Monday I had my kids, and after our daily swim (the waters getting COLD) my oldest wanted to work in her workbook that I got her from a teachers supply store.
I immediately dropped what I was doing (I think I was just cleaning up around the living room) and got out the book, a pen, and found her a couple of pages she hadn’t done already. She was doing the project non-stop for about an hour straight. At one point my youngest was looking over our shoulders, watching what we were doing so I included her by asking questions and responding to her answers. I was tricky balancing time and resources between two children, but supremely worth it.
Whenever your children want to learn drop what you’re doing, pay attention, and devote as much time as necessary to them. You must be involved. I had to cook diner while this was going on, so I set the heat lower than normal so that I could go back and forth to help her out. She needed me to read the directions and explain what need to be done on each page. Diner took longer, but my daughters were getting the experience of learning to enjoy learning. I don’t think there is any prep more important than that.
Yes. It is so important to pay attention to their needs. I buy lots of games from the teacher supply store and any time they have an interest in playing, I make sure that I make time for it. It is too easy to buy great things and then never use them. My kids are involved in so many activities, that I have a hard time incorporating everything into our daily routine.
ReplyDeleteHi Cara, glad you joined us. Just out of curiosity how many kids and what ages do you have? And what kind of activities do you have them involved in? And most important to me - how much do they cost? :-)
ReplyDeleteI love the teacher supply stores, but they are kinda expensive. I wonder if anyone here knows of someplace to get the same kinds of things cheaper.