tot school - week 6

Noah is 11.? months old (ha! birthday boy on Wednesday, Sept. 16!!)

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No theme this week:( As much as I enjoyed our super simple "things that roll/spin" theme last week, I just didn't have the time to get anything organized this week. We are really getting into this semester in nursing school now and my clinical rotations have begun, so I have very little downtime. But we still had a great week with all our of general tot school activities:)

Noah has suddenly become really interested in cleaning up things. Can you hear my big, loud "woohoo!!!" haha:) Particularly with his blocks, shape sorter, and such, he is loving putting all of the pieces back into the container, then back where it belongs.

Noah worked on transferring with a spoon (actually a measuring cup) for the first time this week. He did okay with this....he understood what he was supposed to do, but didn't want to hold the spoon the right way. He got a little frustrated with me trying to help him get the pompoms into the spoon, but he did really well at putting them into the other bowl (as opposed to slinging them around the room like I figured he may do).

I tried to introduce simple color matching with this as well. I know he is too young to really get it just yet, but I figure any exposure will be beneficial! Putting two pompoms on his tray, I helped him scoop up the pompom in the bowl and match it to the correct one on the tray while naming the colors to him.

But he got tired of that pretty quickly....all he really wanted to do was have a jam session with his "found" drums (bowl) and sticks (measuring cup)!

Banging around with pots, lids, spoons, bowls, and such are one of Noah's very favorite things to do:) I often play music for him to "play" along to, and I hope to incorporate following rhythms with this sometime soon!

For art time this week, Noah worked with stickers for the first time. He had a really hard time with these, though....he got very frustrated when he couldn't get the stickers off of his fingers. But after trying several different types of stickers, he managed to get this done using some old scrapbook supplies I had stored away. Not too bad for a first try:)

We also did some general scribbling with different tools (crayons, tadoodles, highlighters, etc). Noah definitely does best with regular crayons! He is getting much better at holding the crayon correctly and staying on the paper:)

To store all of our craft supplies, I brought this container over from my mom's house; it has been holding old scrapbooking supplies. So I went through all of that mess and kept what we could use for tot school! But when I brought the container home, Noah thought it would be more fun to climb on:)

He is becoming a very good climber! He can now independently climb up into his outdoor play castle and about half-way up a staircase (we practice this at my mom's house..no stairs here) to name a few.

He has also discovered the garden tub at my mom's house....he can climb up the two steps and turn the water on and off. Definitely not the safest skill! But I let him play as long as I'm sitting there with him...he LOVES turning the water on/off!

And I promise, if this child doesn't take a step on his own pretty soon, I'm going to die of shock! He literally runs behind Mater now...but is always too speedy for my camera to catch him in action:)

Some other things we did this week that I didn't get pictures of include:

-Correctly (and successfully!) using his shape sorter for the first time! I was so proud that he could finally fit the shapes through the holes:)

-Played lots outside and took many walks. He loves to crawl around in and pick at the grass, touch and look at different bushes and flowers, and play non-stop on his outdoor castle!

-Books Books Books:) Noah's favorites this week included: Brown Bear Brown Bear; Eric Carle's 123; Blue Hat Green Hat, Moo Bah LaLaLa; and Lucy Cousins's Noah's Ark.

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Finally, I have gotten a little more adventurous in the kitchen:) If you know me at all, you know that I am NOT a good cook! Thank goodness for my hubby, or we'd be broke from having to survive on restaurant food all the time! But I came across a really neat website called Weelicious. And I am hooked! The recipes are super easy, and they're all super healthy for little ones and big ones alike.

Also, I have been seeing lots of people talking about juicing. We don't have a juicer, but we do have a blender....so I figured I would try smoothies instead! I started out with a few of the smoothie recipes from Weelicious, but now I just add in whatever:)

This smoothie had milk, yogurt, a banana, an avocado, some celery sticks, and a big handful of blueberries.

Noah LOVES these! And they are a great way to sneak in those extra fruits and veggies:)

He is also loving the other Weelicious recipes I've been trying. Their veggie pancakes are probably his favorite I've made so far (mine too...they're super yummy!). I just love knowing that even with my extremely limited culinary skills, I can offer healthy meals and snacks to my son:)

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Want to share what you're doing in Tot School, too? Join in, and get new ideas, at 1+1+1=1!

***PS:

In case you didn't already know....Wednesday is Noah's FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! I'll be sure to share something special on that day, as well as about the little family party we're having next weekend. Everyone loves smash cake pictures:)