What's On The Trays?- Post 1

D is 31 months
S is 12 months

In additon to doing Tot School with Dude we also do tot trays as inspired by Carisa over at 1+1+1=1.

I mostly use these to keep my older son occupied while I need to get something else done like preparing meals. For that reason I try to pick out things that'll entertain him without me needing to supervise or instruct. My younger son, Spudder, has recently gotten in on the fun too. Of course when he plays with the trays I'm much more involved, both for safety reasons and so that I can soak up all those sweet little smiles!

On our trays for this week:

1. Macaroni, a measuring cup, a couple bowls, and a watering can that's seen better days (A bird got after it and removed the part that made the water sprinkle, so now it just dumps, which actually makes it perfect for this activity.)

2. A frisbee and some "ants" from an Ants in the Pants game

 

 

3. Colored cups, tongs, & colored clothespins.

4. Hole punch & a scrap of colored paper from some junkmail

 

5. A few alphabet stamps, ink pad, & a scrap of paper

6. Melissa & Doug Pets Sound Puzzle

Most of these trays have gone over quite well with Dude. The hole punch did prove too difficult for him, but he was really excited to try it when he saw it on the tray. So I'll definitely try putting that one out again in the future.

 

The macaroni was especially popular!

 

And as you probably could have guessed from the first picture of it, Spudder was quite fond of this Sound Puzzle .

 

Both boys had turns playing with the frisbee and ants.

Dude used it as expected, trying to land the ants in the frisbee. I was actually a bit surprised at how much he liked this, even requesting it over multiple days. The last time I tried to let him flip the ants into a bowl, he HATED it! I'm not sure if it's the age difference or the fact that the frisbee was a larger flatter target, but it went over much better this time.
 

Spudder liked this tray just as much! He loved shaking the frisbee and knocking the ants around & eventually out. Then even picked the ants up off the floor to put them back into the frisbee to do it again. I was SOOO surprised to see him do this so purposefully! He also seemed to enjoy watching the ants slide down the tilted frisbee in his lap. My watching how he was observing everything really cemented it into my mind that this guy needs some more trays!
 

I included this tray for Dude to work on both color matching and fine motor skills. He had a little trouble at first with grabbing multiple clothespins at a time, but figured it out fairly quickly.
 

And the stamps, nothing too earth-shattering there, but Dude did enjoy the process and especially the yelling out of "I made a ....!" And it let me get some dishes done, so we were all pretty happy with it.

More trays coming soon!