Monday, November 9, 2009

Tot School

Tot School

Jack is 24 months old

Now that Jack is two, he and I will start working on some slightly more "formal" pre-school readiness activities as they interest him. While we are planning, at this point in time, to send him to preschool two days a week next year, I've always held in the back of my mind that I might like homeschooling, so this will be a beginning step towards seeing how Jack and I work together academically.

Does it sound like I'm taking my two year old's education too seriously? I'm not! No, really! The whole idea behind Tot School is that it's basically just exposing early learning skills through FUN play. Click on that link for a great explanation of Tot School, and the button at the top to see the Tot School Blog.

I'll share a little more of my journey with Jack in the coming weeks, including how I'm planning, what resources I'm using, etc. (Can you tell I'm a teacher at heart ?! Planning always was one of my favorite parts. :-)

But there's plenty of time for all of that later! Here's what we did in Tot School this week! I didn't do a great job of photo documenting, but here's what I did catch...

I made Pumpkin Spice scented playdough, using this recipe and adding orange food coloring and 2 t of pumpkin pie seasoning. I gave Jack a bit to play with and saved the rest in washed out yogurt containers. I let him have a variety of tools, and he practiced...

DSC05686

rolling,

DSC05688

cutting,

DSC05690

making circle impressions with a Duplo,

DSC05693

and finally, sprinkling colored sugar and mixing it in.

While playing with Daddy's old fire station Little People, I broke out the fireman costume I bought Jack on clearance after Halloween this year. He loved dressing up, and we practiced using the clasps.

Jack Fireman

He spent lots of time "playing cars" this week, and Daddy showed him how to line the cars up like a train.

DSC05738 DSC05740

Jack also spent lots of time on his new tricycle, and even learned to use the pedals a little bit! This is one of the shots taken today after church while we were working on getting some Christmas card shots!

DSC05718

Tune in next week for my slightly more organized version!

6 comments:

Counting Coconuts said...

Welcome to the fun world of Tot Schooling! I love planning too - I'm looking forward to your future posts!

Andes Adventures said...

You always do such great activities with Jack. I'm excited to steal your ideas for Callie too. Thanks for being such a great resource.

melaniet42 said...

Great Tot Schooling week! My little one isn't quite two yet, but I've been toying with the idea of home schooling for some time now. I'm also using this as an opportunity to see how we work together and how good I am at sticking to it!!

amosclarkson said...

Great idea! I will check out that site and do some each week, too. We, too, hope to send Eli to preschool 2 days a week next school year...maybe the same one as Jack!!

Carrie said...

Your boys are so cute - love the playdoh activities & the fireman costume. :)

Jeanette said...

Planning is what makes it fun for us right? Well, that and playing with our kids of course! :-)
Looks like you had a great week. Your kids are cuties.
http://leadquidewalk.blogspot.com