Tot School

What is Tot School?
A Tot School is a daily uninterrupted time when you sit down with your toddler and work on creative activities to develop skills. It can be as short, or as long, as you like.

Some activities to include are: 

• sensory 
• fine motor skills 
• gross motor skills
• story time
• Bible study 
• Social
• Life Skills

Tot school activities are appropriate from about 2-4 years of age, of course, you can start earlier or sooner depending on your child's specific needs. Remember- it's STAGES, not AGES. 

Tot school is not "formal" school- it is just a time for you and your child to have fun together and learn. Activities each day should take about an hour, or less, and you may find it is best to work on it in chunks throughout the day or get everything done at once. 

My favorite part about "tot school" are the tot trays! These simple activities are multi-sensory, and simple to set up and enjoy! Check out some tot school ideas here from 1+1+1=1! 

Check out her blog for even more ideas about Tot School! 

Here are some of the resources that I've found useful as I begin to start working with Brennan:

• Melissa & Doug lacing beads (Buy from Amazon for $9.90!) For lacing activities, you can also try pasta and string. I like the lacing beads because they are very big and easy to grasp. 
• Kumon First Steps Workbooks- includes Let's Color, Let's Sticker & Paste, Let's Fold, and much more! This simple workbooks are easy to duplicate. For example, you can duplicate a simple Let's Color activity by printing out a picture of an object (say a big red apple), and making a copy. Before you copy, place a white square piece of paper (or cut anyway you like really) under the part of the apple you will make a copy of, and viola! Instant Let's Color success.
• Check out the dollar store and Target $1 section for stickers to practice placing stickers on paper. 
• To make my own "tracing" activities I place two stickers on the page and ask Brennan to draw a line from one point to the other. 
• Make lapbooks! Lapbooks are hand-made interactive books that help your toddler learn colors, numbers, and shapes. They can be based on a book, movie, TV show, Bible, or anything really! I am going to do one based on Brennan's favorite book- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! 
• Buy a white erase/chalk board. I recommend the Melissa & Doug one since it is two-sided, and perfect size to sit in a toddlers lap. 

Overall, I am very excited and looking forward to exploring these resources with Brennan!!