Monday, April 29, 2013

iPad Apps

Racoon's iPad has been my new BFF since we bought it last March. Nothing sidetracks a meltdown in the middle quite like the magic words, "I got a new game for you!" Raccoon is not much of a repeat player, he prefers novelty, so I don't like to spend a lot on an app that I'll just be deleting in a day or two. But finding quality apps that are free is time-consuming, so I use www.smartappsforkids.com. They post a free app of the day, and I also get their e-mails to remind me. I'm not affiliated with them, but figured that most moms can use a time-saving tip.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

The Object of Education

...is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.
- Robert M. Hutchins
Raccoon will be attending preschool twice a week in the fall. I am wondering if I should continue doing Tot School on the other days, although technically he's not a tot anymore. I do plan on as many field trips as we can afford, to the aquarium, the zoo, the children's museums, etc. The quote above really is my goal for this next school year. I want to feed his love of learning so that he seeks out knowledge and wisdom his whole life long, while living a happy life.

"There will never be enough hours in a life to learn all that is available to modern man, nor is it worth the life that would be given in exchange. I need to put the knowledge beast on a diet. Knowledge may be power, but its price is a life well lived." Jen from Laughing at Chaos.


Saturday, April 27, 2013

Best Practice

I was reading a fascinating article about how one set of parents chose to educate their precocious child. I love the idea of a multi-grade approach, along with how it taught their son to feel comfortable interacting with people of all ages. Wouldn't it be amazing if each child could be met exactly where they needed to be in school and progress as quickly or as slowly as they needed to? 

"It is easy to label a child a prodigy, but not all prodigies achieve genius. Genius is not related to speed of development. It requires qualities of creative thought and exploration…the ability to break through and make a unique or original contribution." (B. Tao, 1985).

Friday, April 5, 2013

A Little of This and That

What have we been up to lately for Tot School?
Not much, but here are a few of the things that Raccoon has done on his own lately.

 
This was one of the first times that he's asked
me to take a picture of something he's made.
 

 We're still slowly working our way through my mom's alphabet book, making two pages for each letter. We love the dot paints that my mom brought down for Raccoon in February.

 
"Dd is for Door Knock Knock Who's there?
Dd is for Did. Noah did all that God commanded him. Genesis 6:22"

 
"Ee is for Envelope, inside is a note.
Ee is for Everywhere
Jacob ran, but God was there."
 
 
This was supposed to be our "Ff" page, but Raccoon enjoyed making dot patterns so much that we made it into a separate work of art instead.
 
 
"Ff is for Fish
Swimming in the sea.
Ff is for Friends. Friends stick together. Prov 18:24"
 
 
One night Raccoon wanted me to cut out numbers for him to glue on a page. I just did it freestyle which is why they are all different sizes. Then we played "Where is the..."

 
Another night (hmmm, I'm detecting a pattern here), he gathered a bunch of different materials. Then he insisted that he wanted to take a picture of Daddy. He was so excited that he dropped the camera and broke it. After a lot of tears, we found a picture already on the computer and printed it off. I had no idea what Raccoon wanted to make, so I just followed his instructions, helping him cut and glue.

 
He wanted a framed picture of his beloved Daddy up on the wall with our other important pictures.

 
Raccoon has also been "reading" to Robin (2 months old), which she seems to enjoy. She smiles whenever Raccoon is near.

 
For some great ideas, check out:
 
Tot-School-Gathering-Place