Tot School--A Week III

Isaiah is 38 months

A is for Apple (as in Mac)

This week we caught up on our art project of the letters in Isaiah's name. Here he is praying for an iphone, that goes with the second I in his name. We also did an A of course with little black ants painted on it with q-tips, but somehow I missed getting a picture of that. You'll see it when we have our "big reveal" of all the letters of his name after this week.

Airplane

Isaiah enjoyed playing with his little airplane one day while doing his therapy.

Ark

This was our big project for the week. I've decided to work our letter theme each week around a story in the Bible. This gives me more structure, and helps me find creative ways to teach Isaiah about our AWESOME God. This week we made our own ark. I had a shoe box with a flip-style lid, that worked perfectly! I cut strips of 2 different colors of brown paper for our logs. Then we glued them on. Isaiah did a great job hammering, them, too to make sure that they stayed attached.

Animals

And what ark would be complete with out animals? We had a hand-me-down book about zooanimals that broke at the binding, so I took each cardboard page and gave them to Isaiah to put in and out of the ark, since this is by far his favorite thing to do with anything!

Apples

While Isaiah did eat a lot of apples this week, this time apples was taken from our verse for the week: Proverbs 25:11 "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver." (ESV) No, I didn't have him memorize it (though I did!), but we talked about it every day at least once, probably 2 or 3 times. I already have a verse ready for H for this week, and I hope to incorporate a craft as well. My goal with these ideas is to simply continue to build on the foundation of using the Scripture as our guide for life, which my husband and I have been desiring to teach Isaiah from the very beginning. I think though that this will help me just as much as it will help Isaiah! May the Lord bless His Word, that it may be implanted deeply into Isaiah's heart!

Acrobat

And here's a special treat: a video of my little acrobat. Who needs aerobics when you can have so much fun with your little person?

Tot School--A Week II

Isaiah is 38 months old

In case you're confused by I, then S and now A, be assured that we are not confused about the order of the letters in the alphabet, we're just going through the letters in Isaiah's name first, then we'll go back and fill in around them.

So, for the first A in Isaiah's name, we had a bit of a different week.

A is for Adventure! Our friends invited us to join them on an overnight adventure to Novgorod! I'll do another post about all that took place there, but to follow our theme, I'll just say that while on an adventure, A is for...

Anticipation
While we waited for our bus, Lydia and Isaiah laughed and played. Our excitement grew, knowing what fun we would have together!

Apple
Isaiah and I enjoyed sharing an apple on the bus to Novgorod, which happened to be perhaps the oldest bus that I've ever ridden on. I only wish that I had a picture to show you!

Amusment
Isaiah always enjoys being with Lydia. They can entertain each other for a long time, and it's quite amusing to anyone who happens to be present.

Aperture
Do we have a budding photographer in this cute little 2 year old? Lydia got to take some pictures while we waited for our supper.

Architecture, specifically Arches
Novgorod is full of amazing architecture here's just a sample of one of the arches that we saw. A small preview of the post for the trip. :)

Affection
Isaiah loves loving on us! I don't think I can describe how wonderful it feels to get hugs and kisses from our Little Man, especially when it's all his own idea!

Apples and Almonds
Isaiah has discovered that he loves nuts, and almonds seem to go well with apples for a great snack for him. No creativity in the snack department this week. After our trip, I had a lesson and then needed to get ready for a Bible study at our place. Isaiah helped me, of course, but I must confess that my creativity was, um, absent when it came to more fun activities for Tot School.

Traveling with Little Man can be quite an adventure in and of itself. With all the extra things we have to carry for him (meds, cathing supplies, etc) a backpack is our best friend. We are constantly trying to find a better way to travel, part of our learning experience as parents with a child with special needs. We have found it helpful to keep a general checklist for packing, something I'm sure that many of you do. When traveling in Russia, especially in the winter, we have some special challenges: How in the world do you find a clean, warm place that also has a flat surface and place to wash your hands with at least some privacy for stripping down your child from all his layers and cathing him. Oh the adventures that we have! Any traveling tips that you'd care to share?

Check out what other little people are up to at 1+1+1=1.

Tot School--A Week

For Tot School this week, I decided to continue with A and Red, since last week was short with Thanksgiving and all.

Monday, however, was Russian day. Isaiah's nanny Julia was able to come again at last! She doesn't speak English, and we're hoping that Isaiah is picking up his Russian from her and our other Russian friends so that he doesn't learn our mistakes or our accents! I joined them for snack time after their walk (this gives me some great practice, too!), and I was excited to see them interacting so well. Julia would tell Isaiah to do something very specific, and he would obey perfectly! What a smart boy I have--already becoming bilingual!

Tuesday we again combined therapy and school. We (I) named things with "A". Isaiah liked the pictures that I had prepared for him to color, he pointed to them and said "all done" very clearly after he wore them as hats.

He still likes to color on his clothes more than any paper, so thankfully the crayons wash out very well. :)

We tried something new to help work on his fine motor skills since coloring isn't too interesting, apparently. We have some colorful plastic cups that are great for stacking, or for talking into to make your voice sound funny, which is obviously the more important thing to do!

Wednesday we had a shopping date! We bought Daddy a Christmas present, and Isaiah was a big help as we wheeled through the store. He helped soften up the cashiers so that they were nicer to me. We strolled through IKEA (gotta love it!) and pointed out all the "A" things like alligators and armchairs and art supplies and some other things that I forget now. But, we scored a major find--the closest thing to construction paper that I've seen in Russia! Woohoo! Pretty colors and everything! I snatched that package of paper up in my hands as if it were a bag of gold!

Never one to be put off quickly (just a nice way of saying that I can be pretty stubborn), we tried coloring again after his nap. He had been using a mandarin like a crayon, so I asked him if he wanted to color. He said, "Uh-huh" (which he says to everything like other toddlers say "no" to everything). He did actually color on paper a little bit--progress, perhaps? Then I decided that we needed to practice for opening up Christmas presents, so we ripped and ripped and ripped paper--finally something he was much more interested in! But I was so busy "helping" him that I forgot to get some pictures.

Thursday was my Russian lesson day (and a migraine, sadly), so no Tot School really took place that I remember.

Friday we had fun preparing for friends to come and play. Isaiah had a blast playing with his little friend Slava who can crawl now. Isaiah was so excited that he didn't even want to eat his pizza! As soon as Slava was done, Isaiah quickly declared "all done" so that he could go and play. I think Isaiah learned pretty quickly that he could roll a ball for Slava to chase! Lots of laughter and good Russian practice for me with Slava's patient mother Oksana.

I'm so pumped about starting B next week because I have some fun ideas for ways to use my new colorful paper! I even found some glue!

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