The 'Dingle Hopper' and Its Mate

As I mentioned in my last post, the boys have been doing great learning how to use a spoon correctly.  Just this weekend they have taken off in this area.  They are now eating all their meals with a fork, spoon, plate and bowl.  There are still messes of course and times they miss, but they have it down very well that we don't have to worry about plates being thrown off the trays or wonder if they ate more than they are wearing.  They absolutely love eating like big boys.  Here are a few pictures to show them at work.

This was just a cute picture of the boys as they watched a movie the other day.  (This is the only time I can get them to sit still together for photos, ha!)

Feathers, Puzzles, Stickers, Crayons and More

We've done so many new activities and 'crafts' the past couple of months.  The boys really seem to enjoy them and are developing the skills quite well.  I thought I'd highlight on a handful of them:

Stickers (and some gluing): The boys just love sticker time.  We put them on foam paper (which is easy for them to peel off again), Gavin, Wyatt and Mama!  They are learning quickly how to handle the small stickers even and transfer them from their fingers to the paper.  (Sometimes the slightly larger stickers wrap around their fingers though and give them trouble getting them off...)

Feather and Pipe Cleaner Fun: I wrapped a cardboard box in large-holed twill (mesh).  The idea was to learn to put objects through the tiny holes.  We used feathers and pipe cleaners.  The boys thought this was great fun; although I have to say loading the feathers on top of the box and twisting the pipe cleaners this way and that was a lot more entertaining!

Puzzles: We have a lot of the wooden jumbo puzzles the boys enjoy.  I also bought them these foam alphabet puzzle pieces the other week.  The boys have decided these types of puzzles are wonderful.  Over the course of a couple of weeks, they have understood the concept of keeping the pieced flat and trying to fit them together.  They practice this all throughout the day since we just keep these pieces out all the time.

More Feather Fun: One day we decided the feathers didn't need to go in the box, but rather made excellent 'throw in the air and watch them float' and 'cover Gavin/Wyatt/Mama' and 'Tickle, Tickle' toys instead!  We had so much fun throwing the feathers and chasing each other tickling.  The boys kept trying to feed the feathers to the dogs even.  After the feather fun, the boys got to help me vacuum, which is of course one of their favorite things to do!

Shapes: Another one of their favorite 'puzzles' is the shapes blocks.  They have gotten pretty good at putting the shapes in the correct slot too.

Crayons: The boys have also taken a big interest in drawing these days.  After several months of semi-interest, I was very impressed with their artwork below they drew today!  

They've also enjoyed playing with play-dough, but I don't have a picture to go along with that.  There are so many other special 'craft activities' the boys do these days, but I just wanted to highlight a few of them.  

Spaghetti and Sensory Bottle Fun

This past week we've been having some fun exploring our senses.  I started off by making a big pot of spaghetti noodles, adding lots of vegetable oil so the noodles didn't stick to each other and then... plastic bugs and snakes!  The boys and I went outside and dove in exploring and talking about what we felt and found.  They thought it was great fun pulling the snakes and bugs out as well as throwing the noodles in the air, on the ground and on each other.  They never tried eating any of it, but towards the end, they thought feeding it to the dogs was hilarious.  

For months now, I've wanted to make the boys some sensory bottles.  I've never gotten past my fear of them getting the lids off and choking until recently when I decided to use larger lid bottles and lots of super glue.  My bottles are not fancy, but the boys have loved playing with them.  

The first one in the picture is our 'beach' bottle; there is sand, sea shells, rocks and plastic bugs and snakes (although I hope I don't see any snakes on the beach this year!).  As the boys roll the bottle around, new things emerge for them to view.  Personally I think I added just a little too much sand, but it still works great.

The second bottle I made was our 'water' bottle.  In it I wanted to show things that both float and sink; beads are floating at the top and plastic sharks and starfish are at the bottom.  I mixed water and corn syrup, food coloring and glitter which allows the glitter to float around more that just pure water and/oil.  I added too much glitter, but it works well and will help the boys see how things 'settle' (if a 13 month old can comprehend that... which I don't put anything past them!). 

Tonight I made a 'magnetic' bottle.  This one is my favorite!  I filled it with salt and then different metal objects such as colored paper clips, bells, and pins that say, hope, love, faith, cherish, etc.  It's fun to see all the metal items 'sticking' to the magnetic and each other.   

So, I also made a 'so close' bottle tonight.  I call it my 'so close' bottle because it didn't turn our like I wanted.  My goal was to show how something can 'float in the middle' of the bottle by using water and baby oil which have different densities.  The problem was I didn't have enough baby oil.  I did my little layer of baby oil and it worked perfect!  So, I thought I'd try vegetable oil.  It worked great and I actually ended up with three layers of different densities and thus different things floating on different levels.  Well, then I shook up the bottle.  Let's just say it's still settling!  Yeah, this bottle won't work well for two 13 month olds who love to shake things.  Looks like I'll have to retry with purely water and baby oil next time to see if that works better.  For now, we'll just stick with our three bottles.  I have several more ideas for these bottles that I'll make for the boys over the next couple of weeks.

Object Recognition, Words and Body Awareness

Within the past week or so, Gavin and Wyatt have been taking off in recognizing a wide variety of objects, trying to sound out the words, as well as their continual learning different body parts and what they do. I just had to take the time to record just how much they are leaping forward in their awareness of the world around them.

Object Recognition

• As I have mentioned in previous posts, I've been 'teaching' the boys the names of 'objects' since the time they were 1 week old. A few months ago I recognized a great leap forward in their learning ability and awareness and began to teach more intentional. The past month or so, we've taken learning even further by doing a lot of hands on exploring; a lot of this being outside. This past week, we've found a balance between outdoor and indoor fun/learning (typically going outside once in the morning and once in the afternoon for at least 45min to 1 hour). We also take time to go out and about to stores, etc and learn what we can there. (I actually want to write another post about going out in public soon.)
• As the months go on, the boys are able to recognize more details and objects in our communications with them. Their recognition ability is growing by leaps and bounds when we refer to something or ask them to bring us something.
• The boys are great at letting me know when they need help or want something such as food, drink, help, bath, sleep, or to go outside. They always want to go outside... they come to me, sign for help, grab my hand and lead me to the area we keep our shoes. Outside they are very aware of everything and easily show signs of recognizing common things such as trees, flowers, rocks, birds, butterflies, shovel/rake/golf club (outdoor toys), cars, trucks, balls, water (they LOVE this) and swing. They are also very aware of our words we use ALL DAY LONG... safety and gentle. We use the word 'gentle' to describe how to pet animals, treat each other as well as how to play with rocks, etc (so they don't throw them at each other or through a window!). If I tell them they have to wait to go outside until I change their diapers or clothes, they run to get the diapers with smiles on their faces! If I say, no, not now... no smiles let me assure you... They also know what 'let's go inside' means and if I follow with 'to get something to drink (even though we have water with us outside...) they typically won't put up too much of a fight yet.
• The boys love animals and are becoming very aware of the different ones out there. They of course LOVE dogs and cats and say both very clearly. They also have become very interested in horses, cows, birds (generic, but ducks are their favorite!), sheep (Gavin loves to say baaabaaa), bears and monkeys.
• The boys are all into cars and trucks. They know what steering wheels are for too and love playing with them wherever they see them.
• They are great at communicating about eating and drinking and all that comes with it as I've mentioned before.
• Gavin and Wyatt have also become great at communicating when they are sleepy by signing to me. They also love when I say 'it's bath time' and they run to the bathroom signing 'bath'.
• Their favorite shapes they are learning to recognize are circles, squares and triangles; colors are yellow, blue, green and red. As I mentioned before, they love their shapes puzzle. Just this morning I asked Gavin to bring me a yellow block. He went over to the pile of blocks across the room, and grabbed me a blue block. I said. 'thank you for this blue block, can you find me a yellow one?' He looked at the block, looked at me, then the pile of blocks. He walked over to them and pulled out two yellow blocks to hand to me. Then went back and got a third yellow block! Now I'm not saying he 'knows' the color yellow, but based on this and previous activities, he sure is close!

There are LOTS more, but these are just a few I wanted to remember about them now.

Words and Sounds

• In addition to recognizing so many specific words these days, both boys are trying to sound them out too. Although they still have a long way to go in actually repeating the words, they spend a large portion of the day trying to sound out the words we are speaking to them. A lot of their words sound very similar to each other right now; an example is Gavin says, 'day-dee' for baby and 'day-do' for thank you.

• Sometimes when I have their complete attention like on the swings, we play 'phonics games' and such. Here is an example of one of our morning swinging games:

Mama: What sounds does the letter A make? a, a, a... Hum... what words begin with A? a...a...a... alligator, apple, ant, etc...

Boys; a...a...a... repeating the sound

Mama: continues on with other letters.

Mama: D! This is a special letter! Our favorite person on earth starts with the letter D! Let's see, D...D...D...

Wyatt then Gavin yell: DADDY!!!

Mama: That's right!! ... etc...

Mama: Goes through G for Gavin and W for Wyatt, etc...

Mama: Hum... How about the letter M? M says, mmmmm.

Both boys yell: Mama!! and Wyatt begins to make kissing noises (also sounds like M sounds).

So basically what I'm amazed at is their love for learning the sounds.

• Many letters are still just too hard to say, which is why a lot of their words all start with B, D, M, G and sometimes T.
• Here is their favorite book the past couple of weeks. They will bring it to me and open up the pages and we'll go through all the objects. As I say an object, they try so hard to sound it out. You can see and hear their little tongues moving in all sorts of ways!
• They are also learning to point to a few things I ask them to such as baby, dog, cat, ball, cow, tree, flowers, banana, etc.

• Just this afternoon, Gavin pointed to the ball in the air and said, 'ball'. Then he looked at the bottom right of the page and said, 'ball'. He had a finger on each ball and said, 'ball, ball'. How a 13 month old recognizes the two balls are the same is beyond me.

Body Awareness

• Right now the boys know where their (and other's) head, hands, feet, hinny (only used when I tell them to sit on their hinny), eyes, mouth, nose, and ears are at, and we're working on tummy. A word of advise, do not ask them where your nose is at; they love to pinch it! Better yet, don't ask Wyatt where it's at; just this past week he's started putting his finger in his nose when you ask him, and he tries with me too!
• They love the Baby Einstein DVD about body parts. The boys touch each part the DVD is talking about and come running to me to point out mine too. They love the 'heads, shoulders, knees and toes' song! They'll touch their head and then their toes and then run in place or in circles for fun!
• Wyatt has been blinking when we talk about eyes, and when we talk about our mouth for talking and eating, he starts bitting the air (how I taught them to 'chew' when they started eating solid foods). The boys still giggle when we talk about feet and Gavin says, 'ducaduca' for 'tickle tickle'.

'Potty Parts'

In addition to these body parts, the boys are also become very aware of their 'potty parts' too. They are very aware that this is where potty comes out of and it sounds like, 'psssss, pssss'. When they take a bath they often will point to it and say, 'psss, pssss' and of course when they sit on the toilet which they just love to do. Today during bath they were so excited about their 'potty parts' they stood up and pointed to the toilet to let me know they wanted to sit on it. I took two little wet boys and put one on the big potty with a snap on toilet seat (Cars which is super cool of course) and one on the stand alone potty right next to it. They were so happy and kept pointing saying, psssss. They typically do not actually go the bathroom when on the potty, but they do sometimes and get so excited.

Their awareness and enjoyment in learning all about it is wonderful and just what I've wanted to encourage. As soon as they start to become aware of themselves actually going potty, it will be time to full out train them. I just ordered a few 'potty' books to read to them just to further make them aware of this new big boy activity! It's been a fun process and nothing stressful. For a while I was taking both of them to the big boy potty when they'd wake up from a nap and after each meal. I quickly realized this was not necessary for Gavin and Wyatt specifically and decided to take a more relaxed approach until they begin to increase their awareness. I still take them on 'potty breaks' and we have fun learning all about sitting and why, but it's just not as often as 5+ times a day. I'll be honest too, taking two 13 month old boys (much younger when we started all this) is not super fun for Mama. I love teaching them and watching their excitement, but the whole process leaves me feeling like I was in a circus the whole time. Two bouncy boys and one very pregnant mama don't fit in a tiny space super comfy if you ask me! Of course, if they continue to develop in this area, I will begin to have more structure to potty time again. Time and Gavin and Wyatt will tell!

Taking Learning Outside

The past month, I've put a 'hold' on many of the 'prepared lessons' for the boys. Well, actually, I've just changed up the structure for this season. Instead of preparing as much and learning indoors, we've been taking a lot of our learning fun outdoors and enjoying the beautiful spring weather!

Outside we are learning all about our colors and shapes, letters, sounds and numbers. We learn all about nature and textures. We are learning about hot and cold, wet and dry. The boys are also taking giant leaps in their physical abilities.

Whether it's our swing set or the giant jungle gyms at the park, the boys are all about climbing, exploring, sliding and swinging. Their balance in the grass, sand, gravel, mulch, steps, etc is getting fabulous. They are learning how to balance well on one leg as well.

The boys are all into tress, leaves, grass, dirt and rocks. They also enjoy watching the birds in the morning.

The boys favorite thing... WATER! Oh the fun they have in with their water table, their pool, their 'water park' and of course the water hose!

So while we are still have fun learning times inside, we just spend most of it outside these days. This way we can recognize all these neat things in the beautiful creation God made!

Here is a video clip of some 'after rain puddle fun'!

http://youtu.be/oUKraA8b8Fo

Most of our 'designated learning times' indoors these days is centered around puzzles and reading. The boys just love puzzles and are getting really good at them. I'd say they put them in the correct spot 50-60% of the time and at least in the right areas 80% of the time. Their absolute favorite puzzle right now is their shapes/color puzzle their Aunt Selina got them! Their other two favorite ones are animals. And of course their latch board fits in the top of this list too.

This past month outdoors has been such a great gift for us all. I'm so thankful we are given the opportunity and ability to enjoy what God's amazing world!

Gavin and Wyatt's 'Lessons' - Week One

As I mentioned in my ’11 months’ post, Gavin and Wyatt are 100% toddlers. Part of this ‘100% Toddler’ we see is their sponge like absorption of everything. It’s a well known fact that young children are hungry to learn and enjoy doing so. The past few weeks, I’ve realized that the boys’ learning curve has taken on a whole new dimension, and I want to take complete advantage of this.

The Past 11 Months

Ever since the boys were a week old, I’ve spent our entire days teaching them as we snuggle, love, eat, clean and play. Learning sounds, colors, objects, signing, etc were all part of our daily routine. There was no ‘system’ to our learning, but rather taught as ‘life happened’. If we were playing with balls, I’d talk about balls, shapes and colors of the balls. I’d explain how they roll and other similar objects. If the dogs would be in the room, I’d say and sign ‘Dog’, which would eventually be Gavin’s first and Wyatt’s second word. So our days were filled will great learning opportunities, but nothing ‘prepared’ so to speak.

This Past Week

Now each week I ‘prepare’ lessons for the boys. These are not ridged lessons by all means, but rather provide them opportunities to explore ‘subjects’ on a whole new level. Typically on Sunday night or Monday I’ll get things ready for the next week’s lessons. Each week I hope to focus on a color, shape, letter/phonics, object, number and body part.

Last Week’s Color: RED

I have colored buckets for each week. Last week I pulled out the red bucket. In it I pulled out many red toys the boys have around the house and placed them in the bucket; a red block, ball, car, hand towel, wheel, star, etc. During the day, we’ll put all the other toys to the side, and we’ll spend time talking about and playing with the color RED. The boys think this is a great treat! I use my easel too during the week for these purposes. I have cute ‘color’ cut outs to be used on bulletin boards that I put magnetics on. I use red markers that week too. I try to point out the color of the week during any opportunity I see the boys minds are receptive to it (not distracted with other fun).

Last Week’s Shape: CIRCLES

I had a circle strainer from the kitchen filled with all circle or round objects. I had balls, wheels, lids, bowls etc. I did the same thing with these toys as I do with the ‘color’ toys above, but at different times. I drew circles on the easel too. I’ve been pulling up YouTube videos on my iPad about circles for the boys. They love these short clips and often dance along to the music. I try to point out all things ‘circles’ during the week as well.

Last Week’s Object: COWS

The ‘object’ of the week can be an animal, something in nature such as trees, flowers, sun, etc, or it can be cars, books, house, etc. I chose ‘cows’ last week because we were supposed to go to the farm that weekend and they would be able to see cows up close and personal (but it was raining, so we will try another weekend soon). I had a box full of ‘cows’ and did the same thing as I did for the shape and color of the week. In our box last week we had a lot of ‘Little People’ cows that we lined up in rows, we had a flashcard with a cow, a puzzle piece and a photo I printed out of cows from the farm. We also watched YouTube videos of cows and listened to their mooing. The boys giggle every time they moo! We talk about the ‘sound the cows make’ and when I say, ‘moo’, the boys say, ‘moomoo’ too! I’m no artist, but I drew cows on the easel too ;)

Last Week’s Letter/Phonics: A

We sing songs I make up about the letter A and the sounds it makes. The boys love to say one of the sounds along with me, and are working on the other 2. They’ll sit there with their mouths open trying to get the other sounds coming out correctly, but we make a big deal of the ‘a’ sound they make! We also talk about things that start with the letter; airplanes, ants, apples, ape, alligator, etc. I have A magnetics of different sorts on the easel, flash cards with the letter A, and I draw letters upper and lower case too. I’ve even found a few Youtube videos about the letter. We also have the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics on the easel that I can press and we can sing along about the sounds of the letters.

Number:1

I was going to focus on the number one, but this being our first week, I’ve really never got around to finding the right time to focus on ‘1’. So I’ll incorporate this into next week’s ‘lessons’.

Body Part: Feet

As I mentioned in my 11 Month Post, the boys know where their head is as well as their hands. This past week we have learned feet! Gavin points to his feet or lifts them up about 80% of the time I ask him, and Wyatt about 50%. So, we'll keep focusing on feet this week until it's 100% like head and hands.

More About Last Week

One day I focused on just the shapes and colors; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Another day we spent our time on cows, and then just lots of fun playing. Then it might be cows, shapes and color the next day. Each day we talk about our phonics of the week. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we are very flexible each day about when we have our ‘lesson times’. I go off of cues the boys give about when they are most receptive. Sometimes they are just having so much fun running around the house or exploring other toys or just playing with each other or snuggling mama. It’s important to me that all of this be a fun experience and not ridged.

Week Two Plans

This week we've started to explore the color BLUE and the letter B. We'll also look at SQUARES and I'm thinking TREES might be a fun object. I'd also like to talk about the NUMBER ONE and FEET. Happy Learning!!