Tot School

Something has been bothering me for awhile now.

I am reminded quite often of all the fun things that I used to do with Carrie and William when they were little. They were only 2 years apart, so a lot of the things that I would do with Carrie, I would also do with William.

You know, things like painting, playing games, pulling out special toys and sitting on the floor to play with them. We went places too. We did things that were age-appropriate for little kids.

Now that Carrie and William are older and in the 7th and 5th grade, I have become very intense with their schoolwork. Now they are doing upper elementary and junior high English, math and science.

Serious business.

In my rushing around to make sure that we are doing all that I think we should be doing academically for the big kids, I feel like I'm forgetting to do those fun "little kid" things with Joshua.

I know that he's getting plenty of attention. After all, he not only has Mommy and Daddy, but he also has the attention of a 13-year old sister and an 11-year old brother. And now, he is beginning to enjoy having a younger playmate named Matthew.

But I think you know what I mean.

I'm not being intentional. I'm not thinking about what he might enjoy doing with me. I've been a little hit-and-miss when it comes to activity time with Josh.

After much time of wallowing in the guilt and doing nothing but feeling bad, I remembered that this isn't the way it's supposed to be. I'm supposed to be very careful not to get all covered up with guilt and condemnation (I have to say, though, that after 13 years of being a mom, I am pretty good at it). I'm supposed to be taking everything to God. So, I began praying that He would show me how to do all that He would like me to do as a homeschooling mom.

Enter Tot School.

Through blogging, I've met several wonderful moms. One of those moms writes a blog called The Four Little Penguins. When I would visit her blog, I would read about all of the things that she was doing with her little ones during Tot School. How encouraging to find a mom who was doing so many wonderful things with her children!

One day, I figured out that her Tot School graphic was linked to a another blog...1+1+1=1. It is that blog where I found the origin of Tot School, and I also found lots of other moms who are doing Tot School with their little ones.

I want to thank these moms for sharing their lives with me. I want to thank them for their inspiration and encouragement.

Because of your obedience to God's call, He led me to you.

And now, I am posting about my first week of Tot School with Joshua...and at times Carrie, William, and Matthew.

For us, Tot School this week consisted of one day...Friday.

We finished breakfast and then went right into some play time with the music box.

Here, Josh is playing with his macaroni shaker and "coach's whistle." You can see Carrie practicing piano in the background. I don't think that she was too distracted by her 3-year old metronome.



Matthew also found some things that kept his attention.



And, yes, William did too.



After packing up the music box, Josh and I went to the table to practice some cutting. I found a cutting book at our local bookstore called "My First Book of Cutting: A Kumon Workbook."



It was slow going, but Joshua was pretty proud of his final product.



Next, we did something that is one of Joshua's (and my) favorite things to do. We wrote a story for his storybook.

First we looked back at a few of the other stories that we have written.





Then we got started on his new story idea "Frank the Combine."
The idea for the story and the title all belong to Joshua. I write quite a bit of the story, but Joshua guides the storyline. As we write, we look up images on Google Images and I let him choose his favorite pictures. It's also fun to add family pictures when we can.



We read his stories over and over. He likes to show his stories to other people and giggles as they read them to him.

I know...a very long blog post this time.
Go rest your eyes.
It's Sunday evening, so I'm going to go do some lesson planning.
And maybe even make something besides brownies for supper.
Maybe.