Celebrating Fall with Tots and Preschoolers

Fall is our favorite season. We love the weather, the season change, wearing sweaters and especially Fall activities and flavors. Here is a compilation of eight things that we love to do during Fall. We hope you find this fun list helpful and useful. 

This is my first guest post over at ALLterNATIVElearning blog and I am very excited to share it with you. Read on to get some ideas and inspiration during this wonderful season.

2 Fun Pumpkin Crafts for Tots and Preschoolers

We had such a fun time today making these two crafts! They were so fun, so easy and SO INEXPENSIVE! You should take a look and give them a try.

Some of Our Favorite Fall Books

Fall is definitely our favorite season. We love the weather, the season change, the leaves falling, the cinnamon smells, the pumpkin flavors, the celebrations... in other words, we love everything!
To make Fall even more special, we go to our local library to pick some seasonal books. Every year, without fail, we are able to add more books to our "Fall Favorites" list. Here are some that made it on the list. We are only showing you the ones that we absolutely loved and enjoyed reading together.

 

Homeschooling a Toddler: What 3 Learning Sessions Look Like

Have you ever attempted to homeschool a toddler? If you have, you have probably realized how they are extremely tactile, how they love to explore new and exciting things and how they have a short attention span. To maximize this precious one-on-one time with them, it is important to focus on one thing and one thing only: flexibility.

With toddlers, as with infants and newborns, it doesn't matter how prepared you are or how much you have planned for this time. It will happen in their time and in their way. As stressful as that may sound, in the end, it is best to follow the child because that is how she learns best.

Here, I present to you three easy review lessons to keep things short, fun and moving along. This is not to tell you what to teach or how to teach it, but rather how it works for our family in hopes that this will inspire you to get ideas and come up with your own fun and easy activities that your toddler will simply love and enjoy revisiting when you invite her again to join in. 

These lessons are geared for toddlers that are 2-3 years old, but you can start some of these activities sooner and make them more complex as they get older and/or master the skills. 
The amount of time each session takes varies. I follow her and keep an eye on her attention span for that day. I usually have more material than what we use, just to be ready. Usually, our lessons are about 30 minutes long, but sometimes as little as 15 minutes, so we break up our lesson into two parts and come back later for the other half.

Homeschooling December 2013 Part 6

             

Monthly Goals: February 2014

Review of January 2014

~ January Goal 1: Get back into the groove of things without over-filling our schedule.
* Focal Point: Develop better time-management skills.

+ Review: I failed MISERABLY at this one! I feel so horrible for not accomplishing this goal and frankly, quite exhausted. There was way too much on my plate and it is all my fault for letting it pile up. Big lesson learned, though.

~ January Goal 2: Homeschool for 2 hours daily (Monday through Friday).
* Focal Point: Setting priorities in their right places.
+ Review: This, we accomplished. For the most part, I let nothing interfere with our homeschooling time and I cannot tell you what a difference this made. Homeschooling is something I love so much and thoroughly enjoy. It was my haven, my saving grace. I wouldn't have survived this month without it.

~ January Goal: Have at least one planned play date a week (at home or elsewhere).
* Focal Point: Be social, be fun.

+ Review: This one didn't go so well either, but it wasn't as bad as goal #1. The play dates weren't planned, even though we did have play dates every week.

And now, on to our February Goals:

Goal 1: See my calendar? I will try to not overfill it.

Focal Point: Again, like last month, time management.

Goal 2: We had so much fun homeschooling both children together 

(lessons they can both do and learn from) that I want to do more of those. 

So far, we were only doing Mandarin Chinese and Bible lessons together, 

but last month, I included a couple of other lessons (that she could do, too, 

not paper and pencil, etc) and it was super fun.

Focal Points: Teamwork, small group dynamics, sharing (time, attention, 

materials, etc).

Goal #3: Mind our eating style better. Balance is key and it is important to 

stick with what works and is better for our health. Over the holidays, it was 

difficult eating only wholesome foods and it has been time to get back to that. 

As a goal, I'd like to juice 2-3 times per week and have smoothies 2-3 times 

per week, like before. And that is only the beginning.

Focal Points: Healthier eating, better habits, consistency.

To see other bloggers' goals, click here.

Montessori-Inspired Sorting Activities

Monthly Goals: January 2014

This year, I have teamed up with a wonderful group of ladies to encourage each other to set goals on a monthly basis and be held accountable for them. When I heard of this, I thought it was a brilliant idea and that I really need this in my life.
So here it goes. I will stick with 3 realistic, reasonable and attainable goals each month.

Goal: Get back into the groove of things without over-filling our schedule.

Focal Point: Develop better time-management skills.