Tot-school | Week 19 | Letter TFebruary 27, 2017
This past week’s tot-school…
…was short and sweet
This is a lovely part of the alphabet to be traversing, and we really enjoyed the letter T even if we only managed 3 days. The less structured ideas really shone through this week, pretending to pour and drink endless cups of tea and running round the house roaring with a cardboard tiger were often repeated outside of what we’d consider tot-school time.
Meanwhile Adam is racing ahead with his letters, he knows letters we’ve not yet touched on and is increasingly requesting alphabet programs or video’s for his screen time – the ever popular letter factory is now watched in it’s entirety where as before he would have lost interest part way through the alphabet. His independent play with a box of magnetic letters lets us overhear him identifying colours, numbers and almost every letter.
The pack I’ve made is available for download at the end of the post.
This weeks read more questions:
The teapot was great, it wasn’t a plastic play thing but mummies real small teapot… and though we had moments when we fully expected it to smash on the floor it survived and Adam’s understanding of ‘gently’ grew.
The letter spinner was a bit of a tough sell for the first time this week, and the tomato didn’t work at all… T, t, t, potato anyone? I’d made the lowercase craft so it could be used for uppercase too and yet didn’t get the chance which was a shame rather than a flop.
This is an odd one, because I’m learning that refusing to do an activity doesn’t mean he doesn’t like it, just isn’t in the mood. Equally an activity can peak his interest enough to repeat it immediately but still not rate highly with him. Great activities are memorable enough to be requested again or items once completed he’s eager to show off.
heart-worn and refinedFebruary 26, 2017
February seems to be redefining my word of the year – Invest.
When I thought about ‘Investing’ at the beginning of the year it was much more about getting my house in order, about being in the moment and cutting back on the dross that filled my time so I could refine my efforts into less pursuits. But on this journey I’ve found that the thing in greatest need of investment is me. I need to invest in the building bricks of who I am and what I believe and who influences my choices, what I give and what I take in.
The daily discipline of listening to either pray-as-you-go or watching a sermon has been inconvenient and yet hugely rewarding. Rather than push ahead it’s really drawn me to look in every other direction first. To look outwards, outwards at the people I’ve neglected to be a great friend to, outwards at the people waiting to be befriended. Outwards at the church I could be a part of and how that part may fit or fail. This has translated not just to my prayer time but in time to exercise, meals to plan and people I connect with.
But mostly this looking has lead me to reconsider how I look back, both at the history of the faith and my own years. Scripture suddenly seems more gritty than it has for some time, it’s events being told and retold through a prism of words. The idea that my own history is just a draft version, and the final piece can still be tweaked is a notion that’s rather empowering. If history is indeed ‘written by the victors’ then as private and personal authors we can rewrite, not the events but the voice and emphasis with which they are told. As I approach a decade since I was the youth-worker that so defined me, I’m redefining my identity and letting it be shaped, both physical and spiritual. Those failures of the past become lessons upon which to glean wisdom, those adversaries can be seen as misunderstood and misconstrued and painted as fallen opportunities to connect with our brothers, those working out of faith can be detours from the pathway or daring shortcuts through reliance on God’s provision. Our names can be refined from the childish self descriptors or the practical labels into the heart-worn and refined titles of our character.
And this changes what we expect of ourselves. Practically, by allowing motherhood to be a more primary definer tot-school takes president over JWL for a few weeks without the guilt. I worried that the JWL requests and support would dry up, but quite to the contrary both donations and requests are flying in. In particular translation projects for multiple languages and alternative means of doing this seem to be bouncing about. Meanwhile the tot-school packs are getting the chance to bless others around God’s wonderful globe.
And prayer stands as the anchor. The thick tread of steel in the fine fabric that weaves through my days.
Tot-school | Week 18 | Letter SFebruary 18, 2017
This past week’s tot-school…
…was s s s something.
I found the letter S overwhelming, there were just so many things we could link to. On Monday, I had just finished the weeks paperwork when the computer crashed… stupidly I’d forgotten to hit save. It was a disappointing start but one that would not define the week, no illness would do that for me. As I dosed up the 2 men in my life tot-school became the treat activities to do when the little guy was showing signs of boredom.
While the week was rather unfocused Adam picked the letter up from the get go and was pointing out ‘S’s and guessing objects he’s forgotten the name of with ‘s,s,s’ followed by a random sound. It’s a great place to be as he’s really starting to identify the idea that all words begin with a letter sound.
The pack I’ve made is available for download at the end of the post.
This weeks read more questions:
Mummy loved the sheep but Adam got most excited about the snake craft, referring back to it many many times as well as pointing it out to visitors.
The letter tracing mat was a bit of a flop for the first time in ages, Adam wasn’t interested in working with it in any way other than to match objects, though he did match the big letter to the letters in the basket.
Nope. Linking sounds to letters, phonics, is something I’m been pretty sure Adam’s was aware of before now but this week he’s really confirmed that. Phonics is all I am aiming for on the reading spectrum, I believe decoding (putting letter sounds together to form words) is best left until children reach at least 3 years old, preferably older.