Home Learning - Tracing Tools for Children
Now that our little one is home almost non-stop for the seventh month in a row, we’ve started setting up morning mini lessons designed for his current interests and skills. At 4 years old, he’s ready for some semblance of schooling. But due to the ever-rising cost of pre-school in Los Angeles coupled with the COVID-19 rates throughout the city, my husband and I made the tough decision to not send our child to classes for the foreseeable future.
West has been spelling out short words and expressing a more in-depth understanding of numbers (particularly since counting down to his birthday), so we introduced some tracing tools to his daily mix of learning materials.
Our friends at Timberchild (who, years ago, crafted the wooden plates that our kiddo still uses daily), sent him this beautifully made, double-sided tracing board for his recent birthday.
These number boards are made from one solid, smoothly sanded piece of wood. With one side, children can start to recognize and learn numbers 1 through 10, and then progress to 11 through 20 on the flip side. The numbers can be traced with a finger, or by using the wooden stylus provided. Our son likes to invent various ways to count out the numbers, scrounging up crafting supplies, rocks, marbles, and even the annoying ficus seeds from the garden to fit into the numerous, divots — perfectly sized for tiny fingertips — on the board.
I appreciate the minimal design, which allows us to keep the board out without contributing to a feeling of clutter or overcrowding. This is always a consideration for us given the small size of our home, and the lack of a dedicated play space / bedroom for our youngest family member.
Manageable Home Learning
Like millions of Americans right now, we are exhausted.
We are fortunate for countless reasons, and we are grateful for even more. Still, we are simply worn down.
Adam and I don’t want West to feel the weight of our fatigue.
At almost 4 years old, he’s ready for some semblance of schooling. But due to the ever-rising cost of pre-school in Los Angeles, coupled with the Covid-19 rates throughout the city, we are not sending our child to classes in the foreseeable future.
In order to give West a preschool-like feeling at the start of the weekdays, Adam and I have been packing themed lessons together at night for our little one to discover and explore the following mornings.
Spoiler alert: We’re not acing it as parents, folks. These are (very) low-lift lessons. I’m trying to be forgiving of such shortcomings, as we’re trying to run our small business in a recession, navigate family life in a big city during the pandemic, and attempt to figure out some major life changes and decisions (more on that later).
Just like with my office, we create a pop-up school space filled with workbook pages (usually from Highlights for Children), books, activities, and tools that support the morning’s theme. The theme is always something very general— like autumn, swimming, space, plants, etc. The obtuse nature of the themes helps us keeps things flexible, and prevents us from having to buy anything new in order to bring a fresh topic to life every day.
I’ve been filling West’s Uashama 100% organic paper backpack and collapsible, washable paper boxes / containers with the on-subject items he and Adam will use throughout the morning while I work.
And around lunchtime, we end up breaking it down for unstructured, open-ended play.
These sorts of mini lessons feel productive and doable. So while they’re not elaborate or innovative, they’re exactly what we can manage right now. And, most importantly, West is enjoying them.
More photos are below for those who are interested. (And while I have your attention: don’t forget to check your voter registration status or register to vote!)
