Carsen's School Room

We recently moved Carsen's school room upstairs and it's been a game changer.

While Kevin and I love our basement, Carsen isn't a fan. I can't blame him, for an almost three year old it's a bit intimidating. The steep steps as well as the noisy furnace. When we first moved in to our home I heard what sounded like a large cough coming from the basement one evening. I called Kevin and made him come home because I swore there was someone in our basement.

Like I said, moving Carsen’s school room upstairs was a game changer. We've spent the last three days of potty training in that room (minus when we go potty in the bathroom) and it's been life changing.

Carsen will occasionally even play in there by himself; which is a huge win being that before he wanted needed me with him at all times.

He loves to learn and I have to admit, he wants to do school more than I have ideas to teach him. I've had to step up my A game because he loves to learn.

In the last day or so I've tried to sit down and figure out where to go from here. Because 1. it's winter 2. my kid doesn't nap regularly so some organized learning/fun/play helps us both get through the day and 3. I want to actually teach him something if he's asking.

What Carsen does know:
-All the upper and lower case letters
-Nearly all numbers to 20 (12 and 13 sometimes hang him up)
-Colors
-Shapes
-Opposites (we still work on consistently)
-Rhyming (we still work on consistently)

What we are working on:
-Days of the week
-Spelling his name

What we will work on per my preschool teacher friend:
-3D shapes
-How to hold a pencil/crayon/marker
-Fruits of the Spirit

This is all FUN! We don’t just sit at a table and learn. We play games, puzzles, sing songs, use his trains, his cars, use cards, paint, etc. Pinterest and free printables are my friend.

I only now just created a loose routine. A routine helps Carsen and I both to know what to expect. But loose because he’s 2.5 years old and he doesn’t nap regularly - which means some days look different. Notice I don’t have time frames either, because each day is different and we aren’t that in need of structure (some might need that, we don’t).

My loose routine:
-Breakfast
-Check out Carsen's calendar to figure out what day of the week it is
-Fruit of the Spirit song, short dialog and activity
-Snack and alone play time (mom works a bit)
-Black History month book and activity (I have 11 books on hold at the library!!!)
-Lunch
-Review of numbers
-3D shape fun
-Spelling puzzles or writing/painting fun (just getting him to hold a crayon or paint brush correctly)
-Mom cooks dinner - everyone just trying to make it to bedtime

Sometimes Carsen doesn’t want to do school, and just wants to play. That is A-Okay with me! It’s not like we have to do this! We aren’t homeschooling yet (no I’m not sure what we are going to do about school!)

And while he has a great attention span for a toddler, he hardly ever sits down when we are learning. When we match numbers, he pretends he's Bot from Unizoomi and will say, "arm extend-o" and dive to grab a card off the floor. It's fun and he's learning!

I took time to write this out because I know I have learned so much from watching other mommas do life with their kids. I loved the input, blog posts, and ideas.

What ideas are you doing with your littles to help them have fun while learning?


*My family is not perfect. In fact, we are far from it.

I share all of this, not to say “look at me”, but to share how I am working with Carsen in hopes to encourage or give ideas to others who are searching. I never want to hold my ideas for myself.

Like Young Living, the company I build my business with, says, “If you love it, share it.” This is me sharing my imperfect ideas that will probably change down the road.