Tot School - DC Style

This week we went with Jim on a business trip to DC. We found out we were going last minute, so it made things kind of crazy, but we got to do a lot and I'm so glad we went. I got the idea to make activity kits in these zipper bags from Counting Coconuts. I've been dying to put some together but just hadn't gotten around to it. This trip to DC provided just the motivation I needed! The idea for the bags was from Counting Coconuts, but what's IN the bags are my ideas.  :-)  I ended up making 8 kits; going went way overboard with my planning as usual! We didn't get to them all. but here are the ones we had fun with in the hotel.

 

This was our beading kit. I put in pipe cleaners to help Naomi with the beading, stretchy beading string, scissors, and an assortment of beads.

 

Naomi loved this! I tied the string to a pipe cleaner so it was easier for her to bead, and another pipe cleaner on the end so the beads wouldn't fall off.

We made her name in the middle, and then just decorated the rest of the necklace with the fun beads. This was a nice, quiet activity to do while Nathan was napping. 

 

In this activity kit I put 1/2 peices of construction paper, foam animals and letters. This was the first time Naomi had seen the animals so I just let her play with them and stick them on paper however she wanted. As you can see, she was more into the animals than the letters this time. This kit kept her busy for quite awhile!

I made another activity kit also containing foam animals, letters, and paper. In this kit I made sure I had all the correct letters to make the word to go along with the animal. Naomi picked out an animal, and then together we sounded out what letters we needed to make the word. She enjoyed this too and was very proud to have made "real" words!

In another bag I put this set of magnetic numbers. We had fun sorting the numbers by color (Naomi's idea) and putting the numbers in order. It was great that our hotel suite had a full kitchen! Naomi was cold so she had her coat on. :)

In this activity kit I put an assortment of mini bug erasers, a paint tray, and kid tweezers. Once we were at the hotel I dumped the erasers into a cup, and Naomi transferred the erasers into the tray. She had fun with the tweezers for a little while, and then put them down and sorted the bugs with her hands. It turned into a combined transferring and sorting activity.

A simple activity kit where I just put in some upper and lowercase letter puzzles. This was a good one to take with us to restraunts because I wasn't worried about losing little pieces.

We went to Chuck E. Cheese! Naomi's favorite part was meeting the "real" Chuck E. Cheese.

We got to have a dance party with Chuck, which was hilarious! Naomi really got into it. We'll call that our PE for the week. ;)

We rode the Metro on our way to the Smithsonians. This was a big hit with both Naomi and Nathan. I on the other had was totally motion sick and felt like I was going to puke the entire time.

We saw the Washington Monument. I was thrilled, Naomi couldn't have cared less. hehehe ;)

We also checked out the Capitol buildings.

The Museum of Natural History was our main stop. Naomi was very impressed by the dinosaurs.

Examining some turtle shells in the Discovery Room. Naomi LOVED using the magnifying glass. I need to add that to my list of things to get.

Naomi made a new friend at the museum!

We also checked out the Butterfly Pavilion. This was very cool.

We did lots of swimming at the hotel. My brilliant friend Michelle recommended this Puddle Jumper pool float. BEST FLOAT EVER! It's Coast Guard approved so you can use it in any pool, and it allows your child to swim independently. Of course I'm always right there, but Naomi is way past wanting to be held in the pool. Not to mention my arms are a little full with Nathan! These floats are way better than a ring or the old water wings.

We also checked out the Air and Space Museum. This was very impressive!

Us in front of the Enterprise. Cool!

I had to include this since I didn't add many picture of Nathan this week. His favorite part of the trip was crawling up and down the long hall of our hotel. The germaphobe in me cringed every time we did this, but you can't keep an active 10 month old in your arms all week!

We had a great trip! It's good to be home now and I have a feeling it's going to take us a few days to recover. Forgive the red eye in these pictures. I haven't had time to go through my hundreds of pictures and edit them yet. Check out what others are doing at 1+1+1=1 and Preschool Corner!