SInce middle of April this year, I have started doing daily activities like crafts, coloring, cutting, drawing etc on top of my teaching my 3 years old boy.
IMHO, you don't need to follow a lesson plan just so you can teach your child. Of course having activities books like crafts, coloring, cutting, drawing are awesome, but my point is other than following what is in these books, we can also apply and show examples from our surroundings and environment.
As a SAHM, I try to teach and explain whatever I can to my kids. OK, at the moment, although both my kids listen to me, only my 3 years old boy understand what I say to him and maybe I think ocassionally, my 10 months old girl might kinda understand what I'm saying hahaha...
Anyway, like I mentioned earlier, I teach and explain whenever the opportunities arises.
It could be just the 3 of us (hubby at work) hanging out at our balcony and I will go telling my boy the vehicles that passes by in front of our house (we live in front of a highway though it was barricaded with a sound-proof wall, we still can see the top of most vehicles passing through).
I started doing that since Benjamin could stand by himself and today, he will just tell me 'Look mummy! That's a bus' or he will go 'Lorry', 'Long green lorry', 'Siren sound from the ambulance', '2 busses' so on and so forth.
Or we could be playing in the water pool at our balcony and I will go teaching him about shapes and colors of his toys, to share his toys with his baby sister, to clean up the toys and help me wash up the balcony after playing, etc etc.
Ben learning even while bathing!
The learning just never stops.
For me, as long as you are creative,
EVERYTHING and ANYTHING can be a learning tool.
A conversation piece. Something to teach your child. An opportunity to bond and share and see the knowledge being absorbed by a young child's mind. You can teach them about:
* Types of vehicles,
* Buildings, ("That is a school")
* Shapes, ("Look at that building, it looks like a circle shape right?")
* Sizes and comparison (short, shorter, shortest), ("That building is taller than this building")
* Colors,
* Sounds,
* Locations ("See the bird is ON the tree" or "The cat is under the tree")
* Counting ("How many lorries can you see?")
Ben counting!
* Parts ("Check out that tree in front of us! Look at the color of the flowers, the branch, the bark..."),
* Occupation ("Look Ben! That is a postman, just like Postman Pat, he delivers letters and packages to us!"),
* Usage, ("Do you know why trees and plants have roots? Unlike us, we have legs to stand and move around, but trees and plants do not have legs, so they depend on their roots to stand firm and not tumble down easily...")
* Cause and effect ("Why is there siren sound coming from the fire engine? It's because the firemen are rushing to a place to help put out the fire, so do not play with fire", etc etc)
and many, many, many, MANY MORE!!!
