Six Steps to Start Your Own Totschool

J and I believe that we are called to homeschool our little Queen B. We strongly feel that it is through homeschooling can we give the best holistic education to our daughter. We have taken the first step towards this direction when I attended the workshop The Early Years: Homeschooling 2 to 6 Year Olds by The Learning Basket last June. I learned a lot from Ms. Mariel, a homeschooling mom of 3, and I am excited to put into practice her teachings.

My intentional teaching to my little Queen B officially began last July. I call our “learning opportunities” as totschooling. Totschool is short for toddler school, a term I actually learned from other mommy blogs. It refers to the various activities that promote mental, physical, social, emotional, and even spiritual development of children ages 1 to 3.

Our little Queen B with the C page of our ABC book.

Just like when I’m about to handle a new subject before, I took time to get ready for totschooling my little Queen B. Here are the 6 steps I have taken in preparation of our homeschooling journey.

Step 1: I wrote down our usual daily schedule/routine.

People learn most when they are not tired, sleepy, and hungry. This is especially true in toddlers. So by jotting down our daily routine, I was able to take note of the times in a day Georgina will be most receptive to learning. In our case, I observed that she is most alert after her bath in the morning and after her afternoon nap.

Step 2: I made a curriculum.

Curriculum. Such a technical term but don’t worry you don’t need to be an Education graduate to make one especially during the toddler years. It is actually just a list of skills and knowledge you would like your child to master at the end of a specific period of time, in our case 6 months.

I started our Totschool right after she turned 18 months so our first set of curriculum will end when she turns 2 years old. In making the curriculum I used what I have learned in The Early Years Workshop. I categorized the things I would like her to learn into 5 major categories namely (1) Life/Practical Skills, (2) Character/Traits, (3) Arts and Music, (4) The World Around Us, and (5) Readiness Activities.

In making the curriculum, one must be realistic and consider the actual capabilities and interests of the child. Don’t set goals that are way advance for their age and abilities.

Step 3: I formulate a Lesson Plan.

I know I’m citing another teacher term but I’m actually using it loosely. A lesson plan is your game plan on how you will teach your curriculum.

I noticed that a lot of totschooling mothers have a weekly theme. For example, the week’s theme is Apples and the parent-teacher wants to teach counting so she will use apples when counting. She can also employ an apple to paint by stamping. I find this as a nice game plan to make our lessons feels like play and yet organized and with direction. Most of our learning opportunities related to Arts and Music, The World Around Her, and Readiness Activities are in sync with our weekly theme.

I have chosen the Letter of the Week theme. I find it to be the easiest series of themes to do as I just have to go down the alphabet. It is perfect as there is exactly 26 weeks corresponding to the 26 letters of the alphabet between her 18^th month and 24^th month. Also, during the Early Years workshop Ms. Mariel showed to us an Alphabet Book one of her friends have done with their daughter. Each page of a scrapbook is dedicated to a specific letter. They either draw or paste something that starts with that letter. I fell in love with this idea so I have decided to do this also with Georgina.   

Our G page. For each letter, we have an animal, a fruit or vegetable, and an object. Georgina glued the giraffe's spots and the gumballs in the gumball machine while the grapes are made of her finger prints. 

Now, even though we have a Letter of the Week theme, I don’t really teach the alphabet to our little Queen B. Yes, I do mention that this is the letter A, for example, and I voiced out its sound but I don’t make her memorize it. Of course, if she was able to then I will be glad but as I have observed our little Queen B doesn’t show interest in learning the alphabet yet. Our ABC book, for now, is not for her to learn the alphabet but a venue to do some arts and crafts and for her to become more familiar with various animals, fruit or vegetable, and objects.

Majority of the life/practical skills and character/traits I have listed in the previous step can be taught or incorporated during our everyday usual activities. For example, I want her to pack away her toys after playing so after play time I simply made her do it. At the beginning it was mostly me who cleans up her toys but with continuous reminder and practice, nowadays, she can pack away her toys all by herself.

I was mopping the floor and our little Queen B showed interest on doing it so for a few minutes I let her. 

In the character/traits aspect, the best way for her to learn is to model these traits ourselves. We constantly check our behaviour, actions, and words when around her because children like imitating their elders. We can’t expect her to be kind and respectful when we are not.

Step 4: I prepared a Totschool Schedule.

A Totschool Schedule contains our various “learning activity” times aside from our usual daily activities and chores. I spread out our Totschool activities all throughout the day and even week. As toddlers are notorious for their short attention span I can’t expect to finish all the day’s target activities in just one sitting.  

I actually need to make a new totschool schedule to accommodate changes to our weekly schedule.

I must admit though that this schedule is just roughly followed. There are days that I get swamped with household chores that I move our activity to a different time or even a different day. There are also days I have to run some errands in which I usually bring our little Queen B with me and forego our Totschool schedule. In those days I consider our time outside the house together as a mini-field trip. Our nightly bedtime ritual of reading aloud is the only constant.

When doing the Totschool Schedule, I made sure that most of her awake and active period is still dedicated to independent play. I let her do whatever she wants as long as it is safe. If she wants to scribble then I give her papers and coloring pens. If she wants to play with her blocks then I let her. I believe that playing independently encourages her imagination and creativity. Of course, she still seeks my companionship every now and then.

Step 5: I researched and thought of activities in line with my curriculum.

I love using Pinterest for this step which I actually do weekly. Weekly because I have to constantly adjust our activities to Georgina’s interests and abilities. During our first couple of weeks despite doing variations in our color sorting activity, our little Queen B shows no interest or even a hint that she understood the activity so I stopped doing it. I will reintroduce this activity on a later date.

Our first week totschool activities. 

Our little Queen B enjoys fine and gross motor skill activities so we did more of those. She also loves when I read to her so I added more books to our weekly list.

From 2-3 books, we are now reading 5-6 books during bedtime. Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss is one of her favorites. These are read aloud books for H week. 

Step 6: I went shopping!

This is probably my most favorite step. Who doesn’t love shopping?!!! I bought various art materials like construction papers, art papers, sticker papers, washable coloring pens, play dough, paints, popsicle sticks, googly eyes, crayons, chalk, and glue. I also bought two scrapbooks, one for our ABC book and another for our Family Book. It was a fun hour (most probably more than an hour, hahaha!) spent in National Bookstore.

My loot from my school supplies shopping spree.

J and I want to limit our little Queen B’s exposure to gadgets so I rarely use videos or apps in our Totschool activities. Too much screen time interferes with talk time between parent and child, active play, and even bed time. Also, young children learn via all their senses which include not only their sense of sight and hearing but as well as touch and even taste.

I also use common household items in our learning opportunities like plastic bowls, measuring cups and spoons among others. I also recycle some of our old stuff in our projects. When it comes to books, I buy ours in Booksale which sells children books in good condition at affordable prices. I was able to buy hardbound cover books for as low as 20 Php. Totschooling need not be expensive, my own creativity and resourcefulness are also being developed in this endeavour.

I know that as an Education graduate, I have a small edge when it comes to preparation of learning activities. One might say that I am only able to do this because I am a stay-at-home mom. I beg to disagree. I do believe that everyone has the capability and responsibility to teach their own child especially during their early years.

A stay-at-home parent does have more opportunities as we are with our child the whole day. Even doing household chores can be a learning experience for our children but it doesn’t mean that working parents can’t teach their offspring. J spends an hour or two with our little Queen B before he sleeps every weekday. During that time, they read, sing, and play. During meal times, he has an active role in ensuring that our little Queen B will finish off her meal. He ensures that he is present in her life.

Shape sorting with Daddy.

Working parents can use the weekend to have educational activities with their child. Whether the family stays at home or go out, any time spent together can be transformed into a learning opportunity. It only requires a little research, a lot of patience, a dollop of creativity, and a huge amount of prayers. Our child is so worth all these effort. This is also true for us stay-at-home parents. As the Bible says in Proverbs 22:6

   “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

#xoxo