Tot Trays and Shelves: What it looks like for US.

This whole journey into educating my little birdy has been a bit....overwhelming and daunting. There is SO much good information, so many great sites, so many creative and insanely incredible moms out there! My mind was spinning with all the ideas and I found myself wondering how I could afford to "do it right", and then I reminded myself that "doing it right" was simply doing the best I can with what I have.

For example, I simply can't afford the actual trays for "Tot Trays" right now, and I definitely can't afford all the nifty toys and things that I see on some of these great blogs---those amazing Montessori activities are INSANELY expensive! And I definitely don't have the time to make too many homemade activities as a working Mama. But, thanks to LB's amazing friends and relatives, she already has some really nifty and educational things of her own. I just had to sort, organize and put 75% of it all away so that she could focus in on a few things at a time. I will continue to compile a mental "wish list" of supplies and items that would be nice to have one day, but for now, I think this is working out really well!

I took the toy corner of the Family Room and cleaned it out (mostly),
and kept only the toys I want her to focus on.

Here are a few of the items in detail that LB is focusing on right now. All but one toy is pulled from what we already had in our toy collection!

This little birdy house is just fun: it came with four little birdies,
and I fill it with other little critters that LB is into. She loves
her cats and dogs. 

Counting bears and Counting/Sorting Farm animals. 

Infantino makes these: One is matching the animal to its tail and the
other is matching a descriptive to its object, i.e. Shiny to Fish, or Spotty
to Dog. Very fun, and very affordable.  I was surprised  by
how much LB loves these. She pulls these out EVERY day, several times
a day. 

This is the only item on the shelf that is a new purchase: I found it
at Ross---one of my favorite places for educational toys. Anytime
I want a Melissa and Doug toy or something similar, I check Ross,
TJ Maxx and Marshalls first!! 

This push cart was a gift from LB's grandparents
and it has just won me over. It's not something I would have picked,
but I LOVE it. LB does too, and pushes it around, and it's the perfect book
caddy for my little Bookworm. 

This is one of LB's "Featured Books", and it's an 

heirloom! This was made for me when I was a child by MY

Mama, and it's just an incredible book of animals, textures and 

it's great for Practical Life learning: it has snaps, zippers,

ties, buttons, buckles and laces. You can see the pages here.

I decided to keep the bottom shelf a "Featured Book"space for now.

A while ago I put some accessories together for LB's Stella doll and Fisher-Price stroller, both 1st Birthday gifts. She has a convenient Stella backpack to keep everything in, and along with the paci, bottle, "cereal bowl and spoon", clothing and hat, I added little hats, mitts and a pair of booties that I had made for LB when she was a newborn. I love that she dresses her dolly in things that I made and she wore! LB is already very interested in holding, feeding and dressing her dolly, as well as herself. She tries on Mama's shoes, tries to put her own socks on, etc. So I'm dubbing this set-up part of our "Practical Life" activities! Use what you have!! :)

Einstein Time--Using what you have

During a recent brainstorming session for Tot School, I was thinking through some of LB's toys and trying to come up with new ways to use them for educational purposes--Use what you have, right?

LB has long been enamored of anything Baby Einstein--particularly the videos. They are the only TV she watches--I'm not a mom who only limits TV to 30 min. on Saturday, but I definitely limit content. I love the Einstein videos. They are simple, age appropriate, and each video follows a theme--Shapes, Colors, Body Parts, Numbers, World Animals, Neighborhood Animals, etc. This is not meant to be a commercial for Baby Einstein, but I can't tell you how much she responds to them. At 15 months she knows signs and sounds to 8-10 different animals, knows 8-10 everyday communication signs, knows basic body parts and will point to them on command--I could go on. But I think it's due in part to the interactive and creative platform of the Einstein videos. I usually watch them with her, do the signs with her, talk about the animals and make the sounds, etc.

So now we are stepping it up a level. I'm now pulling toys that we already have that correspond to a video's theme, and using them to reinforce the concepts and help her learn to associate. For example: Baby Noah. I pull her safari puzzle, ocean animals puzzle, Little People Noah's Ark, and a stuffed Monkey, etc.

 

 I try to get more than one of each animal--if I have it.

I had to do it for her at first, but now SHE gets the appropriate animal to match the one on the screen, and makes any signs and sounds she associates with that animal. She loves it! Especially if I'm doing it with her.

 Getting the Zebra

 Signing "Elephant"

My plan is to make up a list of the videos she has and the toys that correspond with those videos. It will be a great resource to have on hand for her sitters as well, and I love the idea of having something structured yet easy for a sitter to do with her that she loves.

Sensory Box Saves the Day

A Sensory Box is something I'm going to keep as part of our Tot School activities, and those moments when I need a surefire distraction--as happened recently and is detailed below! Frequency will be determined by budget, time and how quickly her interest wanes. I've seen some moms that do a monthly one--which is awesome if you have the resources, but at this point I think keeping it until she's bored with it is just fine!

My first attempt is themed for Spring/Easter and contains:

Filler:
Cotton Balls, approx 4-5 bags
1 skein Cream and Sugar yarn, variegated pink, cut into several sections
Silk Flowers of various size and color

Objects:
2 Smooth River Rocks
2 Green plastic containers for holding objects/fill 'n spill
4-6 Easter eggs, filled with cotton or a squishy
2 Chicky Eggs, filled with squishies
Fuzzy white Bunny
Fuzzy yellow Chick

 The other night I was making dinner. It had been a LONG day for both of us, and I had about 30minutes to get dinner together, and of course it was at that moment that LB decided she'd had enough and she just couldn't live without me a moment longer. I pulled out the SB, stuck it in the middle of the kitchen, and she went to town---and was completely absorbed for 30 minutes. It was a true moment of grace that I am so thankful for!

Since this was my first SB, I wondered what was going to work and what wouldn't. I didn't have high hopes for the yarn, that's for sure. I thought it was a decent filler, but I wasn't prepare for the reaction it got! LB didn't want to have much to do with it the first time around, but during the kitchen episode that yarn was the star! She ran it through her fingers, laughing hysterically for some reason. What a surprise!

 LB is enamored with flowers of all kinds, and loves to sign Flower and smell them. I did a little happy dance when I noticed her twirling the flowers in her fingers, brushing them over her face, and really discovering their textures. I'm so pleased with the way this came out and I can't wait to see the new discoveries she makes---and I'm very curious to see how long this box will last.

Circle Time is Awesome

We had our first Circle Time today, and though I'm still not where I want to be with it as far as props and organization, we had so much fun with what we had! I'm gearing it toward her interests and age: Animals, signing, dancing, etc., while also including things I want to focus on like devotional time, talking about God and prayer.

My supplies for the day:
Laurie Berkner Playlist
Various stuffed animals
Tub of hand Instruments
Various light, sheer scarves

Schedule:

• Open with prayer together

• Sing/Sign Jesus Loves Me

• Sign our verse several times: "For God so Loved the World" (only 3 signs, and then I will insert her name for World, and my name, the dog's name, Papa's name, etc.)

• Pig on Her Head: using our stuffed animals, singing a capella. 

• We are the Dinosaurs: Stomping/Drumming

• Moon, Moon, Moon: Scarves/movement

•  Rocketship Run: Count down fingers, movement--lots of twirling and blasting off!

•  Free dance/instrument/go crazy time: I let the playlist go and we each play instruments or dance around as we want. FUN time. Includes Buzz, Buzz, Buzz with lots of tickles!!

• Wind down with Moon, Moon, Moon one more time. 

•  Close with reviewing verse and prayer.

 Notes:
Our circle time lasted about 45 minutes today. Next time it could be 20 minutes or less, depending on what she can handle for that day. I always let her guide what we do and when. I plan a "sketch" of songs/verses/signs I want to do, but we move on or change it up if she's not feeling it, or I'll just do it all by myself while she watches or does her own thing. She ends up joining in after a while most of the time. I keep a page of our Playlist of songs here.