Sunday, February 14, 2010

Catch-Up Tot-School Post

I'm changing the way I do things (again) and trying to free up more time with Stitch. This week was quite successful. My only battle is that he'd rather spend time playing on the computer than playing with his tot-school things! I have to strike a balance, but I don't wish to force him into anything just yet. He is so bright and learns by saturating himself. Just today he chose to play on Starfall and I could hear him saying "see" (naming the letter C) after it was read out to him. How can I argue with that? We don't 'do school' on a Sunday, but to him he is just playing. We have a set of miniature board books upstairs in his room. Each one focuses on a number, a letter, a colour, or a concept (eg opposites). None of my other children have been in the slightest bit interested in them- they are his number one choice. He is so hungry to learn and he learns very quickly. He has all but mastered his colours now (still forgets yellow sometimes) and is seemingly moving on to learning to count. He is pretty secure with one, two, three, four, and has nearly got five in the sequence, but often jumps to nine (why do children do that with nine?). But not only is he learning to say the sequence, but he is trying to point and count objects one-to-one which seriously impresses me! I'm not pressing any of this, I am just going with his flow and he is most definitely leading the way. This is a first for me - a child who wants to learn and wants ME to follow HIS journey :D All of my others, if they have asked to learn anything, they have always wanted me to supply the materials. They have lacked the creativity to 'choose' what to learn, or the initiative to know where to start ~ I am working hard on helping them with this :D Stitch is so very different ~ he is like a breath of fresh air :D

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks;

He had a haircut!

He really enjoyed this puzzle ~ and didn't need very much help with it!

each time he completed one he worked down the line, naming animal & baby name ~ his idea! :D

So simple, but DD and Stitch were quite absorbed in this for some time.

Just good fun :D


We spent some time in the park one warmer afternoon ~ he was able to hit the ball (a little) and has a VERY good overarm throw! He also has some very well developed 'dribbling' skills with a football.

DD & Stitch enjoyed some finger-painting (but OH! the mess!!) :D

Favourite pass time (he has now comandeered his Dad's own laptop, just so the other's can have the 'school laptop' free for their use in the day!) ~ he has mastered mouse control now :D

Some time spent playing in the garden and in the field playing footy with me and DD (no pictures of that ~ sorry!)

He still enjoys digging around in a tub of macaroni filled with hidden bead; finding the teddy, dog and 'ball' beads and then proceeding to play a game of football with them on the tot-tray :D This week the rhino and giraffe beads were added in as goalies!! - too cute!

It's been a fun couple of weeks but I am looking forward to a week's break ~ I love half-terms!

8 comments:

sbswtp said...

a lot of great activities! It looks like they had a lot of fun :)

Trudie said...

Looks like great fun, great ideas as well! Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

What wonderful ideas you had! Thanks for sharing :-)

Lisa @ Our Country Road said...

What a fun description of how Stitch learns. Sounds like he has been soaking in a lot from watching the older ones? My daughter loves Starfall, too. Love Stich's new haircut :)

Sarah D said...

I love this post, my dd (3) is very similar - has taught herself to count and has learnt most colours all naturally without much pushing from me cos I've been too busy trying to get the older 2 enjoying learning lol xx

Sarah @ BecomingSarah.com said...

I just found you and I couldn't possibly pass by without saying YOURKIDSARESOCUTE! So now I've said it, you make me want a million children =)

(Also, hello!)

Mum in Business said...

Hello, really cool reading your blog. Just wanted to ask what the miniature board books are that he so likes as theny may be useful for my little 3 yr old.

KS said...

Wow - busy and fun! I just stumbled on your blog and I'm excited to see your son's garden growing - I'll be checking back. I started my plants in a similar container here on the other side of the world and mine are really growing like mad now :)