The past 2 weeks, Benjamin and I have been having lots of fun together. Everyday, we have been having 35-45 min of "School Time" and afterward a special activity such as going to the park, or the library, ect. This is part of Benjamin and Mommy's new schedule and so far it has been working out great.
A couple of months ago NPR did a short segment that discussed what was more beneficial developmentally ect for a young child: Daycare/preschool or at home care with a parent. The study showed that neither one was necessarily better for a child, but what mattered was the quality of experiences, education and activities that were done in that environment (at home or at daycare). I was kind of surprised, because I always assumed that your child being home with you was always better than being in a preschool/daycare (you know, the one on one time).
Ever since Benjamin was a baby I have been looking forward to teaching him stuff, so recently I've decided that Benjamin was just about the right age to start educational school time. Maybe I am a little over the top, and I only have one kid... but I think the results have been amazing so far!
Benjamin loves "School Time" and is picking up really quickly on concepts. I have had a lot of fun planning lessons and activities. It has been challenging as well, because I have never taught kids as young as benjamin before. I'll be honest, I enjoy "teaching" and it has really been fun teaching my own kid. I get my professional fill by teaching benjamin at home, and it keeps me really busy. I found this incredible website http://www.preschoolexpress.com/ to help me with curriculum ideas and weekly themes!
Our School Schedule:
*granted, we are talking about Benjamin here, who is very busy, so I always make sure to pace according to his needs and interest.
- Introduce new concept (example new shape star) 5min
- Do activity that relates to that (example scavenger hunt) 5min
- Art/hands on activity (stamp out star shapes out of play
dough ect) 5min
- Music Time: sing regular Nursery Songs, introduce new song that relates to theme (twinkle twinkle little star) 5min
- Story time 7mins+
- Unstructured play time 10mins
- clean-up 5min
Some of the activities we did this week:
- Went to Mc Dondalds,to Re-enforce/identify letter M
- Went on a scavenger hunt around the apartment to find cut-outs of the shape "star"
Benjamin Development: 19 months
- can say a ton of words, and if you listen carefully you can even tell that he is connecting words into a sentence. ex: "more
drink mommy"
- Latest words: I duno there are so many!
- Can Identify consistently letters and letter sounds: A,B,D,M, (we have been working on this for the past 3 weeks or so.
- Can Identify shapes: Circle and Star (working on Square). Its amazing though, to see him pick out these shapes in his
environment. The other day we were at a baptism, and during the opening prayer, benjamin is yelling "circle!circle!" He saw
that the clock on the wall was a circle shape! So cute
- Very good at walking down the stairs all by himself (of course hanging on to the railing for the steep steps)
- Most of the time tells us that he has a dirty diaper. The other day, he walked straight to rob and said "poopoo" and pointed to his diaper. Then the next day, he ripped off his own diaper, and sure enough it was dirty. Most often time, he gets super embarrassed and runs away or hides while he is doing his business. Such a funny little boy! Don't worry, we won't attempt potty training for another 6 months or so!
- It is amazing how much he learns, I can't even remember all of it, but it truly is amazing. Its a fun an trying age== thats for sure!
Things I love about Benjamin:
-PLaying Ring around the Rosey with him
- Watching him dance -- now that kid has groove
- The amount of energy that kid has (even if I am exhausted by the end of the day)
- That he is friendly to everyone and give them the cutes high pitched "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii"
- Watching the pride that he gets from accomplishing a task
- that he will sometimes run and give me a kiss on the lips, and plop himself right into my lap
- grab my hand and pull me where he wants me to see somthing
6 comments:
You go girl! Sounds like you have Benjamin on the fast track to success!
Wow! That's great; you are such a great mom! I will have to check out that website. Thanks for sharing! :)
You are seriously so cute! Looks like that is a really good website. Thanks for sharing. I can't wait to attempt to do "school time" with Justin.
WOW Laura, that is really amazing!
I loved reading about what you've been up to and reading about Benjamin!
Sounds like you guys are doing well! We miss ya!
He is going to be so brilliant!
Laura you are such a good mom. The School time sounds like so much fun. I was thinking the other day that I should start something like that with Elsa. She already learns so much on her own right now, but I think she would love the learning time and would pick up a lot. Thanks so much for your awesome example.
Post a Comment