Truman is currently learning the letter C & our theme is “caterpillars.” I have been so excited for this theme – we just love The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I set up his little area in our school{barn} with a felt mat & some books. He also has a few related books & activities inside his boxes.
We will also be including the Mustangs in on this one. For them I will be focusing more on number & color sight words, as well as the life cycle of a butterfly. We will be collecting as many different caterpillars as we can find & observing the different types of butterflies they turn into.
In addition to the letter “C”, Truman will be learning the color green & the same of a triangle. I have prepared a few trays & boxes for him: green rice, sand, & blubber (moon sand). The next row is play dough, colored pasta sorting, shape sorting transferring. The last row is a color green activities, letter box, stamping, & painting.
Truman usually spends 2-3 weeks on a theme & I know the bigger boys will not last that long on this, so with them I plan to follow up with a bug/garden/flower unit. (more on that soon hopefully)
Nicki organized a Preschool Busy Bag Swap for our homeschool group & friends. It was a total success! There were 13 participants, so each family went home with 13 great new preschooler activities.
We had such a great turn out we decided to plan another swap. We organized 4 small groups of 5 this time (rather than one large swap) with themes & pre-picked activities & 3/4 of the groups are already full.
I have been so busy keeping up with Truman! I know I have mentioned a time or two (or maybe more!) how busy my 2 year old is, but whew!. Truman definitely keeps me on my feet from son up to son down! Within 5 minutes of him being in our school{barn} it would be a disaster area. Now he is talking a lot more & really very excited about “school” it was time to change out the baby/toddler toys for more of the preschool stuff. So the past few weeks I have been making an effort to get the flow of our school{barn} more Truman friendly. I needed activities quick & on hand, but I also wanted to make sure I was getting a variety of activities that would benefit him as well as keep him busy. In addition I wanted to try to tie in a few of our themes (color, letter, shape) as much as possible so here are Truman’s Tot Boxes for Letter A & the Color Red.
On the top shelf are a rice box to practice pouring, scooping, & just fun, a moon sand box with the Melissa & Doug wooden play dough set, & a sand tray to encourage beginning writing skills. *Be not mistake, the 3 boxes get mixed together in his kitchen area FREQUENTLY. ~no big deal – either way he is using his imagination & having a good time. The other boxes have cutting practice, shape/color sorting, an alphabet sensory box (I put letter “A” beads, foam letter, & magnet + an apple, ax & alligator, transferring practice, stamping (with an alligator stamp), & painting. I tried to use item that were the color we were focusing on (red rice, sand, paper, pom-poms, paint). As it is now, we are sticking to the same themes for about 2 weeks so that will be the time frame I plan to use for re-doing these.
Have I mentioned how BUSY Truman is? And did I follow it with how DEMANDING he is? (he gets those traits from his dad!) I had great activities for him, but I just could get them pulled out & cleaned up quick enough for him. No matter how prepared I thought I was for him, it never seemed to be enough. I’ve seen the idea of activity bags & even did a few themed bags for church when my mustangs were little, but Pinterest inspired me…
And it worked!!!
I currently have 10 busy bags, mostly of activities I already had in our schoolroom. I have just found that by storing them in the manner of “busy bags” has made it so much easier in our schoolroom & on the go . . .
I am so excited to be participating in a Busy Bag Exchange that Nicki has organized for our homeschool group next month. The possibilities are endless! Check out my Toddler Bus Bag board on Pinterest.
Now that Truman has demanded to start school it would just thrill his very being for me to spend my entire day “schooling” him alone – there are these 3 other boys that are kinda needing the same thing from me. So to occupy my eager learner I took Carissa’s Tot-Notebook idea & ran with it! I made 3 notebooks for Truman! LOL Yes, you read that right. 3. He has a main notebook, BFIAR notebook, & an activity notebook (full of “busy bags”). In his main notebook I printed pages from 1+1+1=1, Homeschool Creations, & Confessions of a Homeschooler (*I did not print EVERYTHING each site had – ONLY the ones I thought he would enjoy/I liked.) I put the printouts in page protectors so he could reuse it (otherwise, it would last 5 minutes). The first page is his scripture (letter related from Raising Rockstars Preschool Pack) followed by letter pages, then shapes, colors, numbers, & lastly a page with his name on it (for name recognition).
I had no true intentions of beginning letters with him until August so at this point I am just following his lead. We will work on a letter as long as he needs/wants. I’m not doing a “letter a week” schedule. I will lightly focus on a different shape & color each week, but his folder content is not exclusive to this. I’ll be sharing more of my Tot-to-Preschool plans soon.
I can NOT tell you how much he enjoys his notebook! He will sit & “do school” for at least 30 minutes – all on his own prompting. AND he will return to it throughout the day.
The other day I was home alone with just Truman & Taralyn. With no brothers or daddy to keep him busy, it was all up to me. What better time to have a little water-play. I filled the big white bucket with soapy water & broke up an ice-tray of colored ice, gave him a smaller bowl & some utensils in the red tray (kinda a “spill catcher). I also gave him a sponge & some of his plastic animals so he could give them a bath. When he started to get bored I added a straw to the mix to buy me some more time :) He absolutely LOVES playing in the water!!
I know I’ve posted before about my beliefs on starting “school” with little ones, but if you are new to this blog or somehow missed those posts . . . I just want to say, that I do NOT start “school” with my little ones to jumpstart them into being the smartest 2 or 3 year olds or because I think they “have” to do school asap. My opinion, is quite the contrary. I start introducing “school-like” activities to my little tot’s mainly to keep them busy & entertained. I think it is very important to encourage natural growth & exploration in an educational/hands-on environment. During the toddler years I try to surround my kids with toys & activities that will build necessary skills for upcoming years. So, what do I use & exactly what do I focus on?
I don’t think a “curriculum” is necessary, but the FIAR books are wonderful “keepers” that you will read over & over again (not just when your child is 2). I don’t do all the activities listed in the guide, but pick a few here & there & add some of my own ideas.
This is a great time to set the tone for “school” & begin each morning with a circle time. I would suggest starting with a short routine of a prayer, song, “how are you today”, a short calendar time – “Today is Monday”, the weather, & possibly 1-2 focus reviews (Ex. new word, character trait). Add to your circle time as your child matures & understand. You can do a complete calendar time, memory work, & build on skills you are focusing on. Preschooler’s & Peace offers great Circle Time Suggestions.
Truman turned two in May so “Tiny Tot Time” will now be “Tot School”
Here is my weekly planning sheet (I made using a combination of ideas from sources listed below):
I tried to have hands-on activities for each of our weekly focus' - for J- they sorted & counted & practiced patterns with Jelly Beans. When we were learning the shape of a heart we made heart cookies. Snack time was also an important part of our day - I tried to tie in the concepts we were learning. If our shape was oval we'd have a boiled egg, if we were focusing on the color blue & squares, we'd have blue squares of jello. If we read Jesse Bear - we had teddy grahams, etc.
I also created a Preschool Poster we refer to daily that included all the weeks information (mentioned above), plus a list of other skills/activities (listed below) & centers.
Auditory Discrimination Skills Listening to tapes Play "Go & Get"
Visual Discrimination Skills Classify objects by color Legos
Creative Expression Skills Puppets Google (make a picture of this shape) Play Dough Dolls Dress up Trucks, Cars Clap to music Music instruments Singing Collages Macaroni, paper shapes Painting (water colors, finger paint) Vegetable sculptures
Gross Motor Skills Walking like a dog, bear, crab, worm, duck, frog Hopping, Skipping, Balancing Roll Like a Log Push, Pull, Drag Balloons Bubbles Window Washing Pouring rice back & forth Hokey Pokey Obstacles Course
Fine Motor Skills Buttoning, snapping, cutting, tracing, zipping, coloring
Fun Cooking help Tea Party Nature Walk Hide & Seek Tag I Spy Mother May I Simon Says
Chores
This is also the age that I begin chores with my little ones. We begin with personal care & property – dressing themselves, washing hands, brushing teeth, picking up shoes, dirty clothes, & small messes (if their room is a big mess, I will sit in the floor & direct them. They typically know where something goes, but the large mess can be rather overwhelming). Toddlers also love to wipe things. I give Truman a spray bottle (with water & vinegar) to “clean”. If they spill something, I give them a rag to clean it themselves (I usually come in behind & clean-up, but to initially allow them to clean the mess teaches them responsibility). At this age, they love to mimic activities. Usually my little one will follow the older children around as they do their chores. When the boys are picking up the yard, Truman loves to point out the poop, or a out-of-place toy.
At this age praise goes a LONG way. Early learners gain so much confidence & joy just from seeing the reaction of others. I try to over-react in praise & make sure my little one knows how proud I am. Stickers or small treats also go along way – even a toy that only gets to be played with on special occasions. As your child matures from 2-3, you may introduce rewards. We have magnet frames for “cheerfulness”, “sharing”, etc. that are displayed. Depending on your child’s understanding, you could also begin an easy reward system.
Discipline:
Two is not exactly my favorite stage. Mostly because my own lack of patience combined with the lack of communication with a demanding little person. Each of my children have such different personalities that have required very different consequences. I am certainly no expert & feel totally inadequet to give any advice in this area; however, I will highly recommend Creative Corrections by Lisa Whelchel (this book is a toolbox for parenting children of all ages).
HELPFUL RESOURCES:
Theme Suggestions:
Character Traits
Bible Stories
Books/Authors
Movies/Characters
All About Me (my feelings/emotions, my family, my body, my community)
Birthday
Human Body
Healthy Foods – Fruits & Veggies
Jobs (police, fire, post office, teacher, construction, etc.)
Desperate times call for desperate measures! We don’t have cable TV – movies & Netflix only, but there are points in the day that an educational or entertaining show is extremely helpful.
My little Buckaroo is quickly following in his big brothers footsteps. He is 20 months old & ready for a little farm theme fun!
Truman is such a busy boy – rarely in the same spot for more than a few seconds, but he loves farm animals. So I decided to use this to my advantage. His little center in our schoolbarn got a little toddler updating this winter.
I plan to use a farm theme as a mini VERY relaxed tot-school to teach Truman:
colors
counting to 3 (then maybe 5, and so on . . .)
animal names & sounds
We will do various age appropriate activities including:
Over the years I have collected farm theme manipulative & books – 4 boys later I have quite the collection. I will try to add another post of ideas for older children. These are just a few things I have chosen to keep Truman’s from destroying the house days busy. I don’t intend to use everything each day & will slowly work into somewhat of a schedule. Currently, I am just grabbing one item from a couple boxes & tossing them his way as I divert him from coloring on the walls. Eventually I will start a morning circle time with him & get a routine down (hopefully!) that includes him. For now it is mainly just my sanity :) I have found it is much easier to create business for a tot than it is to clean up their own creativity along the way.
Target usually has a great farm theme selection this time of the year in their dollar section. I got the window clings, grow animal capsules, puzzles, books & sooo much more from Target for just a few bucks!
