Monday, October 17, 2011

Tot School: Not Every Week is Picture Perfect

Tot School Week 5
G is 18 months old.

My apologies right from the start, I did not manage to take a lot of photos this week. And those I did take, don't have the best quality. We're short on AA batteries, and the rechargeable ones I swore would ONLY be for my camera flash - have found themselves relocated to the wii remotes. (The wii is how we watch our tv...). I'm hoping to buy some more. very. very. soon.

Beginning of this week G & I went to visit our local Excel by 5 program.
This place is great. They have age appropriate rooms (0-2 and 3-5) filled with educational toys. It's great when we need a break from our house & our (lack of) stuff - not to mention it gives G a chance to interact with some other kids. And it takes some stress off Mommy who's been worrying that she's not interacting enough with kids now that we've moved away from everyone we know!

My favorite thing about this place is they have a toy library - we can take home an educational toy for a week. This will be a great resource for tot activities - because what I have at home is apparently very boring now.

To add to how awesome Excel by 5 is, they have a block building room, an art room, the staff is wonderful AND they send the little ones home with a snack, color sheets & a "goodie" from a small toy bin they have by the door. And the best part? It's all FREE!!  We walk in the door, enter our name on the sign in sheet & off we go to have some fun. Every community should have something like this place. Unfortunately, right now it appears as though this is a Mississippi thing.

We will probably go at least once a week, and it will become part of our tot school routine. As I become more familiar with the place & staff, I'll be sure to start taking some pictures.
Our first week we borrowed these sensory balls. They were meant for younger babies, but we had fun with them anyway.
Here she's hugging the "soft" ball.




In previous weeks, when it came time for tot school, I would sit down with G and offer her a toy or activity. This is the first week that I offered her a choice. I can now say that giving her choices does not work for us. Maybe I just gave her too many choices.
 I also tried to do a "art" activity with her, but she wasn't having it. She'd undo anything I did. Things just did not work for us, at home, this week.
Not every week can be a good week. But we did have some quiet moments:

Here she is reading Slide & Find - Colors



Melissa & Doug Rainbow Stacker is still a favorite around here.
She also likes using her drum as a seat.


We have lots of parks to choose from - between our neighborhood, on base & in the community; so that is a favorite activity right now. 

                      



Favorite Books: Though we did borrow new library books, I've yet to read one. We received our boxes from home - which contained the few books of G's I choose to bring down. I can't tell you how many times I've read Cock-a-Doodle Doo, Barnyard Hullabaloo or Itsy Bitsy Spider this week. But I'm happy she's happy to have some of her own books back. Though I have a sneaking suspicion we read Cock-a-Doodle-Doo so much so she can say "moo" on the cow page and "who who" on the owl page.

New Words: She did say "Mama I love you"...once. It was enough to melt my heart for awhile. I don't think I've heard anything else new out of her mouth. Though I love when you ask her a question and she'll say "ummmm....yes". :)


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