your Boat, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Bee can do the movements to most of these although sometimes Twinkle Twinkle and Itsy Bitsy are interchanged. : )

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 My favorite photo in the past couple of weeks.  Bee "reading" his Playtime Peek-A-Boo book to our cats. Austin was more interested in licking the laundry basket but Tortilla was eager to listen. : )

Tot Packs!

Here are the links to download the two tot packs I have made. One is Dr. Seuss themed can be seen in greater detail here. The second is a transportation tot pack I created which can be seen in greater detail here. To download just click on the image below and you will be redirected to www.4shared.com.





 

Please let me know in a comment if you have any difficulty with the formatting or downloading the tot packs from 4-shared.  This is the first time I've ever posted documents and was initially having trouble with the formatting.

Look what Mommy Made

I love, LOVE, LOVE sewing and craft projects.  I really enjoys making things that my little guy can use to learn new skills.  Lately I've been working on some projects featured on other people's blogs and I'd like to share them and one other I made a while ago but Bee is finally old enough to really enjoy.

These are my latest project that I just finished TODAY! There is a tutorial for how to make these alphabet letters at Oh So Happy Together.  These Letters took a day and a half for me to make.  That included two nap times and working one evening after Bee went to bed. I should mention that I did have help cutting out the letters from my mother but it was still a very easy project and a great way to use up extra scraps that you and friends might have lying around!

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This I posted about in my latest Tot School Post but wanted to mention again just because it is so cool. Bee goes to the closet (it's home) and requests to play with this car mat everyday! I had initially intended it rarely to use at home and more for when we are on the run but he likes it so much that I just can't say NO!  The tutorial for this project is at Cook Clean Craft.  This project took a little longer to create. The most intensive part being all the cutting and gluing.  It is so worth the effort though if your child likes cars as much as mine!

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This is an activity book that I made for Bee several months ago. At the time he was not really old enough to thoroughly enjoy the book but now he IS! The book pattern for this came from Sew Baby. 

This is what all of the pages look like when completed.  This is a picture from the website that shows all of the pages in the book.

Tot School (18 months)

~ 18 months

Some weeks having "structured" Tot School where I make and completely plan out what we're doing just doesn't happen. This week was one of them. We do have active play everyday though and I incorporate as much talking and learning as I can into it. As you will see this week was very minimal on structure and more Bee playing with whatever we had lying around.

 This week we took a walk with Daddy to the duck pond in our neighborhood.  We fed the geese, ducks, and coots.  Bee loves feeding the birds and learned a lot of new vocabulary. It was a pretty challenging day because Bee wanted to push his wagon but then didn't, wanted to walk but then didn't, and wanted to ride in the wagon but then didn't. (He loves the word "No" now...)  We were even asked by a lady as we walked if we were pinching him! Bee just couldn't make up his mind what he wanted to do. 

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 Another day we decided to take a walk to the park and attempt to fly our kite. (isn't the desert BEAUTIFUL!) Anyway, flying our kite was a little challenging as there was not steady wind. But Bee had a great time chasing it just off the ground and learned even more great vocabulary!

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 This week we had to try out our playdough. I attempted making my own at first and that molded so we bought some instead. Bee had to taste it. YUCK!

 We tried pushing out circles and stars

 We also used our ABC cookie cutters to reinforce learning the letters AB and C.  These he still gets confused with so we will be spending the next week or so continuing our review then will continue on with the other letters. : )

We just had to attempt hammering out the playdough!

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 This is a car floor mat I made of of felt for Bee. He loves it. He'll go to the closet saying "truck" (there is one in the kit) and requesting I let him take it out to play with. We are slowly learning all the places on our make like the zoo, hospital, and park.  This was made by following a tutorial posted on Cook Craft Clean. It's a lot of fun to make and play with although there are a couple things I would do different if I made it again. : )

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 Another activity we attempted this week in review. These printables were made by Carissa as part of her tot school alphabet set.  These are the lacing cards and puzzles printed out and laminated. For Bee I think we will just turn them into a matching activity rather than a puzzle activity. He does however enjoy lacing but the puzzles not so much (see below!).

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 Bee working very hard to get a pipe cleaner in the colander. I love this picture!

As always here is the tot school link, go ahead and check out what other toddlers are doing around the world. 

Transition to Toddler Bed.

I've been requested to describe our transition to using a big boy bed with Bee. Our little guy is 18 months old and this month we made the leap!

First things first is our reason for switching him so early. We will be having another baby in two months or so and didn't want to buy a new crib for the baby. So in about 8 months when Baby Boy 2 is ready to move from our room to the crib Bee needs to be out of it.  With that in mind we also didn't want to have to buy a toddler bed since our crib converts to a toddler daybed by removing the front side. So we realized we needed to make the change before Baby 2 arrived in case of sleepless/stressful nights and to give Bee enough time to acclimate to sleeping in a toddler bed. The eventual goal being in about 8 months to by him his even BIGGER bed that will last him him through much of childhood.

So, that was our reason for switching to the toddler bed. A part of our routine in his crib was that when he woke up in the morning or after a nap I wouldn't go get him right away either. The time started with five minutes and gradually increased to between 10 and 15 minutes between him waking up and me getting in there. This was done for two reasons, first so that he would be comfortable in his crib and second so that if he wakes up early I can squeeze in a quick shower. You may be wondering why I say all of this but I think it's an important part of our smooth transition.  Bee felt comfortable being in his crib and being by himself (granted not for long but at least for 5-15 minutes). Also, we have always had Bee sleeping with his bedroom door shut, so it being shut now isn't new to him.

So to make the switch we baby proofed his room by removing lights that could be pulled down, putting a lock on his closet, and removing the books. I didn't want to come in one morning to all his books ripped apart!

THE CHANGE:

The day of the big switch I was a nervous wreck! We removed the side of his bed with him in the room and talked to him about how we were changing it to his big boy bed. Worked with him on climbing in and out of the bed (which is only a foot off the floor) and showed him how all of his usual things are still there. A very small pillow, his puppy, and blankets. I wanted everything that could be the same to stay that way so we delayed changing his sheets for an extra week too.

That evening for dinner, knowing he might not sleep well, we made a dinner that he would eat all of so being hungry would not be an issue. We started our bedtime routine a little earlier in anticipation of a longer goodbye before leaving but otherwise stuck to our routine perfectly so as not to change anything else! Then we put him to sleep. Oh boy was he unhappy! We put him in his crib and talked to him a bit about how it was his big boy bed and everything was still there. But the crying was not fun. We left the room for about 10 minutes and went back in (I thought he would be at the door but he wasn't... he was still in his crib but definitely not happy. When we went back in we sat next to him on the floor and talked to him and gave him lots of hugs and got him to the point where he was calmly laying down/partially hugging me but not crying in his bed. Again, we left the room and more crying. I was really worried that our attempt would not work and we were going to have to wait longer and buy more beds. But within the next 10 minutes he fell asleep. That night he woke up a couple of times but fell back asleep on his own.

Day two, I was worried for nap time, but it just involved a little bit of crying, I went back in once did the hug and talking thing, then he fell asleep again within 10 minutes.  That evening we again stuck to our bedtime routine and when put him down for bed were surprised that we never had to go back in. He cried a little bit but it was more a whine than a cry. 

Everyday got progressively better. I kept waiting for him to just freak out but it never happened. I also kept waiting for him to get out of bed in the middle of the night or when he woke up.  He still (3 weeks later) has only gotten out of bed once but was back in bed when I went in to get him. The one time he got out of bed he got out to get a stuffed animal that was across his room and has become a favorite recently (Mickey).  But when I went to get him to start our day he was waiting in bed for me to arrive. As soon as I open the door he sits up and climbs down and gives me a hug. While waiting for me to get him I've heard him turning his night light on and off (It's right by his bed), singing songs, and talking. All of which I am perfectly happy with.

I know that this is NOT at all a typical experience with transitioning children to toddler beds. I think there are a couple of reasons why this worked so well.
1. We weren't changing him to a completely different bed (only his bed slightly modified). 
2. We have had a great bedtime routine in place for months that he understands and loves.
3. He hasn't been trying to jump out of his crib at all. We never had an escape artist on our hands.
4. He's still pretty young and while that seems like it would be a downfall I believe it actually made it easier because he's had less time to get super attached to things being one way.
5. Finally, he was used to our method of letting him cry then going in, then crying some more, then going back in. That has been our routine with him from the beginning when we started his bedtime routine. So consistency was on our side.
6. As mentioned above he felt comfortable being in his room for 5-15 minutes without someone else, playing on his own, and with the door shut.

I am amazed at how well he did and hope that our transition can help some other people with the change too. It's so hard because every child is different and you don't know what you're going to get until you just do it. But maybe something we did might make it easier for your little one too.

 This was Bee this morning when I walked into his room!

A better view of the bed area. We have no toddler rail but as I said the bed is only a foot off the floor. He hasn't rolled out at all but I have the blanket there just in case. : )

18 month Milestones

Every month I like to check on Bee's development and make sure I am working with him on the things that I should be.  I'm in no way concerned for his development but this gives me a place to start on activities for us to do together and things to work on. I get my information from several sources but The New Parents Guide provides a nice overview of what toddlers might be doing every month. Green writing means that I feel Bee performs the task very well. Yellow writing means it's a skill he demonstrates occasionally but can still use work. Red writing means it is a skill I have rarely seen Bee do. 

Most toddlers should be able to . . .

• Draw a scribble well- What exactly does a scribble look like? Haha, but he likes to color!
• Run well- I think he runs well. I mean, he isn't a marathon runner or anything but he can certainly do it.
• Become picky about certain foods- Some days he's pickier than others. : )
• Say at least 15 or 20 words- definitely, last we counted up to 50 words that he has said. Plus, I swear every day he adds new ones!
• Feed self with spoon- Bee loves his fork and spoon! We use forks more often than not but he can feed himself applesauce with a spoon and not make too big of a mess!

Some toddlers will probably be able to . . .

• String more words together to make phrases or puts together pairs of words- he will repeat phrases that we use, such as sit down, all done, book please, or side to side. He hasn't yet made a phrase up all on his own.
• Talk more clear- I feel like his speech is becoming more clear everyday! I understand about 75% of what he is saying.
• Brush teeth with help- He likes to pretend to brush his teeth but is typically not actually brushing them!
• Take off an article of clothing alone- Bee can take off his jacket, shoes, and socks without help but has difficulty pajamas, pants, and shirts.
• Jump around- he likes to jump ("dump" in his words) It's more of a bounce than anything, the feet have yet to leave the ground!

Some toddlers could possibly be able to . . .

• Take apart toys and sometimes puts them back together- The only toys he'll take apart and put back together are his stacking toys. But we don't really have many other toys that can be "taken apart".  Unless puzzles count. In which case he also enjoys them, sometimes.
• Show signs of potty training- sometimes. He can sit on the potty while we read him a story. He's also gone in the potty before. He understands what poop is but doesn't ask to go potty.
• Climb out of crib and high chair- Bee has a BIG BOY BED now. We never gave him the opportunity to climb out. We moved him before he tried, haha. Although he does stand up in his high chair when he wants down.
• Take off clothes- He takes off his socks and shoes in the car everytime we drive somewhere. He will also take off his jacket when we get home or in the grocery store.
• Draw circles- He has tried drawing circles a couple of times. A circle is his favorite shape (I say favorite because it's the one he can recognize!)
• Understand two part directions- Every morning after we've changed his diaper I ask him to turn off his bedroom light and shut his door. He does it about 60% of the time. So we're working on this one.

 

Tot School (18 months)

~ Bee is 18 months.

Hello again, and as usual I'm running a little on posting what we've done this past week with tot school. That said we has a very unstructured tot school week. With the first week of spring-like weather we've been spending a LOT of time outside and that means I've been slacking with tot school! We did still manage to get quite a bit done though and this is our week (including this morning!)

To start off, last week I finished making Bee's new wall display. It is a yard stick with clothespins glued on and each letter of his name on a clothespin.  This way he can show off the work we've been working on without it cluttering up my counters and tables!  This was the work from two weeks ago, letter B. And our old cake that we made for Dr. Seuss' Birthday. : )

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 Some more painting this week! We started with three squeezes and ended with color everywhere!

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 We've been working a lot with plants lately which you can see at my mid-week post for the HSV Garden Challenge. This idea for cleaning house plants with water and q-tips came from this great blog. I must say Bee was much more interested in putting the Q-tips in the water but did eventually get the hang of actually helping mommy clean/dust the dirty plant.

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 This is an alphabet worksheet created by 1+1+1=1.  Bee really enjoys these worksheets and does a great job making the sounds when he pushes the marker on the letters!

 Bee's weekly Alphabet craft is a crab for the letter C. We are very loosely working in the Alphabet. Bee is still not really understanding that each letter is different so we will just keep plugging on and when he starts understanding better go back over the beginning letters!

And finally our display wall for this week!

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 Our ocean felt board has evolved to become the Fidgety Fish felt board with our Ocean Friends. Fidgety Fish is one of Ben's favorite stories. It was written by Ruth Galloway and is really cute so when we read the story we move our ocean friends onto our felt board ocean.

 Bee's favorite way to play is to dump all our friends off and on the felt board! I need more felt board ideas too if anybody has any homemade stories or ideas I could use.

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 I've seen on several blogs in the past couple of weeks kiddos putting pipe cleaners into a colander. This was a first day doing this activity. Bee at first was a little confused by trying to get them in the little holes then after some demonstrations he went right on putting one in and pulling it out! He did have a great time working on his fine motor skills.

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 running to the swings

 being pushed on the swings

 practicing walking up the stairs!!! (rather than crawling)

 watching a friend's baseball practice.

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 We still work on practicing life skills. In this picture Bee is practicing setting his high chair tray! He put the tray, fork, and milk up all on his own! I'm so proud!! : )

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This is my favorite picture of the week! Bee and Mickey are picking up blocks from the floor. Mickey even helped to put them in the box! Mickey has become somewhat of a favorite this week. : )