Monday, June 25, 2012

We're Learning!

I don't want to brag (well, maybe just a little), but did you know that Ben knew all of his letters, both upper-case and lower-case, and the sounds they made, by the time he was two years old?!  That's crazy to me!  Of course, I did have plenty of time to work with him on his alphabet (oh yeah, he could sing the whole alphabet song by that time, too), so I'm sure that helped.  He also knew most of his colors (except things like purple and pink and gray), numbers 1-10, and a few shapes.

Now, did you know that Caleb is already over two years old and can recognize a couple upper-case letters, and knows that "B" says /b/?  I AM SLACKING!!!  I have not done a single thing to work with Caleb on his alphabet, colors, numbers, or shapes!  He does know the color blue, but that's because his blanket is called "Big Blue".  So, everything is blue.  He can count to five, but doesn't recognize written numbers.  And forget shapes.  Shapes haven't even entered the picture yet.

So, I've decided that we are spending the summer doing a bit of learning.  Caleb will be learning his ABC's and all that stuff, and Ben will just get a light refresher for the things he does know.  I've been incorporating letters, colors, numbers, and shapes into our every day lives.  I'm sure I sound a little strange when Caleb points out a ball in the store and I say "Yes, that is a ball!  That ball is green!  That ball is round, like a circle!  What does ball start with?  /b/, /b/, /b/, Ball!  Ball starts with B!". 

But you know what?  I don't care.  That's how they learn.  We do this all day long.  And I think it's starting to sink in a little.  Yesterday, he pointed out an E in the newspaper.  That's progress.

In addition to incorporating all those things into our every day lives, we are also doing a letter of the week.  I know there are many ways to introduce letters (having been a kindergarten teacher, I fully understand the myriad of ways in which a person can introduce letters), but for the sake of remembering which on we're on I've chosen to start at A and end at Z.  I'll periodically blog about what we're doing through the course of our "summer school", but don't expect too much consistency from me.  This is me, after all!

With that being said,  I am off to start a Monday of learning for my boys, who just rolled their sleepy little heads out of bed.  We're on C this week!

2 comments:

  1. Wow... that is amazing that both of your boys know that much! Emma is having fun trying to sing the ABC song, she just learned what a circle is and she only knows some of her colors (thanks to Brown Bear, Brown Bear) :) She can count (2, 5, 8, 2, 10, 9, 10) :)

    Life is short... she needs to just worry about playing and having fun and being a 2-year old. She will have 17 or more years of school so we are just chilling for the 4 or 5 years that she is not in school at all :) That's my philosophy anyway :)

    Good luck Ben and Caleb! Have fun in summer school!

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  2. So, what you're saying is that I need to relax and stop trying to be (or make my kids be) the best at everything? I've had that problem my WHOLE life!! Thank you for that reminder :)

    I'm still going to play school with them, though. I have to- all my friends are grown up and won't play with me!

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