Toddler Class/Preschool

I prefer being really flexible for anything I do with my toddlers so I don't follow a specific program and we are constantly changing and adjusting. I'm sure that anything I've posted in the past we finished or stopped doing a looong time ago.

But O, my almost 3 year old, wants her own "class" and it is really helpful to devote 20-30 minutes to my two little girls before starting school work with my older kids.

We start by reading books together. They will usually pick a few that they are currently interested in, and I pick a few as well. The ones I pick we usually read for 2-4 weeks at a time, and have more of a learning aspect to them. Sometimes we read the books and sometimes we look at the pictures.

Books I've picked for November:

A book from My First Bob Books Pre-Reader Collection which includes the Alphabet set and Pre-Reading set -- I don't read these to teach my girls to read, but because they are simple and have a lot of familiar pictures for them to identify. They also like them because my older kids have used the other collections as they were learning to read, so my girls think they are using "big kid" stuff. And there are stickers.

First Rhymes: A Day of Rhymes with a Different Twist by Lucy Coats -- Author has re-written favorite nursery rhymes: "Humpty Dumpty stood on his head, Humpty Dumpty fell out of bed . . . "

Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman -- has colors, opposites, and lots of DOGS, my girls' favorite animal.

Before Five in a Row books -- The Five in a Row books are wonderful, but I prefer to just use the book lists for wonderful picture book ideas. Jesse Bear is very well-loved and O is always asking for it!!

Books girls picked today: The Bugliest Bug, I am Not Going to Get Up Today, and Oops-A-Daisy.

After we've read for a little while we play games. Right now they like laying the memory cards face up and making matches. In the past we've done puzzles, played with babies or other toys, and sometimes we also do activities like Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes or Ring around the Rosies. We also sometimes sing songs together - they are really getting into a song we are learning in anticipation of Christmas called Christmas Bells.

After about 30 minutes I let them pick some toys from the closet that are just for school time -- we have a house set, barn set, Noah's ark set, space ship set, blocks, puzzles, and quiet books. They also will join in when we are doing something they can participate in such as coloring, nature walks, listening to stories, etc.

Learning all the time

These are random photos from this week of some of the things the kids have been doing. We haven't officially started our school year yet, but I am working on getting us back to our school schedule instead of being able to run wild all day. There is naturally some resistance to this, but luckily my kids are learning all the time and don't even realize it!!

The kids wrote letters to their Grandparent Laws' and I wanted to show Austin's. I was quite impressed with his spelling, considering we have never had a spelling lesson. I think its funny he puts a "period" after every word to show where they end. Something to talk about I suppose.

The kids pulled out a magnet learning kit we have and worked through the instruction book, as well as coming up with their own experiments.
Coloring together! I get excited whenever Nyah lets Olivia sit next to her. Olivia doesn't always stick to her own coloring book.

When I had to help the little girls with something, Austin jumped in to help Nyah with her reading. Its wonderful to see them working together peacefully.

While the older two and I worked on math, Olivia and Jolie entertained themselves by pulling some kitchen chairs together to make a platform to play on. Looking at books was the tame part, running around and almost falling off was the wild part.

Olivia has been working on her scissor skills while I work with the older two on other projects. I love to see how hard she is concentrating.

Mom! Olivia's coloring in my math book!!

What to do with a 2 year old?! Out of necessity, I am mixing up our home school schedule a little to include some "class" time for Olivia. "Class" is what Olivia calls nursery at church, and she has started asking to have "class" at home. And because she has become disruptive to our morning lessons (i.e. coloring in kids school books during lesson time, throwing tantrums for attention, etc.), I'm happy to give her the wanted class time.

I'm not approaching this class time as "preschool." The objective is not for her to learn her letters, numbers, shapes, and/or colors, though these will somewhat be included in our class, but the main objective is for the two of us to spend time having fun together. I think this is really what she wants. That said, I don't want to have to create original lessons for her, especially when there are some wonderful resources out there with information already put together.

I have been using the new Nursery Manual, and Olivia loves to look through it. I use one lessson per week, and each day review the main idea from the lesson. Lesson one is "I am a child of God" so we sang the song each day, looked at the picture of the kids and talked about how they are all children of God, everyone in our family is a child of God, and some days we did the activity verse, "If your very, very tall (stretch and reach arms up . . . etc. "

We have been using Letter of the Week's pre-preschool lessons. Instead of a poster as suggeted at Letter of the Week, I put all the information for that week on a single white cardstock page. I point of the letters, numbers, etc., but mostly we have been focusing on the weekly theme-- reading picture books from the library, singing songs and nursery rhymes, playing games, and coloring pictures-- all centered around the theme. She can also color the pictures on the white cardstock page if she wants.

These are the two main resources I am currently using. Here are some of the other sites I use to find songs, games, activities, and coloring pictures:

It's Storytime

Online Storytime

Free Kid Crafts

Enchanted Learning

Preschoolers and Peace Blog

My time with Olivia is only about 15-20 minutes, sometimes Austin and Nyah particpiate and sometimes they don't, but it has made a huge difference in how Olivia acts while I am doing school with the older two. After our class time, she gets to pick a special toy from the high closet shelf- these are toys I have put out of reach and she can only play with them while I do school with the older kids. These are a house set (plastic house, people, furniture, etc.) , farm set (plastic farmer and animals), Noah's ark set (plastic ark, animals, Noah & wife), and play dishes and food.
I didn't use the toys the first week we were trying the class time, and Olivia wanted class time to go on and on, and would throw a tantrum when I'd stop. Now she has something else to focus on, and happily plays with her toys. When she tires with one of the toy sets, she and I clean up, and she can pick another one if she wants. Most of the time she moves on to the other toys that are around all the time. As part of our morning chores the kids to clean up their bedrooms, and this helps Olivia be able to find the toys she wants to play with- like her babies and baby stuff, Barbies, stuffed animals, etc. Sometimes Olivia wants to be working with us while we are doing school, so I have several activities for her to do then. I try to get her to do something similar to what the older kids are doing. When they are reading she can look through books, and there are many days she will look through one book after the other, until she empties a book shelf. When they are writing or drawing, I'll give her a coloring page about that week's theme, or we have lots of coloring books and paper she can pick from. She loves to take her turn on our big whiteboard after the kids have finished using it, but we also have a couple small whiteboards she can also use. We have lots of puzzles that she can do- some on her own, and I can help her put harder ones together when I don't have to completely focus on the older two, such as when they are listening to a story or working on something on their own.

Mid-morning (about 10a.m.) we usually have a snack-recess time, and this gives me time to feed her & Jolie, change diapers, read a quick story, or do whatever else needs doing (switching laundry, which Olivia likes to help me with- sigh, someday she'll grow out of it). Once school is over I make a point to spend a few minutes with her before I jump into making lunch or doing household stuff- we read a story, chase each other around the house, play ring-around-the-rosies, whatever comes to mind.