Tot School: Activities for 18-24 months old!

I got this from a Montessori way of teaching. I have yet to introduce this to the twins. These were just plain cardboard and pompoms. The kid will place those pom poms on top of the letter. I am a firm believer for the Montessori method!

My twin girls are now 28 months! So, it means... we are officially starting our slightly structured and formal (rather than spontaneous) - TOT SCHOOL!

Prior to this - sort-of-formal-tot-school, we have been doing some engaging, just-when-mom-feels-like-it activities. When they were around 12 months we would do 1-2 activities a day (am and pm). That would be whenever I feel that they are in that "listening mood" - usually before their morning bath. Then, when they turned 18 months, we would do  (2 activity in the morning and 1 at night). But, since last week, I have tried to introduce 4-5 activities in one sitting and I was amazed how well they picked up and have fully sat through it.

Handling two different tots at the same level/age is far different than handling just one at a time. You become tempted to compare or focus alone on the one who does things more attentively. You cannot compare your child to another just because the other seem to be able to sit longer on an activity over the other. Being patient with both is key and focusing on their strengths is vital.

My twins are sooo much different with each other C can stay put for more than 15 minutes just to finish her painting while D wouldn't even care and would just playfully hold a crayon and do whatever strokes she can make. During a sticker activity time, C would follow my instructions by putting each sticker INSIDE the letter, while D would just play around and make silly faces and stick those stickers on her nose and cheeks. On the other side, D can count perfectly from 1-20 while C is not at all interested in counting. Each child is unique, I am now in the stage of finding their interests and learning style.

So, comparing each kid won't help at all. That is why I admire preschools who don't YET brand kids by the level of what they know (valedictorian, salutatorian, Best in this-or-that etc). IQ changes over time and is not always a basis for success. What matters are parents who will encourage their child and to focus in finding the child's interest, learning style, and most especially, their character, values and love of learning.

As a homeschooling mom, we are rewarded too by our daily experiences when what we teach manifests on our kids' daily encounters. Recently, one morning, C was crying and begging me to do school. I wasn't ready for any activity just yet and even if I have activities on our activity shelf,  she was insisting that I (and not her "yaya") to teach her- She was crying saying "I want Mommy, only!! Teach, teach, Cayie [Callie]" Aww... I almost melted. It has come into her bright idea that school is something that I would sit them on our table and do several activities. Most importantly, she loves to learn from mom.

Just to share to you, here are some of our spontaneous activities we've done before we had this more structured Tot School. Although, I am a real sucker on any educational toys and trinkets whenever I go out to the mall, I would buy almost anything interesting even in P88 Store (or the Dollar store in the US). Or I would rather make use of what is readily available in the house or anything inexpensive that I can easily throw away.

Body awareness: Manila Paper and crayons on the wall . I would trace them  on the rolled Manila Paper and would ask them to draw eyes, nose, ears, etc on their traced body. Kept them busy for 30 minutes which is a free time for me to read a book as they do these.

Pipe cleaners and a random basket makes a great fine motor activity. Kept them busy and happy for 15 minutes!

Pipe cleaners and pasta lacing activity!
get Uncooked Penne Pasta Shoot each on the pipe cleaner. Pipe cleaners @ Office Warehouse.

A great tantrum reliever is this handy dandy 1 whole illustration board! I just pop it open  when either of the girls are in a crabby mood. This side they are playing is full of crayon, paint, chalk, oil pastel, marker art. While we use the other side for chalk writing which they also love! It's less messy because even if they spill paint, it forms part of the artwork. This lasted for a year already and they are still using it for random art activity. All 3 kids share this all at the same time. We simply tuck in the illustration board at the back of our activity shelf when not in use.

Egg crates are awesome! Even if I don't intend to teach anything but this egg crate can do a lot of stuff. Here, D is simply putting pom poms on each spot. I plan to recreate this tray for color, number or letter matching activities soon.

They (or just C) are doing Pattern Blocks. D is really not into these kinds of activities and would rather use the mirror and gaze upon herself. Yah, that mirror comes with the pattern blocks which can be bought at sonlight.com

Look at those proud eyes. C is very proud that she knows how to write the letter A (well, almost). I make use of dry-erase markers and papers to some of our worksheets that are inserted inside a clear book so she can easily erase or do the same worksheet next time. I have been using Phonemic awareness to teach them and not yet (sometimes) teach the actual letter. But, still they know the letter well enough. We use starfall.com and hooked on phonics videos a lot for following letter strokes!

We love art! We have excess paper bags and those googly eyes, pom poms and teared scratch paper , bingo markers are a sure win for art activity!

Of course, we water the plants too!

How about you? What are your usual activities you do with your kid/s? Do share as I am also a learning mama who just simply adore teaching the little ones. :)