Tot-school | Week 7 | Letter GNovember 5, 2016
This week’s tot-school…
…was custom made!
I found the letter G really tough to resource. We’d used the word ‘present’ for Adam’s recent birthday so none of the ‘gift’ based resources would work. Alternative packs had ‘girl’ or ‘goat’, neither of which he instantly recognises. The most solid G word he has is ‘giraffe’, so I made up my own sheets. Monday was a roaring success, dampened only by the word giraffe not starting with the ‘guh’ sound. *forehead slap!
After some thought I recognised it really wasn’t a big deal. It’s evident that he’s really not learning his letters as much as the letters are a theme to hang the weeks activities on. So while I made up sheets for the more phonetic ‘gloves’ we used mostly the giraffe ones. Sharing is caring… so if you’d like the pack I’ve made it available for download at the end of the post.
One of the big aims of this week was to have something to show. F had focused on fish and while there were lots of tactile resources to file there was nothing to put into his weekly display folder. You’ll notice this week had 2 letter crafts!
This weeks read more questions:
We loved the giraffe theme. We found giraffes everywhere round the house when we started to hunt. While colouring pages are usually something I expect to get shrugged off this one was actively engaged with. We also did really well with adding glue to shapes, following the shapes of the letters much closer than expected.
The tweezers were a total fail and the gloves match page proved just too tricky. Though he managed to get the first 2 sets of gloves he started to struggle to differentiate the patterns. However he did like the gloves themselves and upon realising they would be stuck to the lowercase ‘g’ he switched from placing them to removing them!
Tot-school is a beautiful thing and the resources freely available are hugely varied. Most are hoping to give their children a window into phonics and pre-writing skills, others are very sensory orientated. When I recognised I could easily create custom versions of the printouts, tailored for our activities, it seemed a good experiment to invest in.
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!
Appreciate updateOctober 25, 2016
So back in January I chose a word for the year, and that was Appreciate.
It was a word that would change my perspective.
It was a world that would push my comfort.
and it was a word that would expose that which was ugly.
Mid way through I learnt it’s the art of treasuring, the point of recognition, the mild mannered admiration… in it’s truest form it’s a gentle prompt to show love.
But right now it feels more of a harsh command, a heavy burden, a bright light showing only grime.
That push to appreciate erodes pessimism, negativity and judgement with a sandblaster.
Three big traps that I know so intimately.
I fell backwards to find this. I joined a group about raising kids in a more liberal christian way, a group whose definition of Christianity was broader and more encompassing than many I’ve found. There I found pain and sorrow, hearts broken from years of misguided indoctrination and a yearning to find a way of parenting authentically in light of their faith. It’s a beautiful group. But I also saw bucket loads of negativity, bitterness and quick judgement. I saw echos of my self righteous teen self and cringed as people tore strips off statements whose heart was not so far from their own. And as I went to unsubscribe the appreciate word hit. For in the midst of my own perspective I was just as unappreciative of that meandering faith journey as those I criticised. In the midst of their muddle and maddening words they too were struggling to place their faith in a context they had not seen it in before. Indeed this new expression of faith was a whole new culture to some, just as odd as leaving home for a new land. The signs were clear as I stared the familiar bitter walls of the trap I too had come to lay in.
To appreciate is tough. It’s a beautiful word of hope, a delightful word of gratitude, a reminder to count our luxuries, not just our scars, and a challenge to lay aside the bitterness for an exposed heart willing to be changed.