So here's the deal.
Kayli is getting ready to turn five and although she technically wasn't old enough to start kindergarten this year in the public school system, I have decided to pretend that she is in Kindergarten this year as a trial run for what homeschooling will be like. It is nice to have a 'cushion' to fall back on considering we are so new to this. I was advised by a homeschool Mom/Friend of mine to not spend big bucks on curriculum until first grade. Instead to just get the big workbooks from Sam's Club and teach reading however I felt comfortable. So that is what I have been doing and Kayli loves it and does great... however, KitKat isn't quite ready to sit still and color or do anything worksheet related. She still has the attention span of a gnat so getting her to participate in school time has been challenging and continues to be a work in progress
So I happened to stumble across this idea of 'Tot School.' Basically the ideas is that intentionally providing your tot with age appropriate activities that are fun and engaging that expose them to certain educational concepts. Week after week I have been checking out different tot schools with the intention of joining in myself but so far I have yet to 'get it all together.' I haven't been taking enough pictures and when I do take a few I never get them on the computer fast enough. Well, I decided enough is enough. I am going to take the plunge. This first dive into tot school isn't going to be pretty by any means but hopefully we will get better at it.
This is not going to be the compilation of what we have done this week by any means. Instead, I have decided to look back through my pictures and put together a post of our families participation in Tot School. This may be my first ever tot school post but don't be fooled. We have been participating in tot-school for years without ever realizing it!
At 24 months Kayli is getting an art lesson. She gets to practice her hand eye coordination and we got to work on learning colors!
Visiting Grandma's house on the lake, Kayli is getting a hands on science lesson. She got to observe the geese, count the geese, and even got a chance to feed the geese! We mixed in some critical thinking... What kind of animals are geese? (Bird) How do you know they are birds? (They have wings. They fly..)
Ball pits are such fun! At 27 months Kayli got a lesson in counting and colors and even some physical education... plenty of jumping and practicing throwing and catching!
A trip to the zoo is the perfect field trip. Observing animals provides an endless array of learning opportunities... even for young tots.
Helping Daddy fix something is a perfect opportunity for a carpentry lesson! {Don't worry no child was harmed with power tools during this lesson, they were closely supervised!}
Problem Solving: How do I get the candy out of the Giant sponge Bob???
Carpentry Lesson: Building a GingerBread House... learned a thing or two about design flaws....
Building with blocks really gets my Tot's brains a thinking and even helps teach patience!
Cooking with Grandma means lessons in measuring and pouring and mixing... and learning about the science of baking! What do you think will happen to this after we let it sit in the hot oven for a few minutes?
Gymnastics are a wonderful physical eduction lesson!
Planting a garden is a great opportunity for science lessons... exploring dirt and worms and bugs. Learning about how our food grows, counting the plants, and talking about the different parts of the plant. {leaves, stem, roots} The opportunities are limitless.
Art time is especially fun... especially when we go to the library for story hour and get to make fun hand puppets!
In our house reading is the ultimate Tot School activity, loved and enjoyed by the WHOLE family!
Dance... a fun way to explore our bodies and music. Physical education at its BEST!
One Two Buckle My Shoe...
Learning from past mistakes is a valuable lesson...
Here my youngest is playing with my mancala game... practicing sorting marbles by color.
A VERY fun lunch activity is making edible play dough. With a few fun shaped cookie cutters my tots had a blast! Not a good idea if you are opposed to allowing your young one play with his/her food!
Here my tot is learning an important life lesson. Endurance.
Cooking... turned into artwork, with plenty of counting pepperonis and review of the color red!
KitKat's favorite school activity by far is painting!
Animal cookie cutters became interesting tools in role play during this lesson.
Hop Scotch can be used in a variety of ways... try using letters instead of numbers and require your Tot to name the letter their stone lands on, or make its sound, or name an animal that starts with that letter... Try using simple math problems that need to be solved, or draw simple pictures that need to be counted... the possibilities are endless!
What is more fun than a science lesson centered around a fun caterpillar find? I had my Tots describe their find to me (what color is it, does it have any spots, etc.) and we 'googled' him in order to identify it and determine what he would become.
Opposite Puzzles were fun. Big sis cut them out and little sis put them together again.
Music is always a favorite!
We have a really cool fun devotional Bible that is perfect for my tot and my pre-schooler!
I know this dive into 'Tot School' doesn't exactly fit the criteria and I sure hope I don't get kicked out because of it! I am really enjoying this idea though and look forward to sharing many more weeks of Tot School!
