Playing to Learn

A few years ago, several different factors influenced me to focus a little more on making sure Erik is surrounded by opportunities to learn and grow. This has prompted me to make some changes in our daily life, which mean I have also started a new blog. To follow our learning fun, go here.

The aftermath of edible finger painting in the bathtub.

     At the time, I had recently started babysitting a young infant for a friend who had to go back to her full time job. This meant that from the time Erik woke up in the morning until the middle of the afternoon, he had to share me with our new little friend, Paisley. He wasn't used to not being the center of my attention, and it was a bit of an adjustment for everyone. I tried really hard to make sure that he got plenty of attention during the day, but I also decided that I was going to make the few hours we had alone in the afternoon into something special. I tried really hard to make sure we had good quality one on one time every afternoon. Some days this meant doing something new that we'd never tried before, and other days it meant I just made sure that we spent a few extra minutes playing with his cars, or blocks, or whatever he was interested in.
    Like many of us, I like to look around on pinterest, and often came across cute little ideas for teaching kids their letters, or numbers, or reading, or whatever. I was thinking to myself one day that I was so excited for some day when Erik's big enough to do those things, and then it hit me; I have a college degree in early childhood education. I went to school to learn how to teach infants and toddlers. Why do I have to wait until he's big enough to learn his ABC's, I know there is so much more that has to come before he can do that, so why am I not doing it! Maybe I could actually apply all that I learned, and make a difference in my child's life. DUH! Wow, I'm really bright, huh? So, I decided then and there to put my college degree to use. I've been reading my old textbooks again, and scouring the internet and the library for ideas, and have a good little list of things I want to try with Erik. I also decided to work on new activities for PJ, so there were already some fun baby activities on there before Sharli was born, and we've continued to add more as she grew too. Come check out our fun at www.weplay2learn.blogspot.com .