tot school - week 3

Noah is 11 months old.

Tot School was kind of sporadic this week...we didn't do many new things, and spent (in my opinion) too much time watching movies and television. Noah is working on transitioning to a single nap a day from two naps a day, and this threw him off it seemed.

Also, I'll be starting back to college on Tuesday, so I'm a little disappointed that my last week to stay home with Noah all day wasn't a really great one, but I guess that's how it goes. While I am glad to go back and finish nursing school, my passion for being a mommy has totally overtaken my passion for nursing. But I still need (and deep down really do want) to finish getting my BSN, so here I begin this balancing act (though I went to school in the spring, I finished up the last few of my general classes and had nothing for nursing....this semester will be a new challenge!).

I will only be away from Noah for a few hours a day (and mostly during naptimes, thankfully!), so I know I'll still be able to do all the Tot School things I've been doing when I'm home. And when I'm away, Noah will either be at home with Daddy or staying at his Granny's house, so he'll still have tons of one-on-one learning/play time. For this arrangement, I know we are so blessed that I can complete my BSN:)

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So now..on to this week!

Since Noah enjoyed arts & crafts time so much last week, we did more with what we had on hand. I'm ashamed to say we don't have a single crayon in our house (yet!)...so we improvised with highlighters, and LOTS of supervision:)

I helped Noah write a few "Ns" on the paper, then let him scribble away. Here is the finished product. It even earned a spot of honor on the refrigerator:)

Noah had fun with Mater, as usual. He loves to explore the buttons as well as work more on walking/standing independently (he's getting more confident everyday!).

This isn't really a toy, but Noah loves playing with it. This turtle lights up and displays the constellations in three colors on the ceiling. His older cousin Peyton gave it to Noah for Christmas last year..

We talked about the different colors of lights (white, blue, green), the star shapes that the lights make, and that the animal is called a turtle. He was trying to make the turtle walk in this picture!

I try to keep most of Noah's toys simple..without lots of lights and sounds and such because I want him to use his imagination. But he does have a few favorite toys that do light up and all...but luckily, they're "educational" toys. This is his vtech Learning Laptop.

What I think is so funny is that he doesn't even play with the buttons that much...mostly he likes to open and close the screen! Haha! I guess my hopes for him using his imagination are working:) But this toy also teaches shapes, words, and plays music (which Noah likes to dance to, of course!).

This is a toy telephone my mom got Noah at a neighbor's yard sale. He has never watched Bob the Builder, but he still likes playing with it. With this toy, we've been working on pushing one button at a time rather than banging it with his whole hand, as well as saying the numbers, letters, and shapes as he presses them.

Noah also played a lot with his MegaBlocks with week. I tried showing him how to line the blocks up, but he mostly wanted to put the blocks in and out of the trucks. And that works too:)

And lastly, we read lots of books as usual. This seemed to be Noah's favorite this week....it is called Star of Wonder. It is a Christmas book that has a blinking star that gets larger as you turn the pages.

The other fun thing we did this week was go to a concert on Saturday night. My mom, Jimmy, Noah, and I saw the gospel quartet Ernie Haas and Signature Sound. We left home around lunchtime and headed for Greensboro, NC (about 1.5 hours away). Noah was incredibly well-behaved the entire time...car ride, shopping/eating, and during the concert:)

Ernie Haas and Signature Sound is my mom's very favorite group, and is one of Jimmy's favorites too. Their style of music isn't what I typically listen to (I like contemporary Christian much better), but I do really like their group. They give super fun and energetic shows!

During the show..

This was the fifth time we've seen them in the last three years (but it was Noah's first concert!). Jimmy and I agreed that this was the best show we've seen! Noah actually slept through part of the first half of the show (since he didn't take an afternoon nap), but woke up happy, silly, and ready to dance:)

We had a really great night, and we couldn't have asked for Noah to have been better! I think this was a great "life school" experience for him...and it let us know that he can also go to more shows in the future!

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Hopefully next week we'll get more new things incorporated into Tot School, as well as get settled into a new routine as I start my classes again. Enjoy your week:)

Share what you're doing for Tot School and see what others are too at 1+1+1=1!