Tot School~Week 1

To say that I have struggled with what to do with Maleiah this year is an understatement.  There are so many great websites devoted to preschoolers, curriculum, lesson plans and arts and craft ideas that it can make a mommy's head spin.  I used to be a preschool teacher and I have resource books coming out of my ears.

Overload set in weeks ago and I could not make a choice and so I kind of just threw things at her (not literally) to try and keep her busy but I was not happy with that either.  So I did some looking around at Carisa's Totally Tots site and what I liked was that there was a lot to pick from (Alphabet, Bible, Literature...) but I could pick and choose what my focus was going to be.  I grabbed the Tot School Planning Form here because I only had to pick 3 things to purposely do with her each day and then anything else is extra.  I needed to have a plan so I cold have things ready when our time starts.  if not, well she's lost her interest waiting on me to get my act together and then I am frustrated with myself and her and...you can see where the day is going, right?

Okay, so I made a plan based on this part of the site: Now I Know My ABC's and added in activities from my own books and things I did when I taught 3-4 year old's.  We are adding some seasonal themes during the week and activities from our library readings too.  Overall it was a great week and I am actually looking forward to next week!

Maleiah is 36 months. :)

We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom this week to introduce the ABC's!  For October we were also focusing on the color orange and triangles.

These are the things Maleiah made this week:

• a triangle collage
• all things orange collage
• painted with orange
• painted a pumpkin and then glued on triangle shapes for the eyes, mouth and nose
• mixed red and yellow to make orange
• and painted with ABC cookie cutters

Other activities she enjoyed

• Play-Doh
• Leapfrog Word Whammer (singing the song mainly)
• Starfall