Toddler Activities Week in Review 7.21.13

Playing with a 24-piece floor puzzle, which he still needs some help with, but gets it out by himself a lot and has gotten better at putting it together

Damien was 2 years, 1 month old this week

I didn't post a weekly summary last week, so this will be a summary of the past two weeks (at least the things that I got pictures of). We have used the same learning materials for both of those weeks, and I have decided to go ahead and start using a two-week schedule with Damien like I do with my 8-year-old.

Having my plans in two-week blocks gives a little more room for error, as it always seems to happen that there are at least one or more days where something comes up and we are away from the house, or just get caught up in some project, or some other thing that distracts us from having are "usual" daily routine.

And then I get stressed and feel behind, which is of course never fun, so planning in two week increments leaves more room for error, as even if when there are a couple of days where not much gets done, it doesn't make or break the entire learning plan. You can see the schedule I use here.


Snuggled up learning constellations

Our digital flash card playlist of the past two weeks included:

Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, set 1
Parts of the Sun
Constellations, set 1
USA State Flags
Learning Basic Numbers: 50-60
Learning Basic Numbers: 60-70
Addition: +3's
Presidents Song

He also regularly asked to watch some other addition videos, as well as the history timeline song, and occasionally the Scientific Twinkle Twinkle Little Star song.

Watching part of his math playlist while doing a puzzle.



Damien is still very interested in coloring. He loves to "scribble" elaborately with lots of different colors in specific places on the page. It's definitely not mindless lines and he takes it very seriously! He asks to color multiple times a day and will often sit for quite long periods (30+ minutes).

We had to start using colored pencils or crayons only because, well, this:

There have been other times where he has colored himself a little bit, but it was usually just a few marks on his arm or something.

One day he was sitting in his chair coloring, and there were some bags on the table so I couldn't really see him from where I was sitting. When he was done and asked to get up, I found this. Took a while to get off, to say the least. He certainly was thorough!

Impromptu color sorting with this Playful Patterns toy.

His most recent favorite thing to do on my phone is... play on my calendar?

He loves to open it up and click on all the numbers while naming them. I am pretty sure he knows all of them up to 30, although I pretty much never "test" him so I'm never really sure of everything he knows. He just spontaneously shows me his knowledge from time to time.

Another random math thing he has been doing is playing with rulers and some clamps from my toolbox.

He calls the clamps "measure mice" for some reason (in this Leap Frog video that is on Netflix they use "measure mice" to measure things, teaching nonstandard measurement units). He takes the clamps and points to different numbers. He actually used the centimeters portion of the ruler to count backwards from 30 one day.

He played with this smooth stone natural play set a few times, mostly just as free play.

We have worked on back floating a handful of times, which he sometimes is just fine with and sometimes protests still. He has gotten better now that I have been singing "The Wheels on the Bus" while we practice and doing silly motions.

We swam quite a few times, and while we were at a pool one day he actually climbed out of the edge of the pool by himself (deep end), without a ladder. I am so thrilled he is able to do this now, as it is such an important safety skill.



Walking on the balance beam. We did balance activities a few times, but haven't been very consistent with incorporating these daily.

Some playtime pictures:

Throwing rocks in the lake. He loves doing this way too much.

Playing with miscellaneous puzzles. He does so many puzzles every day, it is another one of his favorites!



Enjoying the sun at a family member's backyard.

Plans for the next two weeks:
Art: Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, Set 2
Biology: Birds of North America, set 1 (ducks)
General Science: Constellations, set 2

Meteoroid, Meteor, Meteorite

Geography: Countries of Europe (locations)
History: Presidents of the USA
Human Anatomy: Bones of the Foot
Mathematics: Telling Time, Part 1 - Hours

That will be our flash card play list at least. The rest will probably be spontaneous, we are going to be really busy!