Activities at 16 Months

Shelf at 16 months. I think we are ready for a bigger shelf. Most of the activities this month are come backs from previous month. The only new activities are the clothes matching and the vehicle puzzle

You’ve see this several times before. It came back on rotation because I wanted to see if he had mastered fitting in the triangular prism and he has. I also wanted to provide the vocabulary since he’s most definitely in a sensitive period for acquiring new words. He hasn’t chosen this a lot but it does come off the shelf now and then.

Another one that’s on the shelf as a check and for vocabulary. He has definitely mastered it and has taken it off the shelf only about 3 times in the 2 weeks that it’s been out.

This has been very popular. It comes off the shelf multiple times daily and we have tried different variations. I only have 5 cards but I plan to make a few more this week since he loves it so much.

This continues to be a favorite. I extended it after a week by switching out the cards for baby animals. I still haven’t figured out if he gets the idea. He likes to line them up or pick out a couple and walk around with them. He frequently picks the matching mother and baby animal but I’m still observing to determine his understanding. I also try to provide the vocabulary and the animal sound

Sometimes he’s very good at putting his work back on the shelf. I have noticed he puts work back when he wants to choose something else and when there are no distractions. Other times like when daddy’s home, nothing goes back.

Another one that has been on rotation since he was about 11 months. This time he is doing it differently. You can see that he is really ready because…

Instead of doing a few and then rolling the pegs around, he actually tries to get all of them in. He also tries to make sure they go into the hole at the bottom and really concentrates on the process. It’s really cool to see the progress he makes with materials with time.

This was the only other new activity on the shelf this month (with the clothes matching), and it has definitely been the favorite. He takes it off the shelf at least four times a day abd works with it around the house. In the kitchen, on his bed and even in the bathroom.

When he takes it off the shelf, he never takes the tray. He carries it like this or holds the board in one hand and the basket by one handle in the other hand. I was quite surprised by how much success he has with the puzzle. He is able to complete it most times and other times he matches all the pieces but has some of them upside down. He prefers doing it standing and when he does it sitting, he prefers to sit on the floor and moves around a lot. 

Stereognostic bag… I’ll write about this soon.

Our favorite drum has gotten even more use recently. These Solu initiated concerts happen daily.

While he is free to choose activities off his shelf at any time of the day, most of his time is spent playing and engaging in practical life activities

He is literally obsessed with snaps. We are still on our toilet learning journey and making progress

He recently started climbing furniture to turn on the light. He only does it when the room is dark and light is actually needed so I don’t discourage him especially since I haven’t figured out another way to make the light switch accessible to him.