Saturday, September 24, 2011

Numerals

While I am wrapping up my old job and getting ready to start the new job, we have been on a bit of hiatus.  The difficult shifts I have been working now make it hard to be consistent.  My plan is to get into a good schedule once I start the new job so that we can be consistent with our lessons.  We are still reading plenty of books and watching our educational DVDs.  However, while we aren't currently doing lessons, I have still been working on some materials.

I have decided it is time to start working on numerals.  I have been teaching Xander numbers since he was about 3 months old, but I purposefully avoided showing him numerals.  Now I would like to create the association.

So far we have only really done his Little Math program a week or so ago, which has a lessons showing both the numeral and the quantity.

I also dug out his old Doman style dot card.  I made numeral cards to go with them.


I found this great numbers matching game for a quarter at a garage sale.  It has the numeral as well as a corresponding card with that number of objects. 


I picked up a number and letter bath set and magnetic number set.  I dug out an old deck of cards, although I realize it will only be good for numbers 2-10.  I also made him an English and Spanish numeral card set, which can be found in the download section.





Thursday, September 15, 2011

10 Month Reflections


My baby is 10 months now, almost 10 and a half months!  Recently, while I watch him play, I am constantly struck by what a little person he is!  He has his own little personality, his own likes and dislikes, his own habits.  It is so hard to believe that he is the same little boy I brought home from the hospital!  I am so scared of forgetting his little quirks and habits as he develops new ones, so I figured I would get some written down.

Right now his favorite song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, although I will usually get a huge smile out of the Itsy Bitsy Spider (he loves the hand gestures).  He loves to play with the buttons on the tv, remote, or phone.  Sometimes he will be watching one of his shows and turn the tv off on himself by accident.  While he does mind pretty well for his age, he hates being scolded.  He does the whole lower lip and alligator tears bit.

Xander LOVES his books.  He has two shelves of board books within easy access.  At least once or twice a day he will go over to them and pull down many of them.  He will spend a good 15-20 minutes just looking at them himself.  He has trouble opening the pages, so will repeatedly drop them until they fall open, and he can look at the pages.  His favorite is Noisy Farm, which he gets out the most often and gets the most excited for me to read to him.  He also really likes his sight words books, although I don't let him look at them alone since they have paper pages.

Xander has begun "sorting."  He likes to put toys on the shelves of the entertainment center.  He also pulls out my storage bins and puts random toys in.  One of the bins in his room has a slot for a handle and I found him stuffing number matching cards in it.  I find it so random and funny that he would find it amusing to redecorate for me.  It has become a challenge for me to locate everything and put it back in its proper place at the end of the night.

In the past couple of weeks he has developed another little quirk.  He will be playing, crawling, pulling himself along the couch, then pause, and lay his head down.  He rests his head for 2-3 seconds with a big grin on his face, then resumes going wherever it is he is going, then repeats.  I don't know if he is feeling the different surfaces with his face, or what.  Regardless, it is adorable to watch.

What is even more endearing, is I think Xander has started kissing.  He will be sitting on my lap or in my arms and he'll push his face up against my cheek (usually with an open mouth and lots of drool).  He will hold it there for a few seconds, then pull away.  The only thing I can think is that I kiss his cheeks constantly (they're so round and soft, can you blame me?) that he is mimicking me.

I am sure there are a dozen more things I should record so that I don't forget, but I can't think of them at the moment.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Clapping

I wrote how Xander had learned to wave and that we were working on clapping.  It didn't take long at all!  Last Wednesday he mastered it!  What I love is that any time I say "good job" he claps for himself.  He also claps when we finish flash cards and when he took a few steps on his walking toy.  I guess I hadn't realized that I always clapped for him in those situations.  :)  Now I need to find something new to work on.  Maybe pointing or a high five?

Monday, September 12, 2011

Frogs and Turtles Toob

I have read wonderful things about Toobs on many other blogs, and I decided on a turtle (pond) theme for Xander's birthday, so I decided to get him a Frogs and Turtles Toob.  I was very happy with the quality and detail when I opened it up, but goodness did Xander surprise me!  He LOVED it.  The first day I gave it to him, he did everything and crawled everywhere with either a frog or turtle in his hand.  Since he enjoyed it so much, I laminated two cards for him labeled "frogs" and "turtles."  For now I am just using them to teach him the words and separate the little figures for him.  Eventually, I would like him to separate them himself.



I also snapped some pictures of his little figures.  I had them printed on 4x6 photo paper and am happy with the results.  The little figures fit pretty well on them.  I plan to use them a bit like a puzzle or sorting activity.  If you have the Frogs and Turtles Toob and would like a copy of the photos, I uploaded them to my downloads page.  Feel free to have them printed.


Friday, September 9, 2011

Waving

Last Thursday Xander learned to wave.  Now he does it all the time, even waving to people in the grocery store.  He gets a kick out of his accomplishment, as do I.  Sometimes he gets over excited and waves with both hands. We are also working on clapping, but he isn't nearly as consistent with that.


Thursday, September 8, 2011

Comparison Picture

Everyone says Xander looks like me.  I can see some of it, but I decided to dig out some of my baby pictures for comparison.  What do you think?

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Treasure Basket Update

It has been a while since I first wrote about our treasure basket.  In that time we have added quite a bit and Xander has played with it often.  It is amazing how long he will sit and go through all the items, although he definitely has his favorites.

I am still hoping to add more, but currently in the basket we have:


piece of red belt material (Hobby Lobby)
tassel (garage sale)
toilet paper tube
wooden spoon (play kitchen set)
wooden rod (play dough rolling pin)
piece of cardboard
jingle bell on a pipe cleaner
silver cup (gift from a friend)
piece of orange felt (Hobby Lobby)
rubbery key fob (from dealership)
Gerber's lid
pine cone
cork (provided by Grandpa)
wooden egg (Hobby Lobby)
velvety ring box
Altoids container
baby nipple

Since he is so fascinated I would like to keep adding.  Maybe a feather, a rock, or a sea shell?  I try to keep my eyes open at thrift stores and on walks.



Showing off his pine cone.

What his room usually looks like when I get the treasure basket down.


Playing with his bell.

Back to the pine cone.



Monday, September 5, 2011

Baby School - 9.5 Months

 Another crazy week couple of weeks!  It has been really difficult to keep up when we have been spending so many  nights away from home.  I am thinking I either need to quit doing flash cards til we move, or maybe whittle it down to one set a day.  I hate that I can't be consistent.  He did get in a lot of time with his trays though.  I kept them up for two weeks since we were gone so much.



This week we had his colored wooden blocks, a pound a peg toy, the boat from his pattern puzzles,  and a tray of some of those dominos used for knocking over.

The dominos we used for math.  I made some math symbols and laminated them, then set up some equations for him to look at.  Of course, the dominos are also fun to throw all around the room.

VERY good at understanding the concept behind the pound a peg.  Still working on the execution.  He tends to hit them with the side of the mallet rather than the face of it.


Friday morning there was a huge thunderstorm.  Xander was mesmerized by it and spent a lot of time looking out the window.

I stumbled across a bell for him.  The first day I showed him he carried it everywhere with him, shaking the heck out of it.

We have been working on playing "catch."  I roll the ball to him and he is pretty good at grabbing it.  He is still rather nondirectional when he attempts to roll it back.

Attempting to steal my camera...


Tot School

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Book Challenge Conquered!

Back in April I decided to join in a book challenge with Xander.  Many Mommy bloggers are doing a 1500 book challenge with their little ones, but I edited ours down to 250.  Today we completed it!  It took a little longer than expected, since I went a month with no car to get to the library.  Also, we reread books so often, that new ones didn't get worked in every day.  I plan to keep counting new books for the rest of the year so that we can have a basis on which to set our goal for next year.  I am so happy that he enjoys reading and love that special time with him!  



One Handed

Showing off his new moves.  He looks so old to me! I don't know if I am ready for a toddler!

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