Winter Theme Tot School

Around the time James was born I was introduced to a website called 1+1+1=1.  The woman who writes it homeschools her three children.  Her and her husband are inner city missionaries and started homeschooling out of necessity and grew to love it.  Let me just tell you that she has some pretty great ideas on her website.  It can be a little overwhelming.  The first few times I looked at I honestly didn't even know where to start.  And at times it can be intimidating and/or make me feel like I am falling behind or not doing enough in starting the education process with James.  I have learned to take a deep breath and prayerfully consider what is best for James at this stage of his little life.  Just because something is appropriate for someone else at his same age doesn't mean that he is behind or I am failing him because he is not doing the exact same things.

I will say that her resources are amazing and wonderful and lead to literally hundreds of other sites that can also provide a multitude of great ideas and fun activities to start the learning process.  Again... deep breaths and prayer.

One of the areas of her site that I have followed consistently is called Tot School.  It's an idea she started with her middle child to keep him busy and engaged while she was working with her oldest.  She advocates that each child is different and that you shouldn't push your little one to do something that they don't like or isn't fun.  She uses a lot of montessori concepts and also integrates biblical ideas and themes.  She is super creative and provides free printables for almost everything on her site.

I have been noticing the past few months that James is really absorbing so much of the things he is exposed to and is starting to enjoy doing short activities and little projects.  So I thought why not start introducing some Tot School.

Today was our first day and I chose a winter theme for this week.  Don't you know that all the snow melted last week and today it was in the 40's!  Oh well.  I got several snow related books out of the library and we read a few this morning after Ethan had gone down for a nap.  We talked about the cold and the snowflakes and how the world is resting during this time.  Even though it looks like nothing is happening, God is actually busy preparing new life that will spring forth in a few weeks... more likely months when you live in Pittsburgh.

He loved The Magic School Bus Sleeps for Winter.  Not a surprise given his love for all moving vehicles!  

Next we worked on snowflakes in shapes.  He is not very good with shapes or colors, so I thought this would be a good one.  

This didn't last too long.  He was immediately frustrated that he couldn't fit the pieces together.  For some reason he thought they were a puzzle.

After this we did snowflake matching.  He liked this a little bit more and is actually pretty good at matching.  He kept calling them suns instead of snowflakes.  I corrected him, but he was pretty insistent that they were suns.  Whatever!  You can't argue with a two year old.

After a few minutes he announced that he was "all done this", so we called it quits for the day.  He did good with working on the tray.  We have a few more things planned for tomorrow and I'm anxious to see how the does as we keep working with these same skills and introduce some others.  

One of the things I enjoyed most was having one on one time with him and also having something planned and prepared.  Often the mornings can drag on endlessly and the whining can quickly grate on my ears like fingernails on a chalkboard.  But having just this short period of activity seemed to make our morning much more enjoyable.  I would like to be more intentional about doing Tot School with him often.  I know it won't always work into our schedule, but he seems ready to be engaged and enjoy learning.