June Reflections

Boy, summer months fly by! I wish winter months went this fast and summer months were slow! Another month is winding down and it's time for me to stop and think about what we have learned!

After playing outside and sweating ourselves into exhaustion, we came in to play for a little while. Jake grabbed his ABC Rocks and his 'dig, dig.' I painted these rocks with a letter of the alphabet. He can identify a few letters either by the letter or by a word that starts with a particular letter (Henry for H, his little friend). This time as he was loading his rocks he either said each letter/word or he asked me which letter it was.

What is this one mom?

He would then repeat after me. This is a perfect example of Structured Play. He is playing and has no idea that he is learning. It is all fun for him! If I tried to sit him down with ABC flash cards we would last about 2 seconds. I do not feel anything is wrong with flash cards but they are not for all children and mine is not one of those kids! That doesn't mean he cannot learn! He is learning his letters and enjoying every minute of it! Ahhhh, this is what it is all about!

Some of the other ah ha's this month:

*We know that experiences help learning but that was even more clear this month with our vacation! Each activity had a direct relationship to our trip and whether it was before or after our trip when the activity was completed I still saw him making connections and adding world experience. This all adds to his knowledge base and his literacy! These are stepping stones!

*Watching him take my simple "lessons/activities" to the next level is the best part of my Structured Play time! This month I really started seeing him take activities to the next step and it makes this whole process more gratifying for me! The now I have to watch for him going to the next step and make sure I am staying one step ahead so I can continue to scaffold him appropriately.

Some uh ohs this month:

*Summer is here and we are enjoying every minute of it! I feel I need to make Structured Play time more of a priority. Some days I cut it short to make dinner, some days I skip an activity because he is enjoying himself playing in another activity. This is ok but I want to make sure that his day and activities are diverse. So that he is learning as well as playing!

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Structured Play

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