Tot School, May 2

The Littlest Apple is  32 months old.

I haven’t been doing a very good job of planning ahead for our Tot School activities, and that’s going to be one of my goals for the month of May.  Here are a few activities The Littlest Apple and I have done lately:

The Littlest Apple helped me bake banana bread.  I really want to share my love of cooking and baking with The Littlest Apple, but he’s always a little over-eager and grabby when we’re cooking and baking together.  This time, I tried a new technique I read about on Steady Mom.  I gave The Littlest Apple his own bowl, and added ingredients to his bowl as I added them to my mixing bowl.  This worked out great, because he could play to his heart’s content with his ingredients, I wasn’t worried about messing up my recipe, and nibble without contaminating my bread.  It also gave him a bit of control too, in that he got to say “yes” or “no” to each ingredient.  I was making banana bread, but he actually said “no” to bananas for his bread!  It did get a little messy….

The Littlest Apple helped plant the Spring 2010 Garden.  He also helps water the plants with a spray bottle (as opposed to a watering can, which he just dumps indiscriminately).

Last week, The Littlest Apple’s theme at Mother’s Day Out was ladybugs, and he brought home a jar full of ladybugs.  We released them in our backyard, and spent a really long time watching them crawl around before they flew off.  I’m thinking about ordering a Butterfly Kit.  He LOVES bugs!

I introduced The Littlest Apple to his very first pattern activity.  Honestly, he needed some help, and wasn’t that interested.  But he did enjoy playing with his Do A Dot Markers!

We painted with golf balls:

We blew feathers across the kitchen floor…

The biggest hit of the week was this tub of Vehicle Counters from Lakeshore Learning (LOVE that store!).  The Littlest Apple has played with these for HOURS.  They are such a versatile toy: we have sorted them by vehicle type, by color, counted them, lined them up, matched them, etc.  These were such a great buy!

Practice washing dishes:

Yesterday we went to this neat church fundraiser called Touch A Truck, where preschoolers could explore and touch various trucks and other vehicles up close.  Vehicles we explored: firetruck, police cars, school bus, mail truck, RV, skid steer, heavy duty pickup trucks, sports cars, and a police horse named Buzz.  The Littlest Apple had a great time.  This was our first public outing since he got his NG tube, and I’m definitely going to have to get used to all of the staring, especially from other kids.  (The Littlest Apple didn’t notice at all.)  I know it probably looks scary to the other kids though.  We did have a lengthy conversation with the constable helping Buzz whose son had a feeding tube while in the NICU.

But the Touch a Truck event-I think this is SUCH a neat idea, don’t you?!  The one we attended was near my parents house, about 30 minutes away, but I’m thinking that this would be a HUGE hit in our suburb, too.  I’m halfway thinking about starting one myself in our community as a fundraiser for something (you know, because I don’t have enough going on right now!).  Obviously I haven’t put much thought in to it yet, but there is such potential here with all of these truck-loving boys (and girls!) in our kid-filled suburb.  The Littlest Apple would love to have seen a cement mixer and other construction vehicles, a garbage or recycling truck, a tractor or other farm equipment, and maybe an ambulance too.  Ooh!  And an airplane and/or helicopter!  See?  There are so many possibilities!