Toddler Homeschooling: Thanksgiving Theme

November 3-7

Age: 22 months

Keep in mind, these activities take longer to plan than they take to actually do.  The key is prepping, setting up and getting ready to switch gears when your tot is done.  They have short attention spans, so it makes for quick thinking!

On a side note, I am not planning on homeschooling my children for real. I'm pretty sure we'll send Brooke to pre-school when the time is right and I'll continue to supplement education at home as her education continues.  I just enjoy it and seeing her grow, so that is why I do it.

Tips--

Go.With.The.Flow. Don't have super high expectations; at this age it's all about exploring and playing. She loves to get messy, and it makes me cringe, but soap and water does wonders.  I also like to hang her work up so she can see it and we go over what she did again and again.

Letter:
T

Crafts:
Q-tip paint
Paste leaves activity
Turkey hunt

Books:
The Night before Thanksgiving
Fall is for Friends
Who Loves the Fall?
Ten Fat Turkeys
The First Thanksgiving 
Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks

Song:
"I'm a Silly Turkey"

We worked on the skill of "dot dot dot" in the circles.

I gave a brush and a pumpkin too since there was more paint left over.

She showed interest in the glue stick the other day, so I just cut some of the square images out and taught her how to paste.

I reserve the books for when mama is beat and not ready to turn on the TV.  I pulled them out and she legit, sat and listened to ALL of these books! I read most of the words, sometimes we just pointed out some objects she knew on the pages.   I cannot explain how much it warmed my heart to have her sit and read with me.  Usually she is up and running, but she really listened to each story.  Warmed my teacher heart I tell ya!!  I was super excited my stepmom had all these books from a kid she used to nanny.  I swear I was probably a little too excited about it, but what can I say.

I <3 reading.

Since she loved these two stories, we've been reading them still.

One of the printables was for "cutting" but I put it in a plastic sleeve and we are working on "tracing" with a dry erase marker.

I laminated some of these words and we say them.  She obviously knows them only by the picture, but the exposure to the printed word can't hurt!

Wednesday we did another painting "T" activity.  Turkey today!

And then I just let her paint some more.

Our new books came in the mail!! We had a ball reading them. She loves flap books. The turkey one is cute and of course, it's important to start instilling thankfulness.

It was nice to read the new books upstairs after her long nap and snack.  She was raring to go!

Thursday:

I got my new shelving today, so I have been trying to organize all of our school stuff!! Really, it was funny because she was just all up in my biz-nass and trying to get into all of it.  So we kept taking breaks.

We broke into the Sensory bin.

She wanted to draw with the expo marker/white board.

She wanted to play with play-doh.

She even played with the box the shelf came in for a bit.

This is what I mean about going with the flow…kids will show you what their interests are, you just have to be open to it.  She also told me "potty" and put her hand on me several times, so we stopped and did that a few times too.  She had already gone in her diaper, but her thought process is getting there!  

These fridge magnets are great too! Since our letter of the week is "T" I keep pressing it and we'll sing it.  I'm always in the kitchen, so it's pretty easy to remember. I also have the bath foam letters and we always go through those as well.  Like I said, exposure and repetition seems to be key!

Bottom line, I keep reminding myself to HAVE FUN.  Kids know when you're not happy.  Kids will connect and remember whether it is a positive or negative experience. I don't want to EVER associate school with something that we are fighting on.  Sure, when she actually goes off to school we will have tears and frustrations and stress…but not now.  We just are exploring and having fun…and making LOTS of messes in the process.  Sorry Daddy! hehehe  Luckily when I asked if he liked our daycare setup, he said there was no other daycare he'd rather send his daughter off to.  That made me feel good. :)

Any fun toddler tricks you're up to these days?