Tot School--S Week

Isaiah is 37 months old

We continued with the letters of Isaiah's name, hence the jump from I to S.

We have this foam alphabet set, so I pulled out the "S" and let him play with it.

Scooting! We have this scooter board that Isaiah used to crawl with, but he's really too big for it now; it slows him down. Since his sitting has improved so much, I put him on the scooter board this way, and off we went all around the apartment. He loved it!

Snack

If you can guess what kind of cereal this is, then well, you can guess what kind of cereal this is. Sorry, no prize comes with the box this time. We did however use the contents for our snack a couple times this week.

The original idea was for Isaiah to put the little stars on the big S and then eat them, but well, that didn't work. Instead I covered the S with stars, and he ate the away to find his letter of the week.

Self-portrait. Here are some of Isaiah's attempts at a self-portrait. I held the camera while he pushed the button, I'm not quite that trusting to let him do it completely on his own, yet!

Sorting. We tried to clean out the school supplies cabinet. We made some progress.

Stickers. This was the first time Isaiah has used stickers. I think that he liked them.

Shirt, shorts, socks, shoes. Aunt Beth, Uncle Jason and Jake gave Isaiah this puzzle, and all the pieces were labeled with S-words!

And speaking of socks, Isaiah is really into helping to dress himself lately, which is lots of fun. He'll even try to put his socks on himself, which is really hard for him.

Strawberries! We read The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear several times. We even ate fresh strawberries, which was very exciting and helped it feel a little less like winter.

We also went shopping and shared some soft-serve ice cream. We talked about shiny and silly hats when we read Old Hat, New Hat. I had wanted to make some silly hats, but we ran out of time. But we did plenty of other silly things which involved lots of smiles and giggling and rolling around and dancing! We also went for lots of walks in the sun on our sidewalks that aren't as slippery with snow now! Saturday we celebrated a wedding, which also involved walking around and seeing lots of statues (come back for the explanation of that one in another post!) and lots of fun silliness!

Lately I've been wondering if what I'm doing is helping Isaiah, well, for different reasons. Tonight as we were riding the metro on the way home from church, I heard a little "ssss", "sss", "sss" over and over. He wasn't reading "S" from a sign or anything (Russian "S" looks like English "C"), he was just saying the sound of the letter. I then realized that he was saying words with the "s" sound better than he had before we started focusing on the letter! I thank God for this encouragement to me. I'm excited to see what will happen during A-week!

Check out the other great ideas at different Tot Schools over at 1+1+1=1.

Tot School--General Learning and Fun

Isaiah is 37 months old

We didn't get to Tot School every day this week, but we did have lots of fun!

Isaiah has been amazing us with his new sitting ability! He's learned how to get himself from his normal tummy crawling position to this sitting position. He's also now perfecting a position where he sits on his knees and doesn't use his hands for a few seconds. This succeeds in improving his balance and scaring Mama while I try not to grab at him every time to prevent his falling backwards.

Working out those hips with Daddy!

We had a fun night with our friends. Lydia was teaching Isaiah how to take care of a doll, which of course Isaiah has no idea how to do, since he has no dolls. And much to Mama's sadness, he doesn't even really care about stuffed animals--it's cars all the way!

Continuing with the idea of working on the letters of his name, we did imprint painting (at least that's what we're calling it). I took a large piece of paper and folded it in half, then I painted a big I in the middle. I let Isaiah paint wherever he wanted, then we folded the paper in half again to imprint what he had done on both sides.

Apparently paint imprints work well with two hands, too.

Then of course we tried crayons again. He likes these crayons from Aunt Luda because they come with a cup that he can take them out of and put them in very well on his own.

I got this idea from a fun book that some friends sent us. I haven't started using the actual book yet, because I wanted to get Isaiah used to some of the actions on a larger scale first. Here we worked on drawing a "straight" vertical line from one point to another. I saw we, because we did it together.

But then he actually seemed a little more interested in coloring, at least on the table.

We pulled out this awesome play-doh set (also from our thoughtful friends). I enjoyed the play-doh. Isaiah enjoyed taking all the accessories out of the box and putting them back in. He LOVES doing this with everything!

Or singing into the cup. :)

We got a package! Isaiah's birthday present from Aunt Emily and Uncle Rich arrived, and we were finally able to go pick it up! Isaiah enjoyed trying out his new foam playmat that has numbers and letters and animal puzzles and 4 special drawing squares--perfect for drawing while playing on the floor.

Our friend Julia came over on Wednesday as we were trying out this new activity. Our friends, yep the same ones!, sent us some great stickers that I used for a few number cards. The plan is for Isaiah to put the correct number of stickers on a second set and then use them for matching cards. We'll do that part this coming week. For now we're using them for number learning. Julia worked on the Russian; I worked on the English (and a little Russian, but naturally, her pronunciation is a little better than mine). I just love his expression in this picture. :)

And taking an idea from RockerMom, here's one of my new favorite pictures of Isaiah.

Don't forget to check out the other Tot Schools around the world at 1+1+1=1.

Tot School

Isaiah is 36 months

Our Tot School was a little disrupted this week with a trip out to Siberia, but we still managed to have some fun before and after our conference. This post is actually from the few days before the conference and then after the conference, so it's really 2 weeks combined, but it's all good.

Isaiah had his all-Russian day with Aunt Luda. They had some good outside time in the snow.

We tried water colors for the first time. Isaiah was much more interested in the water than the paint.

Well, the water or the paintbrush, that is.

Since he liked the water so much, we tried pouring water from one container to another.

But of course, he found the easiest way to "put the water from the bowl to the box". Just put the bowl in the box, of course! I'm working on finding some better sized objects for doing this again. He really enjoyed it, but the sizes of the containers were difficult for him.

Then for about 30 minutes he moved these buttons from one bowl to another. We did this again several times, and he really liked it. It seems great for his fine motor skills.

Then Tot School was interrupted by a little trip out to Siberia for our Russian Field Conference. Isaiah got to play with 3 other boys for 5 days, which is like a little bit of school, too, but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the 4 of them together. But here we are in the cold!

Our last day Isaiah and I explored a little and found this amazing ice playground! We enjoyed going down the really fast slides. Great fun!

When we got back we pulled out the water colors again. I decided to work on the letters of Isaiah's name, so I drew a big "I" and a little "i" for him to work on. I got the idea from Shannon at Teaching Tiny Tots (sorry I can't find the exact post to link to). I think the paints aren't really bright enough, but he humored me for a little while, trying to paint the big "I". Eventually he ditched the paintbrush and used his fingers, which actually seemed to work a little better.

Then we tried to glue yellow crepe paper onto a little "i". He really seemed to get into the glue.

He also really liked piling the yellow paper onto the glue. Yeah, can't you see our little "i". :) He had fun and used his hands really well, though, so that's good.

So those were our 2 weeks put together. Be sure to check out what the other Mama's and Tots are up to by visiting 1+1+1=1!

Tot School

Isaiah is 36 months old

This week was short again, since I had 2 language lessons--this month has been crazy busy!

But I have big news: Isaiah started drawing!

Thomas found this Draw 'n Glow Super Set for Isaiah's birthday, and it was a hit. I didn't know if he would be interested or not, you know he loves coloring so much and all (insert sarcastic tone here). Almost as soon as I put it in front of him, he started scribbling away! I naturally grabbed the camera and started snapping away.

I pulled out the crayons again on the off-chance that he might be more interested in coloring now that he enjoyed the drawing set so much. In fact, for about 2 minutes he tried to color with the crayons before the "hand the crayons to mama" game. That's 2 minutes longer than any other time. I also used that time to start working on the letters in his name.

These cups are probably one of his favorite things to play with. He'll stack them and unstack them and restack them and put things in them and take things out (usually some kind of food). He's getting really good at this! I started asking him to "put the blue cup in the green cup" (for example), and he can do it! He's starting to repeat the color names a lot more, too. Oh! And in his bath he started handing me the colored item that I asked for--correctly!

Aunt Beth, Uncle Jason and Jake gave Isaiah these neat puzzles for his birthday. He really likes the one of the baby face. He'll point to the facial feature on the puzzle and then point to his own face (in the right place!). We're working on putting the puzzles together, but I think that's going to take some time yet, so we'll just keep trying.

Isaiah still really likes his peg board, too, which I think is starting to help his fine motor skills because he's getting a lot better with utensils! He did a great job with some breakfast sausages and a fork, and he was quite proud of himself.

The family album is a hit. He loves looking at the pictures over and over again. He gives them kisses and practices saying the names of the people in the pictures. I just love how loving he is.

So that was our week. It was busier than I thought. This week will be short again because we're heading to Krasnoyarsk, Russia for our missionary field conference. I'm sure that there will be plenty of learning going on there, too! Isaiah will have 3 other little boys to play with, so if you feel the earth shake for no particular reason, it's because Isaiah will be laughing so hard!

Be sure to check out the other Tot School fun at 1+1+1=1.

Tot School--Celebrations!

Isaiah is 36 months old

This week I had two Russian lessons, a doctor's appointment and a birthday party from Wednesday to Friday, so we didn't do a lot of concentrated Tot School, but we enjoyed what we did get to do! Wednesday he got to spend the whole day with Aunt Luda, so he had Russian practice that day, too!

I pulled out the crayons again so that we could work on colors and maybe at least see the number 3, since Isaiah turned 3 on Friday. He seems to enjoy taking the crayons out of the box and setting them to the side. When they're all out, he then wants to hand each one to me to put back in the box so the process can repeat itself. He's still not really interested in drawing. So I just reviewed the colors with him while we did this little game.

I then drew some 3's on the paper and we worked on him saying "I'm 3!", which he did very well. I helped him draw some 3's as well, but he's still not super interested in drawing or writing.

He still loves his Machines book that a friend sent us last year. He loves to point to the different machines, which right now are all "cars". I ask him to point to the different colored cars, and he's getting much better at this activity.

Friday was a big day! We went to see my doctor and "meet" our new baby. Isaiah was a trooper as it took me a while to find the clinic. He talked a lot to everyone around and made lots of new friends at the clinic. After the appointment and a special birthday lunch, we headed home to get ready for the party! We had a couple of other tots and their parents over for a supper of hotdogs and hamburgers. Isaiah received some great Tot School tools like books and drawing tools and even a math game! I made this album for him of all our family members in the States that he will see regularly when we go back for visits. I hope too, when we get to the letters their names start with to use their pictures to help him have even more of an association with certain letters.

We love our 3-year-old!

Saturday was thankfully a little slower. We did actually do some Tot School stuff, though I didn't get pictures. He is really into stacking cups right now, and he's getting really good at it! We also worked on a toy that he received for Christmas but I hadn't pulled out of the box yet (yikes!). It's kind of like a lite-brite (is that what they're even called?), but it's all just plastic, no electricity involved. There's a plastic board with holes in it and different colored plastic pegs to put in the holes to make a picture. It's called a Mosaic Toy here, but it would probably be called something else in the States. I didn't get pictures this week, but he seemed to like it, so I'm sure we'll do it again. It was great for working on his fine motor skills! He also just really liked shaking the bag with the pegs in it, which he did for a long time later that afternoon when he found the box and pulled out the bag.

So those are the few things that we did this week. Check out 1+1+1=1 for other Tot School activities.

Oh! And Carisa at 1+1+1=1 has also started a blog with some other moms that's designed specifically for moms and their tots. Be sure to check out, Totally Tots for some really great ideas and to meet some other cute tots!

Tot School

So, we've been doing some Tot School stuff, but with getting ready to travel and actually traveling, posting about Tot School hasn't been a priority. I have enjoyed reading other moms' posts, though!

Before we left for Camp Babochka, I needed some help getting ready for the craft that I was supposed to help lead.

First we gathered the stuff we needed--crepe paper, candle holder, glue, water, paint brushes, some extra containers. I watered down the glue. Isaiah helped me brush it onto the candle holder. Then we tore the crepe paper, which incidentally comes in big, 11" (or so) wide rolls in Russia. Next we put the paper on the candle holder. It was super easy, and lots of fun!

Happy with our finished product, which I later used for an example to the campers at Camp Babochka a few days later. Oh, and isn't this chair and table GREAT! We were able to get them at IKEA for a good price, and most importantly Isaiah is able to sit in this chair without any help!

I found these great stacking cups at IKEA for cheap (are you sensing a trend here?)! They don't get stuck to each other like the drinking cups that I was using, and the colors are much brighter. Isaiah has a much easier time stacking these since they are different sizes, too.

And this I'm very excited to show off! Isaiah has started pulling up lots more, even resting on his knees; so we're doing a little more work to develop those hip muscles!

Check out the other Tot Schools around the world at 1+1+1=1!