DJ and I have been working on letter sound games for about 9 months now. It had been mostly a struggle to get DJ to even hear me at first. He just didn’t seem to understand why I wanted him to learn the sounds. A little while ago I started telling him the sound games were the first step to learning to read and that helped to get him to at least listen if not participate. Using I Spy Phonics…
Starting the new year off right, I presented the Metal Insets to DJ today. He’s been doing a lot of writing lately which is different from drawing because instead of sweeping circular movements, he’s trying to mimic my handwriting by doing small rows of curves and lines. DJ saw the insets in storage yesterday and started yelling excitedly, “I’m ready for those! I’m ready for those!” Heh. He didn’t know what they were for yet nor did he know that…
We haven’t been doing regular school for a couple of weeks through the holidays but that certainly didn’t stop DJ from learning. He actually asked me one day, “Mommy, are you my teacher?” It’s clear that he’s becoming more and more aware that we’re not just playing. The break also didn’t stop me from looking for resources and I found these amazing Rhyming Cards on the Measured Mom’s website. Typically when I find ideas like this I tend to re-create…
DJ started out his “school” this week by having me help him put this world puzzle together that he got for his birthday. While he has mastered the 12 piece wooden Melissa & Doug jigsaw puzzles, a puzzle with this many pieces and such a complex picture is still beyond him. I simplified the task by stacking the pieces into 7 piles corresponding to each continent. We started with Antarctica and worked our way clockwise around the map. When the…