It's the second week (or so) of our animal theme. As far as this series of posts go, I'm sure you've noticed that my week isn't always a week long. I usually change the activities every seven to ten days. It usually depends on Little Bean's level of interest. Plus, sometimes I get busy and don't have time to come up with a new set of activities every week or get to post straight away. This is a post for activities we did a couple of weeks ago. Hubby works FIFO so I'm basically a single Mum most of the time and am finding it difficult to balance everything at the moment. Since our return to Vietnam after two months away, Little Bean's sleeping pattern has changed, he is back at Gymboree classes twice a week and he decided that he wants to start toilet learning. Plus I've joined a mothers group and am returning to work a couple of nights a week. It's been a lot to get used to in a short space of time. We've finally started to find our rhythm and hopefully this will mean that I can blog with more regularity.
This week was mostly about animals, plus I introduced some new toys and musical instruments. Little Bean loves to sing and dance, so it was no surprise that he loved playing music too. I gave him a new tambourine, clapping sticks, shaker and a pair of maracas. I also reintroduced his xylophone piano. He hasn't played it in a while because I hid it. He was smashing the keys one day and the noise was driving me nuts. I hid it and hoped he'd forget about it. He did, and so did I. I remembered it again this week when I got the other instruments out. He is playing it gently now and my poor addled brain can take it this time around.
I love these farm animal counters. There are six types of animals in five colours. I also bought the matching bowls to use for colour sorting later on. I put a handful of the counters into two plastic jugs with lids. Little Bean removes the lids, pours the counters from jug to jug, then replaces the lids. Over and over and over again. I introduced this activity in the morning and Little Bean spent nearly three hours playing with it, minus a quick toilet and snack break. He couldn't wait to get back to it. I have never seen him so focused before. He only stopped because he was hungry for lunch and then had a nap.
This wire spoon was the perfect size for scooping these rubber duckies from bowl to bowl. I introduced this in the evening and he spend over an hour on it before bedtime.
Little Bean saw me doing some hammering and became fascinated with trying to get my hammer and hit things too. A toddler with a real hammer is a scary thing so I bought this wooden hammer and ball set. It was an instant hit and my breakables were safe once more. Down the track, we'll also use this toy for colour recognition and matching.
I have been impatiently waiting for Little Bean to be ready for this toy. I've been dying to play with it. You put little cars on the top ramp and watch them roll and flip their way to the bottom. My favourite is a two trailer car that does awesome flips over the edge and then swings to the next ramp.
This snail from Fisher-Price was a firm favourite when Little Bean was crawling. It lights up, plays music and has a mirror. All popular with little ones. The green part is a wheel, so he would lay it on its side and spin it around. I got it out of storage and this time Little Bean has worked out how to roll it across the floor.
Little Bean started pulling hats out of his drawers so I chose a few animal hats to play dress-up with. We took turns putting on hats and making animal noises and actions. Lots of laughs.
We did Little Bean's bedroom makeover this week and he wanted to help. When Daddy put up the shelf for his TV, it was his job to hand Daddy screws. He is really eager to help with everything so I try to find a new way to help every day.
