HOW TO: Tot school and Before Five in a Row

I mentioned a while back that a friend and I sat down together and came up with a tot school curriculum for our kiddos.  The way we did this was to take ideas from a curriculum called "Before Five in a Row" and put them together with "tot tray/school" ideas to make it our own. 

The idea behind Before Five in a Row is that you take one book and read it everyday for the entire week.  You use that book to base the rest of your learning for the week.  You can really go anywhere with this and my friend and I loved how open ended it was.

For example, if you choose the book, "If you Give a Moose a Muffin," you could learn about moose, their habitat, what they eat, what other animals live where they live, etc.  You could make puppets, bake muffins, teach about cleaning up, the list goes on.

We looked through the Before Five in a Row list of books and also made a list of our own.  We added in curriculum from two Sunday School books:
Toddlerific Fun Faith Builders  and
Instant Bible Lessons for Toddlers: Growing up for God
We sat down with a calendar and just plugged in themes for each month.  We have 2-3 weeks per month planned. 

This is very casual and we aren't always doing school every week.  This is why we only penciled in two to three weeks per month, to give us the flexibility to follow our childrens' lead and to allow for us to take things slowly.  We plan to do field trips together as they tie in with our "school".

For more information on Before Five in a Row, visit these terrific resources:
What is Before Five in a Row?

List of Before Five in a Row Books

Before Five in a Row Resources

How to Organize Before Five in a Row

Before Five in a Row Forum

For more information on tot trays/tot school, visit these blogs:
What is Tot School?/Where to Begin?

http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/

http://playinghouseinmaryland.blogspot.com/  (great photos of what she does each week!)

Please keep in mind that if you plan to do anything like this with your little one, only do so if it is fun for both of you and your child is interested.  I follow A's lead.  If she doesn't want to do an activity, we skip it.  If we have a week where the weather is too nice, we take school outside or skip it.  No pressure.  I enjoy it because I know that there is a set time every day that I spend one on one with A.  The point isn't to drill academic facts into their little heads, it is to spend quality time with them and expose them to all types of learning. 

Bringing the inside out.

It's been a little chilly around here lately, but A really loves going outside.  The other day, I brought a few of her inside toys out with us.  We ended up playing with her play dough for half of the time (best recipe found here.)
It's amazing what just a simple change of scenery can do for kids.  Try it!

Snack holder

Okay, so this may seem like a no-brainer, but I had to post it.  On most afternoons, A gets to choose a dvd to watch while I prepare supper.  She sits on the couch with her special blanket, cuddles up and watches. 

I've found that A tends to graze, rather than eat big meals. We try sitting down to a meal, but she just eats more if it is left out for her.  For now, I'm okay with that, as long as she's eating.  I also found that she will usually eat a snack while she watches a dvd if I put it in front of  her. 

Her snacks kept tipping over and then I realized I could just use a little plastic container to hold her treats in.  This one is from Target, and it used to hold markers for my kindergarteners.  It's perfect to hold a couple snacks and her cup.  So easy...why didn't I think of it sooner?

A different art medium

I got A a package of Crayola Window Markers  and we tried them out the other day.  They were really fun and A enjoyed using them.  She even asked for more.  The only thing is that the markers stay wet on the glass for a bit, so the drawings are easy to smudge and can get on your hands or clothes so I would recommend using a smock.  Once they are dry, you can touch them and the marker stays on the glass.

Crayola also has a set of Window Crayons, but I haven't tried those out.

(I have no affiliation with Crayola...just passing along the information of the products we use.)

Kinderglo pt. 2

Last week we only got to tot school twice, so we are going to stick with the boxes from last week and I might add a few different ones midweek.

For now, here is the moose nightlight that replaced our owl.  Look at how huge he is!  Kinderglo shipped it out to me, no charge...not even for shipping. A really likes her moose and I couldn't be happier. 

She LOVES nature

We've been able to get outside and play lately and A loves it.  Her new favorite thing is to hug and greet each individual bush, saying, "Hi bush!" or "hug bush"

She has such a tender heart.  It makes me smile.

Happy Birthday Painting

When A was 15 months old, she painted for the first time.  We used the Crayola Beginnings Paintbrushes.  They worked just fine.  I would have liked something a bit easier for her to handle, but it worked.  We framed her first painting in our living room.

Ever since I read this blog post from Sew Liberated, I knew I wanted to have A paint on canvas.  I don't know why, but I thought I'd save it for her second birthday.  We almost forgot to do it, and I don't have any photos of her painting, but we did it and I LOVE it.

I let A choose one color at a time and I would squirt only that color on a separate piece of paper for her to dip and paint with.  Then we would move to the next color.  I did pick the colors out myself, but she chose the order and how she wanted to paint.  I held the canvas and the whole project took less than five minutes.  Now all we need to do is figure out where to display this masterpiece!

rainbow cupcake

A had a little birthday play date over the weekend and I decided to make rainbow cupcakes.  Then I figured I would just choose three colors rather than six.  It's so super easy.  

Just:

-grab a white cake mix

-mix according to directions on the box

-separate into bowls

-add food coloring

-layer the colors on top of each other

-bake as directed

These are really cute with a dollop of whipped cream on top or a big swirl of frosting.  A isn't a fan, so we just had them plain.  But they were still cute.  

To see some great rainbow cakes and cupcakes do a Google search.  Some of them are pretty amazing!

Tot school

This week we are looking at the book, "Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What do you see?" as well as working on the Unit, "God Wants me to be Obedient" in the book: Instant Bible Lessons for Toddlers--Growing Up for God.

Beginning Patterns 
-(I made these strips from a download I got from Lily and Oak) 

How Many Bears? Book   (FREE from The Virtual Vine)
-The book has pages that count the bears (One red bear, two yellow bears, etc.)
-A will color the bears and I will cut them out, put paste on them and then A will glue them to the pages
*note--this will take a week or more depending on her interest*
(the bears are from an AIMS activity page I had.  You can draw bears, use a bear punch or do a Google search to find your own.)

Match the animal to its fur (FREE from homeschoolshare.com)
This may be too difficult for A, so we will start with three different animals and go from there.  If she is too overwhelmed or not interested, we will scratch this activity and just do the animal silhouette match.

Animal Silhouette Match
(FREE zoo unit from 2 Teaching Mommies)

Number Line/Match  (FREE from The Virtual Vine)
 -I cut the numbers from the second number line and taped them to ice cubes.  They aren't a perfect fit, but will do the job

I Obey: Coloring pages and songs (from Instant Bible Lessons for Toddlers) 

Extra activity: Do a Dot bunny page (FREE from Making Learning Fun) 

Locking Flower Beads

Happy Day!

 

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl!  

Here's a delicious chocolate cake recipe for everyone, thanks to my friend, Rebecca!  It's delicious!

Yummy Chocolate Cake