Tot-school | Week 6 | Letter FOctober 29, 2016
This week’s tot-school…
…was over in a flash!
This week I’m going to start by admitting my recording chart was rather neglected so the write-up is in large parts a guess based on vague memory and photo evidence. The activities were really varied this week and we deliberately shed away from repeating some of last weeks activities. Fish and frogs were a wonderful theme to work with and we found ourselves revisiting activities throughout the week a lot.
Six weeks in and we’ve noticed a few big changes in the way Adam responds. Firstly he’s much more interested in his wipe clean books and his pen control is obviously improving. His favourite activity is to scribble over a named object or area (eg, feet, eyes etc). His concentration time is still good though he now realises that if requested it, there will be other activities coming so if he’s had enough he states clearly! His placement skills are great and there is real concentration to make sure even the smallest button is central to the circle. These is a visible reduction in time taken modelling an activity to him too. He’s now counting, though he often misses 3,4 and 5 on his way to 10, and his shapes, and colours are improving rapidly.
This weeks read more questions:
Fishing and buttons came out top this week. We played fishing for ages, catching big, medium and large fish, then even huge letter fish too! We grabbed the buttons as an after thought and soon needed to find out our extension do a dot pages because he adored them – after a week absence they were the favourite requested activity.
The paint dabbers definitely didn’t interest him this week, while paint had topped white board markers so far the balance firmly swung round and 3 or 4 dabs was the most one sheet saw before he rejected it.
Tot-school is optional, sometimes I try and entice him to the table and he refuses, so I quit and try again later. Other times we move activities to the floor, sometimes we do totschool before bath in the evening, other times we pull out yesterdays activities in the morning before nap. Occasionally we skip altogether, like last week on Tuesday, totschool is just structured play, and play should never be a chore!
Tot-school | Week 5 | Letter EOctober 23, 2016
This week’s tot-school…
…was a short burst of creativity!
This week we did 4 days of totschool. Mummy and Daddy spent Tuesday shopping for Birthday presents so weren’t about and the week ended with a special party on Saturday night in a soft play place – it was great fun. Adam received lots of gifts from friends and family and though none were totschool specific I’m sure a few will creep into our learning time.
Meanwhile, we looked at the letter ‘E’ and let our creativity shine. This week we abandoned a lot of the pieces we’d started out using and replaced them with more tactile items. It felt very creative this week and I felt like we’ve found a place between the structure and exposure where we are all have fun. With a busy week we didn’t always hit schedule and some days were much shorter sessions because they didn’t take place until evening.
This weeks read more questions:
This is the most asked question I get… and I always answer with a plain ‘no’. Totschool, for us, is about expanding Adam’s English vocabulary not as a way to teach him new words in his second language. We are very much concentrating on getting him to speak English first because once he leaves the house he’ll be in a Serbian world so we are not worried about him picking up that later.
It would be foolish to give the impression that this is all free, everything comes at a cost, but we’ve kept it really rather low. I’ve decided if I find a great whole alphabet pack I’ll consider supporting the people who make it, especially if they give some away free, even so I’ve splurged less than £20 so far. We have bought odd bits like a white board eraser and extra rice and laminating pouches, and the printer ink will probably need a top up soon too.
This often gets asked too, and for us at the moment nursery isn’t essential. I also believe that nursery isn’t necessary for kids that this age. We have 2 parents working from home, we have space to play and a good number of toys. Having worked in nurseries in the UK I’m probably more picky about who I leave my child with and the policies here are much more relaxed than UK nurseries. Nurseries here tend to have quite a long day of around 7 hours, there is no half way point, no playgroup for 3 hours or similar, and I don’t like the idea of Adam spending 35 hours a week apart from us.
Tot-school | Week 4 | Letter DOctober 16, 2016
This week’s tot-school…
…we muddled through!
The great thing about tot-school is that disaster isn’t possible. Our key word the first time through the alphabet is exposure, exposure to new words, new concepts, new letters… not learning, not structure, and certainly not essential. Oh we had hopes for a lovely structured times this week, then God laughed. Amazingly we managed to do at least something each day, though by Friday it was at Adam’s request only. Some days tot-school was an afterthought and others it was thought through well in advance, and really that was totally ok with us.
I’d decided to start the week with the letter ‘D’ and choose the extra concept on Tuesday or Wednesday but that never happened so it’s just the letter this week. We are trying to be diverse rather than repetitive, when the activity is unfamiliar his inquisitive nature really kicks in. It led us to try a craft this week which was a roaring success and to move onto a different style of letter sheet too. Letter matching is still a big aim for us and the inevitable b and d confusion reigned so we tried to concentrate on the capital letter more this week.
This weeks read more questions:
Doing some structured activity daily is fun, it’s a focus to the hours spent trying to do something other than play with wooden trains and it’s good for Adam in terms of concentration and development. Adam’s vocabulary is exploding and I really think this is part of the reason why. His grasp of numbers appearing over the last few weeks is really impressive. Printing in colour has been a big yes and anything with lots of pieces is really attractive. Finding the right level between repetition and novelty is also important. Established activities are taken in quickly but hold less appeal. By starting with table-work we’ve built a foundation for instructed activities that he can spin into his creations, it’s fun to finally get onto crafts and I’m really glad we did it this way.
I don’t think I started with a plan beyond each day to do something. That said a rough plan is emerging with Monday being introduction to the letter, one day being more focused on a non-letter concept, another dominated by the paint dabbers and at least one paper free. I’m vaguely planning to run through the whole alphabet in order at least once before changing things.
Some things are clearly favourites but not what I expected. Many of the free activities emphasis pencil control and he’s just not interested, there is a lot about linking upper and lower case letters and directional work, that, while good, doesn’t suit the level he’s at. I started with the letter activities from 1+1+1=1 and letter packs from ‘This Reading Mama’. Both proved way to advanced for Adam so we only use a small selection. The ‘Back to School Preschool Centers’ from ‘In my world’ have been so successful I’ve bought the whole alphabet packet and I’m looking forward to using the bits we’ve not got to yet. This week I discovered Roaming Rosie which has some great ideas I’m hoping to add in next week. Beyond that it’s been mostly Pinterest finds. I have found myself often botching printouts like, phonics cards at 220% for puzzles, screen grabbed book pages, and putting craft templates through a graphics program to add colour.