New Chalkboard

Harbor and I spend about a solid hour a day working in our preschool workbooks. I typically break the lessons down into 20 minute sections, but he seems to be able to focus for longer amounts of time now as he has gotten older. As a former teacher, I know what is ahead of us in kindergarten, which makes me want to work as hard as possible to make sure he thinks learning is "fun." 

When I sense he is tired or frustrated or bored, we close up the workbooks or learning games and go do something else.

I recently bought some chalkboard paint and painted a huge picture that I have had for several years.

I left it out, floor level with chalk, for about a week for Harbor to play with.

And when the novelty of its newness wore off, I moved it to our preschool table.

It has been a fun addition to our everyday lessons.

I try really hard to keep this area organized and I often find Harbor trying to put his books back where they belong. He seems to naturally like order and organization, which helps a lot with cleanup time! Does anyone else have a toddler like that? 

Harbor will "work" at his table alone for about 15 minutes as a time, coloring, working mazes, or dot to dot activities. Those are his favorites! I really think that he loves his preschool activity books because I am there, sitting close, side-by-side, giving him all of my attention, praising his efforts. I think all kids just want our undivided attention, even if it is just 15 minutes a day. To them, that is love. : )

I wanted to point out that the container I use for his crayons is an empty dish detergent container. I washed it out and soaked the labels off. It is clear, deep, and has a huge snap lid. I liked it initially, though, because it was green.  : )

Harbor, at three years of age, you can:

 count to 50 alone, tell me the sounds the letters make, write all of your upper case letters without help or seeing a sheet to show you what they look like{"M" and "W" are still tricky for you, though,} spell a handful of words from memorization, and spell almost anything phonetically that I sound out slowly.

We are very proud of his hard work. It is amazing what just 15-20 minutes of lessons a day can accomplish! Of course, I was a Literacy teacher for six years, so I definitely have the background for it, which helps. Even if you aren't in education, you can still work with your child. Start slowly with a fun workbook, show interest, and give lots of praise for any and all attempts. : )

The table and chair set were a gift from my parents. They are from Pottery Barn and have been the perfect size for the two of us. My mom actually found them used at a thrift store!

I'm glad we have a nice, quiet, sunny place to work everyday.

While we are warm inside, we have already had a few nights like this!

My car has never seen snow this early in the season!

Anything new going on? : ) Have a great week!