Here's the skinny - Lily went to Goddard from the time she was 9 months old till the summer before she started kindergarten. It was a wonderful experience. They did a great job preparing her for school. She loved Goddard, and even though it cost more than the mortgage on my first house, it was a good investment. I was in school during most of that time period and I needed Goddard. But now I have my wonderful babysitter, Alyssa. She is so talented and loving to my kids. I couldn't pray for better. But the one down fall is that Max is not getting the socialization that I think he needs, nor is he getting the formal preschool curriculum that Lily thrived in. I have been looking into lots of different preschool programs, but I have decided that for now I am going to try to dedicate some time and effort into teaching him myself. He's only 2.5, we have a while till SAT's. I can't teach him the social aspect, but I can teaching him the material. At least, I want to try. Next year I will send him to some kind of program that meets for a few hours a week, but for now he is mine. Alyssa was home schooled and helped home school her younger siblings, so she is very on board with helping me teach Max.
I want to focus on colors, shapes, ABC's, numbers, and writing his own name (seriously - it is Max, not Hollingsworth, we should be able to do it eventually).
I want to give him exercises that stress fine motor skills, because his gross motor skills are way advanced. The kid can already do a somersault. I was going to make him some lacing cards but I found these on clearance at the craft store for $0.25.
I work with a GENIUS of a woman who has a masters in child development. She told me to think about sensory input. Things like a box with rice in it to play in, or some kind of sand table. I think I might get a rubbermaid container and fill in with sand for him to play in outside. Then I can just put the lid on and but it up when he isn't using it. Sandbox's gross me out, too much animal poop, so he is not getting a real sandbox.
Something I really want him to do and enjoy is art. So I brought home an empty carseat box from work and he and I worked on painting it today. We used finger paint and talked about the different colors and shapes we were making.
He painted with water colors too. I asked him to find a color and paint with it. He thought this was a really fun game and he kept getting it right. The only ones he couldn't keep straight was brown and black. That kid is so fun.
I am really excited about figuring this all out and looking for ideas to help keep Max in love with learning and art.
i love how you love your kids, brookie. what a gift for you to teach them your creativity :) and max's hair, wherever those genes came from, he's a lucky duck.
ReplyDeleteYou sound like you have it all figured out :) I'm going to homeschool my kiddos on a year by year basis (re-evaluating every year whether to continue) and my son is 3 years old. The socialization doesn't really bother me- he's around kids his own age through cousins & friends and I can always enroll him in a music class or gymnastics or something similar. Anyway I popped over to say thanks for your comment on my pinwheel wreath tutorial!! :) I appreciate the visit & the lovely comment!
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