Mish-Mash of our last two weeks

Ty has been feeling better the last several days (nasty two-year molars!) and my happy-go-lucky, giggly boy  is back! It's so wonderful to see him working and playing happily again and interacting in ways other than with cries and whines. Poor kid! We didn't do enough to warrant a general activity post the week before, but here's a peek now at some of the things we did and were working on in the last two weeks that didn't make it to the blog.  

Practical Life / Independence

I took Tyler dumping beans all over the living room as a great teaching moment on how to use his hand broom and dust pan.

My plan this coming week was to introduce cleaning and wiping spills with a sponge. Tyler beat me to it! After he was finished with snack (leaving some to munch on later), he went straight to his treasures box (where one of the many items is a sponge), came back to his table and started wiping it!

Putting materials away after using them. This shocked me as well. I was spying on using hiw new cylinder work and watched him complete it. He then put it back on the shelf before moving on! Yay! He's been getting better and better about cleaning-up after himself without a word from us.

Feeding his Ernie doll. Okay, so maybe if Ty was expecting a new baby in our family this would be Practical Life (he's not!), but it was too cute to not show! He grabbed a spoon in the kitchen and came to the dining room to feed his beloved Ernie here. I'm glad I've been good about keeping my camera close lately!

This door (master bedroom) is often kept closed in our home. Ty enjoys shutting it from the inside, but can't yet reach the knob to close it from the outside and it has been frustating him. I have now tied a ribbon around the handle so that he can use it to pull the door shut on his own.

I bought Tyler this stool [Hobby Lobby] so he could get a better look at the birds and squirrels feeding at the many birdfeeders hung in our neighbor's yard. He enjoys watching them from his chair at meals and now he can get a better look anytime he'd like!  

Grace and Courtesy

This is Tyler asking "please" in sign language (rubbing chest in a circular motion) for a piece of bread as I'm making lunch. He's picked this up quickly and often asks when wanting food, a music CD or for us to read him a book. Good manners were heavily instilled in me as a child and I want the same for Tyler. 

Sensory

Bean play in a glass bowls (makes a great sound!). We worked on scooping and pouring but at this point Ty was much more into dumping!

We feel so lucky that we've been able to get into the sandbox already and Tyler is very happy about this! We had been working on shoveling here.

Art

Using watercolors (water and food coloring). I tried using the color in babyfood jars once, but he was more into playing in the jars and dumping them. Here I've used a heavy tea-light holder which luckily didn't attract his dumping instinct.

I finally found Bingo/Paint Markers for him to use [Hobby Lobby, again]! They were such a staple when I worked with toddlers in a traditional day care. As you can see, they went over very well!

The weather was so beautiful this day that we took our painting outside.

Making hand-prints on a steamy mirror, then wiping away condensation to reveal his reflection.

Coloring with wet chalk on dry paper. We will soon try dry chalk on wet paper as well.

New Materials

We switched out the color baskets from blue and yellow to green and red.

Tyler has become increasingly interested in large letters on the wall in his quiet room that spell-out his name, so I took a letters puzzle I bought at a consingment store that he's not ready for yet, placed magnets on the back and made him a fridge puzzle where he can get a closer look at the letters and actually handle them.

I set a chunky Melissa and Doug puzzle out for him for the first time last week. Somehow he finds this a bit easier than puzzles with handles. Don't mind the war paint on his face, we had just come inside from our painting adventure outdoors!

Exploring Nature

It has been quite windy here lately! A giant pinwheel has been one of the fun ways we've found to explore the affects of wind. On the next windy day I think we will run around with a balloon on a string.

Ty also found that the wind will blow your hair and clothes...and he loved it!

We've started to find some signs of spring around the neighborhood and will continue our hunt for them!

Music

It had been way too long since Ty had a chance to play his Daddy's guitar, especially with a pick. We also went to music class this week and found lots of great new CD's at the library and a consignment sale.

Gross Motor

Ty practiced lots of climbing, somersaults, bar work, incline mat climbs, walks and slides, and foam pit crawling at Open Gym at our local gymnastics ceter. So much fun!

We (finally located) and visted our neighborhood park for the first time. Lots of climbing, sliding, swinging and here, playing scientist rolling sticks down the slide (as somehow we were the only one's there!).

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