Fall is here!

Well the fall is here and we could not be more excited. Its so nice being able to take the boys outside anytime of day instead of at 8:00 in the morning before it gets to hot. Its has been so nice being in sweatshirts and jeans. The boys are soaking up all of the outside time and love playing in their sandbox any chance they get.

Tot school has been very informal for past couple of weeks. One week A was totally anti-school and wanted nothing to do with workboxes. This past week daddy went back to school and is working late nights at his other job so we are all adjusting back to a crazy schedule. We have managed sneak in some planned activities and have done lots of informal learning.

A who was totally anti-counting and anti-numbers has again showed me that just because he WONT do something doesn't mean he doesn't know how. For awhile now he has easily been able to count to 4 (when he wants to and never on command or when asked). This week since its been so crazy for all of us, he has had a lot of free play. Well the other day while playing with his puzzles (when I mean playing, I mean lining them up on the floor and hopping on top of each one. That's my A always thinking outside the box) I heard him counting. He would say 1-2-3-4, 5-6, 8-9-19. He was screaming it over and over as he hopped from one puzzle to the next. I was so amazed that he even knew the sequence and didn't mind at all that he was skipping 7. Even last night he started saying 8-9-10 in front of his dad and his dad was shocked. Just goes to show that toddlers retain a lot of information regardless if they l let you know or not.

I have been working on our printables because I am really working on writing with A. He has mastered a circles at about 1 1/2 so now we are working on control of the pencil. He is doing really well for the most part and loves tracing but lacks the patience to go slow and concentrate.  A did manage to make his very own A and was so proud. Usually I help him but he did it all on his own this time.

The learning placemat was a hit with A and he wasted no time identifying the letters he knew and telling me all about the pictures on it. I have taken a different approach with A on counting and numbers. I know now he does in fact know how to count and knows the sequence of the numbers but I do not think he gets the concept of what it means. He can tell you if you have one of something or two of something but when he is asked to count something he does not understand to apply a number to an object. I have decided to just present his numbers to him with groups of objects so he can visualize how many belong. I have not pushed him to count things and just let him do it on his own time. Along with grouping on the placemat I also did an activity for him where I put each number on an index card and then used little dot stickers to show how many with that number. I had A place pom poms on each sticker. To my surprise he actually liked it for a little bit.

Out outside time is going to be coming to an end soon so as of right now we are spending as much time as we can (meaning and much as I can take before someone runs off or doesn't listen) outside. A learned how to roll down a hill the other day and thought this was very fun. He has been enjoying looking for the ducks in our nearby pond, but since its colder weather they have all went to Florida or Taco Bell as A will tell you.

And it begins!!!

Ok so some might think I am a little crazy but on Wednesday night, after a horrible trip to target with this kids and an overwhelming day of tantrums and whining, I decided... I am going to start school Thursday. I was totally unprepared and had nothing ready but I had to do something. I could not take it anymore. We NEEDED the structure. Austin has been acting out so much and we think its partly because of boredom. So at about 9:00 at night I got started. I planned and printed and printed. All I have to say is thank you Confessions of a Homeschooler. Without you I would of had nothing and A LOVES the activities.

As I stated in a previous post, I decided to do a daily schedule. Here is what I made. I have Austin remove each activity after we are done so he can see the progress.

In reality it seemed great but here are a few things I learned about using a schedule with young children:

1. Its fun for about the first 5 minutes

2. It doesn't matter what's on the schedule, if they don't want to do it they wont

3. This is just another thing for M. to tear apart

4. I will spend the rest of the day telling M no and searching for the pieces he took down

5. Again if they don't want to do it they wont, regardless of what the schedule says

So with this being said, I am still going to incorporate it into our daily plans but not have it be such a focus. I am sure it will work much better as A gets other and M stops tearing it apart. 

We began out day with circle time. I really like this concept but have to think about it some more and figure it out. I "attempted" and with this I mean, got about two words out, to talk about our lesson on creation but A decided he just wanted to do the jumping song over and over again. 

Don't let the picture fool you... there wasn't much "circle time" happening here but it was a good concept and just has to be tweaked a little bit. 

After circle time was school. A was very excited although I think he thought he was going somewhere else to school. I showed him his workboxes and he eagerly looked through each one before he decided what he wanted to do. My concept was to have him pick what box he wanted to do and when he was completed he would take the labels off and put them back in the basket. He liked this and it showed him what left he had to do. This was the one idea that worked out so wonderful. It helped organized me and A loved being able to pick what he wanted to do. I plan to take a picture of them before he starts but I keep forgetting. 

for day one we had:

Math: Apple seed counting sheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Bible: Creation day 1 craft

Spelling: Bottle cap spelling with apple worksheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Writing: Tracing pre writing worksheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Puzzle: Apple shape matching from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Art: Letter A with finger print ants for A's letter book

Like any toddler would, A went right for his bible drawer because there was paint in it. This is a really fun craft and I am excited to see it come together. As A worked, I briefly (come on, we all know you have to be as brief as you can be with a toddler) talked about creation for day one and how God created light and dark. This actually worked out well right now because A is very interested in dark and light. He announces what it gets dark or lights go off and tells us periodically during the day if the sun is out. 

First I had him color the 1 with a black marker and then we painted it with yellow paint to represent light. After it dried I cut it out and A glued it to paper and glued a little clipart that says day 1 light and dark. I was so impressed with hi glue stick work because last year when I started, he could not do a glue stick. 

Next A chose to do his shape matching puzzle from Confessions of a Homeschooler. A did so well at this activity. I was beginning to think he is a little genius but doesn't want us to know yet. After matching the shapes once A decided it was much more fun to do this...

So genius might be pushing it but he is defiantly advanced for his age. 

I decided to start a letter book for Austin and we made out first one a letter A. I had him use his dot dot markers and after he was done, he made finger print ants. I was surprised he got the concept to put him finger prints next to each other but the problem was he wanted to do it outside the A. I tried explaining I was going to cut that part off but that had no effect on his decision to put all the ants outside the A. 

I finally managed to get a few ants inside and we cut it out and glued it to a red and white checked paper. I will take pictures soon of this once we get a few pages. 

I didn't push A and decided that 3 workboxes would be a good start to complete in the morning. If he is forced to focus to long, some crazy things can start happening so when he started mentioning playing baseball (him running back and forth across our living room swinging his bat at a pretend ball) I let him go. 

In the afternoon we finished our workboxes. He loved the bottle cap spelling and without much direction, completed the word apple. I was so shocked. He kept asking to spell his name but I wasn't prepared so I will be making that an activity soon. We also did his prewriting worksheets. A loves using his new pencil and completed all 3 pages.

Now that brings us to math... Oh math how A dislikes you. Now A knows how to count. We have heard him. He counts to 3 all the time and the other day when we were in the car he was counting to 4 without any trouble at all. For some reason, he really dislikes number and counting no matter what we do. If we ask to count he refuses screaming "NO". I do not know if it just requires to much focus to count something and he doesn't like that or if he gets frustrated. Whatever it is, we will continue to do math but I am not pushing him. Needless to say, after numerous times to get him to do even one counting activity on the sheet, and several attempts to rip the sheet up, it got put away.

Week Two- Friday

Today was a light day. I am trying to get my little one on a better schedule so we are having to devote more time to that. We did manage to get some school in though. Again Austin wanted to pour his chocolate sports balls into containers so he did that while I set up our activity. I did try to get him to color and do stickers for an A book but he pushed that away.

Activity - Floor Letter A- My husband had told me awhile ago that when kids walk the shape of letters, it helps them be able to recognize them and eventually write them. I had forgotten about this until last night when I observed Austin following a circle pattern we have on our rug.

All I did was use construction paper and tape together a large A. Right when Austin saw it he screamed A. Such a proud momma I am. Of course I could not find my phone and our camera was dead so I didnt get any pictures until the end when Austin was board of the activity.

I did have Austin walk the letter a few times. He thought this was very fun as he chanted "walk walk". After I showed him how to drive his little car on the letter. This kept him busy long enough for me to find my phone he had hidden and get a quick picture.

Austin was very proud of our A and since I was busy with his brother, I didn't pick it up. I just placed the rug back down. Later that night, Austin proudly pulled the rug up to show his daddy the letter A and how he could walk and drive his car on it. My husband did get some pictures and a video so I will add those soon.

Next week we are going to begin the letter B and color blue. When doing the painting activity the other day, when I asked Austin to dip in blue, he got it right each time, so I am pretty sure he already knows that color. I also asked Austin the other day at the library to find the letter B and he also did that. I am not sure where he is getting this knowledge but its there. He is a little sponge that absorbs EVERYTHING!

Week Two - Thursday

Today was a learning experience for me. I learned that Austin is going to turn everything into a pouring activity and he will only use bingo markers now to "color". I have learned gluing activities hold him attention for about 2 seconds, and when he is done, he will demonstrate that by either tearing something up or throwing everything on the floor. I guess I had a little of Tot School myself today.

Our activities today were....

Activity #1 - A Collage. I had everything pre-cut and ready to go. I spread a bunch of glue on the paper in hopes Austin would want to put the pictures on. He did do a few but was more interested in "patting" them down after I put them on.

Activity #2 - I had Austin identify the A in his name. He did this without hesitation I tried to have him simply color his name but he kept saying "dot dot" which is what we say when we use the bingo markers.

Activity #3 - This activity was supposed to be for next week when we study the letter B but Austin saw it and basically threw himself on the ground, so I brought it out. It actually kept him busy for about 20 minutes. I bought at the dollar store these little chocolate sports balls. My intent was for Austin to count them and he watched and repeated me, but when I asked him to do it, he started pouring them from one container to the next. What can I say, the boy LOVES to pour! I did manage to get him to take one at a time and place it into a water bottle. He liked this and it taught him patience, control, and a little thinking because the footballs had to be turned a certain way to fit.

Activity #4 - Painting a large A. Last week we took a trip out to Ikea and got this great easel for $15. It has a chalk board on one side and dry erase board on the other. It also has a spot for a large roll of paper to paint on.

This is how I presented the paint to Austin. I had an egg carton I was saving and I cut two spaces out.  It worked great and there was no messy paint anywhere. I started introducing blue today and was surprised when I would ask Austin to dip his brush in a certain color, he got it right every time!

Week Two - Tuesday and Wednesday

The last couple of days has been rough. I have had a horrible double ear infection so taking care of the boys was very stressful. We did manage to get some Tot school in but when Austin got frustrated, I did not have the energy to try to keep him there, so Tuesday was a light day.

Activity #1 - Apple Painting

I decided to have Austin paint using an apple as a stamp. I saw on a website to stick a fork in it so it was easier for your tot to hold on to. Austin loved stamping and even did it so much he pushed the fork right through the apple! I plan to cut an apple shape out of the paper but have not gotten around to it yet.

Activity #2 - Sorting

I attempted sorting again with Austin. He either does not get it or has no interest in it. He, like most activities, just wanted to pour. I think my plan is to present this activity to him once a week.

Library Wednesday

Today we went to our wonderful Library. Again Austin had no interest in the books but ran around like a madman playing on all of the toys and making the train go. We discovered the activity center which is basically a huge enclosed playroom with tons of educational toys and puzzles. Austin liked this room very much.

Since I was feeling better this afternoon, I decided to get a little adventurous and let Austin practice pouring water in the living room. My thought was "its only water right?" He actually did very good until the end when he decided to start pouring water on himself. He must have known it was bath night.

My future plans are to finish up the letter A and red this week. I have a couple more projects I hope Austin will do like an A collage and then putting together an A book with some of his crafts he made. The next two weeks are B and Blue. This is going to very fun since he is obsessed with balls. I have so many ideas we might have to take longer the 2 weeks or I will at least post them incase someone else wants to use them.

Week Two - Monday

After a great week, we are continuing with the same theme. As of right now I am going to be doing each letter, color, and verse for two weeks just to make sure Austin really grasps the concepts. 

Today I began a little different. I laid each activity out on the table and let Austin chose which one he wanted to do. Since I don't have "tot trays" yet, this was how I improvised. It seemed to work well but was distracting to my little guy who just wanted to keep moving to the next activity. I think I might just present him one and if he likes it, then we will do it, if not just move on. 

Activity #1 - Dot A. 

I have seen this activity for dot painting but was unable to find a website with all he worksheets so I created this on myself. Austin LOVED it. The kid could not have been happier and kept saying "dot, dot" every time he dotted the paper. I showed him once what to do and I was so happy and surprised when he actually got the concept. He lost interest about halfway through but the dots he did were very good. I used bingo stampers and they worked great!

Activity #2 - Reading our books.

I have not themed our books yet, because I kinds just take Austin's lead. He is very particular with what books he likes at a particular time, so as long as he is enjoying books, we read what he wants. 

Austin's current favorite books are : 

1. No More Diapers 

2. Ernies big Mess

3. Barney goes to the fair

4. Goodnight Moon

5. Barnyard Dance

Activity #3 - Practice Pouring with Rice Crispies

Austin LOVES to pour. He loves to play with water and pour it from one container to the next. The problem with water it it ends up all over everything like my floor and him so I decided to try to get him to use other types of textures to pour. This activity kept him busy for a good amount of time. I just gave him different size containers and he went at it. 

Activity # 4- Alligator A - I found this activity on No Time for Flash Cards. I am working on the concept of gluing and actually leaving it on the paper with Austin. He has not quite gotten it yet and will try to peel it off right away. He did try and even got a few teeth on. My plain is to make a different animal for each letter and them display them all.

Activity #5 - Sorting pompons. I gave Austin a mixture of blue and red ones then placed one in a separate bowl. I showed Austin what to do and he refused so we do not have any pictures. Hopefully we will do this another day.

I have many more activities planned but might make it a light week due to me having another double ear infection. We will see how the week goes.

Praise Report

Today I decided to test Austin out on how well he knew the letter A. I found a few things around the house that had a capital A and asked him to show me the A and to my surprise he got it right every time. I was such a proud mama!

Day 5- End of first week!

Today was the last day of our first week of Tot school and I can't even express how much I am enjoying this one on one time with Austin. I love teaching I love watching him explore new things. 

Today my little tot was in a "special" mood so getting him to focus or sit was not very easy. He didn't last very long on any of he activities but we still managed to have some fun. Austin began by asking for his color box, while I got some things together he played with his playdough until he was done and then he started throwing it on the floor. We then moved onto out book which Austin decided he did not want to look at and kept closing it on me saying done. So I brought out the paint which is always a huge hit. I was hesitant about this painting activity because I was not sure if Austin would understand what I wanted him to do. We are working in being focused which I think is one area he lacks in. To my surprise, Austin loved it. He got the hang of it right away and for the most part he did not try to paint himself or anything other then the paper. 

Austin really likes stickers so we are working on him learning to take them off the paper himself. The little guy tried his hardest today but just couldn't get the hang of it. Oh well we will keep practicing. It is also interesting to see him place each sticker over them next. Unless directed on were to put them, he likes them all in one spot.

Today since Austin was not very focused, I brought out a puzzle by Melissa and Doug that he has had for awhile. It has safari animals on it and I thought he would need tons of directions but he didn't. He was able to match right where the animals went and even got a few correctly in its slot. I first would hand Austin a puzzle piece, stating what each animal was, then asked him to repeat it. After that I asked him to hand me specific pieces which he did relatively well at. Another activity I did with the puzzle is take two pieces and place them in front of Austin and have me a specific piece. This is where I noticed he needs more practice at focusing as he just wanted to hand me a piece to get on with what we were doing and wasn't really listening to what I was asking. After that we had some free play and Austin happily danced him animals around saying "walk walk".

When the animals started flying across the room, we decided to call it a day and rate this as a very successful first week of Tot School!

Day 3

Color:  Red

Letter:  A

Verse: Keep me as the apple of your eye Psalm 17:8

Today was a little unstructured as expected with an 18 month old toddler and a 4 month old baby. The key to tot school, I am finding out is to go with the flow and follow Austin's lead. 

Today my plan was to venture away from our color and focus more on the letter along with some fine motor skills so I can really assess just what Austin needs to work on. Well Austin had other plans and as I was getting breakfast together, he kept asking for his color box. I was excited he actually wanted to play with it without my presenting it to him so while I made eggs he sat in his chair and played with his box and of course his playdough. While I was cooking and Austin was playing we went over our memory verse and sang our song. Austin is really starting to like the song and was even pointing to his eye on occasion like he saw me doing. 

After a brief break to clean up and get Mason settled down, I set up our first activity which I had seen on many blogs. I thought Austin would love to use the tongs to pick up the cotton balls since he is always pulling stuff out of our drawers. The activity did not go as I planned but was still a huge success. The tongs I had were to big for Austin and he was not ready to use them yet. He tried but found it much easier to just scoop them up with his hands. I gave him a big spoon and and showed him how to scoop them up from one bowl and into another. Again he tried and did not have the patience for this. He loves to pour so that is what he did. 

This is how I set the activity up for Austin

Austin attempting to use the tongs.

Austin pouring the cotton balls from one bowl to another.

His was of letting me know he was done with the activity.

After this activity, I took Austin back to the table. I find he is much more focused and willing to work when contained at the table. I has seen on many sites people having their tots use large lacing beads, well this mama doesn't have the money so made a fun alternative and Austin loved it. I simply made paper rings and used our paper towel holder for him to practice putting them on. I also gave him a shoe lace but he had no interest in that at all. 

After the activities, Austin and I made an Ant. I thought he was going to love the glue stick and he did but not for gluing. He kept trying to put it on his face. Gluing is not his thing yet and he really wasn't into this activity. 

Austin made his ant "march" around as we sang "The ants go marching".

That was enough for Austin and as I have learned, when he is done, he is done. I did ask him later in the day what letter was on a book and he said A, so either he guessed right, or he is learning something. Either way we are having fun and Austin is learning patience by sitting and doing structured activities, and my fridge is filled with cute art projects!

Tot School Day 2

Color: Red

Letter: A

Verse: Keep me as the apple of your eye Psalm 17:8

We began our day a little early today. Both boys got up very early and Mason luckily took a nap so I jumped on the opportunity to not be interrupted so we began at 8:15 today. After a breakfast of red pancakes, Austin happily took his seat in the kitchen for "cool" as he would say. 

I began with the memory verse. Austin again was happy to point out the apple and eye, and repeat a few words but was very uninterested today in singing. I skipped the color box today and just presented Austin with the playdough. I gathered up some of his kitchen toys like a play knife and pot and showed him what he could do with it. He liked to cut it in half. I also made "balls" for Austin and he loved to squish them in his hands. Up until this point he didn't want to work with the playdough but now he loves it. I can see this in our daily routine. 

After the playdough, I presented Austin with his shape sorter he got for Christmas. I would present him with two shapes and ask him to hand me the red one. He got it right a few times but was very uninterested in this activity as I learned when he started throwing the shapes across the room! Oh well, maybe another day. 

Showing me the red block. (before he threw it)

I quickly moved on to painting which is an all time favorite of Austin's. I gave him a cotton ball (which he was afraid to touch at first) and showed him how to dip it in paint and place it in the plate. He did very well with this until he decided he wanted to make handprints. I just took his lead and handed him another letter A and kept applying paint to his hand. After he was done with that I gave him some stickers that he had spotted the day before and let him place them on the letter A. He loved this. He had a hard time getting them off his fingers but he tried. 

Cotton Painting

Finished "apple"

Putting stickers on his A after he made handprints.

Finished A

When he decided he was done with the stickers, we read a book about how God created the earth. He was very uninterested and kept shutting the book telling me "done". He did manage to point out a few animals and name a few sounds like his sweet, quiet lion roar. 

I wanted Austin to work more with the cotton balls as a sensory activity since he was hesitant to touch them. I gave him 3 different containers, a toilet paper roll, empty formula container and a baby food jar. I demonstrated placing the cotton balls into each container. He happily played with this for about 5 minutes until he decided school was over and he wanted down. He lasted 45 minutes today and was a very good boy. Right on cue with Austin being done, Mason woke up and our day began!

Dumping the cotton from the baby jar into the formula container

A moment of discovery when he picked up the tube and the cotton balls the he placed in there were gone. He didn't see them fall out the bottom. It was very sweet and he looked for them. 

Tomorrow I think we are going to take a break from the color red and focus on the letter A. I would like to make Austin an A book for future use.

Day 1 - Success

Austin - 18 months 

I am not normally going to post everyday but we had such a good day I thought I would share what we have done. Austin amazed me and flew through everything. Tomorrow I am going to have to have more activities planned. 

We began the day with Austin dancing around the living room. I knew that if I wanted him to sit then he would need to get some energy out, so while I fed Mason, he listened to music and entertained me.

After a yummy breakfast of RED oatmeal and dancing, we started school at 9:00. With Mason happily swinging and watching Praise Baby, Austin and I took a seat at the kitchen table. I began with our bible verse. He repeated a few words but soon got mad that I wouldn't let him destroy the paper. 

Mason during school time

Austin loved putting some red sprinkles in his oatmeal. 

Enjoying his oatmeal

Reading his bible verse. He liked to point out the apple and eye when he was asked. We also sang a song with the verse that Austin happily swayed along to and "sang" back. 

After singing and going over our verse a few times, I introduced Austin to his color box. This is a a box where I have gathered some of his toys along with some new items all that are red. He saw me putting it together the night before and couldn't wait to get his hands on it. I let him explore the box on his own and just kept telling him the items were the color red asking him to repeat read a few times. 

Exploring his red color box

Austin liked the play dough the best. This was something new I put in there. He didn't want to play with it but liked to take it out and put it back in its container. 

After the color box we did our craft. Austin painted dots on a letter A with red paint. I don't have any pictures of this being done due to the fact of an 18 month old with paint is not a good combination if not directed every second. Here is the finished product. I added the green leaves and stems to make them apples to go along with our verse. 

After our project we worked on fine motor skills which I learned Austin is a pro at already. He loved the activity though. Austin took spaghetti noodles and placed them into the holes of an empty spice container

After the fine motor skills practice, we practiced our letter A on Austin's magnadoodle, which he just wanted to draw. We then read a book together and Austin actually sat through the whole thing. He happily identified objects like cats and dogs throughout the book. By this time it was almost 10 and Mason was not having fun anymore. So while I tried to get him to nap, Austin enjoyed some red jello for a snack.

Unfortunalty Austin was unsupervised during the jello eating and while it all did get in him mouth, his whole face and hands are stained red! Oh well we had a great time at Tot School. 

As soon as we were done, he ran over the couch like he had such a hard day. Gotta love the red stained face!