Back in August and early September I saw lots of pictures of kids going off to school. While looking at lots and lots of these first-day-of-school pictures, I noticed that a number of these kids were younger than Ephraim! My poor little man - 3 years old and not going off to school this year like many of his peers. We've never really considered sending him to preschool. We do have a local Lutheran preschool that I'm sure is wonderful, but cost eliminated that option. I have heard great things about the preschool program offered at the local YMCA, but again, cost is prohibitive. And, honestly, I'm not really ready for him to go.
Those pictures also got me thinking about our plans to homeschool in a couple of years. How in the world will I balance schooling and the younger kids - let alone housework (which is not my forte!)? I started considering doing a little schooling with the kids now, just to see how I would do with time management and to get the kids doing something a little bit different than they do now.
After talking with Ed and reading a fabulous blog (here), I decided to give it a trial run. I'd do some activities with the kids three days a week for an hour or less (while Johanna naps) in Tot School. The decision was made! I felt better already.
Along with this schooling decision, we made a conscious choice to plan more activities for Thursdays, which are Ed's days off. I also am planning to do something outside the house (as often as possible) on Tuesdays - we call them our Tuesday Adventures! I'll be blogging about our first adventure soon.
All that said, here is a quick look at our first week (and a half) of Tot School:
We started on Reformation Day - like our Reformation Outfits?
Tracing lines from the crow to the scarecrow.
Counting like objects.
Categorizing big, medium, small.
Tracing letters.
Getting purple marker on her face.
Rolling a cube and graphing what shows up. Taking turns.
We had school again on Friday.
The kids couldn't wait because our new scissors had just come in the mail the day before!
New scissors - she's not quite ready for these!
Having a blast cutting up political flyers - the cardstock made them easier to hold.
Sorting wooden shape beads.
All sorted by color.
Puzzle time - Handprint puzzle with numbers and right/left.
Back to cutting - he loves it!
Farm puzzle - we've been missing a piece for a while, so it's nice to have the whole puzzle back.
Still cutting....
They loved school so much, they begged for it on Saturday too....
Graphing with blocks.
Cutting again.
Matching shapes.
Graphing with the cube.
We continued our Fall Week this week, but they ran through the rest of the activities on Monday.
We'll continue tomorrow (Friday) with Thanksgiving Week(s). I have LOTS more activities!
Gluing the correct number of matching pictures.
Gluing the shape pictures on the shape shadow.
Cutting practice on the gray lines.
Putting the pictures back together.
Mimic the pattern.
Color the correct shape leaf the corresponding color.
Color the leaf the color written on it.
She only needed help with gray - all the rest she did all by herself!
Our first week (or so) went very well. Every day they ask if they can have school. Some days I oblige, others, I tell them they need to wait. I wasn't prepared for Wednesday and had to listen to them complain all morning. I have lots prepared for Friday and will have even more to add since I plan to continue Thanksgiving Week through the actual week of Thanksgiving, so 2+ weeks.
Then we'll be on to Christmas Month. I plan to begin with actual Tot School (no trial anymore) in January and have mapped out a rough idea for the year. At some point, the littlest will be involved more, but for now, as we're learning, I'm going to stick to doing school while she's napping.
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