Tot School with Bo {Letter Jj}

This is from the month of July, and I am playing catch up! We finished letter Nn this past week, so I am not too far behind! Still hoping to do a letter a week, but I am sick this week. Hoping to take some down time to get caught up here. Here is letter Jj... 


Letter: Jj
Object: Jellyfish
Vocabulary development theme: Ocean

~Bo is 31 months old~

See 1+1+1=1's Tot School Printables for the printables for this unit!

Jellyfish in a Bottle

I made Bo a his own jellyfish in a bottle to turn and watch the jellyfish float to the top.  I used a 2 liter bottle, but it was heavy, so a smaller water bottle (like in the tutorial!) would have been better. 


ABC Find It! Letter Jj

We (I had Elli and Mali help me) hid the cards around the room for him to find this time and he loved it! 



Dot Paint the Jellies


Dot Paint the Letter Jj



Bo is such a busy boy that is surprises me that he enjoys the printables so much. But, I think it is the fact that he likes to be kept busy that he enjoys them so much.  

Left to Right Tracing


Bo switches back and forth between his left and right hand. He seems to favor his right hand when it is convenient, so I wonder if choosing is a matter of convenience. 

Letter J Cookie Cutter Painting

I still love how he paints the letters rather than the object. 


Dot Painting the Colors

I only have 6 dot paint colors, so cut out those so as not to confuse him. (He wonders where the other colors are). 



Handprint Jellyfish

I let Bo do as much as he could independently. I turned the paper upside down when he finished his handprints, and then showed him where to put the body. When they were dry, I outlined them with crayon and had him watercolor with blue for an ocean.




{Should be 31 months}
Jellyfish Shadow Matching

These are easy for him, but he enjoys doing them! 



This awesome idea is from the series Simple Small Worlds from Fun at Home with Kids - a blog I fell in love with quickly! I only did one thing different: I added white sand. This was easy enough to make, but I had a hard time keeping the baking soda dough from falling apart as I molded it. But, basically, you make a dough with baking soda and water, and form it around little sea creatures and let them discover them by dissolving the baking soda creations with colored vinegar. 

Bo loved it. And Elli wanted me to make one for her too. :)  














Ocean Life

Our trip to the Oregon coast (to take our 3 oldest boys to camp) provided an excellent opportunity to explore ocean life. As we enjoyed exploring the tide pools in the estuary, so many rows came to life here!  We saw a jellyfish washed up on the beach during high tide and discovered tide pools during low tide, just like in Night of the Moonjellies. Watching people dig for clams reminded us of Very Last First Time, and running along the beach reminded us of All Those Secrets of the World.

Of course, Bo was curious about it all and enjoyed seeing the creatures and experiencing the beach for the first time.


The beach was windy and cold, as Oregon beaches are. But, it was beautiful. 


Jellyfish! Though, I am not sure which kind. There were these kind and several translucent blobs,
that I am guessing were moon-jellies. 



We spent most of our time on the beach in this spot warming up on the burning drift wood and finding shelter from the wind!

Update on speech therapy with Bo:

A blog reader, who read about Bo doing speech therapy, wrote to tell me how an Omega 3 supplement helped her son who was diagnosed with dyspraxia of speech - and who in a short time went from speaking his first 2 words to speaking in sentences! I was encouraged! And willing to give it a try.

So, on our trip, we stopped by Natural Grocers and picked up 2 kinds of fish oil supplements - a cherry flavored chewable by Animal Parade and a kid's organic mango peach flavored "to go" oil by Barlean's. They were slightly tolerable. I could get him to take them, but not easily.


But, he really loved the Yummi Bears Fish Free Omega 3 with Chia Seed


But, these are not as potent as the Barlean's oils, so I ended up going with Barlean's Organic Total Omega Swirl. It is made with flax and borage oils, so it is vegan (no fishy taste or smell), and has a pomegranate blueberry flavor. I put 3 frozen blueberries on a spoon and drizzle the oil (which has a smoothie like texture) over the blueberries and he happily eats it up! Then he got 3 Yummi Bears, until I ran out.

Our first week on the supplements, I noticed that Bo started chattering more as if he were talking. He chattered while playing and also while communicating and interacting with the family. I also noticed that he was not as easily frustrated when I tried to get him to say sounds or words. He tried to say them willingly. This is encouraging!

I have several articles to read and a book to look up to determine if I am using the correct combination of LNA, EPA, DHA, etc. and I'd like to look into whether the vegan oils will be as good as the fish oils.

Other than the oils, Bo is making strides in feeling comfortable and interacting with his speech therapist,  and is saying a few more words and sounds. But, he is most excellent at playing charades to communicate (it's so cute, and he's really very good at it) and is adding more signs to his vocabulary using Signing Time videos.  In fact, I have been signing "share" with him for several months, but recently, I was tired of him not sharing so I wouldn't share something of mine with him so then he did the sign for share and has been using it regularly!


More Tot School with Bo: 




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