Character education is, in my opinion, more important in educating our children than scholastic curriculum. With the increasing diversity in our world and in the United States, it is becoming ever more important to introduce our children to the many cultures and experiences of those around them. We live our lives based on our experiences, and…
Wow it’s already week 11 in our tot school adventures and I am loving making these lesson plans for toddlers! Are you enjoying learning with your kids too? I would absolutely love to hear from you to know how you are doing thus far. This week we are covering buildings. What is fun about this…
This week in tot school features toddler learning activities geared towards transportation and ways we move. From buses to balloons, come explore with us. From incorporating wheel crafts to pulling out some awesome new toys, we had LOTS of fun. And while it’s one of my most loathed songs because of it’s “sticking” ability, we sang…
Homemade musical instruments are a way to get kids involved in the process of open-ended play. Whether they are involved in the steps it takes to make the musical instrument or not, the creativity in making ordinary objects part of music helps them see the world a little differently. In fact, knobby puzzle pieces have…
This week in tot school, we combined two weeks. It was extremely hectic around here and we got behind! (Imagine that!) So we decided that lids and fasteners would make a fun week of learning and exploration and we wouldn’t worry about splitting the two weeks. PLUS, I didn’t have a book for fasteners, so…
Because spring is on its way and we love to grow as much of our own food as possible, we spent some time learning about seeds in tot school. We tried to tie in this week with when we would do some seed starting anyways; that way we could get plants ready and involve our…
This week in tot school we did things a little bit different. We didn’t have a daily topic because we were simply learning about magnets! We enjoyed so much fun and play time each day with fun magnetic activities that enriched the mind and encouraged exploration.
My daughter is extremely interested in learning facial features. She is constantly saying “nose” while breastfeeding and walking around the living room patting her head when we read about monkeys falling off the bed. I think it is important for young kids to learn facial features because that’s where most of our sense of the…
Sensory exploration is one of the most fun ways for little ones to learn. Whether you are playing with goop or just exploring the ways that different objects feel, texture plays a huge role in our lives. Furthermore, exploring the sense of touch through textures helps build vocabulary and help young children be more descriptive…
This past week in tot school, I had the opportunity to introduce and teach patterns to my almost 15 month old. The beauty of being able to teach patterns is that our entire lives revolve around them! What I mean by this is that the basic definition of a pattern is something that repeats and…
Week two was full of teaching shapes and exploring the wonderful world that is made up of so many different shapes and in all different sizes! Teaching shapes seems to be a bit easier than teaching colors because it’s a finite idea. There is no gray area like colors can have different shades and it’s…
Though it’s an abstract concept, teaching colors is one things we all teach our children at an early age. One of the reasons why I chose for it to be first in this year’s learning themes is because it spans all things, meaning we can continue to talk about colors in each of the other…