What can YOU do with a piece of track?

This morning we did just a little real informal schooling while Hayden was playing with his Thomas the Train track.  You can take almost any opportunity to do some learning/teaching if you will just seize the moment!

Hayden wanted me to help him build (translated~~help him put some track together so his trains can actually work on it..lol).  I am trying to teach him how the pieces fit together to make a track.  It is much like a puzzle really.  He is getting a good hang of the straight and curvy pieces, it is just adding the fun stuff (aka..bridges, tunnels, etc) that makes it a little more difficult for him right now.


So as I was sitting there with him, I got the idea to throw in a little learning into this playtime.  


So what did WE do with track??  

We counted them, we measured them, we compared them (bigger/smaller, shorter/longer  curvy/straight...concepts he already has down pretty well, but reinforcement is always a good thing!). Then I took his bridge and put one train on the bridge and one underneath and we discussed over/under. Simple little concepts but ones that they have to be taught nonetheless.

See learning with a 3 year old doesn't have to be difficult...it can actually be fun! ; )

Getting Ready for School

Well, the summer is coming to end...vacations are over...swimming is done...really??  It is the beginning of August!!, but that doesn't stop my older ones from gathering their school supplies and picking up their new schedules for school.  I can't believe they are in 10th and 7th grades this year!

As for my little guy and me, we will be journeying into our homeschool adventure in just a few weeks when I get settled in the routine with the older ones.  He is so excited and asks me daily if we can do school.  I know he is really ready to start some "structured" learning.  I say structured, but my plan is for to be just as much unstructured learning as it is structured.  By that I mean, I plan on him having fun and learning in our day to day activities as much as when we are sitting down doing a little book work.  My goodness, he is ONLY 3 1/2!!  He needs to have fun, enjoy the day, enjoy playing...but I want him to be like a sponge absorbing everything!  And I know he will be!

I am looking forward to sharing our days with you on here and hope that you can glean a little something from it also!

~~To The Moon And Back~~