Tot School - Day 1

We started up "Tot School" today!

Basically, I just set aside 30 minutes (less or more), to devote to teaching a topic and focus on Annabelle. It doesn't have to be anything super special or creative (but y'all know I'm going to make it creative because I just can't help myself), and it needs to be "go with the flow". If she's not into it, we'll move on to something else, or adjust the activity we're doing.

For the first week, I decided to do a letter and a color: A and Red. We'll be learning the words Apple, Alligator, Ant, and Acorn, listening to theme related songs, reading books, doing crafts and eatting "A" snacks! I'll also be throwing in a few "practical/life skills" each week. This week will be washing hands and sharing. For the first few weeks I think I will just do a color and a letter, until we get through the "main" colors. Then, I may start throwing in shapes. She knows a lot of her shapes, it would just be fun to have activities planned for them, and start recognizing them (more) in our world. 



Tot School - Day 1
Letter: A
Color: Red
Word: Apple

Name: Annabelle
Age:just 3 days shy of 20 months



Today, I had mostly everything ready, and was excited to begin! The tot woke super early (like 2 hours early! like....5am early! blegh!!!), so I was expecting it to be a flop, or at least postponed until the afternoon. But, after her second breakfast (the first was a bottle, and bowl of cheerios in bed while I tried to catch a few extra Zzz's), she was happy and playing quietly in her playroom! I could hardly get her away from what she was doing, and didn't want to force it. But about the time she started to boss me around (happens daily when she needs a play partner), I decided that would be a good time to transition into "school".

I showed her the flashcards I have picked for the week, and what do you know?! She couldn't have been more excited. :) She kept repeating "apple...apple...apple" and then I pointed to the letter "A" and "a", told her what letter it was, and asked her to say it, she repeated, "a! a! a!". Pretty cool. We talked about the color red, and since she insists on every color being "yallow" or "poopool", she refused to say red, and decided it was "yallow". We have a little work to do in the colors department.

The first activity was tearing paper and gluing it onto a plate to create an apple. I'm pretty sure gluing is a little advanced for a 20 month old, and tearing paper should be right up her ally, buuuuuut it was the opposite for us today, and that's okay. I tore the paper, she glued it down ;)
We proudly hung the apple above the art easel on the wall.

she hijacked daddy's watch when he got home from work this morning..I took it off at the first sign of glue smears

Then, we cut up some apples for snack, and looked at the different colors! She tried each of them, and correctly named the yellow apple (of course :)), and surprisingly, that was her favorite one! She doesn't like green apples, and the red wasn't cutting it today after that golden delicious! She nearly ate the whole thing!

blegh - green :)

yay - yellow!

We watched a youtube video of "Way up High in the Apple Tree", and she LOOOOVED it. I think she asked to watch it three times before I decided we should move on (hah!). She just got such a kick out of the fact that there was an apple flashcard on the art easel, she was eatting an apple, and she was looking at apples on the video. It was fun.

Then, we did some apple prints. Thiiiiiiis, well....lets just say it transitioned quickly into talking about the color Red, which we were using. The apple just got too slippery for her little hands, and so finger  palm painting began to occur. I'm totally okay with that. The only problem is that Annabelle really doesn't like to have messy hands, so she kept asking me to clean them, which I wasn't going to until after we were finished, but she didn't want to be finished, soooooo...... The activity ended in tears. Oh well. Thankfully I had several other "A" video loaded up and ready, so after we washed her hands, I sat her down to watch those as I cleaned up the mess. It worked out. This A Song is super weird, and she liked it a lot. :)

love this face ;)

before it got real messy and "red"

All of that took about an hour, and then we went for a nice long walk. It was a great morning :) Tomorrow is "Alligator" and I don't have nearly as much planned so it will be quicker. Plus, we have Bible study, so it will need to be at a different time anyway. There is a fun Alligator song that I'm so glad I found (used to sing it in the classroom, but couldn't remember all the words!). She'll enjoy it.