Tot School with Grey - 18 months

I officially got my stuff together long enough to do my first Tot School post.

Hooray!

A daily activity we started at 15 months, Grey and I have been working this into our schedule for the past four months, every day during the week, except for taking a week off during Christmas. My first post, I'll just start off with the basics, what we've done so far, how I've felt it's helped us and where we plan to take it in the future. 

                                 You Can Follow Me On Instagram To Watch Us Every Week 

What Is It?
Tot School is a way to introduce your young toddler to structured learning and play time. It involves simple themes tailored to your child's abilities and interests. 

I never force anything on Grey, as he is still so young I don't feel like any of this is a "necessity" right now as I follow much of the Montessori way. I let him lead and he seems to really enjoy it and thrive on a curriculum. 

Why Tot School? 
I introduced Tot School for three reasons. 
​
1. As Grey got to be more active, I wanted a way to break up our day and give us, not only activities to bond us, but to grow his learning, while waiting for daddy to come home. 

2. I saw that he naturally was progressing well with speaking, and picking up concepts, and I wanted to enhance his daily learning experiences with an actual lesson. And these lessons we work on all week. 

3. Due to my view of the school system and our family's personal beliefs on certain topics, I very well may homeschool beyond preschool. Tot School is a good way to prepare me to work on curriculum, organization of a class environment for Grey and patience when it comes to teaching a younger mind.  

Curriculum + Themes
Currently on Week 19, we have been having fun mixing it up week by week. Now that I see that Grey is grasping concepts easier and easier, and as his attention span increases, we now do TWO themes most weeks, breaking it up into one activity in the AM around 10, and the other around 3-4 after nap. I primarily search for craft ideas on Pinterest, books from Amazon and the library and more educational based activities from the local teacher resource store and choose our themes based on what I feel like he's about to really take off with or may need help with.  Read below to see the themes we've already worked with and what we have coming up this Spring. 

Themes And Activities Weeks 1-19

• Week 1 // Pumpkins
  Painted pumpkins,  Pumpkin shaped quesadillas, Pumpkin Muffins, books on Halloween and a cute book about an adventurous pumpkin seed. 
• Week 2 // Monsters
  Create-A-Monster craft, watched Super Monsters, made construction paper monsters, Pinecone Spiders, Halloween Sensory Bin, bat shaped pancakes
• Week 3 // Colors
  Basic books on colors, focusing on one color a day. Focused more strongly on fall colors, painting with red, orange, yellow and brown. 
• Week 4 // Food
  Activities: For food, we have Grey help more in the kitchen for hands on Montessori learning. We also read books on food and play kitchen. 
• Week 5 // Thanksgiving
  Activities: foam turkey craft, finger painted with fall colors, had Grey help in the kitchen with Thanksgiving food 
• Week 6 // Shapes
  Activities: Shape sorter, focused on one shape per day, books on shapes
• Week 7 // Winter
  Activities: Make your own snow, TV show episodes on snow/winter, winter books, 
• Week 8 // Christmas
  Activities: felt Christmas tree play, paint an ornament, build a snowman craft kit, 
• Week 9 // Off For Family Time
• Week 10 // Off For Christmas

• Week 11 // Dinosaurs
  Dinosaur books, Dinosaur sticker book play, hand print dinosaur
• Week 12 // Colors
  Rainbow sugar cookies,  Color books, Pom Pom sorting, 
• Week 13 // Animals
  Read many animal books, field trip to the zoo, named all animal toys for Grey to repeat, animal color pages, habitat felt mat
• Week 14 // Off For Travel
• Week 15 // Valentines
  Taped paint canvas, painted construction paper hearts, heart shaped pancakes
• Week 16 // Valentines
  Write and send valentines, pom pom heart gluing, valentine's cupcakes
• Week 17 // Opposites + Habitats
  Opposite books, silverware tray animal habitat, animal graham crackers, soft/hard box, opposite word printables
• Week 18 // Desert / Arizona
  Cactus pet rocks, Desert animals habitat, desert coloring pages, nature walk in the desert, 
• Week 19 // Counting
  ​Fingerprint flowers, Fingerprint Caterpillars, Books on counting, pom pom counting 

What We Have Planned For Spring 2018
Themes to watch for this Spring/Summer! Also, moving forward, more of the crafts, books and activities will be linked to printables, how-to's and more. 

Arctic animals, Ocean, Weather, Emotions and Feelings, Spring, Gardening, Farming, Bugs, Alphabet, Easter, Summer, St. Patricks Day, Jungle Animals, Farm Animals and so much more!

FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM AND SEE OUR TOT SCHOOL LIVE IN ACTION EACH WEEK!