Pre-pre-school

I have felt like H has needed a little more stimulation lately, something to challenge him a little, and something that just he and I can do while brother is napping.  I was browsing on Pinterest for some Montessori or toddler school ideas and came up with some great ideas, many had free printables that you can use.  Here is a link for my collection on Pinterest.   Usually when I put C down for his morning nap, H comes to me and says: "Mama, you wanna do thumteen (something) wif me?"  How can I refuse.

Here are some pictures of H doing "thumteen" over the past week or two.

Matching colors/items. 

A little bag filled with wooden bowls, people and felt balls in matching colors.  Right now I was just letting him do what he wanted with them.  He matches the bowls and puts the people or balls in them, he mixes them all up, he puts one color on each kitchen tile... I've seen kids using tongs to put move the items around.  For now it is just primary colors (and green) but I was thinking that we could eventually put orange and purple and learn about color mixing...

Dominoes

He loves to stand them up and knock them over.  We've started matching dots a little bit too.

A daily schedule and weather

I will see H refer to this every now and again throughout the day (although some days he totally ignores it).  On Sunday's when we have family movie night, he keeps bringing me the family movie night card as if he hopes it will mean its time!

And he will change the weather card too (today it is "Sunday" (sunny)).

I should have taken a picture - last night I found all of the days events with the magnets taken off hidden in the book I'm reading!  Haha!  Maybe I should put them away for a little while...

Heads and Tails

Matching the head and tail of each animal or creating new strange animals!

(From Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear)

Some little plastic frogs.  

Setting them on their noses was all H's idea.

Matching frogs by color and making a frog train.

Coins

Counting numbers and putting coins in the jar - there is a little slit for them in the lid.  

He found quickly that sometimes they get stuck and you need to shake them between additions.  It is fun to see how quickly he figures out how to manipulate things!

Matching

These have the picture of the robot/person/animal and then the silhouette to match it with.  He does pretty good with it and likes to stack the matches (these are on the lids of old tea tins).  Eventually we will play this like a memory game where you flip them over and have to remember where the matches are.

H does pretty good with all of these activities.  There are a couple that I prepared and thought he would be ready for but quickly realized that we will need to wait on them.  We also rotate some of these activities with coloring, playing with music, building block towers and playing with his farm animals or trains.   Sometimes I have to help him stay focused long enough to finish the activity, and I also have to try to not step in when he gets stumped... but I am enjoying our little pre-pre-school activities and I think he is too!