Tot School--H Week II

Isaiah is 48 months old

This week's letter was H, and while we didn't do a lot of activities for various reasons, as I thought about the week, I realized that a lot of life skills learning took place! But first we'll start with the letter-based activities:

Hand

"Show me your hand, Isaiah!"

And what better activity to strengthen those fingers on that cute little hand than strumming and plucking on Daddy's guitar--a special reward for some AMAZING walking!

I traced Isaiah's hands, and then he helped trace my hands for a special project for Daddy. He really did look at the paper he was coloring, I promise, and he didn't even fuss about it this week!

Heart

I cut out a large heart on which we could glue our hands to give to Daddy.

I also cut out 4 differently-sized hearts to work on sequencing. (thought I took a picture, but must not have, oh well) Isaiah did identify the biggest heart and the smallest heart, but that was as far as it got. For his first sequencing activity, I thought he did pretty well! I'll definitely try to pull that one out again with other letters.

Hats

Isaiah was somewhat enamored with this mask, which he decided was a hat. He had to wear it every day!

And of course that meant Mama had to wear it, too.

We've been working on life skills with Isaiah in order to give him as much independence as possible. Sometimes he really fights against this for whatever reason. But I've noticed over the past week, that he has definitely improved in several areas:

Dressing--Isaiah will now put on his shirt almost completely on his own. I do have to hold him steady to provide balance for him so that he doesn't do a face plant, but other than that, it's pretty much all him!

Outside--Related to dressing, Isaiah now tells me which articles of clothing he needs before we go outside. He can say shirt, pants, braces, coat, gloves, hat, scarf. He's even started saying them without me asking "what is this?". So excited about his speech improving!

While he is still dependent on us for many things, and most likely always will be for something, we are really excited about his wanting to do more on his own. But I also am thankful for the reminder that he gives me every day of how I must depend on God for everything!

Be sure to check out the other Tot Schools at 1+1+1=1.

Tot School--H Week

Isaiah is 38 months

Finishing up the letters in Isaiah's name this week.

H is for....

Holy

Our verse for this week was I Peter 1:15  But as He Who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct (ESV).  Since this is still sort of new for us, I'll say again that I didn't make Isaiah memorize this; we're still working on getting him to say please and thank you and peoples' names, so I think memorizing a verse this long would be a little hard for him yet; however, he is doing a great job learning his children's catechism, but that's for another post.  For this week, we talked about this verse every day (and mama memorized it) and ways that we can be holy in our daily activities.  For Isaiah we talked about obedience and how he can obey God when he obeys mama and daddy; but how mama and daddy also must obey God!

Hannah

Our Bible story for the week was about Hannah and Samuel.  I didn't do nearly what I had hoped to do with this story, so maybe I'll be able to remember my ideas and do them on the next go around.  We did read the story of Hannah in the Bible (in English and Russian!).  We talked about her prayer and her promise to God, and how she kept her promise to God.  (Then we prayed for a baby, too!)

Happy

Isaiah was very happy to have a play date with his friend Lydia, at last!  Lydia's mommy and I had been trying to get back into our regular play dates for a while now, so we were all happy to have one again.

Honey

And what better snack could you have than Honey Nut Cheerios, I ask you?  I think that I was just as excited about this special treat as Isaiah was, maybe even more!

Handprints

Of course, we had to make handprints.  This is actually the first time that I have ever made a print of Isaiah's hands.  He seemed to be a little confused, but complied anyway.  Then, of course, he wanted to touch everything else before I got him cleaned up.

Hats

We read the great book Old Hat, New Hat by Stan and Jan Berenstain, thanks to Grandma S.  I had planned on making hats like some in the book, but Isaiah decided to take several really long naps this week, and with other activities already scheduled (and amazing weather!), we ran out of time.  I think I'm going to try to incorporate the hat idea with other letters though, because Isaiah is really into hats lately!

I know this picture is out of focus, but I couldn't resist it!  He was just so cute wearing this knit hat around the house on Friday as he helped me clean.

And he had to wear this orange hat while sitting in his favorite spot on Saturday morning as we waited for Daddy to come home.

Ok, couldn't come up with a legitimate "h" word for this one, but here is an example of his current obsession.  This Little Man LOVES ziploc bags (too bad z is at the end of the alphabet!).  If he sees me get out a bag of something he asks for the bag, not because he wants what's inside (I'm finally learning) but because he wants to try to open the bag, take out what's inside then put it back inside and start the whole process over again.  So this time, his snack went from plate to bag to plate to bag, with a few bites taken in the process.

Helper

We did some big grocery shopping on Friday, and Isaiah was my big helper as always.  He likes me to hand him the products, then he puts them into the basket for me.  He does a great job!

Ham

As in ham and cheese blini, which is sort of like a crepe with ham and cheese inside.  He got this as a treat on Friday for lunch, and he ate it while watching Letter Factory.  We haven't had the video for very long, but he seems to enjoy it.  He has finally started repeating the sounds with the characters, but I haven't noticed yet any letter recognition, but much more sound recognition.

Hammer

Isaiah played with his hammer a good bit this week, but when I asked him to help me hammer his H to the paper for his big name project, he was NOT interested.  He had seen the small box that holds his little containers of paint, and he wanted to play with that instead!  So after we got the letter attached, probably the fastest art project ever, he was happy to remove the paint containers and put them back in.

Haircut

Isaiah's hair grows remarkably fast, so I take care of the cutting.  I'm always amazed at how different he looks after a haircut, so here's a before...

...and an after.

Helicopter

I found this great Chinese made toy at our store for less than $1, and it actually worked! (sometime I'll have to explain that comment.)  Although, don't pull the string in a room with tall refrigerators behind which the spinning circle can fall and be lost--this thing can really fly high!  I couldn't get a good picture of it because I was enjoying myself too much. :)

Hang

We got to hang Isaiah's name on the wall in his room at last!  You can tell that later in the letters I was trying to get a little bit more creative.  Maybe we'll do it again sometime; I'm sure that this won't last forever.

We're a pretty musical family, so I enjoy focusing on songs that have lots of words with our letter of the week.  Some of our favorites from this week were:  Happy and You Know It, Holy Hands, Hallelujah Praise Jehovah, Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes and just plain humming, which worked especially well on all our walks in the park where the paths were bumpy and you could hum all sorts of interesting things while we bumped along.

Hot

Well, ok, not really hot, yet, but relative to what we have been experiencing, I have felt really hot on our walks this week.  Thankfully Isaiah is no longer in the polar suit!  Hooray!  Now that he's not all constricted in the great big thing, he can sit up straighter and enjoy watching the cars go by, which seems to really hold his attention!

We also watched some youtube videos of hippos and hamsters, but I think that's all for this week for us.  Head on over to 1+1+1=1 to see more great Tot School ideas, and you'll also get to see Carisa's beautiful little girl!