Throughout our toddler homeschool experience thus far, I have advocated taking a very laid back approach to homeschooling my toddler; recently, however, as Pumpkin turned 15 months, I decided to take another look at the Early Learning Content Standards. To my surprise, Pumpkin has achieved all of the goals except for 4-pointing to named body parts (which she does know a few, but not enough for me to call her meeting this standard), pointing to named pictures in a book, matching objects that are the same or similar, and noticing obvious changes in quantity. All of these would require a bit more from me than merely providing exploratory materials for Pumpkin to freely play with, so I have decided to begin adding a few activities to our routine that are a little more direct, without adding undue pressure.
To start off, I reviewed my state's suggestions on how to encourage a child on the goals she is still working towards. Then I thought about my daughter and came up with my own ideas for how to encourage Pumpkin towards her goals and came up with a unique plan for Pumpkin and I to dive into. For example, I know that my daughter really likes socks. Socks tend to have an exact match. So I went upstairs and grabbed 3 of Pumpkin's most colorful, uniquely patterned socks and laid them out on the floor between us. To encourage her on learning to find matches, I would grab a sock and ask her to find the sock's match. Instead of grabbing the match, she would usually grab the sock she wanted to and ask me to put it on her foot. Not quite what I wanted her to do, BUT it was our first attempt. Instead of getting frustrated, however, or making a big deal out of it, I simply put the sock on her foot and asked her to find the match for that sock instead. Usually she would find an entirely different sock. I would then take off the first sock and replace it with the new sock, and carry in with the activity. The message I wanted to get across to her is that socks must match if she wants to wear both of them. Meanwhile, Pumpkin still had fun playing with the socks, and was not frustrated.
Another direct way we are approaching our goals is by singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" whenever the fancy strikes me. I know my daughter loves songs and dancing, so it seemed perfect. As I sing I will point to the appropriate body parts and Pumpkin will watch me with her adorable, huge grin on her face. But, I have also noticed that she is pointing to the body parts named in the songs more often throughout the day! Not bad progress for only one week of the new changes.
We have added several other activities to our week also, but these should give you a few ideas for how to begin targeting specific goals together! Always keep your toddler and her personality in mind, and try to pick activities that will hold her interest, but also don't be afraid of trying something totally new! After all, you don't know that your toddler doesn't like an activity if she has never done anything like it (I learned this week that my daughter really likes the shape shorter, for example, but if I hadn't brought one out to try, I would have never known.) Above all else, make sure you both are continuing to have fun! If one of you is getting frustrated, put up the activities and play a game of chase or peek a boo or do a silly dance!
