Tot School Homeschooling Practice Week 1, Part A

Never thought I'd be on this path.

But here I am.

Never say never. (I should start making a list of all the things I've said so far that I never would do, but my girls came along, and it's all been downhill from there.)

Researching for ideas, I came across a blog that I've ripped off an idea or two from. It's what she refers to as Tot School.

So I implemented my own Tot School this week. I'm amazed at how into it I've actually been. I'm even more amazed at how easily Alexia has learned things from just the first exposure. (This may or may not be the first time Alexia's has ever heard of letters of the alphabet.) And I might also add it makes the day go by faster and with less meltdowns. And I'm less prone to hopping on the computer out of boredom or watching Barefoot Contessa marathons. The structured schedule has done my soul good.

Here's a recap of our week so far:

Monday

• Tot Trays for 45 mins. (I intended on this only being for 20 mins, but she was really into them)

***I cleared out the bottom row of shelves in our living room to put the trays on. Only, I didn't have trays. I just set the items directly on the shelf. I am only putting them out for "school" and on Tot Tray days (Mondays and Fridays) so that she doesn't get sick of them. I put out four differet trays using things I had around the house. My Tot Trays included:

• Cutting - I used strips of different colored cardstock and scissors for Alexia to practice cutting
• Transferring - I used an empty ice cube tray, small bouncy balls, small tongs and a tupperware bowl (which she later requested the lid for) so Alexia could transfer the balls from the tupperware to the ice cube tray and vice versa, using the tongs (Naiya liked this one too)

        

• Matching - I used an On the Farm print out  and printed two copies. One copy I cut out each item and put them in a tupperware bowl, the other was for the "board" for Alexia to match the items up to. 
• Small Spaces - I used an empty plastic container that grapes came in (because it had holes everywhere and was clear), and q-tips for Alexia to shove the q-tips into the holes and watch them drop down to the bottom of the container. (Naiya was also a fan of this one)

Tuesday

• Introduced the Letter "A". This is our theme for the week. The corresponding themes are: apple, alligator and airplane. (I'm not kidding when I mentioned this is really the first time I've ever explained what a letter is to Alexia. And no, we don't have those magnetic letters or floor blocks. But I would like to get my hands on the magnetic letters soon!) 

***I used five methods, and I introduced to Alexia in the following order:

• Using Word, I typed the letter "A" (capitol only) and made it huge. I also inserted clip art of an apple and a picture of Alexia. 

• Letter "A" tracing worksheet
• A is for Apple coloring page
• Letter "A" youtube lesson (I lost count of how many times we watched this. I also started memorizing the song)
• Using a magazine, I asked Alexia to see if she could find any A's. (I swear my jaw dropped when she actually scanned the first page with her little finger, nose practically touching the magazine, and shouted "A!" with a big smile.) So with each "A" that she found, I cut them out and let her glue them onto the Intro page (the Word doc from method #1). This was also her first encounter with Elmer's glue. 

Wednesday

• took the girls to Trader Joe's and let Alexia push her own mini cart and told her our mission was to find 5 apples. We also got to practice counting with each apple she chucked into her cart. Then we came home and baked an apple crisp together. 
• went to the library (for the first time) and picked up The Apple Pie Tree (I really like this book!)