Teeny Tot School–Trial Run?

- Abby is 11 months old -

Abby is 11 1/2 months old but seems to be maturing physically sooner (she started walking at 10 1/2 months!) than my son Adam did so for the past couple of weeks I’ve been noticing how she’s playing and how deliberate she is about how she puts things together, in, out, etc.  I’ve been thinking she would enjoy early Tot School type activities…..I just haven’t wanted to start yet!

I feel bad that she doesn’t get as much one-on-one attention from me as her brother did when he was her age.  He is just SO demanding of my time and attention that she (now that she’s completely mobile) gets a little left behind.

One day this week, Adam and I had finished our Tot School time so he asked to watch something.  Abby was awake so I sat down with some toys and just played with her and it was great!

She is very deliberate and tries to get things 'just so’ even though her motor skills haven’t caught up with her thinking skills yet.

We played with a ring stacker and she tried and tried to get the rings off and put them back on.

I would get them started and she would pull them the rest of the way off.

I held the stacker (that rocks) steady and helped her place the rings back on.  We did this several times.

Peek-a-boo!

We also played with these Discovery Toys blocks that she got for Christmas.  She loved trying to stack them.

And discovering all the things hiding inside the blocks like this mirror.

Adam was using these large colored shape buttons and she spent a long time, (when he wasn’t pulling the bowl away from her), throwing buttons in and taking them back out.  She has always been very forceful when she plays.  No daintily placing things, she throws them!

And of course, everything still ends up in her mouth.

I didn’t start Tot School with Adam until he was older so I have a lot of planning and acquiring to do before I officially start with her but this fun day with her has got my wheels turning and I’m excited!  It’ll take me a bit to get ready so I’m planning on starting weekly Teeny Tot School posts after she turns 1 in a couple weeks.  She is leaving her babyhood behind way too quickly but I love watching her develop and grow and I’m excited to plan one-on-one time with her (gotta figure out what to do with Adam though)!