Tot School - Rainbows!

Sophie is 15.5 months old.

Sorry it has been so long between blog posts!  It has been a crazy few weeks around our house.  My mom (the best Skype Grandma in history) came to visit for a week and a half, Sophie and I got the black plague from the church nursery, and Clay's grandmother passed away.  I also started directing our children's choir at church and coordinating the crafts for MOPS.  There was a lot going on and blogging just didn't happen.  But I'm back! :)

The last two weeks, Tot School has been focused on rainbow colors.  Sophie did a large amount of her Tot School time with Grandma, because I ended up either being down sick or away with family during funeral arrangements, etc.  Grandma took some pictures and told me a lot about their adventures!

Sensory Bin

Sophie loved her sensory bin this week!  She usually does love the colored rice, but these past few weeks she really started to get in to pouring and dumping from container to container.  It was neat to see her working so hard - she obviously had a plan of what she was doing!

Tot Trays

Her first tray was definitely her favorite.  I put several different types of ribbon into a bottle for her to pull out and put back in.  Her favorites were the more structured ribbons that could be kind of rolled into a ball.  She would put them in and take them out and walk them all around the living room.  Later in the week, she eventually figured out how to put the regular ribbons in as well (out is easy!), but still preferred her structured ribbons.

The second tray was an attempt at exposing Sophie to color sorting.  We still aren't quite ready to do that independently, but she enjoys putting them in the tube I told her to.  This was made from toilet paper tubes and an egg carton.  I just covered the tubes in cardstock and hot glued the tubes into the egg carton.  It looked pretty, and Sophie enjoyed it, but I should warn that it is not structurally sound enough to endure a toddler tantrum!  All of the tubes had been removed by the end of the two weeks, but she still enjoyed dropping the sticks in the tubes and watching them fall out!   (As well as the cotton balls I had stuffed in the bottom so the sticks were visible when she put them in the tubes!)

Her final tray was pretty much a dud.  She had no interest in playing with her stacking cups this week, but they sure looked good for rainbow week!  Lol.  They are usually in her toy basket and I guess they just weren't special enough to warrant attention during Tot School time!

Other Activities

One of Sophie's favorite things both weeks was the basket of bean bags!  My mom helped me make these bean bags in rainbow colors and Sophie really enjoyed playing with them.  The plan is that eventually we will be able to do all kinds of matching and color identification as well as gross motor activities with them, but for now it is just super fun to throw them in the basket!  She would sit on someone's lap and throw bean bags into the basket for up to 30 minutes at a time on occasion.  As soon as they were all in the basket, she would dump them in her lap and start again.  She got really good and making them in!  Thank goodness this girl doesn't have her mother's throwing capabilities! :)

She also painted a rainbow for her God Made Everything Color Book.  We played our usual matching game matching the pages of her book with the felt board pieces.  She's getting pretty good at doing the first few completely independently!

She also got to have a real life tea party with Grandma (instead of just over Skype) as well as lots of good stories and snuggle times!

Also, my little fashionista found these sunglasses in her drawer and decided she needed to wear them to church on Sunday.  Just had to share! :)

Next week:  Pink! :)

For tons more ideas be sure to visit these sites I'm linking to this week!

Tot School Gathering Place at 1+1+1=1 

Tot School Tuesday at See Vanessa Craft
Tuesday Tots at Rainy Day Mum
Link and Learn at No Time for Flashcards
Show and Share Saturday Link Up at I Can Teach My Child

Titus 2sday at Time Warp Wife

Trivium Tuesday at Living and Learning at Home

Tender Moments with Toddlers and Preschoolers at The Chaos and the Clutter 
Sunday Showcase at Learn Play Imagine
Top Ten Tuesday at Many Little Blessings
TGIF at 123 Homeschool 4 Me