Today was our first day of school. My preschooler is home with me and my three older children started their first day at public school. The day couldn’t have turned out better.
My pre–schooler spent time in the garden helping me establish some new plants. Here’s what we worked on today.
Carrying out Multiple Steps~ At age 4 children should be able to carry out multi-step directions. Give a two or three step direction such as… 1)take off your socks, 2)put them in the laundry hamper and 3)then come sit on the couch.
I usually have my four year old repeat back to me his task before sending him off. He doesn’t always remember every task depending on the difficulty. When he thinks that he has carried out all of his tasks I have him verbally review them with me and he will usually realize what he forgot to do.
Colors, Counting & Grouping~ I decided on a very colorful and diverse lunch for the purpose of using it as a time for learning. We had pastrami & cheese sandwiches on whole wheat bread, with Cheetos and chocolate chips. We reviewed colors by discussing the colors in his food. He thought that he had two sandwiches since it was cut in half, so I natural used this as an opportunity to introduce fractions. We learning time could have used to focus on the food pyramid as well.
T.V. & Computer Time~ I know that some parents feel guilty about putting their children in front of a television or computer to learn, but I am not one of them. My oldest child will be 15 this year, she is academically gifted and she has always been in honors and advanced classes. I have used technology ever since it has been available to educate my children. So speaking from experience I will say that carefully chosen programing is an alternate means of education. My son watched Calliou, Barney (learned about bugs and the sounds they make at night) and Teletubbies (lulled him to sleep before nap time). He spent some time on NickJr. playing a game. The game was not educational in and of it’s self but what was learning today was hand-eye coordination. He has become better at training his mind to mentally manipulate more than one task.
In case you don’t have any high-schoolers or college students I’d better let you that computers are the wave of the future. Student in these grades are often not even required to write on paper anymore. They can bring laptops to school and many colleges require them. So if you are not teaching your children about technology, I fear that they will be behind.
Have your children started school yet? How was your first day?
