Ladybug is finishing up her Tot School Printables units now and we will then take a break from school over the holiday season. I have plans in place to begin in January and I wanted to share those with you! She is currently 32 months old, for those wondering!
First, I must say it was a difficult decision for me to decide where to go next with her. Why? For a few reasons…
1st ~ she is more academically advanced than Krash was at this age and also interested in learning WAY more.
2nd ~ I am a planner and although I love the free play learning, I need to have some sort of plan to go by and she seems to enjoy this too.
3rd ~ Krash began RRS Preschool when he was close to 4, which seemed to be just about right. She will be ready for it earlier than he was but it’s not quite yet. She could handle the school skills part of it, but is way too little to grasp the Bible verse and application portions. I knew I needed to do something in between Tot School Printables and RRSP.
My assessment of her interests and knowledge:
- she can identify almost all upper/lowercase letters
- she knows many letter sounds but not consistently
- she pretends to read, OFTEN
- she LOVES the written word and is very drawn to reading
- she LOVES writing, drawing, coloring and anything regarding holding a writing instrument in her hand! Her Tot Time Notebook is one of her favorite things. She will sit at a table and work for a very long time {totally unlike my boys}.
- she can count to 13, identify numbers 1-10 and many beyond 10.
- she knows all of her shapes, including hexagon, crescent, oval and the rest in TSP
- she knows her colors
- she does not know rhyming words
- she loves to learn with me, and also independently
Based on the above and many other factors, I have created a plan that I am hoping will work for her, me, and our lifestyle! That is what I recommend-finding something that works for ALL THREE…the child, the parent, and the current season of life. This is why it is so hard to compare what someone else is doing with their child, there are just so many factors that need to play into your decision. What I am about to outline may not work for you, for any or all of those reasons, or it might sound like a perfect fit for you also! All kids are different, all parents {home teachers} are different, and seasons of life present challenges {new baby, finances, # of kids, jobs, etc.} that sometimes can make the biggest impact on our decisions!
On to our plans…
The base of her Tot School will center around All About Reading Level Pre-1.
I was sent this to review a few months back and initially wondered how exactly I would use it. After looking through it and letting it roll around in my head, I realized this would be wonderful for Ladybug to do a bit earlier than I would have normally done something like this with either of my boys. I also thought it would be an awesome and fun review for Krash to join in with us. Krash is working through AAR Level 1, which is totally different. The review that he will get by “playing” with us during Ladybug’s AAR time will be wonderful. I don’t think he will always participate, but I like to unite the kids whenever possible.
AAR Pre 1 goes through the alphabet A-Z, upper case first and lower case second. It hits on the big 5 skills for pre-reading, which prepare young kiddos to be successful readers.
- Print Awareness
- Phonological Awareness
- Letter Knowledge
- Listening Comprehension
- Motivation to read
Ladybug is more solid with her letter knowledge and motivation to read, but not the rest! This seems to be the perfect fit for her. She will be 33 months when we begin, her 3rd birthday is in April.
We will go along with the AAR book and just move at her pace. I do not have a letter-of-the-week plan. If she gets through in 2 days, then we will move on, if it takes 2 weeks, that is fine too! I am preparing to have go along activities for each letter to keep her busy-this girl LOVES to be busy!
Example, for letter A I plan to do what is planned for AAR and also have the following ideas ready {we may or may not complete them all}
- Various Letter A crafts {similar to what I did with Krash before he did RRSP}
- Letter Aa Maze & hopefully PowerPoint show if I get them done soon! These would be a fun build on review, to review the letters we have done and add in a new letter when we get to it. These shows/printables focus on both the upper/lower case letters, and although AAR separates them, I will keep them together in other areas such as this-especially since she already knows most letter upper and lower.
- Book and Story Props {she loves these and we will hopefully be adding more to our collection}
- Tot Time Notebook Printables: She has her A-Z set and colors through the entire set almost daily, I plan to add new worksheets to her notebook as we move on. I also plan to make theme notebooks for her, similar to her Christmas Fun Notebook.
- Preschool/Tot Pack…if there is an obvious theme, a seasonal/holiday theme, or something she is interested in at the time. I do not plan to drive myself nuts matching the letter she is on with our theme.
She will also continue with Tot Trays, Learning Toys, and all of the other hands on and FUN components of Tot School. I will rotate her shelves out with fun toys, and trays each week {if I am on top of things!}.
I am spending the week after Christmas ironing out and preparing her plans, so these are just the basics. Many people have emailed and asked me so I wanted to share as soon as possible!
I know many of you will have questions about All About Reading Level Pre-1, and I promise to share weekly in my future Tot School posts so you can see first hand how it is working for us {or if it doesn’t}. Other than preparing a few things, I have not used it yet! So, stay tuned for ongoing reviews as we work our way through it! If you are looking for a review from someone who is using it now {that I personally know}, here are a couple for you to peek at; Homeschool Creations, Delightful Learning. Their reviews are mostly what sold me on the idea that it might be the perfect fit for us.
Is your tot transitioning into a new phase soon? What are your plans?
