A is for Alligators

 Mr. Alligator 

Started the day off learning a bit about alligators  with Discovery Kids. http://kids.discovery.com/tell-me/curiosity-corner/animals/are-alligators-really-dinosaurs I skimmed a little only because I didn’t want to scare Light, or bore him. But he thought it was really neat, especially that alligators are basically dinosaurs. Next was ‘There’s An Alligator Under My Bed” by Mercer Mayer. Being the forgetful mom I am I had totally forgotten to pick it up at the library. This may have been partially due to the chasing of one active toddler. Not to worry YouTube to the rescue, the video includes the pictures from the book and is read by the author himself, very fun.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNE8p0E4NVU.

Later we played the ‘Alligator Rhyme’ and ‘Teasing Mr. Alligator’ ideas from http://preschoolalphabet.blogspot.com/2011/07/alligator.html. They also suggested ‘There’s an Alligator Under my Bed”. Light loved it all. He’s not one to get up and dance with me but the ‘Alligator Rhyme’ did the trick, we played over and over. ‘Teasing Mr. Alligator’ was good too, he asked for more monkeys so I think I’ll have to print some more. It was also a good song in the car too.

Last we colored four popsicle sticks. He chose to do 2 in green and 2 in brown.  I then glued them together to make a more then and less then shape. Decided to add  goggle eyes, very cute. While they dried the kids went outside to play and I made some flash cards. One side has a number (I did 1-10) and the other has corresponding dots. This was in case he didn’t know the number he could look and count, but I wanted him to try and recognize them not just jump into counting, which is something he tends to do. I even gave him dried chickpeas to place in the dots for added fun. http://prekandksharing.blogspot.com/2012/08/montessori-inspired-greater-than-less.html

He had two cards and had to pick the greater or lesser sign to go in between. Of course, the alligator wants the most. He picked it up really fast and did really well even if he was unsure of the numbers. Later when we played he immediately knew which one of the cards was more but still couldn’t name all the number…. Interesting.

I have no doubt that he’ll do well at math but he has to start understand it on paper too not just the logic part or counting fingers. All in good time, I suppose.

  He wanted the alligator to actually eat the chickpeas.

My toddler distraction for the day was flour, which was directly eaten. I realize this may be because I’m confining him to the high chair.I then switched to a peanut butter jar with a bit of dish soap. Shake and watch the bubbles. http://handsonaswegrow.com/2012/03/toddler-sensory-activity-soapy-jars/. Yeah, my toddler thought I was crazy. He shook it a bit and totally lost interest, I even added some rice and chickpeas just for something to look at. Even Light looked at it and was totally unimpressed. Still it managed for a mild distraction.

 Notice the flour fail, evidence all over his shirt.

Went back to puff balls in a container. Just cut little holes and let him do the rest I done it before and it works pretty well. 

We even tried other containers this time just for play.

I found an egg container for camping too. That was fun cause he could close them up in it but it turned our fingers red with makes me uneasy so I'll have to find something else.

But I just wanted to add that they have suddenly started to appear in his mouth. I can tell because being the noising child he is, there is always noise coming from his mouth and when it suddenly became muffled I became suspicious.  ‘Open’ I order. I’ve found simple and straight the point works best for my children. And sure enough he opened his mouth to reveal a bright pink puff ball. I had to stifle a laugh as he leaned forward and lobbed the soggy lump out his mouth onto the floor with a flop. I was hoping he had gotten it out of his system but twice more happy toddler tunes turn muffled and I had to demand he “Spit it out!” only to have him daringly smile at me spit out the ball shriek with laugher and run away with his knee kicking up way too high in his little prance run. Oh, this child makes me smile even when I probably shouldn’t .