For a while now, I've felt convicted that life at home with a toddler needed to be more intentional. Oh sure, I play with her and read books to her, but I've often seen more intentionality out of her secular daycare (in terms of teaching her developmental concepts) than I have out of myself. It's so easy to slip into the daily routine - laundry, dishes, lunch, nap take a walk, dinner, and the occasional child's television program. And many times, it's just easier to let her play by herself than to play with her.
I decided that I would start spending more time teaching Rebekah, but I didn't want to limit myself to the ABCs. I wanted her to have experiences seeing and doing things that would greatly expand her vocabulary and knowledge. I wanted her to be exposed to art and music so that she would learn to appreciate aesthetic beauty. More importantly, I wanted to start with the ultimate truth - the Bible.
So, I started at the beginning with Genesis 1 and 2. I developed a list of activities that revolved around the basic truths of the Creation. And I called it "Toddler School!"
Here's what Toddler School is not:
- It's not a rigid curriculum. Rebekah is going to have plenty curriculum in her life. I want her to enjoy playing and experiencing...after all, she's a toddler! So this list of activities is just that - a list. When we find ourselves needing something to do, we pull something from the list. In her mind, this is just another fun thing that her mommy has come up with to make life exciting. It doesn't feel like school...and that's the point.
- It's not about me, my perfectionism, or my need to accomplish anything. If I have a list, I tend to want to complete everything on it. And I want to do it all well. I'm having to get over that. We might not get to everything on my list, and that's fine. She might not enjoy something, and that's fine - we'll stop it. We might have a day where we just don't feel like doing Toddler School at all, and that's fine.
So here's what I came up with for our unit on Creation...
Bible Truth: God as Creator – Genesis 1 and 2
- We read the Creation story in her Children's Bible, but I also read her Genesis 1 and 2 from my Bible. I think it's important to expose children to the language of scripture at an early age so that they won't shy away from it as they grow older. She was definitely comprehending a lot of it, especially when we would act it out.
- I talked a lot about how the Bible is God's word, it's true, and we can trust it!
- Throughout our day, I would use the words "create" or "creation" as we made different things, and then we'd talk about how God created the world!
Music Time:
- We like to sit down at the piano and bang on the keys together. But now, we also learn a new hymn that we continue singing throughout the week. Hymns have wonderful theology in them, so they are an excellent way to teach Biblical truths to children.
- I make a playlist on Spotify of music for the week. As we play with toys, we have that playlist playing in the background. She now will sing along with just about all of the songs, including the hymns.
- Sometimes, while we are eating lunch together, we will find videos of our music on youtube. She loves that!
- All Things Bright and Beautiful
- This is My Father’s World
- Creation Sings (by Keith and Kristyn Getty)
- He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
- Over in the Meadow
- Old Macdonald
- Vivaldi's Four Seasons
- We had apples for a snack - A is for apples!
- I used tape to make a big A and 7 on the floor. We traced them, danced on them, and stacked blocks on them.
- I found A and 7 coloring sheets online (just a simple google search), and we used those during art time.
- Watched Miss Pattycake – God’s Great Big World
- Read All Things Great and Small together and identified all of the animals that God made.
- Created things out of play-doh! We made 7 balls, an A, and here Rebekah is creating a snowman.
- Look through vacation photos to identify geographic features – lakes, mountains, rivers, etc.
- We went into the closet and turned out the lights. We talked about how the earth was dark. Then, talk about how God said, “Let there be light!” - at that point, we turned on the light.
- We went to the local pet store to look at all of the animals. We learned their names (and about how Adam named them) and talked about how God created them.
- We went to the library to check out books about God's creation (animals, plants, etc.)
- We went on a nature walk outside to find all the things we could that God created.
- Finally, on a total whim, we went to the zoo! We had such a great time together. Here are just a few of the things we saw there.
Rebekah loved seeing the elephants and giraffes! We had been reading a book about a giraffe that thought he couldn't dance, so Rebekah easily identified where the giraffes were.
This guy even came up to meet her!
Rebekah decided to learn to drive while we were there. :)
And she got to meet a monkey, face to face! Haha!
The meerkats were cute - her new favorite animal to draw!
Penguins!
The zoo had a children's petting area, which gave us a great chance to talk even more about what God had made. She got to feel the fur, hear the noises, etc. These goats were her favorite part of the day!
So the results of Toddler School? We loved it! It actually took a lot of pressure off of me - I had a whole list of ideas for things to do with her, so we spent more quality time together with less stress than we've ever done before. I'm going to be keeping it up. We're not going to do a different theme each week - I'm much less formal than that - but we will be continuing to learn God's truths through different activities and experiences together.
Next up - Genesis 3 and the Fall!
