Acquiring Skills and a Love of Learning

Sometimes I feel like my life could be a meme. I'm the Mom with unwashed hair and triple microwaved coffee at 10:30 am. I am the Mom who has rewashed clothes she forgot to move to the dryer. I am the Mom that has gone grocery shopping and picked up a pizza in the same day, because the grocery shopping was a lot of work and I forgot to buy the chicken that was supposed to be for dinner.

I have a confession. I was kind of like this before becoming a Mom. I tried to be a master multitasker and missed the details and opportunities to learn from the world around me. Because of this, I want to encourage my son to learn at his own pace, ask questions and delve deeper into his interests from a young age.

This month, in my son's summer homeschool studies, camping is the theme. We are learning camping songs, building mini stick camp fires and lacing together crafty sleeping bags. I am very happy that my son is working on his fine motors skills and dancing his heart out with his July Mother Goose Time box. I am also happy that we are taking the time to ask questions like, "what else can we build from wood?" Or, "Where would we find food when we go camping and what kind of fish might we catch?"

Because we are homeschooling, we are able to take the planned out curriculum and travel down different paths of interest. We built an actual campfire and talked about the importance of staying warm and having shelter. That experience led to a discussion about different kind of houses that people might live in around the world. We went fishing, cooked together and even had a mini living room camp out with sleeping bags. We took our set curriculum at our own summer pace and because we slowed down, we learned ever more than I imagined we could.

The Mother Goose Time box has helped me balance the skills and the open ended exploration. The company, which provided our family with a complimentary box this month in exchange for our experience, not only came up with the crafts, songs and games, they spelled out what skills we were working on with each activity. There is even a really simple chart that shows what my child has worked on skill-wise that I get to review each month. The peace of mind this gives my coffee-fueled brain is fantastic. I would encourage any preschool parent to check out Mother Goose Time. You will be amazed how the tools, topics and projects will encourage deeper learning. The more I talk about the program with fellow parents, the more I can see using the program not only for homeschooling, but also as a supplement or educational subscription box. I hope that these opportunities to combine school and life experiences help to make my son an inquisitive, life long learner.