Hey hey!
So many of you requested some info on how I will be tot-schooling Amani. I started around this age for Zoe and I am excited to get a little scheduled routine for us/her. I think that in another life I'll be a preschool teacher or own some type of fun based learning facility but for now I hope to just have a little extra patience to continue to create the environment for my girls.
And that is a great segway into my philosophy, FUN based learning. I am going to pick up some containers to create "busy box assignments" so we can get started a little faster in the mornings.
My biggest goal for this month is to continue with letter recognition, number recognition (1-10), writing and spelling her name and I am starting to reread this.
Second goal is to have our work space completely organized. I just ordered this little shelving unit that makes pulling out material easier for both Zoe and Ami. I may regret having all of this access to this stuff but I am hoping for the best, hahaha.
For me planning out everything will really help stay on track. This way I am taking either Sunday morning or even Mondays to prep and print out the week's activities.
Here is our Tot-School Calendar of Themes for the year (which is mainly a rough draft and may change up!), this way I can pin ideas and then actually plan out different activities for the week or even the night before.
This month we have 3 weeks left, first up:
I am going to use some activities and books that I have pinned here!
I'll have her watch some videos here.
We are sticking to Arctic foxes, reindeer, walruses, penguins and polar bears.
And we will also be doing a letter of the day every few days, I printed these out which you can get for free if you subscribe. I suggest using one email for all of your tot school subscriptions, this way you know exactly where to go to get inspired or plan.
We will try and have something for each of the following categories:
- Books & Songs, self explanatory but some of these books we may have and some we will get from the library
-Fine Motor Skills, which is anything that helps with the coordination of small muscles, in movements - (usually involving the synchronisation of hands and fingers—with the eyes).
-Gross Motor Skills- which is anything that is involved in movement and coordination of the arms, legs, and other large body parts and movements.
-In the kitchen - We bake weekly and they are in the kitchen with me all of the time so having something like this for her is fun but can be a great learning experience.
-Sensory Bins, a sensory bin is typically a plastic tub or a large container of some sort filled with materials and objects carefully selected to stimulate the senses.
-Family time: something she can do with Zoe, we can do as a family and
and I may even plan some field trips around some of the themes.
And remember some of the activities will honestly only last a couple minutes at first, and that is ok! Here is an example at how I would plan out a week.
I didn't really buy anything new (I may order some arctic animals though) and spend money to take her to the Museum of Natural History but none of that is really necessary to create a learning environment, and neither is creating your own material. There is SO much out on Pinterest and some really great homeschool mamas out there really killing it, so instead of spending a 100 hours on all of that I really plan on using my resources and using my energy to actually do the teaching.
I am not sure if I will switch themes every week yet but I did put Winter on the calendar for next week! Check out this board here for some ideas I already have and will keep adding too.
And lastly the last theme of January will be the Five Senses, which I have started a board here.
I hope that you guys can see how much I love this part of motherhood and although I know it's not for everyone for those of you that do want to take on this tot-school journey, I am happy to share and do it together!
Happy Monday my loves!
xoxo
Natalie
