Tot Trays/Practical Work (Montessori inspired)

What do you do when you have to teach a preschooler/kindergartner or any age groupwhile you have a toddler/toddlers running around and distracting you??  This was something I had been working on for a while and now that I have come to a basic understanding and things have been working out for us, I want to share this with everyone.  This is not a new method but I learned it through online resources and also through exploring Montessori method.  I am a big fan of Montessori method where we take the lead of the children.  

Toddlers can do a lot of things which we think are not quite possible for them.  Tot trays are just a twist on Montessori inspired activities.  I use these activity trays to expose early learning skills and to simple engage my Anna's curiosity and wonder while I do school with George.  The trays are rotated often, using the same materials in different ways and with different twists.

Most of these items are not expensive and many items can be found at home itself.  I have only bought a bunch of stuff from Dollar tree just to get things started.  I would say it took me almost 3-4 months to collect everything and start using the tot trays with Anna during our school hours.  The following are the main ideas I go by for Tot Trays: Pouring, transferring, Beading, spooning, sorting, matching, cutting, gluing, simple arts/crafts, stickers, fine motor muscle skills etc.  

Transferring

Stickers

Matching

Transferring

Spooning

Arts/craft

Pouring

Puzzles/Matching

I arrange the tot trays ahead of time so that when we start school I don't have to run around and find things

Sorting

Beading

Extra items I add which are available at home already

George loves to join in and sometimes begs if he could do it because it is so much fun

Motor skills

Magnetic toys

Spooning

Sorting

Using the stuff I already have at home

Using skinny objects like straws to put into small spaces 

Counting

Using cutips to fill up the small spaces in a Parmesan bottle

Coloring

Beading

Good muscle/motor skills

Pouring

Sorting

From the above pictures I hope you can understand the different ways in which I keep reusing the same concepts in different ways.  We also have to keep switching items and alternate it every week so that kids don't get tired of it.  Some of the trays Anna does not even touch and she is free to pick which ever activity she likes to do.  The only rule is to keep the things in tray.

I love this idea and really want to encourage others to do this also.  It is a bit of work in the beginning but once you have most of the items collected you can start and it gets really easy.  We have to keep our eyes open stop throwing away some cans and cereal boxes etc so that it could be used for ideas for the tot trays.  When you go shopping keep your eyes open for things on sale and be creative.

Once again I want to stress that it took few months to come up with all the items needed for Tot tray activities.  So don't rush or don't feel like you have to get it all at once.  Take your time and explore with your kids with stuff that you already have at home and then build on it.

Our School Room (A Dream come true)

For almost 3 years I have dreamed about having a school room for my kids. When I first started homeschooling George at 3 years old I used a corner of my basement as school room.  It was very difficult to get his focus and attention there since we had the TV and the toys in the basement as well. Being a toddler and having everything exposed right in front of him I knew it wasn't even practical to expect him to focus and pay attention to me.  And yet he did the best he could as a toddler.  

I remember reading through blogs and looking at pictures of the school rooms of other homeschooling moms and praying to Jesus for giving me a room specifically for school. I am a person who believe that if I am homeschooling my children I need to give them the best that I can rather than just doing an okay job. I also think have a school room of their own teach them a certain level of discipline.  At the same time I don't want to create something which we don't have or cannot afford and making our children feel like they receive anything they ask for.  

Once my parents moved out of our house I had the opportunity to convert one of the rooms into a school room.  It took at least few months for me to make this school room look the way it looks now. Almost everything in the school room are either used stuff friends gave us or things we picked up when people threw it out in our neighborhood or from a garage sale.  We really have not spend money on getting anything.  

As you can see we have two tables, one which is a study table and the other one is an art table. I have two small shelves where I keep the curriculum's I use, craft stuff, coloring books, crayons, glue, etc. I also have a book basket where I keep books that are currently being used during our story time.  

I do have bunch of toys that the kids get to play after they are done with school or while George is being taught Anna plays with it.  I keep switching the toys around so that they don't get tired of it.

I also have a closet in the room were I keep all their board games, puzzles etc which we use during school time.

I have displayed some rules on the wall for them to practice everyday.  Each time they do it they get a star and once they fill up the star for the whole row they get a price.  This has helped especially George to work on certain good habits which he really struggles with.  The one that you see up on this picture is the second set of rules I am displaying.  Before this I had another one and they had already mastered them and got the price for it.  You can find the older one in the previous pictures of our school room.  Sometimes we moms have to keep up with it more than the kids because they forget but we have to remember the times they tried to follow the rules and give them the sticker. One of the hardest thing for George was cleaning up after he plays with toys.  It was so hard for him that everyday this was one thing that made us argue and fight the most.  But once I made this rule chart he really got motivated and now after practicing this for more than 3-4 months he can clean up on his own without me having to beg him to do it.

Having a school room has helped me tremendously in bringing order to our home school and children really appreciate having this study area.  It also gives a certain level of respect to school time and they know the rules they have to follow while they  =are in school.  They also know where each item belongs so after they finish using each item, I don't have to keep telling them to put things back. They have to clean up each item after they finish  and after setting these rules for almost 6 months they are doing things on their own.  Discipline and order are two important aspects of homeschooling.  If we as parents don't have that order in home and discipline to keep things organized our children will never learn it.

I was never the best person to keep things in order at home but homeschooling has really helped me in shaping myself to a more orderly person.  I am so glad God opened up the door to our family to home educate our children because it has not only helped the kids but more than that I feel me as a mother has grown in prayer and holiness.

Now not having a school room should not stop us from home schooling.  Because not all of us have the space or room to make a school room.  But if you have a desire bring it up to the Lord and he will provide it at the right time.  Until then we do our best with what is being given to us.

Feed the Hungry

One of my decisions during this Lent was to volunteer as a family at Feed My Starving Children.  We have gone there once before and was great.  Since one of the Corporal Work of Mercys is Feeding the hungry, this was the best way to fulfill it.  On the day we had signed up to go happened to be the most tiring day for me as well as for Sony at work and kids were so tired that they fell asleep on the way there.  The volunteering time we chose was on a Tuesday from 8pm to 9:30pm.  It was bed time for kids but still we went since we had made the decision to do it. 

Only 5 year olds and up can participate in packing the food.  This year George participated.  He woke up when we got there and was not too happy.  He wanted to go back home.  Anna also woke up once we got there but was just very cranky and was on my shoulders for most of the time. 

In my mind I questioned myself whether it was the best decision to come there that day.  Especially with sleepy and unhappy kids, me and Sony extremely tired and also knowing that the short nap the kids got in the car will keep them awake for the night. 

But when you make a sacrifice for the Lord, even when it does not make any sense, God sees it.  He appreciates it.  Guess what!! My unhappy George who did not want to participate became so excited once he started helping pack the food.  At the end he said” Mamma, I loved it.  I want to do this again” 

Anna woke up and started crying for good 15 minutes but afterwards she also started enjoying the music and watching what everyone was doing.  Those who cannot pack food can stay back and stick the expiry stickers on the bags.  We both sat and I was able to put stickers on at least 50 bags. 

Later on me and Sony switched places and I started helping with packing food with George while Sony took Anna.  Ultimately we all were happy.  Kids had a great time.  Despite the fact that me and Sony were extremely tired we felt great satisfaction and joy in being able to do something beautiful with our children. 

At the end of the whole packing they show us a video of the people who are getting the food we packed.  This time they showed 4 kids in Africa who were abandoned by their dad.  Mom could not take care of them by herself and by trying to feed them with the little she could bring home kept the kids alive, but she died leaving these 4 children, oldest being 8 years old and youngest being just 18 months.  When the people found these children they were just bones and youngest child was only 9 pounds and he was 2 years old at the time.  They started giving them the food from America packed by Feed my starving children group and now the child is 3 years old and weighs 23 pounds.  They said that these children did not know how to smile.  They were scared and abandoned and living in a small hut.  Now after taking care of them they are able to smile and we could see all this in the video.  The children and them smiling and talking, they were thanking us for packing food and sending it there. 

It is after watching this video I truly felt how important it was for us to go there and offer the least we could in feeding the hungry.  With teary eyes I thought to myself how blessed we and our children are that we never get to know the pain of hunger, our children have everything in plenty.  At the end they give us a sample of the food and George tasted it and he did not like it at all.  He asked me how they can eat this good.   It doesn’t taste good at all.  I was able to tell him they did not have a choice and they would starve if they don’t eat this food.  I was also able to tell him how we have so many choices and yet we complain about the food we have on our table. 

A beautiful lesson learned.