Tot School (Fall Sensory Bin Fun)

**J is 28 months old**

Most of our Tot School this week centered around our fall sensory bin. This was the first time I put a bin together (inspired by others) and both of us really enjoyed it. J played with it several times throughout the week. We did a few other activities, but not a ton of variety. J also spent a lot of time coloring which is still one of his favorite things to do.












































We did our first sensory bin this week. I got the idea from the Tot School blog. We had a lot of the same items at our dollar store that she had in her bin too! I loved picking the stuff out. (Acorns, pumpkins, cranberries, colored stones, wooden beads, fall leaves. J loved it. The first thing he did was dig out the leaves and held his hands up high to drop them. He did this over and over again. Then I started showing him the other things in the bin and he had fun throwing some of them. I started sorting them and eventually got J to play with me. I would ask him like, "Where does the acorn go?" and he'd point to the pile. I sorted most everything and found out J's favorite were the colored stone crescent moons. I had fun burying the moon and having him find it. This made him laugh. Then I was putting things back in the bin tossing them in and when I was done J had fun dumping it. This time he helped me put them back, though.















Fish Block Toy
J doesn't get this out much at all, so I was surprised when he was asking my help in getting something. At first, I didn't know what he was asking for but then I realized he wanted the big fish block toy. He didn't remember how to work it so he was ready to leave it fast. Then I put in a few blocks which he enjoyed for a moment or two then was off to something else.






























It was a bit cool one afternoon we went to play outside. J was excited about getting his sunglasses on. He asked me for his "Toy Story" glasses and I didn't know what he meant until I looked closely at the glasses. Sure enough, they have a tiny little Toy Story sticker on the lens which I don't remember noticing! He also wanted his Pooh jacket on. He got out his bubble lawn mower and had some fun pushing that around the driveway.






























J wanted to play some more with the sensory bin. This time he wanted to find all the marbles in the bin and put them into a pile. I was showing him some wooden beads in the bin and he asked me if we could lace the beads. I put one of the beads on the lace and was swinging it back and forth. He started pretending it was a swing for his marbles. He would hold his marbles on the string as I was swinging it and said, "We're all friends and we're swinging".


























































J was helping me again to feed the birds. He likes to help pour the bird seed into the feeding bucket. This time, he liked picking out the peanuts and putting them into the pouring cup. He calls the peanuts "twonuts" (I have no idea how he came up with that!) So he had a lot of fun putting the "twonuts" into a cup, pouring them out and then putting them back in the cup again.































More fun with the sensory bin and this time we sorted the items into his stacking cups. He didn't do much with it at first until I found his little shovel. Then he had a really fun time scooping up the items and putting them into the cups.

Fun with Nature











































Our caterpillar emerged from his cocoon as a butterfly this week! These are a few of my favorite pictures. We were at a play group that morning and when we came back he was a butterfly. We had plenty of time with him too since his wings were still drying. We hung out with him in the back yard and Butterfly would let us hold him! He just wanted to hang upside down from anything you'd put in front of him. J even got to hold him. I'm working on a blog post with all the beautiful pics.

Books
Elmer Takes Off
Halloween; Is It for Real?
Kidogo
The Story of the Three Little Pigs and Other Tales
Time to Say Please


Videos
Boz: Thank you God for friends and helpers
Leapfrog: Let's Go to School




Life Fun












































This is J enjoying himself while we were out to dinner at the Tuscany Grill. We had a gift certificate so we went out for a belated birthday dinner for L. The food ended up being wonderful, but unfortunately the service left a lot to be desired. We had to wait a long time for our food so J used the time to color. After dinner, he had fun playing with his jungle animals. We had a nice time out.































After church, our friends Eileen and Chris invited us over to their house for vegetarian chilli (yum!). Our sons enjoy playing together. Jackson and J were dancing and got the parents to join in. Jackson was into spinning and would come up to you and say "Spin?" J liked spinning around with him. Later J found Jackson's pumpkin "hat" (which is how Jackson refers to it) and it was so cute when he put it on and walked around.

















My car was in the shop this week so my husband dropped us off at our Titus mom's group. My friend Eileen wasn't able to be at the mom's group, but she offered to pick us up afterward. J enjoyed sitting in his car seat while we waited.

















This week, the weather was so beautiful! Several days of warm, 70-80 degree weather and just about every day was sunny with no clouds. The nights were cool and perfect for a little camp fire. J was bummed we couldn't start the fire during the day, but really enjoyed being outside when it was dark and cool, but toasty warm by the fire. We were having so much fun that daddy brought out his guitar to join us. (All the pictures I took came out blurry.)

Come visit some other blogs where I link up at the Weeky Wrap Up.

For more fun with Tot School ideas, visit 1+1+1=1