About a year ago, I blogged about trying to create intentional play scenarios for RL. This was before the birth of R so even though at the time it seemed difficult to fit this in to daily life, now it seems almost impossible.
I function in life by planning, organizing, and writing things down. I absolutely will never remember, show up, complete, succeed, or accomplish without the specific task written down. For me this includes, what I want to do with my kids. How I want to raise them, what I want to teach them, fun traditions for holidays......a serious obsession with planning and writing. I wish that I could do things on the fly, but attempts always equal disappointment somewhere. People place judgement on moms who forget important things...."how did she forget his soccer game?, how did she forget his shoes? did she bring him to school today?" This could totally be me if something comes up to threaten my consistent schedule of life.
I am not ashamed of this and have learned to embrace it. I mean, at 33 I have to accept myself at some point, right??
Bringing me back to my point. Intentional play. As a working mom, I constantly struggle with providing RL enough learning opportunities. I trust and PRAY that she is learning in "school" (daycare), but I believe it is a parents job to encourage and support outside learning not just be dependent it on it. One of my focuses with RL is Language and Literacy.
She has a speech delay due to 11 ear infections when she was younger. Yes, ELEVEN. She is improving, but certainly still needs continous support in this area, as well as, literacy. Unfortunately, my child is not a fan of books. :( I could totally review and criticize all of the decisions I have made along the way that lead her to this (not enough reading, not providing an example, too much technology), but instead I am trying to move forward before it gets worse!! Literacy is such a HUGE influence on school readiness, successfully adapting to school, self-confidence, and overall well-being. Because of all of this, I know that I must be intentional on supporting further language development and literacy outcomes.
After doing some research and skimming over the obvious.....reading....talking......pointing everyday things out, I came across some perhaps "obvious" suggestions that I am just not always great at doing.
1) Ask open ended questions - For example..."What tiny little bugs! Where do you think they are going?" This seems easy enough, but sometimes life buries the time just to intentionally stop and ask questions.
2) Make up rhymes, recite child-friendly poems. - Sure this is a great idea! Now, think of a poem or rhyme right now, real quick. Crickets...crickets. I couldn't think of one either. I need to be intentional and let myself rhyme silly words while cooking dinner.
3) Celebrate their attempts at independence - Yes we say "Good Job", "You did it" all of the time. These are easy ways to quickly celebrate. However, we need to also identify what they accomplished. "You climbed high, you are growing and getting stronger" or "I love the way you set the table, you are helping your bother learn". Intentional to notice the action and encourage it.
4) "Play" with literacy - Encourage pretend play. Use props, dress up, brooms, grocery and make up stories with your child. Help them understand order, imagination, new words, new ideas. Intentionally sit down and play outside of the box.
5) Encourage your child to think logically - take the stories of the book and allow your child to think about the situation and determine what will come next. Not by memorization, but by logical thinking. Intentionally choose a book that sets up this scenario for your child.
My key word is intentional......this is just how I do life. I have to think through it, plan it, write it down, and set a goal for success.
Thank you for hanging in with me if you made it to the sentence. I enjoyed writing this blog as child development is one of my passions. I hope that sharing my struggles and thoughts are helpful to at least one person that just feels like they are trying to keep life together. I know I feel like that everyday!!!
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