Tot School On the Go!

We are heading off on vacation in a few days and will have 8 days in the beautiful state of Colorado. My husband and I knew Mr. Little Man had an amazing week ahead of him and would be exposed to all sorts of new things.  He would have so much fun to have flying, being in the mountains, seeing old friends and more. I didn't plan to do Tot School while we were away but did want to bring a few things for those moments when Mr. Little Man has some down time and may just need something fun and familiar.  I decided that since we would spend half of white dog week and half of black sheep week on vacation, I would bring a little of each and teach them together while we were away. However, with all of our fun tot school activities to choose from, this momma was worried she'd go overboard and over pack when TS was not going to even be a big focus for us.  SO... that's when it hit me!  I would bring a travel sized TS kit, full of fun things he really loves to do. 

How did I do you ask?  Let's just say, there were over a dozen activities in a kit about the size of a jar of peanut butter.  I'm so happy with how it came out and can't wait to have these fun favorite activities in the hotel for Mr. Little Man. 

So... Here is the kit!

 

I figured it was hard to judge the size so... here it is next to a jar of peanut butter.

Here are the contents of the kit...

Inside our TS On the Go Kit is:
1. 10 black pompoms
2. 3 white pipecleaners
3. 4 picture/alpha/numerical blocks (with dogs and black/white items depicted)
4. 12 flash cards (6 white/6 black)
5. 1 bowl
6. 1 colander
7. 10 dried red kidney beans
8. 1 can with a hole in the lid

Here are some up close pictures of the contents:

 

We will use Carisa's printables, both the head&tail ones and the picture flashcards from her BBBBWDYS printable pack (see here).

 

 

 A wooden bowl from Mr. Little Man's play kitchen and 12 black pompoms for counting or matching to the flashcards or most likely throwing :)

 

 

 OK, so this is what got me hooked on this project: the steamer tray from our baby food maker happens to fit like a lid on the kitchen bowl.  This was discovered by accident one day while playing! Here there are three white pipe cleaners to play with the 'collander'.

 

 

 Four wooden blocks to stack, count, name the shapes and seek for them too (which is his favorite!)

 

 

I knew if I was going to travel with a few key TS lessons, this HAD to be one.  I use coffee cans and buttons, beans etc. at home and Mr. Little Man absolutely loves this activity.  The coffee can seemed like a big waste of space so I looked through my pantry and I realized one of our baking powder cans was sitting in the back of the pantry and very old... so I poured out the contents, made a cross shaped hole and added some kidney beans.

And there you have it... a kit to allow us to continue with some familiar and favorite lessons while 2000 miles away.  I will of course bring some books too and in his carry-on, we'll have crayons, paper and our new travel chalkboard. I had so much fun making this I just had to share in case anyone else may have use for some TS fun on the go. I sure had fun making this, if you can't tell, but we'll see what Mr. Little Man thinks in a couple days!

Linking to:
Tot School Gathering Place

Tot School Plan: Update!

I spent some time thinking through our original TS plan (see the original post and plan here) and made some adjustments now that we are a month or so into the whole concept. Since I launched this blog, I have had (much to my surprise) a lot of viewings on this original planning post and general interest in the organizational approach that I took. I decided that I would dive a little deeper into that in hopes it may help someone else who decides to start this amazing Tot School venture. So here it is...

I didn't think we would need to spend a whole week on each number 1-10 because we already use numbers each day, one way or another with counting, in books etc. I also decided I wanted to incorporate some shapes and body parts soon. I assumed he knew his body parts but thought he would have a great time playing and reviewing. As for shapes, he started drawing circles lately and seems really interested in shapes so I want to encourage and support that natural interest. Basically, I figured we would be talking about numbers and shapes in our everyday life, and throughout tot school so why not spend a week setting the stage (beyond what he already knows). I figured one week with numbers 1-5, another with numbers 6-10, a week of shapes and a week of body parts would be a nice assortment. I had set myself a goal of 1 year  of pre-preschool so to speak; 52 weeks of TS with my sweet little toddler. So, with this change I had some free weeks to fill. I added some holidays into the mix that I thought would be a really fun thing to learn about, for the whole family.  I have decided to go ahead and include the detailed schedule here. This could change again and again, who knows. However, to my busy mommy brain this just makes sense for now... it allows us to expose him to lots of concepts through child led play and exploration.

So what does it look like...

WEEK #	Week Start	Week End	Curriculum	Topic	Sub Topics
1	7/13/2013	7/19/2013	Colors	Brown	Bear
2	7/20/2013	7/26/2013	Colors	Red	Bird
3	7/27/2013	8/2/2013	Colors	Yellow	Duck
4	8/3/2013	8/9/2013	Colors	Blue	Horse
5	8/10/2013	8/16/2013	Colors	Green	Frog
6	8/17/2013	8/23/2013	Colors	Purple	Cat
7	8/24/2013	8/30/2013	Colors	White	Dog
8	8/31/2013	9/6/2013	Colors	Black	Sheep
9	9/7/2013	9/13/2013	Colors	Orange	Goldfish
10	9/14/2013	9/20/2013	Colors	Pink	Pig
11	9/21/2013	9/27/2013	Colors	Grey	Elephant
12	9/28/2013	10/4/2013	Body	Body Parts	Head to Toe
13	10/5/2013	10/11/2013	Numbers	1, 2, 3, 4, 5	See Notes
14	10/12/2013	10/18/2013	Birthday!	Birthday Party!	Balloons, Cake, Etc.
15	10/19/2013	10/25/2013	Numbers	6, 7, 8, 9, 10	See Notes
16	10/26/2013	11/1/2013	Holiday	Halloween	See Notes
17	11/2/2013	11/8/2013	Shapes	Circle, Square, Rectangle, Triangle, Diamond, Heart, Star
18	11/9/2013	11/15/2013	Letters	A	Apple: Fruit
19	11/16/2013	11/22/2013	Letters	B	Ball: Sports
20	11/23/2013	11/29/2013	Holiday	Thanksgiving	See Notes
21	11/30/2013	12/6/2013	Letters	C	Carrot: Vegetables
22	12/7/2013	12/13/2013	Letters	D	Dragonfly: Bugs
23	12/14/2013	12/20/2013	Letters	E	Eat: Meals
24	12/21/2013	12/27/2013	Holiday	Christmas	See Notes
25	12/28/2013	1/3/2014	Holiday	New Years	See Notes
26	1/4/2014	1/10/2014	Letters	F	Fire: Safety
27	1/11/2014	1/17/2014	Letters	G	Globe: World
28	1/18/2014	1/24/2014	Letters	H	Happy: Emotion
29	1/25/2014	1/31/2014	Letters	I	Ice: Cold Weather Fun
30	2/1/2014	2/7/2014	Letters	J	Jellyfish: Ocean
31	2/8/2014	2/14/2014	Holiday	Valentine’s Day	See Notes
32	2/15/2014	2/21/2014	Holiday	President’s Day	See Notes
33	2/22/2014	2/28/2014	Letters	K	Key: Locks/Latches/Knobs
34	3/1/2014	3/7/2014	Letters	L	Liter: Green Living
35	3/8/2014	3/14/2014	Letters	M	Money: Money
36	3/15/2014	3/21/2014	Holiday	St. Patrick’s Day	See Notes
37	3/22/2014	3/28/2014	Letters	N	Nurse: Professions
38	3/29/2014	4/4/2014	Letters	O	Open: Opposites
39	4/5/2014	4/11/2014	Letters	P	Pole: Fishing
40	4/12/2014	4/18/2014	Letters	Q	Quack: Farm
41	4/19/2014	4/25/2014	Holiday	Easter	See Notes
42	4/26/2014	5/2/2014	Letters	R	Run: Movement
43	5/3/2014	5/9/2014	Holiday	Cinco de Mayo	See Notes
44	5/10/2014	5/16/2014	Letters	S	Sorry: Manners
45	5/17/2014	5/23/2014	Letters	T	Tent: Camping
46	5/24/2014	5/30/2014	Letters	U	Uncle: Family
47	5/31/2014	6/6/2014	Letters	V	Vehicle: Transportation
48	6/7/2014	6/13/2014	Letters	W	Wood: Nature
49	6/14/2014	6/20/2014	Letters	X	Xylophone: Music
50	6/21/2014	6/27/2014	Letters	Y	Yesterday: Time
51	6/28/2014	7/4/2014	Holiday	4th of July	See Notes
52	7/5/2014	7/11/2014	Letters	Z	Zipper: Clothing

I took an amazing organization plan from Carisa's 1+1+1=1 blog (click here for her posting).  I changed the concept a bit to fit our needs but it is essentially the same: we will cover a letter, a word that begins with that letter and a general theme that the word fits in.  So A, Apple: Fruit. Thank you to Carisa for this weekly letter plan!

Each week's actual activities, whether it be a letter, a holiday, shapes etc, is something I plan as the week approaches... or on the fly if that is the time I have to plan.  However, having this outline gives me some guidance as to what fun things we can explore together.   The idea that a year will go by and we will have had some sort of fun and learned about, in some way shape or form, all of these things is awesome... maybe I can be the kind of mom I always wanted to be and work full time (Or so I need to keep telling myself :))

For those of you who aren't familiar with this Tot School thing, this is not a time where we make Mr. Little Man sit down and learn something. This is the complete opposite actually!  With this schedule, my husband and I introduce our Little Man to real world concepts through play, on his schedule and based on his development stage and interest level at the moment. The schedule is just for themes and organization... its not indicative of the time we actually spend together.. that is free and just plain fun! The schedule helps me stay organized... this mommy brain is pretty full these days.

Oh, and thanks for reading! I am blown away by how many viewings are happening each day!  I was writing this to have a memoir for our family... but if some other parents can get inspired and get some ideas too, all the more reason to stay up late and type :)

Linking to:
http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/2013/08/tot-school-gathering-place-week-32/