We tried coin sorting with pennies, nickles and dimes. While he likes playing with the coins, Ty wasn't all that interested in sorting.
Ty received this Stacking Shapes Pegboard by Learning Resources last Christmas and has never been interested in in. I've rotated it in and out several times this year and tried many different shelves and places with no luck. Putting it on this table somehow made it more interesting to him!
I had these puzzles in a pile on the floor, ready to bag and sell on Craigslist the night before...and forgot to put them out of reach. Ty found them the next and the pieces were everywhere! It proved to be a nice little challenge for him to find where all of the pieces went during clean up!
Ty received a late birthday/early Christmas present from a relative: Melissa and Doug play dough toys! They really increased his interest in playing with play dough! I loved how so many of the pieces are wooden too.
This is just a peek at some of our pretend play. While I've shown the basket of pretend items for play with his stuffed animals, this is what we're using with his figurines. This play follows a familiar night- time routine. A bowl with dry pasta and a pumpkin for the animals to eat, a small glass for them to drink from, a basket and an old sock that works as a bath and bath mitt, then a small dish towel for a blanket to send them to bed.
Ty decided to tong everything he could find one night. Bean bags, animals, jingle bells...anything. I helped him with his tonging fever by searching around and providing him with more items.
We used paint markers to "decorate" a Christmas tree
We visited a Children's Art Museum. Using the light projector was his absolute favorite part! Oh how I wish we had something like this at home!
This was a neat toy at the Museum. Reminded me of the bead toys I made for him back in the spring.
The Museum had two light tables! This one was fun for both of us to draw on this with wipe board markers. The other had magnetic translucent shapes which Ty wasn't interested in, but I like playing with it for a bit!
We've been playing with shadows on sunny afternoons...
I made another open and close basket for Ty, using a couple of the same items from the last basket and couple with more difficulty. This has been out for about a month now and it's still one of his favorite activities ! He loves finding the little treasures hiding inside and remembering what in each before opening. I put colored wooden cubes inside the pill container in a blue/purple pattern.
While at the Museum, Ty's block stacking interest came back to life. Daddy helped steady this one a bit and I had to pick him up, but I love the shot.
I had recently rotated his unit and alphabet blocks back in and after his museum experience, he excitedly got to work again for about two weeks. He's over it again now, preferring The Pink Tower. His new record with both unit and alphabet blocks is 16. He makes it look easy! Pretty sure he'll be out-stacking me in the near future.
I demonstrated building a pyramid to see what he'd do. This was often his interpretation.
Heeeheee, this one is for fun...classic "toddler discovers a brand new box of tissues" moment...
We made Christmas cards to send to the grandparents
Along with some salt dough ornaments we baked, painted and covered with glitter.
He experimented with new brushes and sponges
Then figured out that all of the colors mixed together to make his favorite color, black! He was quite excited! He then added lots of orange and discovered it turned brown.
We haven't done a lot of pouring work lately, so I gave him decorative wood chips and two measuring glasses with handles. He's done well and from the first try, he picks up any spilled chips and returns them to the cup.
Digging into his sticker box has become a favorite recently. Great fine motor work!
It seems like many of his stickers come in pairs, which is nice for matching when he's done!
After seeing Ty so disappointed about a somehow wet sandbox (and it being too cold to take his mittens off anyhow), I decided to bring the sand inside. We had birdseed in the table before, but he had grown bored with it of anyhow.
It's been a lot of fun so far and not as messy as I imagined! The sand is taking forever to dry out, but it's great for sand molds and castles.
Mid-November, Tyler grew tall enough to reach the pedals on the trike I bought him for his birthday in August. A few weeks later he was riding like a pro! The last three days he's gone all the way around the block (7/10th of a mile), apparently motivated by the Sesame Street music blaring from his new SweetPea3 mp3 player hooked around the handlebars. We timed him today at 35 mins! Watch out Lance Armstrong...
Ty has also become quite the pro at somersaults. At times he tries to do them off of the living room furniture, or on the hardwood floors. We re-direct to the floor bed!
He's now moving on to wanting us to help him do handstands. If we're not available, he's figured out he can back up and use the ottoman to do a semi-stand. Nothing stopping this kid!
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