So by way of recap, here was the month of September and what we learned.
Aug 24-Aug 28 was the Letter G, the Garden of Eden and the 7 days of creation. We memorized Gen 1:31.
Our activity wa making a contact paper creation book, using cotton ball clouds, fresh grass and leaves, and animal stickers. We had a fantastic, fun morning watching Itty Bitty participate along with us. The end of the week was about learning about gardens and seeds and how plants grow. So we set about planting our own seeds!
1. Teach me, do it with me, let me do it myself.
This approach is working so awesome with my brand new 4. He loves me to demonstrate something, and then cooperate with him until he feels confident enough to try it on his own. Then he wants to fly solo and attempt to master it independently! For example, the first week for our creation book we worked with contact paper which was a new thing for us. He was a little intimidated by the new texture initially and allowed me to demonstrate how it works. So I did the first day of creation for him. During the putting together of day 2, we worked in tandem folding and sticking. By the time we got to day 3, he was ready to fly solo which was when I was able to sneak in some pictures. 🙂
2. Follow the lead of the child.
My Man-Cub so loves practicing his letters. He loves writing them, he loves cutting them out, he loves tracing them. The kid is four and he is constantly stepping up his game to understand sounds and phonics and sight words and even pre-reading. So, we don’t do tons and tons with numbers, since he just loves letters. I incorporate numbers less directly, I mean the kid can count to 100 already, but we don’t focus on it because right now I just want to cultivate a passion for learning.
3. Loving the ages and stages of your kids.
So my Itty Bitty is younger than my Man-Cub. Some days she participates and wants to do exactly what he is doing. Other days she just wants to color or push buttons on her toy or snuggle with mommy & her blankie or open & close doors while the Man-Cub and I are doing something focused. And you know what, I don’t care. She’s two. She only gets to be two this year and I want her to enjoy her childhood and learn through play. This is actually true for my Man-Cub, too. My philosophy is to never force anything. I only offer activities that capture his interest, skill set and are based in tactile play.
There is so much I have to learn in this area. I need y’all to clue me in on ways I can be even more present for mine. What are you learning about parenting your kiddos?
I think you’re doing awesome 🙂 One thing I’m trying to do more of is plan time out of the house (which you do quite well) for my children AND for me (like going to mom playgroups I like and want to go to, not just going for my kids).
I just read this fascinating article how we now have to arrange play dates, because sadly our kids are no longer just playing outside with the neighborhood kids. Now it’s play dates with mom’s friends’ kids at predetermined places rather than true formation of friends and true exploration. There is for sure true in that.