Schooltime

It's 100% true that kids are total sponges when it comes to learning. I've been amazed time and again at how much James absorbs and how eager he is to learn new things. Now that he's a bit older he's able to grasp concepts more easily and his attention span is growing, which makes teaching a lot easier for me.

There hasn't been a day since he was born that I haven't made a point to teach James SOMETHING, but I recently decided to kick it up a notch. I created a curriculum for us to follow and daily/weekly/monthly lesson plans to abide by. I've incorporated a big range of subjects: language, science, social studies, art, music, math, reading, writing, geography & bible study. I've broken it all down so we spend about 10 minutes (give or take) in the morning and afternoon working on 2 subjects a day with some time spent on language & reading books every day. By the end of the week we'll have covered all the subjects and he'll have been exposed to lots of fun, new info! In between all of that is lots of playtime and exercise of course.

You'd be surprised just how much age appropriate stuff you can find to do in each of those categories! Take science for example, it's not like I plan to teach him the Theory of Relativity, (though I think Paul would like me to!) instead we'll take a walk through the Botanical Gardens looking at the different kinds of trees and leaves. The idea is to keep it light and fun!

There are loads of online resources including some really great blogs packed with creative preschool ideas. I also found some books at the library and T-O-N-S of great teaching aides at the local teacher's supply store...I'm hoping to post regularly about the things James is learning and to share some ideas with other parents in the process!