Tot School: Plant Week, Bug Week, and Independence Day Theme Week

Our first week of Tot School was extremely basic and more of a means to get our feet wet on our homeschooling journey than anything else. Our garden was beginning to grow and many flowers were still in bloom so I thought a plant themed week would be a really great beginning.

Plant Week

The first thing I did was create a seed sensory bin. I filled this tub up with different types of seeds I had leftover from planting our garden earlier in the year, along with soil and some shredded pieces of recycled brown paper. I gave Kai his shovel and had him dig in the tub and search for the seeds. When we found them all, we counted the seeds together and threw them back in. We did this many times during the week. It was a big success.

What would a plant theme be without a walk outside? Next, we went into our front and back yard and talked about the different types of plants we had growing around us. Trees, flowers, shrubs, grass, etc. Then we picked a few flowers, leaves, and blades of grass and brought them inside to make print paintings.

The rest of the week, we worked on short activities that did not necessarily fall under the specific plant theme. I did very little planning with this week, but it was the perfect amount to get us started. I didn't want to bombard Kai with a copious amount of activities.

Matching flash cards.

Transferring water with a sponge. This was and still is a favorite of Kai's. Kids+water= winning.

Glueing practice

Working on fine motor skills with stickers.

Making shapes with the geo-board.

Kai's first time using scissors! He is using a sheet out of our Kumon book "Let's Cut Paper!" Its a great resource for mastering the motor skills needed for scissor skills.

Transferring Pom poms using tongs. These tongs are far too big for little hands but at this point I had not purchased my small toast tongs that we now use. I recommend using those or ice tongs to start with.

We also planted flower seeds in a pot that I had Kai finger paint but for some reason did not take a picture of that activity.

Bug Week

During Plant week, Kai Became very interested in bugs. Naturally, every plant we were inspecting and discovering had at least one bug in its near proximity. And that's how our next theme came to be.

The beginning of bug week started with a Splat (I know, I'm so cheesy)! I came across a recipe for homemade sidewalk chalk paint in one of the arts and crafts books I own and decided it would be fun to use fly swatters instead of brushes. I cut out a piece of our large roll of craft paper, brought it outside and our fly swatting masterpiece was born.

Homemade sidewalk chalk paint!

To be completely honest, the paint was less than satisfactory. The consistency never seemed quite right no matter how much corn starch I added with hot water. The color was mediocre as well. In hindsight, I think it would have been more exciting to just buy some of the really vibrant sidewalk chalk paint that crayola sells but it's hard for me to justify any purchase when I can make something on my own with things we already own. The most important part was that Kai really, really enjoyed this activity and we spent a good hour outside hitting the swatter on the paper yelling, "splat!" So it was all worth it :)

More cutting from our Kumon book.

Pom Pom transferring using the new toast tongs. These are so much easier for little hands to manipulate.

"Sewing" pipe cleaners through a colander. I call out a color and he "sews" it in.

Marble painting a butterfly. Kai had a blast shaking the marble around in the box and was so proud of the way the butterfly turned out.

Our Independence Day theme week was pretty short since I was out of town for the actual 4th of July but we still managed to do some really fun crafts and great activities.

Sorting his Army men by color. We also counted how many we had of each color and took turns standing them all up and knocking them all down.

I found this fun activity where I find so many great ideas, pinterest. It's a dish full of baking soda, a medicine dropper and food dyed vinegar. It makes a little reaction when the vinegar hits the baking soda and was a good hour long activity at our house. The colors are suppose to be red and blue but the red never really turned out.

Practicing patterns using colored discs.

"Firework" print painting using pipe cleaners that I made into different size firework shaped brushes.

Matching numbers puzzle from my sister-in-law. Have I mentioned how nice it is to have someone in my family who has been homeschooling for a few years now? I have loved watching the transformation in her family since she has been homeschooling and I really enjoy picking her brain and hearing her insights. Thanks, Becky! Kai can recognize and match numbers 1-10 on his own but still gets confused with the difference between 6 and 9. I love watching how accomplished he feels when he finishes this activity.

The last activity for the 4th of July was definitely Kai's favorite craft up to this point. We made a confetti rocket sans the confetti because I wasn't in the mood to clean up any more messes before I left for my trip. So, I guess what we really made was a rocket but confetti rocket just sounds way cooler.

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Home Educating Children: The Very, Very Beginning

One of the aspects of homeschooling that I love the most is the freedom to do what I want, when I want, how I want, and to move in the direction I see fit for each of my children collectively and individually. Although the task at hand may seem daunting at times, this is something that truly gives me peace.
For many people, schooling begins when a child enters preschool. Usually around 3 or 4. I have decided that it will begin for Kai at two and a half. It is what we call Tot School. Not quite as formal as pre-school but more structured than free play for a part of the day. The Tot School Idea was created here.

To be honest, most mothers start tot school with their little ones without even knowing it. It's the concept of giving our kids opportunities to develop and learn while still keeping the environment one which fosters a child's natural desire to learn. This day in age, it's very easy to get stuck sticking your child in front of the tv for far too long or to walk out of the room and be uninvolved in playing with them. I am guilty of this. Which is why I decided that tot school was going to happen in our home at least once a day for an hour or so. That way I know without a doubt, that I have dedicated a decent amount of time where I am completely focused on Kai's education.

We have chosen a direction that is a mix between Montessori, traditional, and classical learning at the most basic level. Most of what we do is hands on, but Kai also has a big interest in sitting down and writing while using simple worksheets. The materials I use are things I have on hand or inexpensive items I find at the dollar store or dollar section at Target. There is also a boat load of free resources online that I print out at home and laminate. It's all about being creative! I can't tell you how many games I have come up with using dry beans and kitchen utensils. I have started a running list of "Things I Would Like to Own" where I put the items that cost a little more money. But for now, simple is working just fine for us.

Since this is an introduction to preschool, it is very relaxed. I follow Kai's lead 99% of the time. If I come up with a game that I think is awesome and he does not, I do not push it on him. Then I silently remind myself that this is meant to be fun. As he gets older and his attention span grows, I will add more structured guidelines. My end goal is to have him fully ready for an actual formal pre-school setting around 4 or 4 1/2. I will post our first week of tot school soon. We loved it! We did a theme week about plants, it was a blast. Honestly :)