I am trying to get more consistent in doing some structured activities with Wesley. I find he totally loves them, and it helps our days go more smoothly if he has some focused attention-time, other than just play-time. I feel very inspired reading other blogs at Tot School at 1+1=1, so we'll give this a whirl with my inconsistent documentation and structure style.
Of course, any activity can be improved with the addition of trucks, trains, cars, and other vehicles. After we commence pretty much any activity, Wes says, "oooh I know, digger (or other truck) can help!"
Here we are driving our trains (and a bus) across the continents of the world. He LOVED looking at the animals on the "key" page and then finding them across the continent.
We painted pumpkins. This was a huge hit.
Every learning session needs a little recess...
I printed this from ABCTeach.com and Wesley totally loved it. He cut the out of order numbers out and then matched them to the printed numbers on the grid. He then glued them down with a glue stick. We did 1-5 and 6-10. By the end of this activity he was counting 1-10 for the first time and has continued to do so in following days. He was so proud of himself and wanted to count the numbers over and over.
And we played playdough.
Starting Sounds
Though I have no pictures, this week Wesley has constantly initiated the "What does ____ start with" game. He does it with any and every word he can think of and is now pretty much perfectly accurate in hearing starting sounds. We have started playing with ending sounds, too. It's fun to play the game with him, to hear all the words he comes up with, to follow his word associations as he asks word after word. It is a great way to pass time when walking (esp. if he's dragging a bit).
Rhyming
For the last couple weeks Wes has been really into making up nonsense words. He has started rhyming them, too. Like he'll say, "Oh it's just gokty pokty" or something like that. He'll often add silly words into his vocab. Now he's started frequently playing the "starting sounds" game with his made up words which I think is good word play for hearing sounds.
He'll say, "what does zingly start with? Z (phonics sound)!" "What does soshoff start with? S!"
I think it started partially with me being silly and largely from reading so much Dr. Seuss. But, I was wondering how rhyming would first appear...
He has also started rhyming with the starting sounds game. He'll say "what does clever start with?" "what does lever start with?" "what does bever start wtih?" (with seamless switch to Wes-created words).
