What to do with two under four?
Go with the flow...
As you may have noticed, this post did not immediately follow Part 2. Of course, it was my plan all along to do 10 days in a row, but then...life happened!I am a lover of lists and organization on paper, but in real life, the schedule doesn't always go the way I plan. I have two busy boys, now two and three years old, who love to turn my world upside down with their crazy inventions of super heroes, trains, fire trucks, and rockets. Sometimes it amazes me what their little brains can come up with even if they have never seen it before.
Having said that, I must admit that I do not have the perfect schedule. On most days we are doing well to accomplish getting dressed, getting fed, and not getting hurt!
As many other wise mothers have said, when you are teaching your child at home follow their leading. My three year old, Super Buzz, hates to color, and will only do so under obligation for any length of time. So with him, I found that he loved it when I helped him color his pictures, or if he was able to cut or paste a picture together. However, my younger son will color his little heart out...if I keep a close enough eye on him. Left to himself too long we end up with chewy, soggy crayons.
We also are on the road a lot since we are on deputation to return to the mission field. We have spent many days traveling in the car where our learning times have consisted of lessons in volume control, patience, and pointing out the animals from "Old MacDonald" that we pass along the way.
When we are not "dead tired" from traveling and have a moment of normalcy I try to schedule school activities in the morning after breakfast and before lunch. My three year old knows all of his letters and sounds and numbers up to 10 already so we focus mainly on hands-on work that he really enjoys. He has really enjoyed the Kumon series of workbooks that I ordered on Amazon. We also use the preschool level Spectrum standards-based workbooks from time to time to review his pre-reading, writing, math, and basic skills. As we work together I know that he is learning the skills that he'll need later on when we start K-4 in January.
 |
| Practicing the letter M (Spectrum workbook) |
My two year old has learned a lot just by participating in circle time and observing his brother work. He already knows a few letters and numbers and loves to color and paint with us. He will be working on the ABeka preschool curriculum for 2's and 3's along with some letter of the week ideas from here and here. Both sites have wonderful preschool materials available and the boys have enjoyed using them in the past.
These past few months have been very busy and we have focused on just keeping it all together and have taken a break from "school time" for the most part unless we have been in one place for a week or more. We still read together and play games and work on our Spanish vocabulary and songs. I plan to share a more definite schedule that I have in mind for K-4 after the holidays (read that as revision #4 that still might be revised again)!
-Casandra
Coming up next...Part 4 - The One Thing We Always Do
Read the series from the beginning starting here:
No comments:
Post a Comment