This week I did my best to focus on taking advantage of opportunities for learning as they naturally presented themselves. Having this goal really helped me stay present and active in playtime instead of encouraging my little learner to play on his own, (of course I still encourage independence, but I noticed I spent markedly less time shooing him away to go play with his trains).
Monday- I started my home learning journal. I took the kids to the library where I checked out several books with a farm animal theme in mind. I wrote out a plan of activities for the week and created worksheets (glorified coloring pages). I also established some goals for our "school year."
Tuesday- We played with Mega Bloks, what started as truck building turned into dinosaur building.
We played with a wood puzzle which he has mastered long ago, but I attempted to add to the experience by adding color identification and counting to it.
We read a ton of books.
We made a collage titled, "Nik's guitar," for his Music Together teacher.
Potty training clicked (for #1 anyway).
Wednesday- We socialized at gymboree, which is just as important for me as it is for him!
We read and played with instruments in the yard. I gave the dog a bath while we were out there so, naturally, we had to read Harry the Dirty Dog.
We played with wood lacing shapes. At first he started out by sorting colors and lacing like ones all on his own.
Then he built these little towers and sang "moon moon moon." I'm not entirely sure why, probably the star shapes, but I just loved the way his little brain worked that out.
We played with his Fischer Price Little People Zoo, did animal impressions, and read a book about Curious George at the zoo. Then we read three books about dinosaurs and I realized my little boy has developed a new interest in things prehistoric.
We played a game from Discovery Toys, very creatively named "Roll and Play." He did well considering it was our first time with it.
Still obsessing over his music teacher... we made a guitar from his foot print and labeled it using a diagram I found on google.
Thursday- My little man got dropped off at gymboree for the School Skills program. I think I handled that pretty well. They made a dinosaur craft in class. His diaper stayed dry!
We baked banana bread.
We played Elefun. His favorite part is putting the butterflies back in the elephant for whatever reason, so I had him feed the elephant "1 yellow," "2 red," etc. etc.
We made our own lightning with a flashlight and followed it with thunder on a drum to mimic a passing storm. This led to a Choo Choo Soul dance party before bed.
Friday- I was pretty much a wicked stepmother. The terrible two's were in full swing, the dog seemed extra attached to my heels, and the baby was reaching for and spilling just about everything. It was a rough day. It was a day of Monsters Inc, games on the iPad (educational of course), and free play. You just can't force things. We did however have make a major stride with potty training. I am pretty impressed with him there.
We counted EVERYTHING and did lots of singing and dancing and playing instruments throughout the week also. Saturday is his music class and afterwards we promised him an outing to feed ducks and watch trains. I'll have to bring along some related reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment