Learning Time

Hadley does not attend any sort of daycare or preschool and I feel that one of my most important jobs as her mom is to teach her skills that she will need when she does eventually go to school (that is, if I let her grow up--I'm still undecided). We schedule 30 minutes a day of what we call learning time. We have a child-size table and chairs and Hadley always races to go sit down when I tell her it's time. This setup is pretty natural for me because it's basically what I did when I worked with kids with autism--lots of table time. I have a general guide that I use to figure out what tasks we will do daily, but if there is something specific that Hadley asks to play with that day, we go for it. 

The table is set up in a corner of our living room

Monday is theme day. Each week has a theme (jungle, sky, family, etc.) so on Mondays we usually do a coloring sheet for that theme.

Tuesday is our grocery/errand day so the morning is usually taken up with that so I don't have table time that day. We do say our Bible memory verse though.

Wednesday is letter day. We do a different letter each week. I will have a coloring sheet of that letter and we will talk about things that start with that letter. One of these days I will get adventurous and let her trace the letter in pudding...one day.

Thursday is shape/color day. Every other week we do a shape or a color. For shapes we cut them out with playdoh. For colors we will use that color crayon or go around the house and find things that color.

Friday is number day. We will put that many stickers on a piece of paper, build a tower with that many blocks, etc.

In addition to our day of the week activities, I will also throw in another activity like pegs, puzzles, shape sorter, etc. I try to incorporate fine motor skills in some way. Sometimes we will do some sort of craft, but we will probably do more of that when she is older and able to enjoy it a little more. She's not really to the cutting/gluing stage yet. 

I bought an adorable file box from Target that I keep all of our papers in. I have folders for each day of the week and extra folders to keep extra forms, all of the papers she has colored so far (so I can look back and see how much progress she has made on her coloring), and the index cards I use to write our memory verses. I created my own sheet that I attach to the front of the file box with a binder clip so we can see what we will be working on that week.

Not only am I teaching her basic academics that I feel she should know, but I'm also teaching her boundaries (you will hear me say this word again!). She is not allowed to get up from the table until I say she can, and it teaches her to be still and focus on something for a period of time. There are so many different ways to do learning time! One day could be art day, one day music, one day a field trip--the list goes on. Pinterest is full of great ideas!

I'd love to hear about ways you do learning time with your toddler or preschooler!