This is probably going to be a very random ramble about early learning – if you’ve come for the sewing pop over to Facebook; I’ve been busy. For everyone else I’ll throw in a few cute photos in an attempt to stop you running away – as a side note I realised I’ve been uploading photos that are too large, sorry hopefully that’s fixed now!
(Dinosaur available to order – this one costs £30 plus £3.95 postage)
So Boo has finally started school. (For those of you who aren’t related to me and so don’t keep up with the goings on over here we moved house well after the deadline for applying hence the delayed start)
Up until this point in his life we, like many parents of preschool children, have pretty much let Boo guide his own learning. We tried to fill his life with interesting things and read to him, talked to him and sang a lot (totally out of tune!) He has a good imagination, he’s inquisitive and has a decent grasp of numbers but he’s never really been interested in drawing or writing and so those skills aren’t very well developed. This is perfectly fine with us. I know there is little correlation between the early writers and the good writers.
(Skeleton play dough – inspiration here)
Now there’s school. Because I’m a teacher and because one of my sisters home schools her children I think and talk a lot about early education. I really believe if left to his own devices he would learn to form letters as and when he feels inclined to and a big part of me wants to leave him to it.
But I also know that it’s hard for a child to be finding something difficult while other children are progressing and that because of time constraints and an overloaded curriculum children are sometimes taken away from doing something they enjoy to practise doing something they find difficult. So we have decided to bribe him into practicing his writing everyday for a little while – chocolate coins are perfect for a pirate loving child! I’ve printed off a load of lovely sheets from Twinkl and he’s generally prepared to do it – although the bribes are totally necessary.
I’m pretty sure in 5 years time I’ll look back to how conflicted I feel about the change from him and us being in charge of his learning and laugh at myself!
(Superhero – available to order from £30 plus postage)
Thanks for stopping by – feel free to let me know how much worse it’s going to get as he gets older 😉