We Love to Learn Through Play and Tot School

I love being a stay-at-home mom and feel so blessed to do so. I also love taking pictures of all the things we are doing. Instead of doing separate Tot School and Play-Time posts, I decided to combine them since it's all part of learning. Some of our time is geared toward open creative play, and some of our time is geared toward intentional learning activities. All of it is about having fun while learning.

**J is 32 months old**

Come over to play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up:

**J is 32 months old**

Calling Daddy on J's Phone











































Lately, J has been grabbing his play phone and "calling" daddy at work. It is great how he does this now. Instead of missing him, he is having pretend conversations where he is keeping dad up-to-date on all the things we're doing. He'll often hand the phone to me and say, "Say hi to daddy, mommy!" so I get to "talk" too.


More Pretend Play















J loves putting on his construction or fireman's hat and getting into character. He'll take his tools with him around the house "fixing" things.

Coloring with Markers (and playing fireman)


















J continues to love to color and lately, he's wanting to use markers all the time. We're still working on putting the lids back on. He had his fire helmet on this day and I was able to capture
a neat video as he's creating stories while he's coloring.


Using Kids Chop Sticks as Tongs for Pom Poms





























I finally found some great tongs for J to use. This time, we practiced using them to transfer pom poms to the egg carton. He did pretty well despite the fact this was even a little challenging for mom!


Kids Time at the YMCA





























We like going to the YMCA for Friday family fun night. They have a giant blow up/inflatable with a huge slide that was donated by a local company. J has made friends with the cutest 6-year-old girl and they love chasing a ball around together. This time, she convinced J to go in the inflatable, but he's not tall enough to go alone so mommy took him. He loved this so much that he wanted to go nonstop for the next half hour until they closed it down. Mommy got her exercise too, but unfortunately no pictures of the inflatable.



Outside Play & Exercise Time in the Puddles











































We have had some really warm weather this week (in the 40's) so a lot of our snow from the blizzard last month was melting. We took advantage of some really sunny days to go outside and play. I put J's boots on and he had so much fun stomping around in the puddles.



Playing with Cousin Henry

























































J loves his cousin Henry. He's about 1 year older than J. After he had a sleep over with him in January, he calls him his "best cousin". Out of the blue this week he said to me, "Mommy, Henry is my best cousin!" He said he really wanted to play with him and I was explaining they live far away (a few hours) but hopefully we could see them soon. It turns out my sister was coming through town and two days after this request, they stopped over and J got his wish to play. They had a ball running around outside in the puddles. Henry loved pushing J in his car and then they sat in the chair together to have a snack. They are so cute together.



Gigglebellies

I have no idea where I first learned of Gigglebellies, but we just love them. The colors are incredible, the songs are so much fun and we love singing them and watching together. We find the videos on YouTube (click links below).


Wheels on the Bus
Peanuts



Dr. J and His Patients







































































J likes pretending to be a doctor with his new doctor's kit. He was checking my reflexes and I got the idea he could have his own patients. We got out several of his stuffed animals. In the first picture, he wanted to give them some lemonade. (What a nice doctor!) Then he was going one by one and checking their reflexes. After that, he gave each one some medicine.



Blocks on Wheels











































I realized J is really into building things lately. Other than jumbo Duplos, we don't own any blocks so I got Melissa and Doug Unit Blocks on Wheels this week. Immediately out of the box, J was building towers, making "blue food" taking the blue blocks and setting them on his little plates. Later he was taking his little people and animals for a ride on the cart (didn't get a picture of that).


J loves lining up and stacking his toys















I just love finding toys that J has stacked up or lined up. These were on the stairs, some little people animals he put on a play cutting board.































One afternoon, I was breaking down a box we got when J stopped me saying, "Mommy, I want to play in it!" I put it in the living room and we brought over his Little People and a few little animals. Then he wanted a blanket to keep them all warm and some goldfish so he could feed them. He had tons of fun playing in this for a couple hours. He called it his "desert cave".


Hanging out in the "desert cave" watching Veggie Tales "Lord of the Beans"






























Thanks for visiting!