Tot School - Blue Week (14.5 Months)

Oh, Blue Week!  What a relief after the past couple colors.  Blue is just an easier color when you have a little boy.  We have so many more activities for this color!

This week he was really into writing on his Crayola Dry Erase Board.  He has always liked it, but this week he wanted to sit at it for long periods of time.

Blue play dough.  First time using cookie cutters.

Playing with the blue boat from his LeapFrog Wash and Go Magnet Set.

Coloring with blue markers... he may have attempted to eat them.

Blue Do-A-Dot Paints

Putting some rings on the pole from his Rainbow Stacker.

No reason to sit down to do stickers.

We have also been reading some books about colors.

     

Since we are doing color themes, one of his trays was replaced by a bin of blue items.

One of the trays last week had his Melissa and Doug Rainbow Stacker.  He used to love it when he was little, but he hasn't seen it in a while.  He likes putting the rings on, but still needs help.

Another tray had skill coins (find a post on them here).  I only put out the "coins" for the colors we have done in our color weeks.  He really impressed me, both in his skill level, and in his patience for the activity.  He also surprised me in that he would transfer coins he picked up with his left hand to his right.  He did much better with the activity if I held the bank still.

He seems to like puzzles better on his desk.

Just in case you're wondering, my son is a normal 1 year old.  Our tot trays don't always stay so neat.  Nor are they always used one at a time...

Pre-Writing Practice

One of my big goals for Xander's Tot School is to work on some of his pre-writing skills.  I know he is super young, but my hope is that in the next 6-8 months he will be able to get the color in the area of the page he intends.  I am not talking, coloring in the lines, drawing shapes, etc.  I would just like him to be able to put a blob of scribbles over certain pictures, shapes, or letters when he means to, so that I can eventually make him worksheets.

Anyway, right now we are just practicing the idea of coloring.  We only do it for a few minutes at a time, but several times a week.  Here are some of the pictures I have gotten over the last month or so.

First real experience coloring at the desk.

He was just as interested in taking the crayons out of the box and putting them back in.  He liked this so much, that our box is now nonexistent and we had to get a plastic crayon box.

Last summer I was able to find an Aquadoodle set at a garage sale (a mat where you "write" with water).  It even has stampers and rollers to go with it.  While Xander had fun playing, this one is really too big for him.  He would probably do much better with one of the smaller, travel size Aquadoodles.  

We got out our dry erase board and used markers to go with our color themes.  He likes it, but makes me a bit nervous with how wild he can get with those markers.

But, it worked out.  He actually prefers erasing to writing.

Since the dry erase board is so big and difficult for him to bend over on the floor, I was excited to get a good deal on a Crayola Dry Erase Center.  It is nice that he can use it on his desk, or he can sit on my lap and we can use it together.  Once again, he writes mostly so that he can erase.

He doesn't even have to watch what he is doing... 

Button Snake

In my Pink Week Tot School Post, I mentioned that one of Xander's trays was part of his button snake.  I didn't go into much detail there, so I decided it needed its own post.  One of Xander's Christmas presents this year was a "button snake."  Basically, I took a piece of ribbon and sewed a big button to each end.  Then I cut shapes out of different colors of fleece and made a slit in each one.  The idea is to have him practice buttoning.  I used the large variety of shapes and colors so that I can use it in a variety of ways in the future.

Right now Xander is only 14 months and cannot do the activity alone.  What I have been doing is having him sit in my lap.  I put the button part way through the hole and have him grab it to pull it through.  He really likes this part, but doesn't really like taking them off, so I do that for him.

Uh Oh!

Xander has been saying "uh oh" for a few weeks now.  Most of the time he uses it appropriately.  However, this is now one of Xander's favorite games.

Tot School - Pink Week (14 Months)

This week's color was pink.  Goodness, this was a hard one for us!  We just don't have that much pink.  His bin was a little sparse, but it contained balls from his ball pit, the pink parts of a tea set that was in our bin of toy food (from when I had a step daughter), a balloon filled with flour, a maraca, wooden crafting balls and spools I painted, a beaded necklace, the pink things from his IKEA dishes, and some measuring spoons from the dollar spot at Target a few Valentine's Days ago.

We put stickers on pink paper and colored with pink crayons.

I didn't have a pink dry erase marker, so instead of laminating his Pink Color Books, I just printed them to color in crayons and markers.  You can download the English and Spanish books here, or from my downloads page.

We also did our normal Color Theme activities.  I showed him the color card flashcards and read him some of our color themed books.

He particularly likes this foam puzzle from the dollar section at Staples. He pushes all the crayons out and I tell him the name of each color as I put it back in for him.

 I had completely forgotten about our Leap Frog maracas.  I got them at a garage sale last summer, and recently found them in one of our toy bins.  The one maraca lights up in different colors and says the color name in both English and Spanish.  Xander got a big kick out of them and played with them almost every day.

I show him these foam cards like flash cards, but he also likes to play with them.  In this photo, he was picking up a card from the stack in front of him, and whipping it behind him as far as he could.

More mitten matching!  He still likes to play often and is getting better!  Exceeding any expectation I had for him.

Because we are doing color themes, one of Xander's trays has been replaced by the bin of colored objects.  Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of him with this week's puzzle.  It was a little tough for him anyway since there were no pegs on the pieces.

One of the trays this week had his button snake.  Eventually I will do an entire post on it, but for now, I just set it up with the pink pieces.  He needs a lot of assistance with it, but is very interested in the activity.

Another tray had his pound a peg (there is a similar one here).

This weekend I wanted to mop my floor.  However, Xander discovered the mop and refused to let it go!  He insisted on doing it for me.  Eventually, I had to pry it out of his hands, to many tears, so that I could get the job done.

For as long as he has been able to turn his head, this kid has been OBSESSED with vacuums.  He was trying to vacuum for me.  When I actually took the vacuum from him, he followed me around as I cleaned the carpets on the entire floor.  Let's home he is still interested when he is actually strong enough to do it for me!

Kid Start Spanish Review

Update:  Reading Amigo has changed their name to Kid Start Spanish, so I updated the review accordingly.  You can check out their facebook page here. Also, my son, who has become SUPER picky about movies and videos, still enjoys and asks for his Reading Amigo videos.  

Recently we had the opportunity to review part of the Kid Start Spanish program.  After being so disappointed by the Wink To Learn Spanish set (you can read my post about it here), I had very little expectations of this new program, but ended up being pleasantly surprised!

Our Kid Start Spanish came with four disks, a music CD, four sets of flashcards, a book of opposites, and a set of playing card type flashcards for a memory game.  There are also interactive features for an ipod or ipad.  However, I haven't used them, since we have neither.

The instructions from Kid Start Spanish recommend spending about four weeks per disk, watching it once or twice a day.  They also recommend using the corresponding flash cards twice a day, pointing to the from words left to right and very quickly.

For the most part, the videos are very similar in format to Your Baby Can Read.  They are entirely in Spanish, with native Spanish speakers.  First they show the word, pronounce it a couple of times, and show a corresponding video clip.  The word being shown is pronounced slowly enough that a parent that doesn't speak Spanish would still be able to learn it to do the flash cards.  I was a little unsure what Xander would think, since I never really speak to him entirely in Spanish (I know, I know, I should).  He doesn't seem to mind that the video is all in Spanish, though.  Every few minutes there is a song, which really helps keep Xander interested (he LOVES dancing).  Some of the songs are really catchy, and are included on the music CD.  He has been watching it once a day, several days a week.

I am really happy with the video!  It shows quite a few words, and changes it up enough to keep Xander interested.  They also repeat many of the words over the course of the video, which I think is good for reinforcement.  They second showing of the word is far enough apart from the first, that it isn't annoying to watch.  My only complaint would be that for some (not all) of the words, they repeat the same video clips for the second showing.  Most of the words are things familiar to a young child.  The ones I can think of off the top of my head are nose, ears, head, arms up, ball, circle, clap, kick, bird, chick, yes, no, and dinosaur, as well as various colors (all in Spanish, of course).  They even show some images of famous landmarks like Machu Pichu and the Sphinx.

Below is a picture of some of the flash cards from the first set.  One side has just the word, and the other has the word with a corresponding picture.  Honestly, we have not used the flash cards much.  Xander would probably like them if I did a few at a time, but there are just too many to go through all of them.  I will say that the cards are made from durable material.  It seems like they should stand up to the normal wear and tear of toddlers.  I think I will probably use these a lot more in the future when Xander has more verbal skills and we can make a game out of it.

Here is a shot of the book.  It is entirely in Spanish and lists some opposites and some colors.  The pages are pretty sturdy, although not indestructible.  I haven't worked much with Xander on opposites yet, in any language.  I know this book will be a good asset when we get there!

These are the memory cards.  I have to say, I am very excited for when Xander is old enough to use these!  There are a bunch of them, with picture and word pairs.  They are designed to play memory, but they also seem great for matching games and bingo.  Because they are playing card size, they would be easy to throw into a bag for on the go activities.

All in all, I am happy with the program.  It is so much better than the other Spanish programs we have tried!  Not only do I like it, Xander is interested (which is really all that matters).  While we do not use all of the components exactly as intended, I still think Xander will benefit from it.