Tot School: GeoBoard, Toddler Style

P is currently 27 months old.
It has been a long while since we've linked up to Tot School, but it's time to come back to the party! Here's a quick look at an activity P enjoyed recently. We have a set of wooden geoboards with nails like this:

My older children go through phases where they play around with them quite a bit, and during a recent session, P decided she wanted to play, too. I wanted her to be able to join in the fun, but I was a little concerned about the sharpness of the tiny nails. "There must be something around here that she could put the 'rubbands' around," I thought. Then I remembered these plastic knitting looms I had in my closet:



Much more toddler friendly, wouldn't you say?

For more great ideas for toddler activities, visit Carisa's blog!

The First Week of Fall 2011

I'd say it is definitely time for an update to this long-neglected blog! I'm not going to let myself feel guilty, though. These past several months, I have made the choice to thoroughly enjoy living and learning with my family instead of trying to force time to record everything. What grand adventures we have been having! 

We have had a truly joyful spring and summer season, and perhaps as winter approaches I will find more time to spend on blogging. We shall see . . .

We officially began our Fall schedule this week. (We homeschool year-round with breaks when we need them, and scale back to a more relaxed schedule from June to August.) It was a good week to ease in to a more structured (but still flexible) school-day routine. This is what our week looked like:

• Monday: J had to work despite it being Labor Day, and the kids were excited to start some new things. We went ahead and "did school", then hosted a fun barbecue in the evening with friends to enjoy the holiday.
• Tuesday: a full "school" day that actually went like clockwork! I deserve at least one of those per week, I think!
• Wednesday: We spent the morning at a poetry club in a nearby city (followed by a walk down to the river) that some friends inspired us to check out. This requires some driving time, but will be a fun once-per-month break from our schedule.
• Thursday: It was B's birthday (the big "oh-four"!), so we did some "basics" and spent the rest of the day celebrating. 
• Friday: Friday is always a more laid-back school day for us. We spent the morning doing some much-needed housecleaning, finished up a couple of school-related things, and enjoyed the summer weather that refuses to admit Fall is just around the corner! 

We are starting some new things this month. I hope to make time in future weeks to describe each more fully and how it is working for us. For now, however, a simple list will need to suffice:

• The Student Writing Intensive Level A (SWI-A) course from the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) for N and K.
• Primary Arts of Language (PAL) Reading and Writing (also from IEW) for B. (He is chomping at the bit for the reading portion, but we'll be taking the writing at a much slower pace.)
• A daily character development mini-lesson I'm calling "Growing My Character", as well as mini-lessons on safety, manners, and health.
• A twice-weekly study I've named "My Heritage", focusing on personal and family history, and branching out to include components of geography, state history, and U.S. history. This is going to be very "agile" in the sense that we'll let it take us where it needs to take us!

These are in addition to other great things that we have done in the past and will continue doing. Overall, this has been a fantastic first week of Fall! Here's to many more!