Tot School

-J-jo is 13 months-

Tonight, J-jo was sitting in his booster seat at the table.  I don't strap him in and I hadn't put the tray in front of him yet, and when he saw me get the yogurt out, he turned himself around and slid off his chair.  He walked to the cupboard where we keep the children's dishes, opened the cupboard (from which we generally still try to keep him out, as it is full of breakable dishes) and got himself a spoon!  I guess watching his sister going in there three or more times a day to get herself cutlery, bowls, plates, and glasses has rubbed off on him.  Then he walked back to the chair and looked all proud of himself. I was one proud Mommy.

Hand Eye Coordination

Putting shapes in holes.

Getting train on the track.

Popsicle Stick in oatmeal container

Shape sorter.

Sizes

Mommy took all the rectangular prisms and triangular prisms and showed him how they could match up to make....

houses.

Phonemic Awereness

I don't teach letter names - Bear picked them up from our Circle time CD and a toy phone and if J-jo learns them it will be the same way.  I teach letter sounds.  Even before I knew about Montessori it made more sense to me to learn the sounds before the names.  First, there are more similarities in the letter sounds between Spanish, French, and English than in the letter names.  Second, logically, it seems learning letter sounds first would remove on the the stumbling blocks to reading.  Letter sounds progress nicely to blending and then to reading CVC words - learning letter names does not.

The point is that I like to tell J-jo the sounds of the letters when he plays with his alphabet puzzle.  Now I am matching the letter to the letter in his Curious George ABC book.  He seems to like that.

Then I started asking him to hand me the letter in his hand, modeling a lot of please and thank you.

Animals

I took out this puzzle we hardly use with animal mommies and babies and we (Bear and I) matched up our tiny animals to the cards while J-jo watched.  I'm assuming some of it got absorbed by him so I am including it.

He likes our new grammar farm.

Practical Life

He also likes to stir and Bear and J-jo played together at this for a bit.  I really like to see them playing peacefully.

Gross Motor

Here's an action shot of him walking.  He's been practicing that a lot, plus playing at the playground and indoor gym.

To see what other tots are doing see 1+1+1=1