James turned 3 last month. So 3 is our magic number for everything. Just ask James.
If I open a bag of chips he knows he is only allowed 3 chippies. I set the warning time for bedtime, he likes it to be set for 3 more minutes of playtime. He earns 3 coins daily for his hard work on a Teach Me app he plays. And be is limited to 3 episodes of Number Crew (his latest addiction) a day. Thankfully each episode is only 10 minutes!
So I think ideally at 3 I aiming for 3 hours of dedicated learning time a day. Now this does not include math via play, discussion and cooking. Or any other little learning moment we throw in. And if does not include me reading to him.
And yes, 3 hours is not enough time to do everything I want to do. But I feel it is enough for James.
Here is a little breakdown of things we do each day, and how long. James has playtime between all these activities.
CalendarTime 5-10 minutes max.
We sings days of the week and months of the year songs. We read yesterday's date, cross it off the calendar. Read today's date. Then sing a song about weather. James runs to the window to check the weather. We write it on the calendar. Then we read tomorrow's date. We talk about yesterday, tomorrow and today. We check the calendar for any upcoming events.
Phonics Instruction. 15-30 minutes. Once a day.
Lately I am just focusing on strengthening James' phonics. We play games. He matches words to cards. I write words in the boards even nonsense words and James crosses or erases them.
Eventually I will add spelling into this.
Maths: 15-30 minutes. Twice a day.
Right now James is doing this in about 15 minute spurts. I am working on increasing his attention stamina gradually. Math consists of lots of games and a few pages on a work sheet.
Fine motor: 15-30 minutes in several segments.
This includes, cutting, pasting, and lots of drawing on the chalkboard. Stamping, puzzles, any craft. I do include a little Letter School App with a stylus here. This is not included in app time.
Gross motor... Ummm always happening. He is a 3 year old rambunctious boy.
James reading to me: 15-30 minutes. Twice a day.
James has to read to me before naptime and bedtime, daily. I will then read to him (more about this in a minute)
Music. However long it takes to do a Little Musician lesson.
Ipad apps. 30 minutes max and/or 3 stars.
James has strict access to educational apps only. Right now he is completing Teach Me toddler. And he is doing EuroTalks math app. And Letter School. He hasn't opened any other apps for a while.
Character building: 15 minutes.
We do a weekly virtue. I write it on the whiteboard and have James read it at least twice a day. He often reads it when he acts against that virtue. For 2 weeks we had to do gentleness as James went through an extremely rough phase. He read that virtue a lot. This week it was patience, something I never have had an issue with and he read it very little.
Sitting still. I believe in self regulation and sitting still, which in turn leads to attentiveness. So we have started sitting still for a few minutes each day. Thus far James can only do a whopping 4:36 seconds. His record.
but I hope to increase that over time.
James also has to take care of himself. He takes his dishes to the sink, his clothes to the washer etc. He can prepare a snack. He cleans up messes he makes.
Science/History/Geography/ general knowledge etc.
This one I don't really count as part of our structured time. James will learn via play. He loves doing puzzles and he will do puzzles of the United States. Or we do mini flash card sessions that last less than a minute with cards of the presidents. We play with his plastic animals and discuss biomes, the food chain/web and different types of animals. We build buildings with blocks and talk about architecture. This is just general dialog and discussion that we have each day.
I also read to James for 15-30 minutes twice a day after he has read to me. I will cover fiction as well as non fiction. And sometimes this reading is filled with lengthy discussion.
I think that is about it.
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