After being down and out for months, I felt so bad for Oliver's sake as I really wanted to start doing some kind of daily activity with him to teach him new skills, objects, etc.
Really all I was able to do faithfully with him was reading, going over his alphabet, colors, numbers and each evening we started going through a Bible verse with him after story time.
I also try to play some music with him daily, and I've been teaching him a song, since he has done so well memorizing his first Bible verse.
You just don't realize what those little minds are truly capable of until you start something consistently with them. Then when they pour out what you put in, you are amazed at their knowledge!
I think it's too easy to say he's too young and wouldn't possibly be able to do that- but how do you know until you try?
I tried to be consistent in some areas, and it's starting to show! He knows his colors, shapes, and alphabet pretty well now. He can count to 5 (and up to 10 but not perfectly) and he's memorized Philippians 4:13! I'm not saying all this to brag, I am proud of how well Oliver is doing, but I'm saying it to encourage moms who struggle to do 'activities' or something structured. I think consistency is the biggest help to your children.
I didn't take hours each day to plan and organize things to do-ha! I just couldn't with my morning sickness.
I did make a binder with alphabets, colors and numbers/counting for us to flip through each day (I can share those if you'd like to have a copy). He really enjoyed taking that binder down and going through the pages- daily showing me how much he was starting to learn. I just created some simple printouts, printed them in color and put them in clear page dividers. There was our book. I can keep adding to it with new, and more advanced things for him to learn. Right now that seems to be a good starting point for me, as it overwhelms me to hear words like "lesson planning" and such.
And I'm not a teacher. Ha!
I've found that to be well, not true. We are all teachers to our children. Whether we admit it or not, those little eyes and hearts are watching and waiting to see how we do things, and look out because one day what you say and do, how you react, or don't react to something is going to be mimicked by this tiny 2' person.
What a privilege and responsibility it is to realize you are a teacher to your little ones.
It's so much fun seeing him get so excited about learning. This is something I didn't expect! He loves seeing and doing new things- even if it's as simple as finger paints.
Now where was I? I really went off track there as this post was going to be about a project we did today.
I actually found this blog on Pinterest (yes, I do actually use my pins sometimes :) and found some helpful projects that this lady does with preschoolers. This project is called a nest, with the focus on well, a nest for birds. She recommended you read the book "Are you My Mother?" which I know we have somewhere...but I chose a book we have that actually has a picture of baby birds in a nest. I showed him the letter N, and the nest picture, then we made our own nest.
It was a short little project but it gave Oliver a chance to play with new textures and colors. He had fun collecting the cut yarn and putting it in the cup, and of course was thrilled there was a balloon to throw around. I'll have to post a photo of the dried nest- not sure how long it will take to dry or if it will turn out :) But it was fun to do, and I'm going to keep my eyes open to see if I can spot a real nest to show Oliver. Here are our photos from the project, and here is the link for the lady's blog.
I had fun doing it with him too! Now onto tomorrows project, hmm which remains unknown to me!
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