After reading 2 of my friends' blogs about all the crafts and activities they do with their children, I'm beginning to feel like a slacker. See all 3 of us are former teachers-2 of them were 2nd grade and I was a 3rd grade teacher. You would think with ALL my knowledge and ALL my complaining of how kids weren't prepared for school and BLAH, BLAH, BLAH- you would think that I would be conducting school at my home and Piper would be in a "rich learning environment." Such is not the case. I mean I do stuff with her, but I feel like she's not learning anything. Piper is so content playing and exploring and learning on her own. I try and here's what I've been doing with minimal success:
Sign Language: we started signing at 6 months and at 10 months it clicked. However, all we can do is milk, more, ball, and all done. I'm currently teaching her bath, dog, and diaper change. So far she points to Boo and says "dog", gets excited when I turn on the bath, and starts pulling her diaper when we go for a change.
Reading: I am a slacker. I don't read to her as often as I should. She loves to turn the pages and "read" them herself. Most reading times consist of Piper grabbing the book while I quickly try to make learning moments happen like "Look at the ball" "point to the ball" to which she just screams at me and takes the book away. At least I try.
Toys: again, Piper prefers to do things by herself. She can put shapes into their outline, take out and put back objects, and will roll a ball back and forth between the 2 of us. She also figured out how to use the mallet to hit the xylophone to make music. She also will give/offer objects when asked. Most of these things she does with minimal help. Like I said, she prefers to be ALONE when playing.
Talking: I talk nonstop to Piper. She is my only buddy all day, so I spend quite a bit of time talking to her. She talks back and engages in semi conversations. Currently, she says- Boo, dog, mama, dada, more, done, and yes.
What she doesn't do AT ALL: she doesn't know body parts, won't play patty cake or peek a boo, she won't wave or nod/shake her head, and she doesn't really engage in sing song play.
I need more stuff to do with her. She doesn't watch television and prefers to be VERY active (she's everywhere).
What are some suggestions you moms have to help me teach my child and be a more present mom? She's 1. Any activities? Or am I being crazy and my kid is just inquisitive and learns through exploration and not necessarily through me?
Who Hath ears to hear, let him hear
5 years ago
2 comments:
Lesly, don't beat yourself up at all! I know you haven't been reading my blog for long, so you didn't see all the posts I did a while back about how guilty I was feeling that I wasn't a better mom. I felt like all the time I spent "playing" with Hannah was spent working on something else or thinking about things on the to-do list that I wished I could be doing if Hannah was napping or something. So I started taking an hour after Hannah's bedtime every night to work on my to-do list, and although I do still spend some time being productive during the day, I also spend a lot more time with my baby girl. I try to spend at least 30 minutes JUST playing with her each day. This takes effort! I try to do like three ten minute play sessions where I focus on nothing but her. I also try to do some kind of outing each day for her so she isn't constantly cooped up. Some days we go to the library for story time or we have a playdate, but other days we just go for a walk in our own neighborhood. But like I said, I only really enjoy this time if I know I'll have some time later in the day to get things done that I need to or want to. I checked out a book at the library with ideas of things to do with your toddler, and I posted my favorite ideas on my blog (look under my blog archive for October... it's there), and I also look at another blog (that is linked on my blog page, if you go to it) that has learning activities of things to do with kids of various ages, but you can search according to age, I think. Anyway, you don't have to stress yourself out, but if you feel like it would be rewarding, it can't hurt to try to do one activity every morning or something for like 3 or 4 days out of the week, you know? It's great that Piper entertains herself so well! Hannah does too... and I've found that spending some time with her every once in a while helps her entertain herself better because she understands that it's a give and take.
Anyway, I'm sorry this comment is so long. I hope I was able to give you some good ideas, but more than anything, I hope you know that you're doing a great job if you have a little independent, inquisitive girl!
Lesly, Gabbie was the exact same way as Piper until she turned 18 months. She was so content to play by herself and I have to admit that I loved that time. Now she wants more interaction than play alone time. I posted a couple of ideas for you on the comment section of my blog if you haven't already checked them out.
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