The last post goes through what we worked through last week. I noticed that we didn't get to everything, and that's okay. But because of that, I wanted to pare it down just a little this week. We have a few impromptu activities that pop up, in addition to puzzles and laundry and helping load the dishwasher.
Here are some ideas I have for this week and which category I'd put them in.
- Alexander has started to dance again! He was on a dance hiatus for a few months there. He just refused to join in! So this week, now that he likes to dance some more, we'll turn on some fun music, blow up some balloons (he loves hitting them around) and just dance. We'll also probably do some songs with motions, like The Itsy Bitsy Spider.
- Piggybacking on that idea, we will probably toss the balloons back and forth because it really helps with hand-eye coordination. He's not great at catching a ball that's tossed to him, but he can usually catch a balloon!
- We will color. I have coloring pages and also blank white paper. We will both sit down and quietly just color. I've tried this with him several times, and he isn't normally into it. It will be interesting to see if he ever latches onto the idea of coloring! (I assume he will, one day, but it's not his thing right now.) I want to have crayons and markers available because I'm not sure which one is easier to use at his age.
- Eventually I want to teach him how to folks shirts and pants and all things. But I think that starting with washcloths (basically a simple fold-in-half) makes sense. Then we can move onto hand towels and regular towels. And then we can move to t-shirts and more. I think that he will enjoy it, if he can focus on it! I have some cheap white washcloths that I can write on: I will draw a line down the middle of it to show him where to fold. And then we can practice with the other washcloths.
- On top of reading to him each day, I want to keep working on the lowercase cursive. He has grown leaps since last week. They learn so quickly at this age! Next I want to try giving him opportunities to trace the letters. I'll stick to simpler letters first. We may even start with basic tracing and not end up doing cursive letters for another year. I have no idea! I'm going to just roll with it.
- Last week we tried working on quantities, but it didn't go well. I want to work on that some more this week. I may start with just 1, 2, and 3. I'll put 2 objects in front of him and ask, "How many?" And see if he can identify the number of things. If he is able to do that, we may try a matching sort of game with numbers and quantities.
- He can still count to 13 but not beyond that. He can identify the number 20, but he can't identify 14-19. Saying them is tough! But maybe if I say "Point to 17" he will be able to do that. It's worth a shot.
- We'll do a little science exploration this week. I'm not sure how much explanation I need to offer. I feel like seeing and experiencing science is good enough at his age. To do that, I want to make some bubbles with soap and water. We can make bubbles with our hands!
- Finally we should go to the plant nursery in town and talk about the different colors and shapes that we see. He may really enjoy just wandering and exploring the nursery. We have been once before, and he was mostly interested in the fountains that they had for sale. :) This time I want to focus on the types of plants and trees that exist.
In a week I'll write an update of what we actually do!