Tot School *With a Saturday Edit*

 

Our princess is currently 24 months old.

Last week we began rotating the princess' toys.  Today was the first day to swap some toys out for her.  I chose to do this during nap time, and it was like Christmas when she woke up.  She went crazy over her Elmo airplane that she hadn't seen in a week.  She pulled out her shopping cart and pushed it around for a long time.  She did not even seem to notice that her dollhouse and Cozy Coupe (both of which she plays with for long periods of time daily) were gone.  This is great!

For Tot School this week, we did a little bit of Valentine's Day, matching, colors, and a tiny bit with numbers.  I am still looking for crafts and games to teach numbers to a 2 year-old and am open to suggestions!

I got ambitious last week and put together quite a few games for the princess. I got this one from Home Grown Hearts. Princess liked pointing to the pictures and naming the ones she knew. She did really well matching the proper colored crayon to each picture.

This was also from Home Grown Hearts.  Actually, this was supposed to be put on a ring and used as a book.  The princess found the pictures before I had a chance to do that and had such fun making them ride around.  I decided to have her match the crayons to the horses, and she loved that.

 

I had an idea to use these cute ice trays from Target and have her put "1" ball in each opening.  She wasn't a big fan.  (See her expression in the picture on the right for proof!)  She did enjoy curling up the ice trays though.  :)

 

I got the next three games from 1+1+1=1's Valentine's Tot Pack.  This first puzzle was difficult for the princess and she gave up on it pretty quickly.  We haven't worked on shapes that much, and I think it threw her off that there was only one color.

She LOVED this one.  She asks to play it a lot now.  It helps that her favorite animals are included:  fish, dogs, monkeys...the only favorite missing is the horses.  :)

 

And finally, an attempt at numbers.  I wrote the numbers 1-5 on each of these hearts, and I had her match the numbers to each other.  She did it perfectly the first try.  She just seems to have a head for puzzles and matching.  I wonder if she'll be a math lover.

 

*Edit:  The princess just spontaneously said "ABC".  :)  This followed Daddy and me serenading her with a Sesame Street version of the song.  I do love Sesame Street.

Tot School

Our princess is currently 23 months old.

We continued learning colors this week.  I have become lazy in regards to Tot School lately, so I decided to spend my Saturday evenings doing Tot School preparations.  This week, we continued to work on colors.  She is really getting this down.  She still does not verbalize color names, but she matches correctly, sorts appropriately, and brings me the proper color when asked.

I downloaded this activity from Home Grown Hearts.  The idea is to match the clothing by color, and if you look closely, you can see there are different shades of each color as well.  The princess loved this activity, and it was rather easy for her.  I personally had a difficult time telling the difference between the red and orange shirts, but she got them right every time!

 

I downloaded this Paint Brush Color Matching game (our first file folder game!) from COAH.  I love it, and I think it's a great idea.  The princess...not so much.  She just likes to take the paintbrushes out and play with them.  She also enjoys watching me do the game, but her attention span is short for this one.

 

We also continued to play with her new Melissa and Doug toys.  Here she is, showing me "yellow".  :)

 

And finally, I love this picture.  This little girl has not taken a nap since last Sunday.  This is the third time we have hit a nap-fighting phase, and I pray this is only a phase.  I am not ready to give up nap time!  This is how I found her yesterday, after an hour of "napping" in her crib.  :)  (The pink at her feet is a wearable blanket she managed to unzip and remove.)