It really is astonishing to see the natural leanings and tendencies these children of ours possess. Chloe is extremely into drawing, imagining, singing, and telling stories. Clive is extraordinarily social, curious, destructive and mechanical. Maybe he'll grow up and operate a wrecking ball. :)
Chloe has a myriad of pretending games in which she plays various roles. "Mary" is a popular character for mimic at our house. At Christmas time Chloe donned a towel on her head and stuffed a pillow under her shirt to travel to Bethlehem. More recently she played Mary weeping at the empty tomb of Jesus. Sometimes she is Mary who had a little lamb and brings her pet to school. I think in her 3 year old mind Mary is all of those characters wrapped into one. :)
Other pretending scenarios have come and gone. Rescuing animals ala WonderPets style; planting and tending her garden; getting married and caring for babies; and playing Snow White in which she enlists me as her housekeeper (ironic, isn't it?) are all options in Chloe's pretending games.
By far though, her favorite imagining game involves school and teaching. When we came across an old-school metal desk at a yard sale this weekend I KNEW we had to have it. The new desk has jumpstarted Chloe's motivation! I had begun a simple phonics program with Chloe last fall but quickly backed off when I saw her love for learning turn sour. At the time it was obvious I was putting too much pressure on her.
But now the desk has worked some learning magic! Chloe sat at her desk and did workbook pages all afternoon! I simply read the instructions on each page to her and then gave her time to work. We are whizzing through that preschool workbook! And yesterday she uncharacteristically let Clive sit in her desk so she could be the teacher. (See video below - be sure to notice how the inattentive student tries to eat the crayon.)
In her unique cute way, Chloe reminded me when she'd had enough. After several workbook pages that involved tracing and writing numbers (a difficult task for her motor skills) she flipped the page to see yet another section of tracing. She looked at the page, looked back at me and then . . .
"Ding-a-ling-a-ling!" Chloe chimed loudly.
"What's that?" I asked quizically.
"School's over! Time for lunch!" Chloe replied and hopped down from the desk.
What tools and tricks get your kids excited about learning?
5 comments:
classic that she's not wearing pants!! love it!! and i'd say she's very creative in thinking up a school bell to stop the teaching session... so cute. :~)
I had to chuckle at her lack of pants as well. It reminded me so much of Peyton at that same age. He did NOT want to put pants on if he didn't have to. To be honest it made potty training easier anyway.
Hey Alicia,
I think that it's great that Chloe wants to play and do "school". Clive is a very attentive student and Chloe is a natural as the teacher;).
I try to do "school" with Michael but I have to be careful not to make it too much of a task or things fizzle quickly. I have a daily lesson plan that I use and we highlight everything that we get down. I tend to over plan and I never get everything done that I have on the schedule but it's a start for us. Michael would much rather play cars and trucks and dig in the dirt for worms than "school" so I attempt to do a lot of hands on things. Sometimes, I catch him at just the right time but I often have to set the timer for each subject. He seems to be more accepting of using the timer for some reason;).
What worksheets do you use for Chloe? I've looked at some but have not been overly motivated to buy them. Oh, have you heard of starfall.com? If you allow Chloe to use the computer, she would probably really enjoy this site. I think that it's very well done and Michael LOVES it! He'd spend forever doing starfall if we'd let him but we put a time limit on his "media";).
Hi Alicia,
No - I have not heard of five in a row but I will check it out. It's so neat to see and hear what other moms are doing with their kids. I'll be the first to admit that I need all of the help that I can get when it comes to schooling resources etc. Thanks for the tip!
This is so cute. She looks like a little adult. She sure is a big girl now!
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