Schooling Together: Thomas the Tank Engine-Part Two

On a Friday we have a time where all five children are doing school together.  I use the term school loosely due to the age differences, however the older one’s are still learning.  They learn their needs come secondary to their little sisters.  They learn to put aside their wishes for a couple of hours and invest into the lives of their younger siblings.  They learn to teach, to be patient, to love (sometimes when it’s hard).  I know all three children have expressed a wish to home school in the future so this is good preparation for their own children.  Learning, after all, comes in all shapes and sizes.

As the little ones mature a little our days change, so I thought it might be nice to update what we do on a Friday. I knew we would only be doing three days school this week as it’s the English half-term and we are seeing friends and going on a field trip.  This has meant our B4FIAR study of Ask Mr Bear will be spread over two weeks instead of just one.  Hence the Thomas Tank post!

Our days start a little differently now, as the older children go for a one hour walk with their Granny.  During this time the little ones have their DVD time.  On a Friday we pop on a Thomas video.  On the olders return and whilst we are doing our chores I set out train play dough for them to play with:

Once chores are done we all have a snack.  Over Christmas this year my mum bought some snacks which came in a sturdy mini muffin tin type container.  They are plastic but I thought they would be perfect for snack time on a Friday:

A4 and B2 have mini train shaped toast and Marmite, pieces of pear, a satsuma and a strawberry fruit roll up.

B2 goes down for a nap, whilst the older ones do maths and A4 has a Thomas themed quiet time.  In her quiet time basket she had Thomas Tank puzzles, Thomas Tank felt boards, a train threading activity, a train shape activity, some Thomas reading cards and, of course, some books to look at.  She always listens to a CD when she has quiet time.  We have a Thomas Tank CD from when T11 was little, which she listens to:

For more book themed ideas:

For lunch we have a muffin tin meal.  I plan, using this sheet, and prepare the muffin tin in advance:

This one had train shaped toast, an omelette cut into a train shape, some grated cheese for the omelette and some mini tomatoes.  There is also some yogurt with train shaped sprinkles (in the little pot) with some apple and orange pieces:

For more muffin tin ideas:

After lunch, when B2 is ready to join us, we do lots of tray activities.  I buy a lot of our activities as and when I come across them in charity shops.  I also make kits to go in a tray and I print things off from the internet:

One of the kits I made was a set of stamps made out of wooden building blocks and a dish sponge.  I cut out train shapes, a track and lots of shapes which could be used to make a train and stuck them on bricks:

The children LOVED this!

For more art inspired work see:

And a few pictures of all their fun:

And there was much, much playing amongst the trains!

Great Websites for Activities

Thomas and Friends

Thomas Tank Activities

Thomas colouring sheets