Tot School - 16 Months

Baby H is 16 months old.  I have to admit that I'm super-excited about him reaching the age where he understands more and can do focused activities.  It's been hard dividing my attention up between three young kids, especially when his older sisters are doing things that are, frankly, more interesting for a parent to engage in.  Although H is perfectly content exploring various toys on his own or watching me work with his sisters, I've still managed to carve out certain times of the day just for him.  I really enjoy our special one-on-one time playing and learning together.  I usually don't "spoil the moment" by taking out my camera when I'm playing with H, but I managed to capture a couple of the homemade games and activities we've been doing..

 My go-to activity when I need to entertain H in his high-chair is to give him q-tips along with an empty Parmesan cheese container with holes to put them into.  He works on this task for a long time.  Sometimes I use pieces of cut plastic straws instead of the q-tips.

H has really been interested in drawing lately.  He uses markers and says "dot dot dot" as he makes dots and something else (currently unintelligible) when he makes lines and zig-zags.

Dot painting is another favorite art activity.  Although H sometimes turns the markers or dot paints over and touches them, he knows how to turn them so the color comes out on the paper.  I tried to trick him a couple times by leaving the caps on, but he was not to be fooled and tried to pull them off himself.

This week, H has started counting!  Whenever I give him snacks, I line them up and count them.  Lately, H has been pointing to each one as I say the number.  He has an awesome sense of one-to-one correspondence for a 16-month-old.  I've even caught him lining up his own snacks and counting them himself (in baby talk, of course).  He's such a bright kid!

We also read a lot of books, do matching/sorting by shapes and colors, and talk as we're playing with his toys.  H is saying more words almost every day including ones that have multiple sounds like 'diaper' and harder starting sounds like 'c' and 't'.  We've been working on letters and he's mastered 'O', 'A', 'M', 'B', and 'P'.  Baby H also likes walking around the house (or outside) with me and pointing to things as I name them.  Then I ask him where something is and he points to it.  When the twins were 18 months old, we'd look through pictures in books and workbooks and I'd ask them questions that they would answer by pointing at the correct objects, which was lots of fun - I think that's coming soon with H as well.

Please 'like' Learners in Bloom on Facebook for more fun!