Tot School

Lucas is 33 months. Gwendolyn is 11 months.

::Being read to both kids love it when Tim reads to them. ::More fun with boxes Lucas now asks if he can rip up any box he sees.

::Puzzles Gwendolyn can *almost* fit the pieces back in on her own. But her favorite part is dumping them out :)

:: Active play Lucas was jumping over his rug. While Gwendolyn enjoyed her zebra.

::Lid game Lucas calls this his lid game. We have a pitcher full of metal lids that we (Gwendolyn) dumps out on the floor. We spin the lids for Lucas to chase around. He uses a metal mixer beater to whack the spinning lids and says 'bonk.' It make ALOT of noise. We love it!!

::Checkers Lucas is loving his new Cars (the movie) checker board. He has no idea how to play checkers, but he likes putting each checker onto a car picture. I didn't think he would like this game very much, but he loves it and asks for it often.

::Straw game Tim played the frequently requested straw game with the kids. Lucas is starting to count each straw he puts in.

:: Open ended toys sometimes the simplest toys are the best. Both kids loved playing with a big plastic jar, a red megablock and a bolt. Lucas put each item in the jar and shook them vigorously, enjoying the noise they made. This taught him an important lesson on anticipating the trajectory of flying objects. And how to avoid your little sister with said flying objects. *ahem* Gwendolyn liked filling the jar and dumping it out.

::Reading both kids reading field guides. Lucas was reading a guide about birds in Illinois. He was excited to point out and name all of the birds he recognized. Gwendolyn was happy chewing on hers. And hiding under it :)

::Rainbow Lucas has been interested in rainbows, so we made one out of megablocks. We practiced color sorting and identification.

::Applied knowledge Tim taught the kids how to use a ratchet to put the tire back on Lucas's toy truck. (the tires actually have lugnuts and are supposed to come off) Gwendolyn tried to fix the tire on a different toy truck. She sure had the right idea.

::Clay Lucas has been practicing using his toddler safety scissors to cut clay. He has tried using them with paper and cardstock, but they're just not sharp enough. They fold the paper over rather than cut it. It was frustrating, to say the least. But the scissors are GREAT for clay!! I made clay letters for him to cut up (he had to identify them before he cut them up). After a while, he requested that I make 'o's and 'i's. He made a few 'i's of his own, but was much happier wielding the scissors and naming letters.

::ABCs Lucas was totally entertained by a puzzle that you can do on the floor. And then sit on. Jigsaw puzzles are still a challenge for him, but if I help him pick out the pieces, he can fit them in. This was great practice for letter identification. When he couldn't figure out which piece came next, I told him the letter and he was then able to pick it out. Apparently, he knows a lot more letters than I thought he did.

::Active play alternate uses for a Sit n Spin.

::Fine motor skills Lucas loves putting these pop beads together. And Gwendolyn loves pulling them apart. What a great match! We also practiced color identification, sequencing (first the green bead, then the blue bead) and matching. And, of course, imagination. Lucas pretended the beads were train cars hooked together and drove them around the living room.

Lucas is still enjoying his Connect Four game.

::Spanish we got The Cat In The Hat in Spanish to read this week. Lucas really enjoyed the first 20 pages or so. But then he got bored and fidgety. To be fair, he's not overly fond of The Cat In The Hat in English, either. We also got post-it notes with a Spanish word, a pronounciation and a picture on them today. I think we're going to start having a Spanish word of the week. Lucas is definitely interested, but I haven't heard him say anything in Spanish yet.