Tot School: Week 1

Chook 30mths, Strawberry & Ooffa 13mths

Our first Tot School weekly write-up! I came across this site a few weeks back and at first I was going to dismiss it as another site that encourages the parental temptation of stopping children from "wasting time" and pushing for "school readiness". But I was curious to discover more after reading "What is Tot School?" There is a lot to get your head around but what I liked especially was that it isn't prescriptive. There is no set curriculum and it is up to you, as the parent, how you involve your toddler.

I have decided to join in with the weekly post link because it means I HAVE to find the time to spend with Chook. There is always so much to do around here that often Chook is just left to it. Then he gets all clingy and whingy and all I had to do was spend some time with him. So this link makes me accountable! No more guilty feelings of not spending enough time with chook.

Topic: Ocean Life

Creative Play

Play in the revamped sandpit with sea creatures and plumbing tube cut-offs.

Planned Play

Sand Hide and Seek. I hid four sea creatures in the sand, leaving a small part of the animal exposed and Chook had to find them. He used a plastic spoon to dig them up with.

Helping Chook to learn his colours. I set up the Magnetic Fishing Game and let Chook play with it. I talked about the colours of the fish very casually. After a few days of just playing we talked about the colours of the fish and I asked Chook to catch a green fish. He did this successfully but the next fish was labelled green (and it was yellow). We'll get there...lots of time. All our activities from now on will have a colour focus. Matching and labelling.

Helping Chook to build a sandcastle. We have read Grandpa and Thomas by Pamella Allen so many times. In the story Grandpa and Thomas build a sandcastle by piling the sand into a mound and then decorating the mound. Many times we have built a sand castle but we have used a sand mould. This week I planned to show Chook how to build a sand castle using only your hands. We then decorated our castle with shells.





Chook has asked to play Hide and Seek in the sand and making sand castles several times since we began.

Tiny Tot School

The twins were the first to discover the sandpit's new treasures.

Ooffa holds up his new find.

Unused specimen jars were used to make these great shakers that are perfect for little hands. Shaker 1: Bells. Shaker 2: Owl counters. Shaker 3: Large plastic teddy. Shaker 4: Wooden beads.

Sharing with Mummy "The Ta Game". Strawberry and Ooffa love this game.



Placing blocks up on the shelf. He would put them on and take them off and then do it all over again. Strawberry joined in the play after watching for a little bit. She likes to watch Ooffa have-a-go first.