Now, Oliver's plan is much simpler! I hope you guys are still with me, Silas's post is pretty detailed! Oliver is NOT ready for preschool at all, the idea is laughable! But he still deserves some mommy time where he's the focus. To that end, we are participating in Tot School, from this blog. I've got a rough plan for Ollie too, just to make set up and decisions a lot easier. At least I hope it does!
Eventually he'll get into six trays. But I've yet to find trays that I like, or can afford (no Target here!) so for now, I'm piling each activity into a plastic shoe box style tub. Each one has a theme, and they are as follows: Fine Motor Skills (inserting mostly at his age), Sensory (in addition to the sensory tub), Magnets, Puzzles, Signing Activity (Oliver's getting really good at signing - more on that for another post!) and Wild Card Toys (mostly open ended toys such as blocks). As far as the Signing Activity goes, we'll be using SigningSmart activity guide. I'll choose a different activity each week as I'm finding I'm not making time for signing with Oliver and he's not picking them up as fast as he could.
As you'll see in the blog linked above, the point of Tot School isn't to learn, but to have fun and benefit from some one on one time with an adult. Toddlers do learn so much this way and it's good for everyone to do things their way now and again!
Here's how I see things unfolding, tot and pre school wise: I'll set Oliver for a snack at the table and work with Silas next to him, or on the floor if we need more space. Oliver tends to eat a lot and for a long time, so as long as he's content with that, it will work. If Oliver seems to be getting antsy, I'll give him his own tray activities to do. Some more independent activities could be the wild card toy or the magnets, for example. If I've already had a chance to introduce new toys, then he could play with them some more while Silas and I finish up. Sunday night is the night I rotate all the living room toys, so that should hold some appeal! If I was smart I would also rotate their living room books, but that may not fall into place just yet.
Silas could either continue with some of his activities or free play while I work with Oliver, or break out the play dough and sensory boxes (see this great blog for my inspiration!), and Oliver could join him later. It could be a great lesson in caring if he were to join us and help me "teach" Oliver by following Ollie's lead (rather than taking over and doing it his own way!). But I'm not sure I'm ready for that either! I really only see Oliver's attention lasting around a half hour, but I could be way off. In any case, I'd be happy to devote as long as he wanted to spend on it (especially if supper's ready to go!).
And that's it in a nutshell. I'll try and get the planning form I use up for you to see!
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