Tot School: Fourth of July

Miles is 14 months old.

This past week was Miles' first Tot School shelf and he loved it!  I should go ahead and have the disclaimer that I have next to no completely clear pictures of my sweet son.  My sweet little tornado is constantly moving! :)

Fourth of July Parade.  This activity was actually for both Miles and Sophie.  I put on Stars and Stripes Forever by John Phillip Sousa and we shook our patriotic maracas and waved our American flags all throughout the house.  Sophie was into it right away.  Miles took a bit to warm up, but after a minute he decided to join in the fun!  (No...I did not dress him to match intentionally...but he looks adorable, doesn't he!)

Sensory Bottle.  I put some sparkly red "Easter grass", some pom poms, and star beads into a plastic jar for Miles to explore.  Pretty much anything that makes noise when he shakes it is a hit.

Patriotic Pom Pom Push.  Miles' favorite activity by far was the pom pom push.  I took a small snack cup I got from the Target Dollar section, cut a whole just a bit smaller than the pom poms, and showed him how to push them into the cup.  This was a great activity for him.  It was a bit of a challenge at first, but after a few tries he figured it out and probably played for ten minutes.  I was impressed by his perseverance!  This was really the first time I had seen him trying to really make something work the way he wanted it to.  It reminds me how much I love doing Tot School with my little ones to be able to witness all these learning moments!

Block Transfer.  Wooden blocks in colored cups.  Pretty self explanatory, but he enjoyed taking them in and out.  Sophie wanted to play with it too!  I had to laugh that she wanted HIS red and blue blocks when we had a whole basket of identical blocks in the playroom.

The last bag on the shelf was full of a few random red and blue odds and ends for Miles to explore. A sponge, a bean bag, a plastic star, and a squishy ball.  He never even touched it.  Hence, no pictures.

Overall, I think his first week of Tot School was a success!  It was nice to have some intentional play time with him.  I will need to figure out how to either involve Sophie productively, or find another way to occupy her so that Miles can have the focused time he deserves.  She would be playing well independently, but when we would start doing Tot School she would rush over to get all involved.  I did tell her that she could play with the items on his shelf, but if he got interested she had to give it to him right away. We'll figure it out, but Tot School for Miles is here to stay!

Linking up at 1+1+1=1 Tot School Gathering Place and Teaching Mama's Everything Early Childhood.