Sophie is 20.5 months old.
We continued on with our shape theme these past two weeks with triangles. Strange as it is, I had such a difficult time finding things around our home that were triangles! We ended up spending two weeks with this theme, because at the end of the first week we had just spent so little time in Tot School.
Sensory Bin
I pulled back out the rainbow rice this week and it was a huge hit! She has gotten so much better at pouring and spooning since the last time we played in the rice and she loves pretending to "cook" with it. I "hid" some wooden and pipe cleaner triangles in the rice, as well as included the triangles from her shape sorter and some tweezers to play with.
Tot Trays
Her first tot tray was a felt pizza I made for her at the last minute. She liked this one a lot at first, but it didn't get much attention after the first few times.
Her second tray was a few pieces from the Who Lives Where? game. The game itself is still too hard for her, but she had fun playing with the wooden pieces, putting the animals in the correct spot and building "houses" for them.
The third tray was a triangle road printable from Making Learning Fun. Sophie had zero interest in this tray. She never has been very into playing with cars, but I thought I would give it a try. Even with a monkey that looked like her BFF Curious George in the car, she didn't even want me to pull it out for her. Oh well!
Her fourth tray probably got the most use, but not in the intended way! I had a triangle printable with her counting bears. The idea was to put the counting bears on the line or in the triangle (whichever she decided was fun at the moment). Mostly she just loved showing me the bears. She would hold one up and say "look" and I would act really surprised that she was holding a purple bear. So, we talked about colors and counted the bears, but really didn't make any triangles.
She was really good at her fifth tray whenever she decided she was interested in it. I had three cups with shapes taped to the outside and some wooden shapes to sort into the cups. I wasn't sure how she would do, but she picked it up really fast. But mostly, "drinking" from the cups was way more fun than sorting shapes.
Her final tray was a counting activity using the triangles from her Melissa and Doug shape stacker. She loves counting, but has decided that "one" is overrated. Everything is "two, three, four". So I figured some deliberate counting with me might help show her that one is important too. She really didn't care to count these triangles, though she did "steal" the cups for her sensory bin and kitchen.
Overall, I'm not sure that the trays are the best approach for her anymore. They don't seem to get or keep her attention like they used to. I don't know if I am just slacking in my preparation, or if it's time for another approach. I've been doing a lot of thinking about how we might try a different approach in the future. I'll probably write a post about that as a way to process my ideas soon.
Other Activities
Music Time: We played with the triangle from her Melissa and Doug Band in a Box quite a bit this week. She had the most fun when it was accompanied by Daddy on the guitar.
We also sang our Shape song using laminated triangles, which is still just as much of a hit as it was the first week.
(to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat")
Hold your triangle high,
Triangles touch the ground,
Put your triangle on your head,
Then we spin around!
Arts and Crafts: We didn't do as much with arts and crafts this week, mostly because I had a hard time coming up with something cute for triangles! But she did a Do-a-Dot triangle, colored some triangles I drew, and glued triangles in an outline.
She spent TONS of time drawing and really has come to love drawing with a pencil rather than her crayons. I cannot tell you how much of our day was spent with her drawing at her little desk. She looks SO grown up! I did decide to get her some colored pencils since she enjoyed pencil so much and she is a big fan.
Tot Notebook: I added the triangle page from the shape quiet book, though she didn't want to play with it. She did love drawing with her "special marker" on the traceable shape book.
Out and About: We had the first "snow day" our Florida town had seen in 25 years - complete with school and bridge closings, which meant Daddy got to stay home with us. (As someone who grew up in the Midwest, it was totally anti-climatic. But I know to people around here it was a huge deal!) Here's a picture of the most ice I will ever see at our house, and the amount of ice it takes to shut down a Florida town for two days. ;) (In all fairness, the bridges really were dangerous, and people down here are in no way used to driving in any kind of ice!)
The funny thing is, our church hosted a Snow Day event just three days before, where they shipped in snow for the kids to play in! Here are a few pictures from our fun in the snow,
Next week will be all about hearts for Valentine's Day! :)
For tons more ideas be sure to visit these sites I'm linking to this week!
Teaching Tuesdays at Intentional Homeschool
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
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
Sunday Showcase at Learn Play Imagine
TGIF at 123Homeschool4Me
For the Kids Fridays at Sun Scholars
