Tot School - 21 Months Old

H is 21 months old - I can't believe that 2-years-old is just around the corner! Lately, I've been really absorbed in working with H's older sisters (almost 4 years old) now that they've started reading, so getting that one-on-one Tot School time with my little boy is really special for us both.  H is such a quick learner that I often have a hard time keeping up with him and thinking up activities that are enough of a challenge for my clever little dude...

I've been taking out various manipulatives (like these plastic penguins that I'm using to teach math to the older kids), and letting H explore them.  He gets to practice fine motor skills (lining up the penguins to fit on the pegs), as well as counting, colors, and patterns.  H has a much larger vocabulary than his sisters had at this age and he likes to count and name colors by himself.  (Off topic - aren't the little plastic play-glasses cute?  H's eye evaluation showed that he had astigmatism and was far-sighted but not enough for real glasses yet.  I'm hoping his eyes fix themselves by the time he is school-aged, but if not he'll be quite handsome in glasses, I'm sure).

 I try to come up with different fine motor skills tasks using the toys we have around the house, but I'm having a hard time keeping up.  Often, H will complete the task easily (sometimes a couple times in a row), and then look at me like "What's next?  Is that the best you can come up with?"

 H enjoys a lot of Montessori practical life skills like pouring, as well as helping around the house (sweeping, putting dishes away, putting laundry in the washer, etc..)  I need to start having him help me with cooking soon - I think he'll love it!

H loves drawing and other art activities (stickers, painting, etc..).  He really likes to watch me write letters or draw shapes on his paper and then he colors them in, so he might be ready for some basic worksheets.

Another favorite is using craft sticks, crayons, and other objects to form various shapes.  If I leave one side off the triangle, H can complete the closed figure (add the remaining side).

My baby is obsessed with letters.  Whenever I wear a shirt with words on it, he gets really excited and points to each letter (saying its name or sound), and the same goes with signs, food labels, etc..   He's been doing a lot of puzzles as well..  H is very good at peg puzzles (both the matching and aligning the pieces), but still struggles with the concept of fitting together traditional puzzle pieces by lifting the edge of one rather than just sliding them together. 

So that's just a glimpse of the fun learning activities that H and I have been doing lately.


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