There are many ways to incorporate learning into whatever you're doing. Does EVERY single conversation have to have learning in it?? Of course not. I think it's important that kids can imaginatively play on their own...sometimes mama is just worn out! But when you do sit down next to your littles, language is a powerful tool that you can use. We are at my mom's, and she pulled out some old letter and number magnets- I think from my childhood! Target is selling them right now in the dollar bin if you're out, and Dollar Tree always has them too. Of course, we could spell words, but I let my little explore and do his own thinking. He ended up sorting them into colors! That's something I would not have necessarily thought to do with that object. Sorting is a great brain activity. We were able to talk about and compare colors. He even started putting numbers together, letters elsewhere. We did put some numbers in order, and then he started losing interest, which is about right for his age. So we went and made chocolate chip cookies with Nanny -which is a whole other topic for learning opportunities! But for now, we'll just leave it with...... MMM! Simple, quick, yet he has soaked up more information about sorting and numbers and letters. YAY! TTYL :) |