What is Baby doing?

I have had a couple people message me about the baby.
What do you do with baby while you and Jacob are playing during Structured Play time?

"Baybay," as Jake calls him is usually napping but some days things do not go our way so we adapt! Our baby is such a good boy he will usually play on the floor. He will do a few minutes at a time of "Tummy Time." Then he kicks around on his back for a while.

I bring a blanket to our Structured Play area and some baby toys. We have books there already and our baby Joey enjoys a little quiet reading time! :) He wasn't reading so quietly this day, though! He was talking away to Elmo and his friends! It was so cute that Jake and I really got a kick out of listening to him "read"!

He was "talking" to the faces in the book. He loves faces and talks to his stuffed animals, Jake's worker toys and even faces in books.

On another note, I would like to stress the importance of Tummy Time! As a teacher I experienced the negative effects of NOT enough or no Tummy Time! You would not think that there is a lasting effect, but let me tell you, THERE IS! I worked with many children that needed physical therapy because of underdeveloped back, shoulder and neck muscles. These were children in 3rd and 4th grade and still experiencing problems because of lack of Tummy Time! We expect children to sit in seats at school and that can be difficult for children with underdeveloped muscles. Teachers can view their squirmy behavior as disruptive or even rude. When really many times it is out of their control.

Tummy Time does not need to be an ordeal. Start small with a few minutes or even a few seconds, whatever they can tolerate. Then move up progressively. If at the beginning they are not interested in even a few seconds try laying down on your back and placing the baby chest to chest on you. By being so close to you and your face the baby will tolerate being on his belly for a bit longer and then in turn strengthen the muscles leading to more comfort on the floor.

**Note**

Never leave an infant on the floor or on their tummy unattended. If baby gets upset and cries it is time to turn the baby over or pick him/her up.

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Play to Write- Week 3

We participating in a Wednesday Play Group called Play to Write over at Cherrios and Lattes . This is week 3- Write/Spell Your Name. We started this week's practice with some name tracing. Cherrios and Lattes provides the printable for some dotted letters. She suggested doing rainbow writing with this sheet. I showed Jacob but he was more interested in writing all the Jacobs. I started by modeling on the first name. Then I held his hand and we did it together. Finally I let him do the last three on his own with only my verbal prompts. He took this very seriously and was very proud of himself! I was surprised at how much he liked doing this activity. He has a long way to go but he did pretty well! One thing I had to repeat was not to go around the o and a more than once. He wanted to go around and around. This is an activity that I think he will want to do again! The next activity was Missing Letter Name Practice. We started by singing a little song I sing fo...

Name Writing Practice

Jacob did a little name writing practice today. He was asked to trace the dotted lines to write letters for his name. This is good practice with spelling as well. I had him say each letter as he wrote the letter. As you can see he is very choppy and not exactly on the dotted lines. His motor skills are not quite sharp enough yet to be able to hold the crayon and he especially loses control as he works on towards the end. We also did a Missing Letter Name Practice. Both of these ideas came from Cherrios and Lattes ' Play to Write, Write to Read. These are good ways to practice names and writing. He gets very angry if he thinks he made a mistake. See the scribbling. I have to reinforce that it is ok to make a mistake and that everyone makes mistakes but we just keep trying. Practice is the only way to get better. When this happens I cannot help but think of my former students that did the very same thing and proceeded to throw fits and give up. I hope to help Jacob ge...

Name Practice

I pulled out our name practice tray today. I put our Sensory Box beans into the tray then hid disks with the letters of his name. He got busy scooping the beans looking for the letters. We started by using a paper with his name written on it so all he had to was place the matching letter on top. He can recite the letters in his name and he can recognize letters so the next step is having him put the disks in order without the help of the paper. He dug for all the letters again and placed them on a blank paper. Then we practiced reciting his name before I asked him to put the disks in order. And this is what he did... He was not at all interested! He does not like to be challenged! I like to keep Structured Play time light and fun but I will not let him give up! I do not want him to learn that if something is hard he should just not do it! So I had to be stern while still trying to keep it light and fun. He eventually sat up and tried. He did it himself with me remind...

Structured Play

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