My #TotSchool Summer - Activity Inspiration

One of the biggest questions I get asked when I started posting my son's #TotSchool activities on Instagram was "Where do you come up with this stuff?!" ... Followed directly by "Where do you find the time?!"  So I thought I'd address those two questions!

As you can probably guess Pinterest is a big source of Tot School ideas.... but most of my ideas come from Instagram!  

Before I start with those I'd like to give a quick shout-out to my friend Heidi from Mac-N-Taters though.  She got me interested in doing Tot School with my son and has many, many amazing ideas!  She is my Tot School idol! 

When I go to Pinterest for Tot School ideas I usually just type "tot school".  If I'm looking for a specific topic I'll add that at the end.  Recently I've been searching "Tot School Fall".  I may also add in my son's age so I don't get a lot of activities either too old or too young for him.  However every once in a while I come across a pinner I decide I want to follow! (pictures linked)

 I love how these boards are organized.  My favorite is the sensory board since my son loves all of our sensory activities the most.  She also has lots of boards for different holidays!

I love this account because she has Tot School ideas arranged by age groups further down on her page!  This was a great way for me to get ideas specific to my son's age group.  She also has Kindergarten and Primary pins that I like as a teacher.

I love all of the Montessori ideas from this pinner.  She has Montessori boards for EVERYTHING!

If you'd like, you can follow my own Tot School board HERE!

Most of my ideas I get from various accounts on Instagram. (Pictures Linked)

Instagram user (@sensorybabyj is a great account for me because this little guy is just 2 months younger than my son.  That means the activities posted on this account are going to be appropriate for my little guy! This account also has a lot of Montessori type activities which I am loving these days.

@playideas is primarily a reposting account, meaning they repost ideas from other accounts.  This is how I have found many of the Tot School inspiration accounts that I follow.

My favorite IG account though is @busytoddler.  I have used so many of these ideas.  In fact, the first week or so of Tot School featured ideas I'd gotten from this account exclusively.  She has two kids, a son who's a good bit older than my guy and a daughter who's a little bit younger.  So scrolling through I can usually find something to occupy our time!

I post my son's Tot School activities on my Instagram account HERE!

To quickly address the question of "How do you find the time for it?!"  ... I don't have some ground-breaking answer.  My biggest tip is to find an idea that requires things you already have on hand, then assemble the activity together.  Small fry loved helping me dump the flour and salt together for our salt dough.  When I shredded paper to use in a bin he liked the shredder best. He gets so excited when I start filling bins with water.  Another tip is to save your sensory bin materials and Tot School stuff all in one place, and don't be afraid to repeat.  We've used the pom-poms, beans and rice multiple times this summer!

Want to read about our top 3 activities from this past summer.  Check out my last post here:

And be on the lookout for a post about how I store and organize my Tot School materials!