What's on the shelves: Keeping Ian Busy During School.

Ian is almost 2 1/2 now and he has really matured in the last couple of months.  He has been more focused and able to play for something longer than just a couple of minutes, so I thought I would put some "work" out on the shelves for him to do while I am schooling with Isabel.

Here's what he's been up to:

Chopstick activity with Noah's Ark.  Ian was really into using chopsticks to move those little colored craft pompoms from one bowl to another, so I just made it a little different with the animals instead of pompoms.  He takes this work from the shelf, brings it to his table, dumps the animals into the "water" (onto the felt) and tries to "rescue" them with the chopsticks, placing them back into the boat.

 

Developing fine motor skills!

 



 

Sorting objects to the right color.  He enjoys this one and it's simply a box of objects, and you could use a muffin tin.  I cut out construction paper circles to stick in the bottom of this tray.

 

Pouring beans from one container to the next.  Try not to spill!  I wasn't sure if he would be ready for this yet...I thought it would be a massive mess of beans.  BUT he was very careful and did this work over and over and over...love how they learn at this age!

This work is still a little tricky for him.  String tied onto a tray with handles is the "clothesline".  I used a basket of Barbie clothes and the tiny clothespins (purchased from Michael's).  Pretty self-explanatory that he uses the clothespins to hang up the clothes.  He can get the pinching action of the clothespin, but has a hard time getting it to stay on the clothes.  When he is done with all the clothes, he can stand the tray up on it's side and the clothes really hang!

 



 

More color matching:  Colored foam sticks matched to smaller colored popsicle sticks.