Learning for Little Ones: Being Intentional

Homeschooling a toddler can be both the easiest thing you've ever done and the hardest! Of course there are different levels of "homeschooling" a child that young. You may have a deliberate "school" time (which by the way, mine has gone by the way side this last month or more) or perhaps you simply do multiple learning activities throughout the day. Your "school time" may constitute little more than reading together, or you may have a thorough lesson plan with goals and plans written out.

I find that homeschooling your toddler can be as simple as being intentional with your little one. I find that I am intentional way less often than I would like. By being intentional with Tornado today a couple things happened. First (and harder to tell), he was exposed to and learned new things. Hard to tell because the only thing I know is that he is looking at me when I'm talking/playing/singing. Over time though, I'm sure he will pick things up. The other thing that happened is that I had so much fun! Both of us being sick (hopefully we won't be by the time this is posted as I am writing it ahead of time), we had very little energy today. This actually helped intentional time. Instead of being busy with this or that I just sat to play with him. I sang songs, introducing Itsy Bitsy Spider and continuing with Happy and You Know It. We built with the few mega blocks he has. I sat on the kitchen floor and we played with his new (Christmas present but recently brought out) Fridge Phonics (more about that in a future post.) I even brought out his new crayons and a sheet of paper to introduce coloring again (he wasn't ready last time.) By just being with and playing intentionally with my little one, I actually felt like a "homeschool mom" for the first time. My life and schedule are crazy, and truth be told that schedule is in a flux position right now, but you can be sure I'm going to be scheduling in more time on the floor, deliberately and intentionally in focused play with my boy! I hope you will too! It's great!

When it comes time to knowing what to do in your deliberate time, you can find ideas each week here. I also want to share with you a relatively new blog (though you'd never know it by the number of posts already), Fun Homeschooling Toddler Activities. This woman does some great things with her little one, and what's even better... she shares them with us! I already have some ideas I'm getting ready to try!

__________________________
What are you doing with your little ones? Write a post on your blog and link up here. Be sure to link directly to your Learning for Little Ones post and don't forget to link back here so others can participate too. Feel free to use my little Learning for Little Ones banner at the top. Don't have a blog??? Leave your ideas in the comments section. :) I'm so looking forward to visiting your blogs and learning from all of you!

Labels: Learning for Little Ones

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 12:00 AM