This shelf was on for almost two weeks. We were so busy spending our time outside so we were postponing the fact that it is time for a new rotation. Although, I have to admit that this rotation was a big hit. I just bought a laminating machine, so this shelfie rotation was a perfect opportunity to make some new activities. And to put my new machine to use, of course. If you could use some inspiration this is what our shelfie looked looks like at 19 months:
Magnetic board
On the top left shelf, we have L’s new magnetic writing board. He got this from his grandma for turning 18 months just recently. I don’t know why but I thought he wouldn’t like it very much. He never showed much interest in drawing with crayons so I just assumed the same will happen here. But, oh boy, was I wrong. He is totally obsessed with it. He is using it every day for two weeks now. I think I will leave this board out also for a next rotation.
Matching cards
Next to the magnetic board, we have matching cards activity. When L turned 18 months, he started to actively repeat our words back to us. He knows for a while now how to say mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, doggy, and bye-bye. But now he also tries to repeat more complex words and phrases. His new favorite word is “octopus”. He also constantly points to objects and asks us to name them for him. That shows me he is currently in a sensitive period for language development. We try to use this period the best we can so I am trying to think of as many different language activities as I can.
This is the reason why I decided to introduce matching cards. I took photos of his animal figurines, printed them out, laminated them, and put them in a basket with animals. Unfortunately, my first laminating project wasn’t a big hit. He wanted to play with figurines but he completely ignored the cards. I tried again a few days later but he still wasn’t interested so I removed the cards and left just the animals. I plan to try again in a few weeks.
Letters basket
On the bottom left shelf, we have a basket with alphabet letters. The only novelty here is a letter F. My little human already recognizes and pronounces letters A, B, C, D, and E so now we are learning letter F. Many people wonder why do we learn letters so early but that wasn’t my idea. My little man is so into letters that if I put them away, he asks that I return them.
Familiar faces basket
Just above the letters, we have a basket with familiar faces cards. Due to this corona situation, L hasn’t seen his grandparents for 5 months now. Lately, I noticed that during FaceTime calls he doesn’t recognize them so easily. He remembers who they are when they start to sing to him. It is a song they used to sing to him every time they saw him, but it still takes effort for him to remember who they are. That made me pretty sad so I decided to make family faces basket for him. First I paired their printed photos with their faces during FaceTime call while they were singing to him. Then I included this basket in his shelfie so he can look at them every day.
Ball basket
On the bottom right shelf, we have a ball basket. This is basically a basket filled with balls. On our last rotation, we had a language basket with different items and one of them was a ball. He never touched any other item except the ball. Sometimes he is throwing it in the air, sometimes he is kicking it with his feet, and sometimes he brings his ball to me and wants to play pass-the-ball. We learned that our hallway is a safe place to play with the ball so he always brings his ball there before he starts to play. Well, most of the time at least. Also, I always pay attention that the balls here are light and soft so all the windows in our house are safe.
