THE WAIT IS OVER.
We are coming off the heels of a two week school hiatus due to illness in the first week, then just trying to get motivated again in the second. By Monday of week two, I had declared it a "mental health" break and decided to resume this week. Because I can.
I did my planning and prep on Saturday, which included printing new materials, pulling out all of the supplies for each activity, setting the shelves (details below), and taking a trip to the library for books and a movie. Big Girl could hardly contain herself when she saw that I was in the school room without her. She wanted to "do sool" NOW, but I like to build the anticipation for her a little, so I saved everything for Monday morning!
A typical school session lasts about one hour, sometimes more or less, depending on every single variable that comes with having two children two and under. I have several activities that we try to get to every day (I call these "non-perishables" because they can be used again and again), four to five that can only be used once (dot work, coloring sheets, paint projects), sensory materials, a few toys/games/puzzles, playdoh, and BOOKS. Oh, how we love books.
Every day is a little different based on what she is drawn to; for this season of homeschool, my goal is exposure rather than mastery (here's a great post about this concept). She has her favorite things (playdoh, sensory, dry erase) that we do every day without fail, some others that I can usually talk her into (dot work, color cards, shape cards), and some that she's just not feeling on any given day (any of the former). But that's ok with me! We are totally Big Girl led, Mom facilitated right now.
I am using Tot School Printables during this pre-pre-school time with Big Girl. I chose it in the beginning because it was one of the only free programs I could find for two year olds. Carisa from 1+1+1=1 (who I mentioned here) is a former professional educator and, like me, believes in following the cues of your child in homeschool. It is a common belief that two is too young to start any type of schooling, and I fully agree with not starting before a child is ready. That is the best way to cultivate a life-long hatred of learning in a child. But as Big Girl's mom, I knew the time was right. She was soaking up any information I was giving her and was very interested in books: two good signs of readiness.
Tot School Printables are printable sheets that loosely guide your child in basic letter recognition, vocabulary, math, and fine motor skills. The program focuses on a letter, word, color, and theme for each week. One of my favorite aspects of this program is that Carisa blogged through it when she used it with her daughter. It's so helpful to see how she uses the materials and what she adds to each theme.
TSP is a "toe in the water" for those who feel ready to begin with their toddler. It is NOT the only thing we do, but it provides a good foundation to build the rest of our learning time on. I don't use them all, and I've built up to the ones I use now--I think I started with about four and added them as Big Girl and I got comfortable.
For TSP (which is "Table Work" in my planner), I use pages 2, 3, 7, and 14 as dry erase practice. I slip these into sheet protectors at the beginning of the week, and we usually start our day with them because it's where the bulk of our letter and vocabulary work happens. I use the color cards and shape cards once or twice a week each. With those, we might color, cut, and glue them (below), or we sometimes slip them into a slit in a coffee can as we name each one. We use page 6 along with a few others (like this one) as dot work, which she completes with do-a-dot stampers or sometimes stickers. I recently added page 13 for lacing practice and a fun puzzle.
A photo of my planner is the best way to begin an explaination of what we do each day. It's my lifeline! Every thought, idea, reaction to an activity, plan for the future, and funny thing Big Girl said goes into it.
The week shown is "Jj is for Jellyfish." That week, we focused on ocean life, the color Pink, and of course, the letter J. Along the top of the pages are sensory/motor focuses for both Big Girl and Baby Sis. I recently began pulling some activities for her during our play time, and writing them here helps me keep them varied.
Under each day of the week is a list of activities we completed, along with a description of how it went. Success/enjoyment is denoted with a check mark, and refusal is marked with an X. This is not a plan for each day; it is a list of what we completed in order, the time it took us to finish, and her reaction to each activity. I like to think of it as our educational journal. It's already been so fun to look back on the early weeks and see how much we have both learned. It will also be helpful when I begin TSP with Baby Sister or if another mom needs help with certain activities.
The yellow sticky note in the bottom corner is a list of all the activities I have prepared for the week. Because I follow Big Girl's lead, I don't plan every day for the whole week. Rather, I write down everything I have available, then check it off as we complete it. The "perishable" activities usually have a day of the week suggested because I try to spread those out, but those aren't set in stone either (noticing a trend yet?). I began this system one day when I had a super attractive substitute teacher. MisterKidd facilitated school time for me one Saturday, so I jotted down all of the activities available and had him check them off as he completed them, along with the more detailed description for each day. Now I do this every week for myself, and it's easy for him to just take over if that happens again.
The sticky note categories are based on what's available on or near her shelves: Sensory, Toys, Trays, Books, and Table Work. Each is based on the theme for the week in some way. For example, this week is "Mm is for Mouse," and we are focusing on the letter Mm, the color blue, and small mammals (*shiver* this is not my favorite theme). Our shelves represent each of the catergories based on the theme(s).
Top shelf: Supplies This bookshelf is very near Big Girl's desk, so I have things we use every day like writing materials, the dry eraser, and the Lysol wipes.
Second shelf: Sensory This tub has a sensory base and filler that is changed out weekly. I'm just starting to dabble in this, so I've only done a few, but she LOVES it. Pouring and scooping are her favorite things to do. This week, I hid several different Mm's in dried beans and added a spoon and cup for her to play with. I've used straws cut into small pieces and dry pasta in the past, and next week is cotton balls. Here's a great post on sensory bases. 
Third shelf: Fine Motor Skills On one of the trays, I have a fine motor activity. This is one of my favorite things to come up with because it can be anything to get her fingers moving. Cutting and Gluing practice is pictured above; I drew a large "M" on the blue sheet, and she cut small pieces of paper to glue on the "M." Here is a list of fine motor skills that I draw from when preparing these activities.
Fourth shelf: Books What can I say that will appropriately convey the importance of literacy? I don't believe I could do it justice in a thousand posts. We have books available for our girls in every room in the house (yes, even the bathroom), but our school time books are centered around our theme in some way. This week, there are books with mice, books with "Mm," and books with both.
Fifth shelf: Toy/Game/Puzzle Toys are some of our most useful learning tools. We try to buy toys that are open ended and encourage pretend play. A good rule of thumb is that the child needs to tell the toy what to do, not the toy telling the child how to play. I might include homemade beanbags, lacing beads, our tool set, some beads from our pop-arty bead set, or a puzzle on this tray. It's kind of a catch-all for whatever I want to include that week. This week, we have a small "moon" puzzle from a large set of word puzzles I have.
Big Girl has access to these shelves during our entire session, but I do encourage her to clean up one thing before she moves to another (the trays help with this) and to focus on her table work if that's what we're doing in that moment.
I hope that rather than being overwhelmed, you are inspired by this huge amount of information. Keep in mind that it has taken me over six months to incorporate all of these activities. I've done research, tried some things, axed some things, and adjusted a hundred times to get to this point. If you are ready to get started and you choose one thing you are comfortable with, your little one will be excited to "do sool" too, no matter what you choose. :)
I would love to answer any questions you might have about, well, pretty much anything, but especially my homeschool day! Be on the lookout for a planning week post in a few weeks where I set up our new calendar time and plan for life after Tot School Printables with Big Girl!
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