Tot School Begins!

{ASIDE: There are so many things that I want to remember about our daily life as a family. The primary goal of this blog is of course for us to be able to remember, to keep a firm hold on our memories so that they don’t slip away from us. The secondary goal is to be able to share what’s going on in our lives with friends and family in a more as-it-happens kind of way. I did the hobby blog thing for a while and it got to be overwhelming, and it got a lot of attention from people we don’t know. Whatever I write, whatever I do, the goal isn’t notoriety. It’s more personal than that. So, with that in mind, the “Tranmers at Home” blog is going to branch out a little bit to include more than just ‘Dela’s Scrapbook. But I’m doing it for us, not for the masses. So these posts are meant to be tagged or shared, just enjoyed by us and our friends.

One area that is changing in our daily life, and one that I’m not really sure how best to categorize/commemorate yet, is branching into the idea of “homeschooling.” (I’m the kind of person who as a child had a different drawer for each of my collections and sorted my clothes by color.) But rather than getting hung up on how to organize it, I’m just going to start doing it. I can always reorganize it later. :)}

To Homeschool?

Hey Baby! The school year has begun. You’re too little for school of course. But seriously, the amount of stimulation you can handle and actually NEED to keep you entertained is ever-increasing. Whether we’re going to end up homeschooling you or sending you to school is something that we are still thinking and praying over. I’m actually really torn. I can’t actually imagine sending you away for hours every day. It seems like letting someone else raise my child. I have no desire to get my “free-time” back. I’d rather have you home. Good, bad or indifferent, that’s where I’m at right now.

In so many ways, I believe that we, that I (since I would be your primary instructor), could do a better (or at least as good) job teaching you academics and making sure you are also learning practical, real-life skills than a traditional classroom could provide. I was homeschooled from 5th to 10th grade. I went to college when I was 16 and earned an Associate’s Degree by the time I was 18, took some time off, and then earned a Bachelor’s degree. I got great grades. I learned a lot (don’t let all the typos in this blog fool you, haha.) I had no problem adjusting to a classroom. I have great memories of spending time at home with your Tia Kristy and Mima. And I got a lot of hands-on homemaking experience doing not-so-fun things like ironing and dusting and the super fun things like baking and sewing. I learned to love being at home in addition to academics. I am a big fan of homeschooling done right.

I had a ton of friends who were home-schooled at the same time as I was and we had a great homeschooling community through our church. I probably had more quality social interaction than a lot of  kids who attended traditional school. My question is, can I provide that same kind of social environment for you? As much as I wish I was enough and that I could be your all-in-all, I’m not and I can’t. I can’t replace the interaction you’d get from other kids your age… and other authority figures, other adults. I don’t want you to miss out on anything. How do I make sure you get everything? We’re only in the very beginning stages of figuring all this out, but it’s certainly on my mind a lot.

Tot School!

For now, we’re having fun with “tot school” which isn’t actually school. It’s nothing structured or rigid. It’s just fun, skill-building, mind-stimulating activities that allow to to explore and get to know your world. And I’ve been having a blast with it, and with the idea of “activity bins.” There are so many ideas and so many ways of doing things out there. Homeschooling has changed A LOT since the days when Mima had to figure everything out through paper and phone calls. Now, we have the Internet and a wealth of homeschooling bloggers who love to share all their cool ideas. I’m overwhelmed by the wealth of ideas and information available. It’s hard to know where to start. My new creed is “Do What You Can With What You Have Where You Are.” So many things get put off because I don’t know exactly how or exactly what or where to start.

My “where to start” for Tot school was in a bin of stuff I had left-over from my 2 years as a Children’s Librarian. I forgot I had all this stuff! A wealth of research, crafts, songs, story times themes, activity ideas, supplies and custom props I bought and made to use in my Children’s programs. I mean, duh! You just grew up all of a sudden I guess. The last time I thought about all this stuff, you were too young for it. Not any more. 🙂 You’re a big girl now and you’re starting to participate in the activities put in front of you. So, I put together the little I know with the little I have and started some activity bins for you.

Some of the bins I was able to put together with stuff I already had include…

a musical instrument bin

a sponge shape bin for painting or water play

a fall leaf bin

a colored scarves bin

a jingle bell bin

a finger puppet bin

and more…

Since then, I’ve been to the dollar store and invested a few more dollars and have a TON of other ideas. Here’s what your play shelf looks like now. You point and I get one down for you. You either play by yourself – if it’s a free play activity like the fall leaves bin – or I do the activity with you – if it’s a more involved/messy and requires some adult participation like a painting bin.

Here’s a couple activities I put together for you before the activity bins started coming together. We started an “Alphabet Book” where we look through a magazine together and find things that start with a given letter of the alphabet. Then you watch Momma cut it out (or you help me tear it out) and we glue it on a page for that letter. We don’t do it every day and we don’t do more than one letter per day. But eventually we’ll have a book with every letter of the alphabet. You are barely old enough for this, but you really do participate amazingly well. You will sometimes mimic the sound the letter makes when I show you first and you love to point out the things when I ask you “where is the ____?” You don’t especially love sticky fingers, but you always help me press down the pictures when we glue them. Preventing you from trying to peel them back up is the hard part. hehe

And this is still your favorite activity so far, of all the activities you’ve done in the past several weeks. I keep changing it up a little bit and you just love it. Any combination of kitchen utensils, bowls, and dry pasta. This keeps you entertained for a good hour just about every time. And it doesn’t make a hard-to-clean-up mess! Pure genius.

Lots more Tot School to come! And lots of to homeschool or not to homeschool decisions to be prayed and made. I love having you home, baby girl. There’s no doubt about that.