Wednesday, August 18, 2010

to teach or not to teach?

This sounds like a silly question but I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Let me explain. J and E have been playing all sorts of games amongst themselves, along with N. They are growing and learning by leaps and bounds. These kids (J and E) know their alphabets (even some sounds that particular letters make), numbers, shapes, and colors in addition to many other things. I have been thinking about starting to teach them how to read during N's naptime. My only reservation on this is that they are already advanced for their ages and I don't want them to get bored or left behind when they enter Kindergarten. Being that I have been in Kindergarten classrooms before, as a teacher in addition to being a para, I know that a lot of times when kids don't need help the teacher just ignores them and they don't get any enrichment. I don't want my kids to have a negative feeling about school or being bored while they are there. I could always be a nagging mother while they are in school but I don't want all the teachers to hate me either.

I have also been thinking about trying to plan activities (whether that be reading, cooking, games, what have you) everyday that we could do while N is having her naptime but I have reservations about that too.
1.) If they get into a habit of having a special activity everyday then when the new baby comes I may not have the time to do an activity. This may result in a resentment towards the baby or myself; I certainly don't want that. I have the time now maybe I should be taking advantage of it?!?
2.) Now I know this may sound selfish but in the afternoons it is quiet time. This is the time that I can relax, unwind a little, or just sit down. If I have activities planned I won't get any time during the day for me. As mentioned earlier that may sound selfish, but some days (like yesterday) T is gone for 12 or more hours straight! As much as I try, I am not the perfect mommy; I get tired too! This time period allows me to semi-regenerate (a little itty bitty bit). I feel like now I am barely able to keep up with dishes, cooking, picking up, and play times let alone add something else to my list of things to do.
3.) Winter will soon be here and they are going to need something to keep them busy, esp. when we go days on end when we are unable to leave our home (due to frigid conditions). I know there are tons of ideas and things that can be done with children indoors but with winter approaching I am afraid that if I start with activities now I may run out of ideas. I guess the internet is full of interesting things that the kids would like to do... it is just a matter of if I would like to clean up at the end!

I guess after making my points I have come to the conclusion that instead of not doing activities with the kids now I should just stop typing and think of something small that we can do together. And I am off...

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