Week One -Blueberries for Sal

This is our first week back to school after a six week break and my first blog in a year! This year I am starting some more formal curriculum with Eric who is his Pre-K year. Luke will be tagging along as he is interested. Our time will still consist of mostly "tot trays" and free art activities.

We are kicking off with a month long theme of bears and the forest.  We started our first "row" of the Before Five in a Row curriculum with the book Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. Both boys really enjoyed the story and looked forward to reading it every day. On our 1st day of school, we went blueberry picking on a beautiful and thankfully not too hot day. We ended up with 6 pounds of berries (even after Luke dumped my mostly full pail on the ground.) It was funny to hear the boys saying kerplink, kerplank, kerplunk like Little Sal in the book. Unfortunately, that lasted a little longer than 5 minutes then it was playing hide and seek in the bushes. Eric did notice that the bushes we were picking we're different than those in the book. I tried to explain that the blueberries that Little Sal picked were wild Maine blueberries and these were planted by a farmer. I think he was disappointed he could not sit in the middle of them as ours were 6 feet tall.

The boys enjoyed helping make blueberry muffins and canning them. They practiced measuring and dumping.  Luke especially enjoys this activity. (and continued measuring and dumping flour long after Eric and I moved on to something else - then he loved making handprints in the flour mess). We went over the concepts of less than, more than and equal to with the canning jars and rings, eventually ending up with just the right number of rings to fit on the jars.

 We also used counting bears to work on sorting, more number comparisons, and making patterns. To round out math we played counting number recognition games by counting berries into a pail.

We read books about bears and talked about what they eat, where they live, and how they hibernate. We also watched a Curious George episode where George tries to hibernate for the winter so he wouldn't have to wear a winter coat. Eric worked on the Blueberries for Sal printables from Homeschool Creations, Luke had no interest in doing any.

Eric also started doing All About Reading Pre-level one. So far he is loving the lessons and having fun with Ziggy the Zebra. Both boys have letter recognition and letter sounds down pat. However, I wanted to use this Pre-reading curriculum for its activities such as rhyming, isolating beginning and ending sounds, segmenting words and syllabication to help us with phonics coming up. B/c he doesn't need to learn letters and sounds, we're cruising along at a lesson a day. After a week he is really starting to get the hang of rhyming.  Luke has been sticking around with us during the lessons (I think it's Ziggy love) and so far hasn't been a distraction.  Eric has started doing some beginning "handwriting" by trying to make A's by air writing, on the chalkboard and on paint bags.

The boys have mostly been playing with their "educational toys", doing lots of painting and play-doh creations.  In the next couple of weeks, I'll be slowly adding on Rightstart Math and piano lessons for Eric and Science activities for both.

That's our first week of school.

Helpful Resources:

Blueberries for Sal Printables from Homeschool Creations.

Blueberries for Sal ideas from Delightful Learning

See what others are doing at Tot School at 1+1+1=1 and Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations. 

Future Curriculum Plans

OUR (SOMEWHAT) DAILY ROUTINE

Our schedule can vary wildly depending on various church activities we have going on and things that can come up for Daddy (who is the Pastor).   Our children, I think, are by nature night owls but it doesn't help that at least a couple of nights a week we don't get home until after nine.  I joke that the boys put Mom and Dad to bed.  But here is our main framework.

8:30   

Get Up and Dressed, throw load of laundry in. 

Make coffee and get juice for kids.

9:00
Snuggle Time with Mom on Couch
Mom's Bible Reading and Devotion Time
Break up Fights if child on one side of Mom touches child on other side of Mom.

9:30  (or as soon as I can extricate myself w/out complaints)  

Make breakfast and Eat. 

 During this time we have our Bible time.  We read one story from Read and Rhyme Bible Storybook and and review Munchky's memory verse from Sunday School.  We read the same story for the entire week.  Sometimes we break it down or we just focus on one aspect each day. 

10:00

Free Play

Clean Up and Laundry

10:30 

Tot School

12:30

Lunch

1:00

Nap/Quiet Time

Mom Time/Cleaning

3:30

Outside Play /Playground

5:30

Dinner Time

6:30

This is our most fluid time.  As we may have different things going on depending on the week/season

Time with dad/free play/playground

or

Sports night (dad and/or mom depending on season)/Wed Night Prayer Meeting/Church Activity

9:30 

Get Ready for Bed/Bath

10:00

Kid's to Bed 

I know some of you are fainting, but this is when I get them in bed, they often don't fall asleep until 11 or 12 or....)

OUR TOT SCHOOL STORY

I stumble upon the "Tot School" concept when I was looking for some structure for my eldest child (who was just over two at the time).  He was pretty much non-verbal to about 20-22 months of age.  He loved reading books with Mom and Baby Einstein videos.  When he started talking, I found that he he could count and identify numbers 1-10, identify color, shapes,animals, musical instruments and almost had his ABC's down pat.   I wanted to encourage him in his learning, but absolutely did not want any kind of "curriculum" because of his age.  That's when I found Tot School at 1+1+1=1.


The woman who started this concept, introduced child-led learning through play and had all sorts of ideas.  It also introduced me to the idea of hands-on learning/play that helps children develop their fine motor skills; which in turn will help with their writing later (not to mention household chores!).  This was an aspect of early education that I really did not know a lot about.  


Tot School is not only for my children but for myself and our relationship together.  It has helped provide some structure to our day.  Instead of the kids watching TV or playing with their toys by themselves, it keeps me accountable to interact directly with them during play.  That is essentially the most important thing about tot school.


If you are thinking about trying a "tot school" format in your house, please check out 1+1+1=1, it has all sorts of ideas and lots of other moms link up with their ideas.  You can also check out this page about how to begin or this faq page.


Things we do during Tot School:


Play with certain types of toys: (these are the type of toys that if left in the living room unattended get dumped on the floor and scattered everywhere).  We have pattern blocks, shape sorters, puzzles, duplo blocks, stackers, etc.  These toys really benefit from you "playing" alongside a child instead of the child playing with them alone. 


Do fine motor skill activities:  These are Montessori type activities that you can do with your child from household "equipment".  Involves pouring, transferring, clipping, stacking, measuring, sorting.  This is where the resource of other moms on the 1+1+1=1 can give you lots of ideas.  These can be fun for kids to do and help them develop their muscles not to mention introducing color,shapes, numbers and letters.  


Work on Printables- these are sheets that introduce children to colors, letters, shapes,numbers etc.  Involves coloring, tracing, doing matching & sorting games, lacing,etc.  There are e a lot of of good free resources out there for these (usually arranged around a theme)  My favorites:  Tot Printables from 1+1+1=1,  Letter of the Week from Confessions of a Homeschooler, Unit Printables from 2 Teaching Mommies, and Preschool Pacs from Homeschool Creations.  (Tot Printables are made for children around 2,  the others are for a bit older, though all have activities you can use for younger ones).


Arts and Crafts:  We do coloring with crayons, markers, chalk, etc.  Painting (finger and w/brushes), cutting (well trying) and pasting.


Reading:  We read all day long, but during tot school, we read books that go with our theme for the week.  These are also usually library books.  So I having them were the kids can't get at them unsupervised is great.


Music:  We also listen to music all day.  During tot school we have a specific music theme and do activities while listening:  conducting, playing instruments, dancing, clapping etc.  


The important thing to remember about Tot School- is that it is meant to be fun and engaging for the child, build interactions b/w the child and parent and lastly expose them to skills and facts. No drilling or forcing or trying to "complete" something (although I sometimes "complete" their craft afterwards when they're not around -guilty secret is out).  




Kerry