Tot School: F is the letter of the week!

The twins are 28 months old and they are begging to do school. From the spontaneous tot school activities we've had, it is now time to a more structured tot school (because they are literally begging for it!). Since, we already have Sonlight's P4/5, I figured we can still follow the same pattern - only... in a faster pace because they are still tots and when tots are bored... they just don't want to do school anymore.

How did we start tot school today? C woke up at 7:30am singing her usual la-la-la song while on her bed. She woke me up with her song and suddenly climbed onto my tummy and said "Mom, I want school! want school, mom!" So, that was it. We ate breakfast, but since she was insisting that we do school right away, I asked her to play puzzles with her yaya (nanny) which she shove away and told her "No, mommy only! Mommy, teach school only". :)

So, our letter F for the week goes this way.

Our 1st activity was memory verse: (2 minutes)
"Pay attention my child (index finger on head) to what I say (finger on lips), listen (hands on ear) carefully" - Proverbs 4:20

2nd activity: (2 minutes)
We were supposed to read a bible story, but today, we reserved our nightime reading to bible stories so we read a Mother Goose story Jack and Jill instead.

3rd activity: Introducing the Letter F! (3 minutes)
I have 2 fabric flowers and a magnetic letter F. So, I told them "The sound of F is... /F/ for flower! Here's 1 flower for C and another for D! Hurray!" "This is letter F... /F/ /F/ - flower!" Then we traced a letter F using their finger on the table.

4th activity (3 minutes): Wooden sticks - I bought from Handwriting w/o Tears at Sonlight.com. You can use Pocky sticks or wafer sticks if you don't have the wooden sticks from HWOT.
I gave them 2 short sticks and 1 long stick, then we played "tap the sticks" then, I asked them to "Raise the long stick! Now, tap.. tap.. tap... tap your.... shoulder! tap.. tap..tap your... head! hands, nose." After this, we started building the letter F with the sticks.

Wooden sticks are from Handwriting without tears. We use this a lot to teach body awareness and  correct handwriting strokes.

5th Activity (10 minutes): Color and add stickers INSIDE the letter F.
Download the activity sheet here.

I instructed them to color within the lines (inside the petals) as this is a good exercise for fine motor skills. On the left is C's work, which shows that she is more interested  in these types of activities.

D is more interested in making funny faces rather than coloring activities. So, I said... "Wow! That's right, D! F starts with Funny Face!!!"

6th Activity (10 minutes): Sensory Bin aka Magic Letter Box with all F things like Fish, Fork, Feather, Four, and the letter F itself! I just filled it with Beans so they feel different textures in the box.

Buried treasure!

They were crazy over this sensory bin. As they pick up and find a treasure, I would ask them what it is and to tell me if it starts with /f/ - F!

7th activity: Line tracing. Butterfly and flowers (5 minutes).
Download the activity sheet here.

 You can download the free worksheet which I have done specially for my readers.

Busy.. busy...

8th activity: Art with flower petals. (8 minutes)

You need to cut out 5 petals from a flower gift wrap (just my choice), trace those petals as a flower on a paper. Have the kids stick those petals using a glue to follow the puzzle-like pattern and color or decorate them.

Ready for art!

Building art with the letter F!

9th activity: Clay making with the letter F. Since I really do hate cleaning up clay which all ends up on the carpet, I just allow them to play 1 color of their choice per day per child.

Making a letter F, I joins in to teach them how to do it.

Just a tip: Try sticking the paper/worksheet with a tiny piece of tape on top of the paper attached on the table. This prevents the paper from moving around the table and this frustrates tots.

We did not finish all of this in one sitting! We do 1 letter per week or sometimes, we even do longer or go back to a letter for review. It doesn't matter, just as long as there's mastery before we move on to the next. Since they have mastered the letter A, the sound of A and what starts with A (As, I have introduced that letter for 3 months already) so it's just time to introduce a new one - the letter F!

I follow mostly the lead of my tots (which is way different in handling my 7 year old). With tots, If they don't feel like doing a certain activity, I just carry on, do something else, stop it and do it again next time.  No pressure needed for this age. Try engaging them to 1 activity for a day, do 1 letter a week (or 2) and follow your heart to teach what will best suit your little one!

Till, next time! Do share if you have done any of these activities! :)