I substitute teach. For kids. Yep...me...weird. This week I substituted three days: 5th grade once and 1st grade twice. I could go on and on about that but that's not the point, we all have jobs and things we do but what do we do with that information? Do you ever take the insights gained home and put them into practice? I have. I realized while being with and teaching other people's kids that my most important role was at home teaching my own daughter. I realized that she and I spend quantity time together and not quality time. She's a smart girl and she needs to be challenged regularly...so I decided to do just that. I went online and started looking up activities and things she and I could do that will challenge her and help her learn.
She expressed an interest the other day about the human body so that day she and I sat down and we looked at two books that are about the human body. Initially she wanted to learn about bones, so we talked about that then we just went through the various body systems including the circulatory, digestive, musculature, and nervous system. We talked about our senses and why they work. Since Clint works with the Deaf and my sister, Anna, works with the blind I talked to her about that. We practiced not being able to hear or see. I talked about what Daddy and Aunt B (Anna) do in their jobs. Later we talked about what happens to food in our bodies and she thought that it was hilarious about where the poop comes out. I didn't teach her "rectum" although I was tempted. :)
I printed off a worksheet with various shapes and she colored it then I cut them out and she pasted them to a sheet and we then labeled them. We worked on her tracing skills and cutting skills. This morning we made crowns and decorated them with shapes. She listened and sang to Veggie Tales (on my iPod) and danced around. Each time we completed a project she was so excited and wanted to show Grandma and Daddy.
In anticipation of this week (Spring Break) I've been thinking about when we'll be home and what we can do. So far only Thursday is planned. It's St. Patrick's Day and my brother's birthday. I'm sure we'll make him a card and mail it this week but I've been planning all kinds of fun stuff for the two of us to do. We're going to have green food (green bread, green eggs, green milk, green pudding, etc), we are going to make a shamrock tree using an outline of her arm for the trunk, I have a puzzle to finish making for her (a leprechaun), and a coloring sheet.
I've also thought about incorporating history into her learning. Mostly they will be coloring sheets of famous people (African American's, Deaf, Women, Inventors, Presidents, etc) while I give her a brief description of what they do. I will save each of these in a "Gwen's History Binder" and add their stories etc so we can look at them later. I am also in the process of making U.S. President Flash Cards...I already created Prophets of the LDS church cards which we look at during Sacrament meeting and whenever else she wants. I'm still trying to determine the schedule but I know that the days she doesn't have preschool (so three days a week) I'll work on these things with her. This will give her a set schedule and the two of us will have quality time. I've had so much fun with her and am excited to start working on this in earnest. Below are two coloring page websites I've found that I like. I hope you like them too! As I find more great websites I'll be sure to share them. :)
http://web.knoxnews.com/web/blackhistory/color/
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org/famamer/
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