On Teaching My Boys

 First and foremost, excuse the horrendous photography.  Apparently these two picture are the ONLY two picture I have taken of our preschool at home adventures so far.  Now that that is out of the way on to what this post is really about...teaching my boys.  I have always been a fan of the mind set of not pushing my kids too hard in the beginning with things like preschool, i.e. letters, numbers, science, reading. I truly believe that children learn so much from play and interaction and being involved in what either I or Kenny are doing, and that formal learning comes with time, and a readiness that cannot be set at a certain age as per whatever society deems the right age is.  Children are individuals, and as such, have different readiness for different things at different ages.  I want my children to LOVE to learn, not to feel behind or pushed. I know there are many people out there, many of which I know and love, who would like to tell me that they disagree, but that isn't what this post is for.  It is to show you how we are doing and how, sometimes, your thought process evolves, and also, how sometimes, even if you want to do something one way, your child needs something else.

I hadn't planned on starting preschool at my home this year.  Because of the above stated feelings I have, I thought I would start seeing if Shiloh was ready for letters and such around 4, and if he wasn't, we would give it a break and try again in 6 months.  I am also pregnant, which makes for a lack of creativity and energy in my world, and since Eli is so close in age to Shiloh, I thought that maybe if I waited I could do some of same things with them at the same time. 

I am guessing that you are guessing that that isn't how we have done things, at least not totally, considering Shiloh isn't 4 yet, and I am writing this post.  About 5 or 6 months ago, Shiloh started asking me about letters.  He kept asking when he was going to go to school, when he was going to learn letters and numbers, and when he was going to start to be able to read.  I gave him vague answers at first, not knowing if he was serious about it or just wondering. He became more persistent.  I quickly realized, that for his personality and way of learning and desire to learn, I was doing him a disservice by not starting something soon.  Let me tell you, I WAS NOT READY!  I thought I had at least another year.  I hadn't decided how I was going to approach things, how I wanted to approach this teaching adventure.  It seemed daunting.  It seemed like the start of something that wasn't going to stop for the rest my kids lives at home.

I finally buckled down and chose something and decided to go with it.  It isn't super structured.  There is a lot of movement and room for improvisation.  It works on some levels for Eli too, which is a super big plus.  It has gone pretty well so far, and I think my boys are enjoying it.  We learn new words.  We talk about letters.  We pretend to be cows and pumpkins and all sorts of things.  We make crafts and treats and count things.  We check out books from the library that have to do with what we are learning. We make posters and at the end of the day we show it off to daddy, which might be both boys favorite things about preschool so far.

Here are the boys with their cow headbands they made. we crawled around and pretended to be cows for a little while.

I have learned a few things in this process so far, and I am sure there is plenty more out there for me to learn as I go, but it has been good.  I have learned that if I am not organized, preschool doesn't happen, at least not well, and sometimes not at all. I am not a "just wing it" sort of person. It is ok to skip preschool some days... If I am not feeling well or the kids moods aren't working with it, it is better to just bag it for the day and start again when we can all be more positive about it.  I know that at some point that attitude will have to change, but for now, they are little, and they learn so much just from being involved.  Having this mind set has made this transition so much easier for me.  I have also learned that my two boys are very very different learners.  I knew that, but I didn't understand how different until I started "teaching" them.  Shiloh wants to be pushed.  Shiloh never wants preschool time to end.  He asks for it when He wakes up in the morning.  We finish and an hour later he asks if we are going to have it again.  This was very overwhelming for me at first.  I thought that maybe I was inadequate to teach him.  I felt like I didn't have enough time to plan something that would fill up the amount of time he wanted to learn. After talking to Kenny and taking his suggestion, I have started doing the same lesson plan again in the afternoon for him because he loves it so much.  Eli likes the stories.  Eli loves the singing and the dancing and the movement, but he hates you asking him questions.  He gets frustrated, so I don't ask him any.  It isn't important to me for him to catch on this early.  If he was, then great, but he isn't and I am content with that.  I want this to be just as fun for him as it is for Shiloh.  He usually doesn't sit down with us in the afternoons, but Shiloh wouldn't miss it for the world.

Here's to hoping for some more learning in our house, for the kiddos, but especially for me.