LJ at 21 months-activities and practical life

LJ is turning into quite the little person.  He is a major chatterbox just like his sister and has to be part of every conversation!  

He is also a total jokester.  His favourite joke is to change the words of songs.  One of our favourite songs to sing is Mama mama I want a Mango.  At the end the song goes kiwi, kiwi, kiwi, kiwi, quince.  Well he thinks it's the greatest joke going when he sings kiwi, kiwi, kiwi, banana!! or apple or any other type of fruit!  We also are big into the potty humour.  Everything has either chicken poo or pee or panda poo on it!??

I'm also pretty positive he knows most of his colours but  if you ask him he will deliberately tell you a different colour!  If he chooses to name them he does it correctly.  Seriously cheeky little monkey!

We have been doing a few works but mostly practical life activities.

Here are a few activities LJ had on his shelves.

Magnetic and non magnetic.  LJ really enjoyed experimenting with which objects stuck to the magnet and which ones didn't.  At this point this was just an activity of experimentation and discovery.

Tonging.

I wasn't sure if LJ would get the hang of this but after a few tries he did get it and enjoyed moving the objects back and forth.

Placing beads onto a bath fish thingy.  Yup those little fingers are somehow always wet and sticky and they were just too wet and sticky to release those little beads so it ended up being a bit frustrating.  He did stick with it for a while but I had to help him get the beads off his fingers sometimes!

I seriously love this age because they are SOO enthusiastic about housework!!  I really wish it would stay.  L has seemed to have lost that lovin' feeling!

While L was vacuuming the house LJ was desperate to help so I got out the dust buster for him and he loved being able to vacuum along side his sister.

 I needed to do some serious cleaning in the kitchen so I set LJ up with a scrub brush and a small container of soapy water.  He was super serious about this job and scrubbed down his chair for over HALF AN HOUR!!  My guy loves to wipe and scrub!
L didn't want to be left out so she got out her own scrub brush and water and scrubbed down the rest of the chairs.

Thanks to some Itty Bitty Love inspiration LJ is also now very successfully pouring his water at every meal.  I also find it very surprising that he doesn't just pour the whole jug into the glass but pours a little bit at a time and drinks it and then pours in some more!

18 months- On the shelves

Okay I have to admit I've been totally slacking the last about 5 weeks.  We got out of our great routine and I kind of lost enthusiasm on making up activities.  In fairness though I have been working on another exciting project which I will blog more about after Christmas.

Poor LJ he actually asks me for work and says "roll,roll, roll".  Then I feel all guilty because he is desperate to do things.

These are some of the things he has been doing.

 

Matching.

This is great for vocabulary and matching.  I hold all the cards in my hand and give him one at a time.  He says what it is and then (hopefully) places it on the table.  Once all the cards are laid out I hand him the matching one which he has to find.  This is very easy for him now.  They are kept in a little wooden box and he loves to take them out and put them back in as well.

 

Simply posting little hearts through a slot.  Always fun.

 

Color tablet box one.  I made these out of paint samples using the three primary colors to start.  Once again the box is a big hit!  It's funny when I did this activity with L years ago she was so gentle with the cards.  LJs cards are all bent and twisted : )  I present a color and name it and then give it to LJ to place on the mat and say the name.  Once they are down I give him the other one to match.

 Sorting colored beads.  Once again only using the primary colors. 

 I filled this glass money jar with water and put a shot glass at the bottom.  Together we took turns putting coins into the slot and watching them sink to the bottom.  I also enjoyed trying to get them into the shot glass, however I don't think LJ even realised it was in there. 

 

 Thanks to Itty Bitty Love inspiration I sucked it up and got out the lentils to scoop and funnel.  I have to say I was way more enthusiastic about this one than LJ was.  Maybe we'll try it again in a month or so.

 

...and one of my all time favourite works.  First drop fluffy pipe cleaners into a maple syrup bottle.

 

 Then try to fish them out.  Very carefully!

 Oooh the concentration!!!

 

LJ just can't get enough of doing his work and I am the only one that is holding him back at this point.  In the new year I am going to try to get back into that good routine we had going in the fall.

Little J 14 months

Summer is such a wonderful time to be 1!  Little J is taking full advantage of the beautiful weather and exploring and experiencing the world around him with tremendous enthusiasm and joy.

 

Every Day Life

He loves to be one of the big kids and just jumps right in to join in the action.

Little J adores the water just like his sister.

Checking out the baby piglets at the petting zoo.

 

Practical Life

 Little J is at the age where he is understanding so much and is able to follow simple directions.  He likes to take books out of the book basket for me to read and then will return them.  Now that he can walk confidently and can carry things at the same time we have started "putting things back"  We will start to put the stacking boxes back into each other and I can ask him to go and find the missing ones in the kitchen. 

We keep his shoes on a shelf in his bedroom and if I tell him we are going out and ask him to get his shoes he will get them and bring them to the living room and start trying to put them on.

 

Little J likes to help to unload the dishwasher and will pull out the plates and cutlery from the bottom drawer and hand them to you.  He also enjoys pulling the clean diapers out of the bag and handing them to me as well as the laundry.

This guy is a born cleaner.  If he sees a sponge or cloth he will get to work wiping.  He is also obsessed with the broom and will sweep the deck and kitchen any chance he gets.

He is using the watering can to water the bushes and flower pots on the deck as well.

 

We've come to the conclusion that Little J has a shoe fetish : )  Any shoes he sees he will try on and if successful will try to walk around in them.  He also loves to dress himself.

 

On the shelf-activities

 

I have introduced a mat to Little J.  I have two activities that are on a higher shelf which we do on a mat now.  He cannot access these himself and we have been so busy that we haven't done them much but I think this is the way we will go with the mat until Sweetpea returns.

Putting pieces of spaghetti into a sugar container.  I like this activity because it not only works on fine motor control but also has a great control of error.  If he is not very gentle the stick will break.  Little J enjoys putting in one stick and then taking it out again until it breaks small enough to drop into the container.

Lacing chopsticks.  I wasn't sure if I was going to be too early in introducing this one but he got it right away.  

Brings me back. It seems like yesterday that L was doing the same activity.

 

Little J has always enjoyed this activity but he surprised me today when has showed me he was able to put the pieces back on the right pegs.  So he can either sort by color or shape now.  I'm guessing a bit of both.  This has inspired me to add more sorting activities to the shelves.

 

Language

 

Little J has always been super vocal and loves the sound of his own voice no matter how loud! He is a great communicator and can now say several words:

mama, dada, door, uma(for Granny), ya, eye, keys, doll(for ball), da(for bath),clo(for clock),dog,go(for goat) DO DO DO!!! for bird with a vigorous pointy finger and car.

However the most amazing word that has totally opened up his little word is more!  He has realised he can ask for more and also point to things he wants and say more to get them.  Yes he has also realised that this word can be totally abused!

Car rides are also hilarious as our conversation every time we get in the car goes like this

LJ: mama

Me: Yes LJ

LJ: car

ME: yes there's a car

LJ: mam

Me: yes

LJ: car

This goes on for most of the journey unless he sees a dog, deer or bird.

 

 

On the shelves 12 and 16 months

Whew!  This post has been a long time coming.  It's seems that May and June have just been crazy busy and only now do I seem to have some time to catch my breath.  L is done school so Sweetpea is also on her summer holidays with her mother.

I finally managed to take pics of most of the activities that have been on the shelves over the last couple of months.  Of course these have not all been out at the same time but have been at one point over the last three months.

 

Open and shut.

This is super popular with both Sweetpea and Little J.  I put little finger puppets that I have from Ikea inside some of the containers for them to find.

 

Tennis ball cannon using a Pringles container.

 

This was more of a testing the waters activity to see if Sweetpea was ready to sort colors.  Both littles enjoyed manipulating the beads and container however I will bring it out again in another few months to see how the color sorting goes.

 

This animal basket used to be by the pottys.  One morning I started putting the animals along the edge.  The littles caught on so I turned it into an activity and put it on the shelf.  Little J enjoys doing this activity as well as making some of the animal noises.

 

Hat basket.  We play with this basket together or as pictured here the littles will also try the hats on when it suits their fancy.

 

Little J is obsessed with trying to put shoes on.  He will spend up to 20 minutes doing this.  Once he gets it on he will take it off and start again.  Watching him so reminds me that at this age it is all about the process and not the product! 

 He is also obsessed with trying to put his pyjamas, pants, shorts and diaper on.  While sitting on his potty he will spend ages in deep concentration attempting to get his legs into one of these things.  The other night he managed to get both legs into his sleepers! I was astounded however once again as soon as he got them both in he took them off and started again.

In a few months I will bring out this out again as a matching activity.

Little J got this cute ice cream set from Sweetpea for his birthday. 


 

They both enjoy putting the pieces on and off but are not ready for sorting by color or shape yet.

 

I love this cute little activity.  It's actually two activities in one.  The first is pulling the finger puppets out of the snack cup and the second is to put them in the muffin tray.  Little J enjoys pulling them out and putting them back in and will also put a couple in the tray.

 

Okay I think I'm all up to date now.  As I said before these activities have been rotated throughout the last three months and have not been presented all at the same time.

 They all focus on fine motor skills however the littles also have ample opportunity to work on their gross motor skills which I hope to document in a future post.

Finally some Montessori again

Although we've been very busy with our Macedonian visitors we've managed to get a few activities in.  Next week I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal and really having time to make up some new activities for L.

I've seen this dropper activity on lots of blogs and have always wanted to do it with L.  I finally found some of those bath mat things at the dollar store and she really enjoyed it.  Although she didn't do much on the clean up!

I saw this one over at Leptir's blog.  L was totally bugging me to get it finished so she could try it out.  I put a dot on the back for self checking but she still doesn't get it.  At the beginning she just tried to match the dot.  Arg... but then she got the hang of it.  Putting the clothes peg on was an added bit of excitement.

Baba and Dedo left some money for L so on our way back from dropping them off at the airport we went to Ikea.  We got her a little igloo tent, some finger puppets and these tiny beads with little different shaped bead boards.  Once you do a pattern on the board you are supposed to be able to iron it and get a shape but we haven't gotten that far yet.  For some reason she wanted to put a pile in the middle to choose from.  This was a great work for her as it helped her to work on her patience and just take one bead at once.  She actually sat and filled the whole outside of the circle which was no easy feat!

Our first lettuce from the garden!  L was soooo excited to cut some leaves off the lettuce.  Her and Granny check the garden and tend it everyday. Thanks to Granny L is turning into quite the little gardener and knows most of the names of the plants in our garden!

The lead up to Easter....

Here are a few things we did last week. Thank you to Karen for the inspiration for this counting activity. I'm still looking for better containers to put the sticks in but for the first time we used these glasses. This only lasted until we got thirsty ; )



Talk about great minds think alike. By the time we had done these next two activities I'd seen them on so many blogs!! I love those little chicks they are so cute. L actually thought up this one herself. When we were in the Dollar store I picked up the chicks and then the bag of eggs and she said "ah to put the chicks into!" As soon as we got home she had to "re-home" them.

She didn't like this one quite as much as the cheap chicks(hehe) kept loosing their beaks when she tonged them.

More Easter fun to come....

Animal Sounds and a few other bits

I haven't been able to do much lately but was able to set this activity up mostly from the couch. It's my own version of animal sounds. So simple to make and free! I found this Youtube video of animal sounds, found pictures of all of the animals and printed them out on a piece of paper. L covers the animal who makes the sound with a penny. It was a great hit and we did it about six times today.

L started wanting to pull the golf tees out of her ladybug activity so I changed it for this one where she presses the colored toothpick into the dots of the correct colored shape.

I saw this super cute counting activity on The Adventures of Bear and just had to make one up for L. Not surprisingly she was more interested in having the polar bear eat the fish than the counting.

And lastly L got this totally cool map for Christmas with animals, people and place names to Velcro on to it. So much fun and will be a challenge for many years to come!

New Activities from Santa

That sneaky old Santa managed to stuff a lot of new activities into L's stocking this year.

Walking the line

No not L but these adorable little lady bugs. I'd gotten these ages ago for L's stocking and then was lucky enough to find this great activity over at Making of a Montessori Mum!

I think for the moment these have taken over from our beloved frogs. In this one L balances them on golf tees or "trees" and then flies them back to their dish.

I've been wanting to start L on using tongs for ages but haven't been able to find ones small enough. Finally while looking on the Ikea web page I saw a tiny baking set with these small tongs. They are perfect for her hands and she has a great time transferring these bugs into their pool for a dip.

This next activity definitely wins the prize for the best find. It is a foam Continents puzzle from the dollar store. That's right folks it only cost a dollar!! L and I can't get enough of it and I actually went out after Christmas and bought another one just in case this one gets worn out.

My mom and I were talking about how L knows some of the continents but really has no context to learn them in. To her at the moment they are just colored blobs so I decided to have her place one animal on each continent. Now I can ask "where does the Koala bear live?" and she will point to and say Australia. This is such a fun way of learning the continents. (I'm hoping to get better animals for South America and Antarctica soon)

I also thought I'd outdone myself with brilliance by taping colored circles on the bottom of the animals so she could self check. Ha ha I should have quit while I was ahead as first of all some continents are the same color and all she wanted to do is pick them off!

A few things we've been doing

I came up with this while draining the pasta. L's first attempt at lacing. She kind of grasped the concept with quite a bit of help from me. She didn't really get that we had to keep turning the strainer over to pull the pipe cleaners through. I think this activity would be really enjoyed by an older child. You could go to town and do some cool weaving.
Of course L now associates the pipe cleaners with making Cheerio necklaces so kept asking where the Cheerios were. I finally gave in and brought out that activity but she really just wanted the Cheerios.

We also tried a taste activity for the first time. This was really interesting and funny. I put two cups with a bit of salt water, two with sugar water and two with lemon water and then a glass of just plain water to rinse in between. Well L has never really eaten anything with any added salt or refined sugar so this was a big shock to her taste buds! I got her to taste each one and told her what is was (sweet, salty or bitter). I was planning to get her to taste the other cups and match them but after a couple sips she decided she didn't like any of them and drank all of the plain water. I don't really blame her. It was really funny watching her reactions.

And mommy's favorite no mess water painting! Gotta love it!

In answer to the question from My Child's Diary about L drinking and pouring water. I started off with a small glass and jug and just filled the jug a quarter full. Now I fill it half full and she has to ask if she wants more water. This way she doesn't have to worry about stopping pouring before the water is gone and overflowing the glass. If she started messing about I would just say we only use the glass and jug for drinking and take it away. She wouldn't get anymore drink for the rest of the meal. ( she has lots of drink available between meals) She soon realised that if she messed about she would go thirsty. Now we only have the occasional fork in the glass or she puts the jug on top of the glass.