Daily Routine

"Penny Gaines" wrote in message
...
Stephanie wrote:
"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
. ..

Rather than getting workbooks, I'd get books.

Depends on the age of the child, we have a gazillion books, both kids
enjoy them (they are 2 and 4 like the OP), both go through phases of
wanting to spend loads of time reading or none at all. We also have a
moderate stack of work books and activity books of various types and DS
will often choose to do them, at other times I offer and sometimes he's
keen and others not and I don't push it. But he is learning different
skills when he does things from those books rather than reading books, he
wants to learn to write, he's not going to learn how to write by reading,
he's going to learn to write by writing each letter several times. We're
not on to any maths workbooks at this age, but there is a limit to real
life situations we're far from it yet, but I think there are times when
there is benefit in "drilling", simply to get the practice and have
things instilled into the child's mind.

Cheers
Anne



My favorite academic exercises are play based and almost hidden with
excitement. I went to training class recently on literature sparked
science in the preschool environment. I wish I could lay my hands on the
material to see if it is based in a national or international program.
There are story books with math and science themes in them and stories
around exploring a concept or solving a problem then suggested
activities. (I just spent 1/2 hour looking for hte materials from that
training class and cannot find them! GAH!)
[snip]
Any preschool science program thata local science museum might have would
be a good undertaking. In this day and age, they should all be engaging
and playbased, and likely appropriate for a toddler too with supervision.

I think Anne's DS is like my DD in that he actively chooses to do the
workbooks, as opposed to some other game or playing that he could
choose. The literature based science stories might be a good way of
teaching the concepts, but some children actually enjoy this type of
drill!



Cool! I am not sure that is the most common. Certainly it is not with my 2!
But if your kids dig it, more power to them.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

"Stephanie" wrote in message
news:Abigi.5936$pT4.3620@trndny06...

"Penny Gaines" wrote in message
...
Stephanie wrote:
"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
. ..

Rather than getting workbooks, I'd get books.

Depends on the age of the child, we have a gazillion books, both kids
enjoy them (they are 2 and 4 like the OP), both go through phases of
wanting to spend loads of time reading or none at all. We also have a
moderate stack of work books and activity books of various types and DS
will often choose to do them, at other times I offer and sometimes he's
keen and others not and I don't push it. But he is learning different
skills when he does things from those books rather than reading books,
he wants to learn to write, he's not going to learn how to write by
reading, he's going to learn to write by writing each letter several
times. We're not on to any maths workbooks at this age, but there is a
limit to real life situations we're far from it yet, but I think there
are times when there is benefit in "drilling", simply to get the
practice and have things instilled into the child's mind.

Cheers
Anne



My favorite academic exercises are play based and almost hidden with
excitement. I went to training class recently on literature sparked
science in the preschool environment. I wish I could lay my hands on the
material to see if it is based in a national or international program.
There are story books with math and science themes in them and stories
around exploring a concept or solving a problem then suggested
activities. (I just spent 1/2 hour looking for hte materials from that
training class and cannot find them! GAH!)
[snip]
Any preschool science program thata local science museum might have
would be a good undertaking. In this day and age, they should all be
engaging and playbased, and likely appropriate for a toddler too with
supervision.

I think Anne's DS is like my DD in that he actively chooses to do the
workbooks, as opposed to some other game or playing that he could
choose. The literature based science stories might be a good way of
teaching the concepts, but some children actually enjoy this type of
drill!



Cool! I am not sure that is the most common. Certainly it is not with my
2! But if your kids dig it, more power to them.

#1 loved doing workbooks from about 2yo. At 2 though she needed a lot of
parental support. If I offered her a book to buy she'd often choose a
workbook.
#2 (3.5yo) has just started enjoying workbooks, particularly the writing
ones. It has corresponded with her reading ability growing so she can read a
certain amount of the instructions on her own. I don't know if that's
typical? But she'll still choose to read a book on her own (or with me) more
often than choosing the workbook.
Debbie

"Welches" wrote in message
...

"Stephanie" wrote in message
news:Abigi.5936$pT4.3620@trndny06...

"Penny Gaines" wrote in message
...
Stephanie wrote:
"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
. ..

Rather than getting workbooks, I'd get books.

Depends on the age of the child, we have a gazillion books, both kids
enjoy them (they are 2 and 4 like the OP), both go through phases of
wanting to spend loads of time reading or none at all. We also have a
moderate stack of work books and activity books of various types and DS
will often choose to do them, at other times I offer and sometimes he's
keen and others not and I don't push it. But he is learning different
skills when he does things from those books rather than reading books,
he wants to learn to write, he's not going to learn how to write by
reading, he's going to learn to write by writing each letter several
times. We're not on to any maths workbooks at this age, but there is a
limit to real life situations we're far from it yet, but I think there
are times when there is benefit in "drilling", simply to get the
practice and have things instilled into the child's mind.

Cheers
Anne



My favorite academic exercises are play based and almost hidden with
excitement. I went to training class recently on literature sparked
science in the preschool environment. I wish I could lay my hands on
the material to see if it is based in a national or international
program. There are story books with math and science themes in them and
stories around exploring a concept or solving a problem then suggested
activities. (I just spent 1/2 hour looking for hte materials from that
training class and cannot find them! GAH!)
[snip]
Any preschool science program thata local science museum might have
would be a good undertaking. In this day and age, they should all be
engaging and playbased, and likely appropriate for a toddler too with
supervision.

I think Anne's DS is like my DD in that he actively chooses to do the
workbooks, as opposed to some other game or playing that he could
choose. The literature based science stories might be a good way of
teaching the concepts, but some children actually enjoy this type of
drill!



Cool! I am not sure that is the most common. Certainly it is not with my
2! But if your kids dig it, more power to them.

#1 loved doing workbooks from about 2yo. At 2 though she needed a lot of
parental support. If I offered her a book to buy she'd often choose a
workbook.
#2 (3.5yo) has just started enjoying workbooks, particularly the writing
ones. It has corresponded with her reading ability growing so she can read
a certain amount of the instructions on her own. I don't know if that's
typical? But she'll still choose to read a book on her own (or with me)
more often than choosing the workbook.
Debbie



The lesson here to the OP, perhaps, is of all the ideas you have seen here,
choose the one(s) best suited to your children!

#2 (3.5yo) has just started enjoying workbooks, particularly the writing
ones. It has corresponded with her reading ability growing so she can read a
certain amount of the instructions on her own. I don't know if that's
typical? But she'll still choose to read a book on her own (or with me) more
often than choosing the workbook.

It might be for her, but probably not in general, you have a pair of
unusally early readers, I think it's normal through kindergarten and
beyond to not be able to read the instructions for a work sheet, but be
able to do the work sheet. On the other hand, some are fairly self
explainatory, it doesn't take long for a child to learn that a certain
type of dotted line is for moving the pencil along, so they can do a lot
of practice of that with no instruction at all if they so wish, and if
they know the alphabet already, they'll learn that they are writing a
particular letter.

Cheers
Anne

I think Anne's DS is like my DD in that he actively chooses to do the
workbooks, as opposed to some other game or playing that he could
choose.

He's a very varied child, one day he will like to spend hours writing,
another day, hours playing with cars. Just right now we are in a not
interested in workbooks phase, a while back he was desparate to learn to
write, but I think must have got frustrated with the slow progress but
it has triggered greater interest in reading and he has to know what
absolutely everything says, which can be tricky whilst driving.

I think my point was that whilst workbooks are no where near as
essential at home as books to read are, they are still a pretty useful
tool. There are many things that can be done without them with little
effort, such as learning concepts, I've done pages where you had to
circle the biggest item in each group or something, but you don't need a
work book to teach those concepts. But with writing in particular, a
page of dotted letters is a massive timesaver, I've sat down with DS
when he's wanting to write with scrap paper and a pencil and it go
absolutely fine, but a book is so much easier!

Anne

Thanks to all for the great ideas. I am taking it day by day and really
doing a great job of turning off the television. There are tons of ways to
fill in the time if you just set your mind to it. I really liked the idea
about breaking the day up into chunks. If I say from this time to this time
we will do this then it seems easier than looking at the day as a whole.
Thanks again for all your help.

"cindy" wrote in message
t...
Hello,
My name is Cindy and I live in Richardson Texas. I have two boys ages 4
and almost 2. I lurk here a lot because I think you guys have a lot of
knowledge.
I was wondering if you could give me some ideas on setting up a daily
routine. I try to get the boys out of the house for an activity once a
day (swimming, bounce house, etc) but am finding it hard to fill in the
time at home. It is much too easy for me to turn on the tv and let them
just veg out so I can veg out too. I really want to spend our time
together more wisely. Any suggestions? I guess I need structure too!
Thanks,
Cindy