Tot School: Nesting Blocks

Coloring

Chloe got a couple giant coloring pads from Oma for her birthday last month; Pooh. This week we exchanged it for a Princess one and John picked out a Cars one.

We did some special coloring pages to decorate Nana’s door to welcome her home. Chloe did fantastic, coloring inside the lines quite well and using many different colors. John was excited to have lined all his pencils up in a line. He tried to count them and made it to 10…good job John!

Building & Driving

We got the Melissa and Doug wooden nesting blocks this week; quite the hit. Chloe loved to stack them so high-in-the-sky. She liked identifying each animal on the side and figuring out which one should be stacked on which; good practice for judging size. Each animal also has a colored back ground. Daddy encouraged her to stack them up with all the same colors on each sides. I imagine we’ll be playing with these a lot in the future. They seem like such a simple toy, like they may be too young for her but I assure you, they are filled with teaching potential!

Chloe also got a Strawberry Shortcake remote control car for her birthday last month. It’s been interesting watching her as she struggles to master the art of driving it; coordinating her finger movements in order to have the car go where she wants. She loves it though and is quite persistent (another good lesson!); getting a little better each time.

Snow Play

I like to hibernate in winter; I’m not in love with cold. While the littles are generally happy to head out to the fenced in back yard on their own; they get giddy with excitement when I head out with them. It warmed up a bit the other day so we headed out together. We made a snowman then dug out a cave for John {who tells me these pictures are of him sleeping in his “cave”}.

Chloe was exploring all the ‘snow mountains’, which are impressively high from the large amount of snow we’ve gotten these past weeks. She also enjoyed “delivering” snow to various places; no idea why.  Neither of them were ready to come in but I was. I bribed them with promises of hot chocolate and a snack; which made them more agreeable. {Oh, how I look forward to the nicer weather!} {and to add in an update: all our snow melted but they are calling for more!}

Books We’re Reading

We’re always reading something around here. I aim to read 6 books or more a day. I choose two and each of the littles chooses two.

The Dinosaur Who Lost His Roar was an Usborne book we got when Chloe was about 18 months old and it was her favorite book for the longest time. At four, we still dig it out. A funny little tale about dinosaurs it opens up a discussion about friendship, being kind, apologizing and how it can hurt someone’s feelings to laugh at them.

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt was one of the books we got in our Before Five in a Row literature package. Every day without fail, this is one of John’s two book selections; he loves it. We got the board book version, though there is a paperback version as well. They love doing the actions, and being able to join in because of the repetition. I’m not sure about the survival skills it teaches though; Chloe told me today that if a big bear ever comes to our house, she’ll run and hide in her bed! LOL.

Every day there are loads of opportunities for tot learning. What are you and your tot up to this week?

• Chloe is 4 years & John is 30 months
• This post links to Tot School, Preschool Corner, Show & Tell Blog Hop, Tot Tuesdays, Kids Get Crafty, and Read. Explore.Learn.