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. :)

My homeschool adventures!

What's under the sea? Book

Wonderful! Simply wonderful, those 7 months just seem so fast. About a year ago, I was in a turmoil. The burden of walking even for just 5 minutes is simply like carrying 2 pails of water but balancing it on my buttocks! Being pregnant with twins is far, far different than a normal pregnancy would be (yes, believe me! I know!) ;)

I've finally decided to homeschool my son. After 5 years, I've had a go for it. I was excited, ordering from Sonlight (www.sonlight.com). It took me 2 months just to research on the best curriculum, manipulatives, subjects. Then, finally... I was able to checkout and pay! Wow! I'd say, it was all worth it. Not exactly cheap, almost the same as enrolling in a regular school, but the best part I get to grab the cool books, and games plus I can pass it on to my twins later on.

Our Box day has arrived from Sonlight!  Inside is our 1 year of homeschool adventures!

Books, Books, Books and colorful (not photocopied/boring books!) textbooks!
We enjoyed everything from our box day! Imagine... all these for school!? Every kid would love this, isn't it?

Singapore Math is our Math Curriculum

We're already at 4 weeks! How wonderful that I can discover every bit about my son. The best way to grab his attention, his learning style, why he's a bit anxious when he makes mistakes, to seeing improvement on his writing style (why he sometimes reverse the letters that people even thought that he's just dyslexic, which is not! The strokes where he starts writing was the main culprit why this happens).

I learn as well from homeschool. I learned to relax more and not pressure my son to learn. We have a year to do it (and even extend if I'd desire to). Just today, I bought another language arts series ClickN' Read (www.clicknkids.com) since he loves PC games. The very reason I pulled him from regular school is because I don't want him to be pressured into reading, when he's just being ready to read. All kids are different and unique. My son loves stories, he's an auditory learner. He can grab hold of information accurately when he does things simultaneously (ex. Story time while playing with his Lego). I didn't pressure him to read, instead, we went back to basics learning the letters and its sound. Started with letter F for a week, then E, then just inject some other letters between the week. At week 3, he started to show interest in all the other letters. Just filled his mind pasting, coloring, of the letters we've learned for 3 weeks. At week 4, wow! He asked me to teach him how to read! I almost cried. I thought, we were too slow or is he getting bored with me. But, hearing this is like getting a free, all-expense paid trip! Haha! then, I showed him a word that he'd first identify... the word DAD! we made sounds, then blended and finally he caught it! He said.. DAD!!!

He was so proud, he kept that piece of paper and ran to his DAD and told his dad, he can now read! He said... "look, dad! Duh-Ahh-D! DAD!" He was shouting and telling everybody about his new word. I reap these rewards from even the simple things that my son discovers. I'm excited that next time it will be more than just simple words that he'd discover.

Homeschooling is not a very easy thing. Discipline, flexible consistency, and lots of patience is entirely needed to be successful. It is not easy, but it is simple. We start at 9:30am and done by 11:30pm! With those hours, Ice would be so tired he'd rest almost automatically after we do goodbye school hugs (which we do after we end school for the day). I'm Taking it one day, one year at a time. I'm hoping to do this as long as I can even with the twins.

What excites me more is that one day, my son kept on asking me to do school on a weekend, or when school was once cancelled because of a typhoon for 2 days. Of course, we don't do school also if DEPED cancels regular school! (We are a school after all). But, he'd simply begged for more. I love it when I see that he wants to learn. We are now reading chapter books instead of the picture books we've been reading before. I thought, he'd get bored with books w/o pictures, but then, his comprehension on books is way too advanced for a 5-year old.

This year is a year of breakthrough, release and an outpour of God's loving kindness to our family. His provision is enormous, no one in his own mind could even understand how we were able to manage the things that has happened to us. But, last year's trouble is a double portion of his provision this year. To be a homeschool, work at home twin mother, I'd say truly that all things work together for good to those who love Him (and are loved by Him) and are called according to his purpose.