Emmett Activities-Pom Pom Sort

So I have started planning "games" for Emmett. He does really well with structured play. He actually does better with those type of activities then just plan entertaining himself. He's 2.5 now and we've started doing Tot School. These are activities that are fun, age appropriate, learning activities focusing on gross motor, fine motor, colors, letters, etc... There are a ton of great websites that I've gotten ideas from as well as pintrest and my own creations. I started doing this kind of stuff with him in March on my Saturdays off. If ever he doesn't want to do what I have for him or wants to quit it's fine by me. I want him to have a love for learning and not know he's actually doing it. I don't want to force or push anything on him because he has years of school left and I want him to look forward to it not dread it. I thought I'd share some of this stuff with you in case you are looking for something fun for your toddler to do. Some of these ideas are from other places and I'll sight them when possible so you can check out these great blogs.

Pom Pom Sort

We did this first back in March. I had gotten a bag of pom poms from Michael's and cupcake tins. I set out a pile of pom poms for Emmett to explore. He loved just putting them into different holes. After some time, I sat with him and asked if he wanted to sort them with Mommy. He did. I put one color in a hole and then we tried to find all the pom poms that matched that color. He did really well with that. He doesn't know the names of the colors but he can match like colors. As we went along I was using the color words and identifying each pom pom he picked up by its color. Sometimes he would refer it as the right color but usually he used the pronouns that one and this one to describe them.  Once we filled a whole tin (12 holes) he was done and wanted to just put them where ever. At that point I congratulated him on a job well done and let him do what he wanted.  Overall this lasted activity was 30-40 minutes. We've done it a few times since the first time and it didn't hold his interest as long. This is definitely a once in awhile thing. The more often you get them out the more the novelty of them wears off.

Revisions and Modifications

I would put out less colors of pom poms if you are wanting to sort. I just opened the bag and poured them out. There are a ton of colors and different version of the same color. If you are looking to sort make sure you've picked out the colors you want to focus on and not have 3 different shades of green. That confused him. A variation I want to do but haven't, is to get small serving tongs for him to use to pick up the pom poms. This would help strengthen the muscles in his hands as well as provide a fun variation of an already popular activity.

I've also done this with buttons. I have a bag of primary colored buttons. He loves doing it with the buttons as well. As I stated with pom poms, definitely limit the use. The more you do it the less cool it becomes and the amount of time it holds their interest decreases.