Moot Thoughts & Musings

In honor of Ellis turning 2 next week:

Ellis is an incredibly social kid. He loves being with other people and kids. It doesn't matter the age. Because of that (and his age), he really is not a huge fan of independent play. He loves it if we sit on his floor and play with him, which I love, but you know, I'm sorry to admit, sometimes I get a little bored, you know. I try to do fun things, vary it up a bit, get out of the house a lot, because if I don't, I get bored and will let him watch more than several Signing Time episodes.

So I'm toying around with some ideas to make the summer more interesting and educational for him (and me!). I've found a few curriculum resources for the early childhood years that I might incorporate into a more themed play plan, so that we can get beyond cars, cars, and more cars. (I have nothing against cars, but there is more to life than just cars.)

I do think on some level, the child can lead his own interests, but I think if I can open doors for him to explore, preserving his independence, but showing more options, it will help us both.

The first is the letter of the week preparatory curriculum that gives themes and guidelines for a letter of the week. I'll probably just cull some ideas. I don't know what I'll do about learning letter sounds. He already knows most of the letters of the alphabet: can sign all but a couple and can identify the English letter in its relation to the ASL letter. So it'll be fun to build on that.

There's also this Joyful Learning that incorporates some basic Biblical lessons/verses/ideas into some themes relevant to the season/holiday or whatever. (I gotta get over the cheese factor of combining early childhood and Bible verses that this website exudes.) Age appropriate for 2's. I love the list of resources at the bottom. That could be handy. (And I may end up supplementing with the Children's Shorter Catechism, or reinterpreting the curriculum or whatever)

So we'll see how it goes. I'll get some ideas. Offer some activities. And most of all hopefully we'll have more fun together. And if we'd rather spend all afternoon at the pool SO BE IT!