Tot School: 16 Months

We are linked up to Tot School Gathering Place

Our little Jellybean turned 16 months old Wednesday, where has the time gone?! She isn't really talking yet, but babbles pretty much nonstop. She understands just about everything she is told and is pretty good at one command instructions, once in awhile she can manage a two command instruction (like "Pick up the toy and bring it to me", as opposed to "Pick up the toy." and "Bring it to me"). Her favourite animal is the duck, and she calls "Gwa Gwa" whenever she sees one, real or toy. She greats people with a loud "Haaa!" and a wave, and she loves to scream and shriek! She is about 25 pounds and 32 inches tall, loves to go for walks and runs, and is quite the climber! She is still not much of a napper, but usually sleeps from 7 PM until at least 7:30 AM.

In the next few months, I plan on focusing on words. We are currently working on "up" instead of her standing there with arms outstretched. She doesn't seem to understand how to make the P sound. It all comes with time. I was planning on starting colours when she turned 18 months, at the the end of June, but I may wait until the end of August. We have to move at the end of August, so I may wait until I get her in her new room so we can have a dedicated Tot School place instead of the living room, but that all depends on the size of our new place. When she turns 2, I will slowly start to introduce numbers up to 10 and then finally the alphabet. My long term goal is mastering all three by age 3 to 3.5, especially since she will be starting kindergarten at 4 years 8 months, due to her late birthday.  It is a lot to master, but with time and patience I think we can do it!

On to last week's activities! It was another rainy, cold week. Blah. We actually had to go back to our winter coats and hats to go for a walk! But, we got one trip to the playground to play, she loved climbing and swinging, but was meh about the slide.

 

I found this ring toss game at the the dollar store, she broke it after a few minutes. I taped it up. She was able to put them over the stick easily, but wouldn't toss them. 

We worked on puzzles again this week, swapping out last weeks farm one for a zoo one. 

We played with play dough a couple of times. Our first experience is recorded here, the second didn't go so well. She mostly cried. 

This weeks sensory bin had rocks in it, I got them at the dollar store. 

She only played with it for a short time each day, she just didn't seem to have much interest in it. Maybe next time. She mostly enjoyed putting the rock into the cup and dumping them out.

This was all the pictures I got last week. I kept forgetting my camera in the car! We also read a lot of books, she is getting really good at sitting through short ones. Up until a couple weeks ago, she would leave after only a few pages. This weeks book favourites seemed to be 'On the Night You Were Born' and 'The Belly Button Book'. 

We only got one art project in, I traced a picture of  Napkin Man a 15 minute show about feelings on the CBC, she loves the intro theme and dances to it. The station shows kids pictures of Napkin Man, so I gave her a picture to paint. I plan on scanning it and sending it in. I haven't got that done yet, and I didn't get a picture of it. 

And finally, I have been continuously trying to get her to put one toy back before taking another. I have been doing this by watching for when she pulls down another telling her we need to clean up one before another and then doing just that. She can't lift some of the bins and baskets, but at least she is putting the lids back on them before taking another. I am taking this as a sign that the lesson is sinking in.

Well, that was our week, next week is supposed to be sunny and hot, yay! So hopefully we will get in some outdoor activities. 

Have a good week, everyone!

~Natasha.