following her

It had been a while (a while) since I'd switched out any of the works in her little 'classroom' corner in the office.  I don't have a schedule for doing 'school' work with her, and I don't aim to do certain things on any kind of a regular basis.  You know, because she just turned three, and because academics just isn't what I think little ones need to focus on most.  It's the play and the exploration and the connection and the down-and-dirty fun that are really crucial during this time, right?  But.  She loves it.  She asks so many questions and seems to crave the process of sitting down and more formally(ish) receiving information (of all kinds) and comes away from it deeply satisfied.  So it's here for her.  And we're here to do the works with her, when she wishes.  Which is often.  Or rather was often, until I kind of let the works get all old and boring by way of not freshening things up for her.  So, out with the old and in with the new.  She was so over button sorting and bead stringing, lid/bottle matching, napkin folding, etc.

Now there are some sequencing cards, new puzzles, a color wheel (and color mixing), table washing, new dominos (with shapes and patterns), some simple body part identification and preposition recognition (little pictures where she points out in which ones the subject is over, under, up, down, inside, outside, etc), a continent puzzle map, some newly made sound cylinders and smelling cylinders, and wood polishing (with this recipe).  And soon, hopefully, (if I get making) some pin-poking,  color tablets and number rods.  Her favorites are the sandpaper letters with sound object boxes, the cylinders, and art.  Always, always art.

I found these clear tubes and filled them with rice, mung beans, and chickpeas (for sound cylinders), and vanilla beans, cinnamon sticks, and cotton soaked with wintergreen oil (for smell cylinders), then covered the outsides of the tubes with tape to hide the contents.  She chooses a sound cylinder and shakes it, then goes through the others, one at a time, until she finds the match.  She loves it.  For the smell cylinders, I blindfold her and sit with her, opening different tubes and asking her to let me know when she smells two that are the same.  Those are a little trickier, but she digs them as well.

I love the way this 'school' naturally evolves as she grows and her interests and needs shift.  I remind myself to not push her into one thing or another, to always have it be her choice, to focus on the process, to keep it fun, and of course, to follow her.