Tot School

Okay, so here is what has been consuming my thoughts, spare time and creative energies lately... I'm obsessed and excited!!!

I mentioned in a previous post having stumbled upon a few very interesting blogs/websites that I linked through the muffin tin meals blog. The topic is called Tot School. Here's the address for explanation: lapbooksbycarisa.homestead.com/TotSchool. Her brief summary of what it's all about sounds like this:

Tot School is simply a focused time each day with the tot in your family with a goal of exposing early learning skills through fun play. Tot School is never forced, always fun, sometimes doesn't happen the way you plan and is always focused on your tot. The #1 goal, above all else, is to have fun and develop a love of learning. Everything else is secondary at this stage.

Many of the moms who participate in this stuff are homeschooling their children. I have absolutly no intentions of homeschooling, but I DO love to play with my kids and have mentioned many times that I am always so fascinated with watching them learn something new. So my reason for wanting to try this stuff is simply to enhance our quality time together into activities that plant the seeds of early learning skills. We already read books and do puzzles all the time. Now I'm seeing that there's so much more out there! Super-simple, basic stuff that I would never have thought of. I'm one of few people in my family (it seems) that is not a teacher. But I guess it's in my blood and I consider myself lucky that my children are surrounded by all these knowledge-focused family members. They are always thinking of creative ways to teach Will something - educational games for gifts, quiet patience when showing him something new, and just a general love and expertise in teaching children. Additionally, Craig grew up on a farm in a family that has one of the most intense desires to "learn something new"... all the time. If ever they are stuck with any sort of problem, they can't stand to not know how to fix it. They figure it out and learn as they go. Craig and his parents (and sister) can do just about anything and everything and they know the most odd facts about so many random things. I seriously "learn something new" from Craig almost every day. He is so incredibly smart! I'm grateful that our kids will have him in their corner when it comes time for figuring out homework problems. So given the nature of both sides of the family (the intense learners and the ones trained to break that down to a child's level) I am hopeful that our children have the best kind of support system to teach them to be lifelong learners.

When looking for good ideas, the jackpot blogs (in my opinion) are generally written by women who have teaching degrees, had babies, and then decided to stay home with their child(ren) and are now pouring all of their creative knowledge, time and teaching abilities into their beloved child(ren).

So we'll still do puzzles and books. But now we're adding some new activities to the mix. P.S. - here's what the massive puzzle-sorting-challenges look like for Will. It's a race against the clock for him to finish before his sister comes and destroys all his work.
Okay, so here are the things we've tried so far. In the beginning, it was my goal to just think outside the box and come up with things around the house that we already have instead of spending money on anything right away. If you check out that lapbooks blog I posted above, you'll see that she breaks down a bunch of learning concepts and gives several ideas on what to do/ how to achieve that.

One of the first/ most popular is "Sorting". You can sort just about anything. The idea is to learn that items can be grouped into like categories of similarity. So I was thinking "What does he own that are colorful and that he has a lot of?" I thought of Legos and may still use that. But first we did matchbox cars. He's WAY beyond the point of needing to practice his colors, but I wanted to start basic just so he gets the idea of grouping something he's familiar with.

Next we did coins. He loves sticking different coins into his many piggy banks. So I decided to create a sorting activity using coins and talking about the different names/sizes/colors of them.

He lasted through this activity for about 2 minutes. Will has impressive patience for many activities, but sorting doesn't seem to be one of them. Okay, so we move on...

But first, doesn't he look cute kneeling on the stool while he was trying to sort? :) I'll still work on finding something he enjoys sorting because it's a good practice. Any ideas? And also, I plan to start introducing this concept to Sophie around 15-18 months when she may be old enough to recognize that two things are alike before she can put a name to them. Maybe that's a better time to introduce this idea?

The next activity I came up with didn't start out with any specific plan in mind. A lot of the blogs had little trinkets/objects/"manipulatives" that they used for various tasks. I came up with buttons. I had a bazillion little bags/envelopes that I'd stuffed into a shoebox any time I got a new clothing article that had them attached. So first I decided that it would be good practice with fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination just for him to be able to open those tiny bags/envelopes. We made a game of guessing what color button would come out of the opaque envelopes and just compiled them all into a little dish.

Aren't they pretty? I had quite the collection, huh?

He really loved just studying them, digging his hands into the bowl (Will has ALWAYS been a little sensory-sensitive guy with loving to feel things in his hands - water, hair, different textures, etc.) I happened to find an old film container and he got to see which size buttons fit inside and which were too big.

Oh, also... real quick note on the tray. That's another big thing with all these blogs. They set up many of these activities on trays, which is apparently a Montessori-inspired practice. Partly I think it keeps the child focused on this central area and interested in what all is happening on the tray. But also just helps contain the possible messes, which you will see shortly. I already had this tray that I've used very few times, so I was happy to put it to good use.

The next day, he asked to play with the buttons again so I took another idea of hiding objects in a bowl of pasta, beans, whatever... I had a bag of dry split-peas that was going to make for Sophie and never got around to it. They're super cheap and keep forever. I just dumped them in a bowl and then hid 10 buttons amongst them for him to hunt around for. Oh, I first traced them on a paper (sorry, it's hard to see) so that he could place the appropriate size/color of button on the paper and know what he was still searching for.

He loved this!

Once again, the sensory feel of the beans between his fingers...

He found all 10 - even the tiny white one.

Next, I attempted another sorting game that was way beyond his patience level. Sorting the buttons by the number of holes in their center: 4 or 2? Again, he didn't last long at this, but I didn't press it. We just move on - if it's not fun, then it's pressure.

Okay, another main learning skill: "Lacing". Another good practice in hand-eye and fine motor skills. Some of the suggestions include beads, pasta noodles, etc. onto string, pipe cleaners, whatever. Will already had this awesome, wooden, farm animal lacing set from Aunt Casey and Uncle Wes for Christmas this year (from One Step Ahead). So we just started with that.

Thank you Casey and Wes!

Then, after a trip to the Dollar Store (I broke down and spent some money - ha! next to nothing - I have a newfound LOVE for the Dollar Store!) we tried this lacing set. Not quite as easy. The wood pieces are a little rough (unfinished) on the inside and get sort of snagged on the laces. Plus the piece of lace that you insert (the tip of the shoe lace) isn't as long as the inside of the bead. So you sometimes have to scrunch a bunch of lace in there to get it to come out the other end. But the set was $1 and it will probably have many other uses besides just lacing.

My silly attempt at another concept: "Patterns". At his age, you can't get anymore complicated than something as simple as "yellow, green, yellow, green". But even that was a little beyond him on the first try. We'll keep practicing. I think shortly he should be able to comprehend "ABAB" patterns, as well as "AABBAABB".

Moving onto another concept: "Matching". Obviously with many of his puzzles, he's already had lots of practice with matching. And he has incredible patience with puzzles - he loves them. So I knew he'd be a fan of matching games too. There's a free website (and whole range of activites) called filefolderfun.com. You can print "file folder games" that are already available and share with others (in an online forum) any that you create. So I bought some colored file folders and tried out this easy matching game for starters.

Various colored sea lions and beach balls to match. Place the correct color beach ball on each sea lions nose. Will already knew what this animal was called and what noise it makes (he does a good impression!) so I just lead into this game with a conversation at dinner about seals and asked if he knew that seals can balance a ball on their nose!

He loved it, asked to do it again and again... and then again the next day.

Next topic: "Dumping and pouring". And once again, the possibilities are endless of what you can use for this task. We used the split peas again with a couple different funnels, an empty glass jar and a spoon. Very thankful for the tray this time to contain the mess!

The suggestions include using various size bowls, pitchers, scoops, and containers to encourage concepts of size and volume. Here's another tray I set up for play with water. (Will loved all of our water games.)

I keep setting up activities on the kitchen floor simply because it's one of few non-carpeted areas in the house and it's easy to clean up. We don't really have a kiddie-table for him to do activities on so we make do. Will spilled A LOT of water in this play time... on himself, on the tray, on the floor. But he had fun. He still isn't an expert at drinking from a regular cup (he can do it, but he gets careless at meal times) and I think that's because he doesn't really get the consequences of "what happens when I do this?" He just tries to work too quickly and spills. So this was good practice for him to see cause and effect. I had to keep reminding him to work slowly (just like I do when he drinks from a cup) and I'd say "Now remember, slowly..." So each time he go to move water, he'd say to himself "Now remember..." yada, yada, yada. :)

By the end, he was doing much better with holding the pitcher by the handle (he is DEFINITELY left handed!) and pouring out of the spout.

Finally, before we cleaned up, I used the opportunity to talk about sequencing and sizing with the measuring cups. This was surprisingly a breeze for him. You can obviously tell a difference between the largest and smallest cups, but from one size down to the next is not drastic. He set them out in order like he'd done it a hundred times before and even used words like big, bigger, biggest.

Okay, science time! Color mixing! This was definitely one of Will's favorite activities. He's been asking for water games ever since. You can obviously see my setup here with the colored waters. The plan was for him to use the medicine dropper (more fine-motor) to drop different colors onto the coffee filter and watch them "blend" together. It didn't work so well...

Maybe I needed stronger colored water? But he like playing with the medicine dropper anyway.

Instead, I created a new activity with an ice cube tray and he mixed his own color combos (with my suggestion) to create new colors. He LOVED it! I'd torn this idea out of a magazine a long time ago and had it filed away in my idea binder, so now was a good time to use it.

I am just loving seeing his interest and excitement over this new time we're spending together! It's usually during Sophie's naps since she would obviously be a little tornado of destruction with most of it. :)

So pretty! And p.s. - did you know red and green make brown?

More specific focus on "fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination". You're probably going to look at this and go "your poor child... this is what you call fun?" But he actually really did like it and I was surprised by his patience, especially with the second one. Another thing that Will could stand to improve on his silverware usage at the meal time. Again, he can do it... but he realizes that he's much faster when he uses his hands. And for awhile, I just decided I didn't care. I wanted him to explore foods in his own way before I pushed proper table etiquette. These activities will also help him one day with learning to zip his coat or button his clothes or perform brain surgery! Ha! If I handed him a zipper and told him to figure it out, he might get frustrated and quit. This is an age-appropriate task that teaches him to concentrate and have patience with controlled actions and precision. The first one is pretty easy. Skewers in a glass jar... but he had to do one at a time and hold them by the ends.

Then we tried angel hair pasta and a little shaker container.

He broke a lot of pieces (maybe spaghetti would have been better?) but he kept at it even when I left the room to do something and finished every last piece.

He was so proud of himself when he finished. He said "I did it, mommy!" And, of course, I praised the crap out of him. :)

One more on this topic: clothespins! Unclipping them from one container and moving them to another. Clothespins are tough for little fingers. The amount of effort that went into squeezing some of them looked like he was lifting 50# or something.

Remember my egg carton from Valentine's Day with the M&M's? I saved it and brought it out again for our next concept: "Math and Counting skills". We also brought out the beloved buttons again (remember he calls them "buddons"? - I love it) and he counted out the appropriate number to go in each slot.

I did have to help with some of the bigger numbers. He's still working on his 1:1 counting beyond like 6 or so (pointing to each item and accounting it for one number).

Done!

Check out these cool, foam puzzles I picked up at the dollar store!

Pushing out the numbers for more practice with "math".

With only a little assistance, he organized the numbers in proper order from 0-9.

Then, I attempted another sorting activity by color. Once again, not interested.

Now that he knows his uppercase alphabet, I'm so excited to really start working with the lowercase. This foam puzzle was much more complicated when arranging them in order. Obviously, letters like c, m, o, s, u, v, w, x, y and z are pretty easy because they look the same. But otherwise, we have a lot of work to do. Oh, and the letters b, d, p, and in this case q (because q didn't have a tail in this puzzle) are ridiculously hard to explain. Teachers... any ideas? He really liked the foam pieces though so we'll keep working with this.

I think it was also good practice for him to find each letters place back in the puzzle and his puzzle-love helped him persist through this challenge.

One final alphabet activity in this crazy-long post... another file folder game. This time matching the uppercase letters on the folder with the lowercase, loose pieces. The colors were the same for upper and lowercase so that helped. And he loves matching. But he still needed a lot of help with this too. And again, this lowercase "q" didn't have a tail. I thought q had a tail! Am I wrong?

The finished work.

Okay, I'll close for now. Ha! If you made it to the end of this post... you're probably a teacher... and I'm probably related to you. :) I'm keeping a notebook of ideas with the blog address for reference as well as a list of supplies I'll need. It's really inexpensive to do this stuff. I did buy a little, plastic, drawer caddy to keep craft supplies in, but mostly it's cheapy little odds 'n ends. Who knew you could find learning concepts in such random activities? I'm so excited and inspired right now. I wish I'd started this a long time ago!