Monday, April 23, 2012

Today's post is brought to you by the letter A

Seeing as how I am so gung ho about the whole "tot schooling", I decided to try a few things today with Lil Red and Baby Bear!  (Yal, do not be worried, I am not being a knowledge pusher onto my 15 month old baby!  I was giving him things to play with, since he felt left out!)
We have been busy talking about the letter A!
A is for apple, alligator, ant, acorn (that is for those of you who do not know-ha!)
I think at first Sophia thought I was sounding craycray!  I was talking so slow and she completely lost interest!  Note to self:  she is not all about the slow talking!! Once she started ignoring me and went over to play with her building blocks, it hit me.... we will obviously be going at her pace, not mine!  It will not do me much good to schedule things, because scheduling.. well, it just is not the thing for Red!  After about 10 minutes of me sitting at the table with Bray, she came back and was ready to "play school".  From then on, the morning was a lil bit more successful!  Since she knows the ABC's I am wanting her to be able to really know the letter and yes, be able to pick it out of a line up (in time!)  I think that we will just go over a letter a week, go over some printables, talk about some things that start with the letter A, and then just do whatever else floats our homeschooling boat!
Our activities for the day:
coloring
puzzles

played Starfall computer program
Pansy Painting
I am calling this pansy painting because I was too afraid to really let the kids get all dirty with the "washable" finger painting.  So squirted some into sealed Ziploc baggies and taped them shut.  I saw this idea from a website and it kept the kids busy for about 30 minutes!  They loved pushing their hands down in it, combining the colors, making shapes, ect..

Then we played with magnetic letters in a baking pan (they were excited to see that they stick)
After lunch we went and played at Honey and G-Daddy's house and then came home for a nap.  So far, the day has been a success!

For the past few weeks, I have been "playing school" with Red, hoping that she would get excited about it.  I am noticing that throughout the day she wants to sit at the table and play school or do her workbook.  This "play" is really turning into an all day type of thing.  She does her school before bed, she likes to write on the chalkboard in the afternoon.  Both kids like to play "cards" (flashcards) when we are sitting down watching television.  So, maybe, just maybe this emphasis on tot schooling in our home could work!

So things that I am taking away from today: 
I like, I love to be in control.  I love a list.  I love a schedule.  I love to mark things off of said list and schedule.
My children like love to control things as well.  They are not fans of lists (they try to take them away from me, chew on them, or color them.  My people are not fans of schedules, they like to do things at their pace.
I find that if I throw out my list and quit eyeballin' the clock...  the world still be okay. 

What kind of activities do you do with your tiny tots?  Where do you get your ideas from?

Tomorrow is another day!

1 comment:

Angie said...

That paint in a ziploc bag is such a cool idea! I'm gonna have to remember that :)