Tot School - Marcus at 14.5 months

If you read our Week in Review post and our Preschool Corner post, you may have been wondering what Marcus was up to all day. Last year this time he was still a newborn and would sleep a good part of the day but now he is a toddler and likes to be involved in whatever everybody else is doing... which can be a challenge! I try to spend some one on one time with him each day and also give him enriching things to do while the others are working on projects or school work. Here are some highlights of our first two weeks.

 Lacing beads in a mini muffin tin...Marcus kept busy moving them from one place to the other and also throwing them on the floor.  As he gets older we can work on sorting them by colour and shape.

 I let him have a little homemade play dough.  He enjoyed sticking things in the dough and seeing the prints it made. 

Marcus loves touch and feel books.  Eden was showing him the fluffy chick.

 He was facinated by caterpillars that the big boys were using for caterpillar races.

 There is always plenty of noise music everyday!

 I laid out items I found outside of various shapes, textures, weights.  We talked about heavy, light, rough, smooth, wood, rubber, stone etc.  I let Marcus explore each item as he wished.

 He liked stacking them all up.

 I punched holes in the top of a canister and stuck chenille sticks in.  I knotted the top and bottom of the sticks so that they couldn't go through but the stick could move up and down.  This kept his attention for a little while but it wasn't one of his favourites.  As he gets older I can give him the sticks to push through himself.

 I gave him a couple of stampers and some scrap paper and let him do his thing.

This activity was one of his favourites.  I stuck clothes pegs around a plastic box and he pulled them off.  He isn't able to put them back on by himself yet but we can work towards that.  For now he likes pulling them off and throwing them on the floor.


 In addition to all of these activities, he has lots of free play, play time with his siblings and what he likes more than anything... time outside.  He is an outdoors child for sure!

 So that's how Marcus spends his days!  As you see all of these activities use things I had around the house. You don't need a huge budget to engage the mind of your little one.  Just look around your home and see what you can turn into a learning opportunity!!

This post is linked to Tot School where you can see what other moms are doing with their little ones!