tot school

Noah is 12 months old.

Fall is here!! Yay:) We've had a fun week, but I didn't get many pictures for some reason, so bare with me...

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We spent last Sunday kicking off the fall season with a family day trip to Blowing Rock, NC. It is a really short drive for us, and though we tend to go several times a year, we hadn't been since before Noah was born, so it was a nice trip!

We spent some time walking around downtown, visited some local shops and roadside stands, had a yummy lunch, and drove on the Blue Ridge parkway for a while to see some of the very first leaves turning. We planned on ending the day with some time in the park downtown, but Noah decided to take nap while on the Parkway so we ended the day early. But he had a great time seeing all of the leaves, walking around town, and even made friends with a very large Boxer while we were looking at some apples:)

We are planning on making another trip over our anniversary weekend (the 20th of this month!), and I'll make sure to bring my camera! Blowing Rock is such a sweet little town...I've been going there my whole life, so that makes it nice to start new traditions now with my own family:)

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We continued with our blue theme this week...

I think I've decided to keep one color per month for now since Noah is so young. This way there is plenty of time for reinforcement. And he still may not know what blue is at the end of the month...but that's ok too!

Following the suggestion here, we went on a color hunt early in the week! We only focused on what we could find in the playroom this week...I'm planning on having another one next week in other rooms. This way I can draw things out more. But here is what we found in the playroom...

I still need to make a color box to keep our finds in...so far these things are just set aside in the playroom. I also have plans for using our findings in some other activities this week that I'm excited about too! I just hope Noah will like them:)

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Otherwise this week, I tried some new activities with Noah too. Straws in a parmasean cheese container was his favorite! He has played with this A LOT this week. I was so impressed with him too...I showed him how to put the straw through the small holes one time only, and he got it right off! Way to go, buddy:)

I also pulled out this Alphabet Puzzle Book we gave him for his birthday. He definitely can't put the pieces into their places yet (they're pretty small), but he loves to look at the pictures and take the pieces out of it. And this makes for great opportunities for exposing him to letters and words. He has played with it a lot this week too..

We also spent time working on gross motor skills this week. Of course, I'm trying to get Noah to shake off that laziness and walk like I know he can! ha! It just seems to take him a while to warm up to a new motor skill...he could crawl really well long before he did so for long distances, so I think he may do the same with walking. Except for when he gets really excited for something, he will only take about 4 steps at a time; the most he has taken at once, though, is 20+!

Otherwise, Noah spent some time working on gross motor and coordination with this tee ball set he got for his birthday. He is really improving at hitting the ball:)

Another big thing Noah accomplished this week was eating out of a bowl. This might seem silly, but this really is big for him! He has always been one to throw food around, so I always laid little bits out for him on his tray. But he ate his entire snack this day out of his bowl without throwing one piece in the floor! Awesome job, Noah!! :)

For crafts this week, Noah made a sign for college game day:) Jimmy is a HUGE Gators fan, so this makes Noah one by default I guess! We used his tadoodles markers, and while he still got messy, he did a lot better at keeping the marker pad on the drawing surface and not on him.

Noah can use this very simple "sign" next week (since the Gators had a bye week this week) to cheer with Daddy:)

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Lastly, we read lots of books this week like always. I finally got our library card renewed, so Noah had his first trip to the library (usually we just buy him books, but this can get expensive!). He was a little overwhelmed at his selection, so I helped him choose:)

I found some great books that would have been perfect for our farm theme a few weeks ago, so I'll share them in case you are thinking of doing this with your little one...

Barnyard Banter by Denise Fleming

Duck Song

Cow Moo Me

One Tractor - A Counting Book by Alexandra Siy

We checked out some other, non-farm books too. But by far, Noah's favorite of the bunch was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. He went back to it again and again. He also was particularly fond of Cow Moo Me:)

I'm looking forward to making our trip to the library another weekly tradition too!

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Here's wishing you and your little ones a fun fall weekend!

See what others are doing for Tot School and share your own ideas too at 1+1+1=1!