Oak Tree in an Acorn: Homeschool Tot School

Monday, March 29, 2010

Homeschool Tot School

Genevieve will be three years old in a couple of weeks and is growing up in so many ways, academically, socially, and physically. She just loves it when someone says how tall she has gotten and after every nap, she stands up in her bed and asks me if she looks taller. (I told both my girls at a very young age that the human growth hormone is secreted during sleep, or "You grow when you sleep, so the better you sleep, the faster you will grow!" This has been the best motivation for them to sleep well at night and take good naps.) Genevieve loves to make friends and always likes to talk to the "little girls" (usually a couple of years older than her) at any park we go to.

We have also started doing more "school" at home, and she enjoys preschool with mom, especially the art projects and writing. We are using the book, *Chicka Chicka Boom Boom* as the basis for our alphabet study. I pull resources from various books but one of my favorite blogs to borrow ideas from is Confessions of a Homeschooler. She has wonderful letter of the week activities and freely shares her documents. I've been cutting and laminating like crazy and can't believe how fast Eve is doing the activities. We will probably do them again in the fall (she will be able to do so much and understand so much more then) and she enjoys it so much that I don't mind doing all the evening preparation.

Here are some pictures of our morning tot school:

Genevieve makes her own puppets for a Valentine story.

Genevieve makes a peanut butter and jelly cracker lunch all by herself. She loves her spreaders!

Genevieve now writes a "G" for her name.

Book Cooks! Often I read a book to her and we do either a related art or cooking activity.

I print out uppercase and lowercase letters and Genevieve uses giant push pins to follow the letter strokes. This is one of her favorite letter activities because she gets to use something that is usually off-limits (a tack and a huge one at that). This activity is for fine motor skills and letter recognition.

Purple and pink are by far her favorite colors to use when we paint.

Watching the kids grow up and having the opportunity to be a stay-at-home mom and an active parent in my children's lives is such a wonderful gift!

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Why the title, "Oak Tree in an Acorn"?

Well, really it's all about perspective when raising the girls. It helps me to think about the grand scheme of parenting and remember that what we do now affects how our little acorns will grow. Like an oak tree, we want them to be strong in their words and deeds, be able to withstand life's storms, set and reach their goals, and be people that others can lean on and trust.

We have an oak tree planted in our yard that came from an acorn my dad planted in a pot. This acorn came from a huge oak tree that was planted in the backyard of my dad's childhood home. My dad's father also planted this tree from an acorn he found on his hunting lease in the early 1960's. Our tree is thus a family heirloom, a "family tree".

It was the year of Olivia's birth when we planted our little sapling. It looked so very sad that winter with no leaves; it was, basically, like a stick rooted in the ground. Five years later, though, it stands 9 feet tall, and we continue to nurture it and watch it grow. We hope one year it will produce acorns of its own, and we can continue to pass on this family heirloom. We hope to remember it's example of how each acorn has the potential to be an oak tree, and how our acorns, Olivia and Genevieve, will one day, with help from God, become mighty oak trees themselves.