Maeva usually sits for one short story, and then dances for all the songs. Then she does things like read books on her own or she sorts rocks. Lemur always joins us, and this week so does froggy. I've been noticing that it is easy to lose Ander's attention. So I've had him bring his stool right up close to the book I'm reading (like a foot away), or he sits right in my lap. Sometimes he stops to trace a letter into the carpet, or asks to be the teacher.
Anderson seems to be more of a visual learner, less of an auditory learner (like myself actually). He'll remember numbers and letters easily by seeing them and relating them to objects or situations, but not always remembering the name of the letter. If I ask, "what is our letter of the week?". He can't remember to say "F", but will grab a marker to draw it, and name all kinds of words that start with it. The visual activity of gathering objects for the letter "P" last week proved to work really well, so we'll do that again this week.
I love how I can tailor the learning to his exact needs and learning style, and that I can change things up really easily. Also, I find that teaching them together works really well, with Meava eager to shout out letters and words.
We keep making connections in our everyday life and are opening up all kinds of possibilities for learning. "F is for frog" will lead to the frog life cycle and a trip to Science North (they have a great frog section there). "Mother Earth and her Children" leads to the topic of hibernation. The birds have been very busy at our feeder, preparing for winter. So we will talk about birds preparing for winter or flying south. Anderson is also interested in what is solid, liquid, or gas. And what is biodegradable or recyclable.
Today I asked, "What do bears do in the winter?" He replied, "They biodegrate". "No, they hibernate, love." So funny.
