Tot-school 6-13-10

This week in tot-school has been really fun. Monkey has been away with Daddy for part of the week, so Alligator and I have had a great time together. Although we miss Monkey and Daddy, we have had fun together. It is special to have some one on one time.

Alligator is 16 months.

****Before I begin, let me say that I bought this product with my own money. I am not paid by the company, nor was I given this by the company to review.

As many of you know, Alligator is in speech therapy to help with actual speech, but also with comprehension and gesturing. So, I found this product online while I was searching for toddler speech games.

It is called U-play this way every day. It is a giant U shaped mat with lots of cards. You get 2 of each card and the cards come in all sorts of categories.  To buy the whole set will cost you just under 90 dollars. It comes with an instruction manual which tells you how to use it.

I have to say I am thrilled with the product, and Alligator is too.

 

As you can see, the U has pockets for putting the cards in. We are working on animals so far. On this particular day we were focusing on duck. Alligator loves to have one card for each hand, so it is nice that it comes with 2 of each.  I place one card in the holder in the U, and gave him one for beginning matching.

 

We also put the duck, and the 2 duck cards in and out of our bus. He loved doing that. According to our ST, matching toys to pictures is a good skill.  He also enjoyed handing them back to me. 

 

He said “du” for duck, and by the end he pretty much said “cu” for quack. Which is very impressive.  In previous days I was using the cow and he said “nooo” for moo….all of this is such a huge improvement for a little guy who said nothing but “a-da” 2 months ago. And words had no meaning…so we are so blessed!

I like this because it doesn’t require me to make a whole bunch of stuff. Yes, you could make the cards yourself, print and laminate, but this is so much easier. There are flash cards on the market that are cheaper, but this one you get 2 of each which I love too, because Alligator likes to have a card in each hand.  The mat is good because eventually he can use it to look for the think you name, and to match pictures. It makes it so he doesn’t push them all around.

 

The other thing we did this week was our 4 dollar xylophone that we got from our local consignment shop. I have been keeping it in the kitchen, so he can play with it while I get his food ready. And that way it is new and fun while I’m in there.

 

Tot-school will link up on Sunday. So I will edit the post so it links back to the current 1+1+1=1 blog linky then. For now, just check out her site, if you haven’t already.