Tot School - 17 . 5 Months - Introduction to Alphabet Box

After no official Tot School the past few weeks, this week we tried to dive back in! I feel like the day goes so much better when I have some activities planned for Brennan instead of just trying to keep him entertained. I find that we both are much less frustrated!

I had mentioned a few weeks ago that I was thinking about starting sensory bins with Brennan, but was worried about small pieces he could put in his mouth. A little over a week ago, I found an alternative. I was  checking out Amber's blog over at Amber's Articles and she had started creating alphabet boxes for her son. Her little boy is just a little younger than Brennan. I loved the idea. I have tons of alphabet ideas bookmarked or pinned for when B is older, but an alphabet box sounded perfect for a 17-month-old! You can see Amber's original post about alphabet boxes here.

I decided to start with the letter 'A' and do one alphabet box each week. I used a container I already had and placed the following 'A' objects in it:

• Leapfrog 'A' magnet
• Baby Einstein's 'Aa' book
• 'A' coloring page
• airplane
• apple (a real one and a fake one)
• abacus
• apron ($1 at Dollar Tree)
• Abby Cadabby book ($1 at Dollar Tree)
• stuffed armadillo
• The Armadillo from Amarillo book

Using Amber's advice, the week before I created the box I went to Alphabet Curriculum to get some ideas of items to put in my box.

I also thought of items I'll use in each box each week: The Leapfrog magnet, Baby Einstein book, and the coloring page, which I found here.

I was really busy the week before with VBS at church and we had our VBS closing program last Sunday night, so I didn't really get the box completely together before Monday morning like I planned. This was actually a blessing in disguise because I needed to make a quick trip to Dollar Tree Monday morning and while we were there, Brennan spotted the Abby Cadabby book, so I picked it up. Right before we checked out, I saw the apron and since it was only $1 I bought it too. After that we went to the library to return a DVD. While Brennan was playing with toys, I went to look at this one section where they have books in bags with a puppet that goes along with the story. I just started flipping through the bags looking for a puppet animal that started with the letter 'A' and I found the armadillo. I knew the book would be a little too long for Brennan, but the puppet was cute, so we checked it out.

We came home Monday morning, ate lunch, and Brennan went down for his nap. It was neat because I fixed the box all up for him during nap, so he'd have something exciting to explore when he woke up. We came right out to look at the box after nap and starting exploring. I named each object and we pointed to the letter 'A' on the magnet, books, and coloring page. Then I just gave him time to look at everything.

I like this picture because he pulled out the abacus, gasped, and made this surprised/excited face!

After I little bit, I put him in his highchair to "color" the picture. He did make a few scribbles on it and I colored in the letter 'A'. We then pulled up some videos on YouTube.

He loved the "Ants Go Marching" video. I videoed him watching it!


We also watched this one:


I found it annoying, which is saying a lot coming from me, but B really liked it and there is one for every letter, so that's pretty cool.

After Monday, I just tried to incorporate some time each day to explore the box. I had him point to the objects I named and he knew every single one, even the abacus. We also identified the letter 'A' when we saw it throughout the week.

I'm excited to continue these boxes each week!

We also had more Tot School fun this past week!

An oldie but goodie: putting popsicle sticks into the holes of the basket. Please excuse the binky in his mouth. He only sleeps with it and knows he has to leave it in his bed in the morning. This particular morning he didn't want to leave it and I didn't feel like arguing, so I just let him keep it for the morning.

We tried pulling out the dice again. He used to put them in his mouth, so we couldn't use them. The fact he had the binky in his mouth helped keep them out of there. He has played with these dice ALL WEEK! We even take them into the bathtub at night!

Transferring dice

Tossing dice onto the chair

I tried to get him to match up the colors, but he had no clue. I had to help him, but
he kept signing "more" after doing it, so I helped several times.

This next pic makes me laugh. I was trying to get him to look at the camera so I said, "Brennan, where's Mommy's nose?" He turned and looked, but pointed to his own nose.

We had fun with food colored shaving cream in the bath!

Gotta incorporate that letter 'A' into everything I can!

We used our blue Do-a-Dot marker. He's getting much better at using those!

We brought the dice out again and check out what he could do now!

It's so crazy how quickly they can pick stuff up. I am excited to do more color sorting activities with him now.

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check over to Carisa's blog to see more Tot School fun!