For those of you who are new to Witty Little Minds, I am LaTonia. My absolutely delightful daughter turned 12 months recently. She was a wonderful and welcomed surprise and has changed my life completely. I am also mom to an amazing young lady who was homeschooled for the first 4 years of her life. She went on to enter college at age 13 and completed her bachelors with a double major in Philosophy and Political Science at age 17. She is now 21 and in her last year of law school. I'm so proud of her! A lot has changed since she was my infant's age. At the time she was born, I was a single SAHM. Now, I am married as well as a certified teacher. I've served in several different capacities in my profession including General Education teacher, English for Speakers of Other Languages Specialist, Reading Resource Specialist, Literacy Coach and Instructional Coach. Balancing all the hats I wear is quite a challenging experience! The first six years of a life are the most important years of a child's life and I am looking forward to being as present as I possibly can with my daughter because I don't want to miss out on the wonderful first years of my her life. Thank you for following the documentation of my daughter's early learning journey.
My time is limited, therefore I realize that in order to make the most of each moment, I have to work smart and not hard. I skillfully use a plethora of learning approaches as well as my background in education, which spans from infancy to 12th grade, to create a stimulating home environment for my daughter. The key to doing this lies in gathering data while observing without interfering in any way. Then I use what I've learned from my observations to provide manipulatives which support her development and provide brain stimulation.
My time is limited, therefore I realize that in order to make the most of each moment, I have to work smart and not hard. I skillfully use a plethora of learning approaches as well as my background in education, which spans from infancy to 12th grade, to create a stimulating home environment for my daughter. The key to doing this lies in gathering data while observing without interfering in any way. Then I use what I've learned from my observations to provide manipulatives which support her development and provide brain stimulation.
Friends often compliment Little's ability to maintain focus and independence and ask how I get her to move about the house so freely. One of my mom friends gets really annoyed with her baby because she feels she is always trying gain access to things she preferred she shouldn't rather than her toys. I don't. In fact, I welcome free exploration of the house. I simply sit back observe and gather data in which I use to inform my decisions about the items I will place on her shelf.
Little shows the most interest in the things underneath the bathroom sink, pots and pans, opening and closing drawers or cabinets, and containers with tops. Actually, she will spend quite an amount of time manipulating these types of things. So , that's exactly what I put on her shelf: child sized pots, containers, and jars with tops. Remember my goal is to support the development of her ability to concentrate and focus. What better way to do that than to avail her of the things she's most curious about.