We explored colours in our homeschool this week 

My Thoughts on homeschool this week: 

You might look at me from afar and think I have this homeschooling thing down to the T, well not exactly. I still have a lot of doubts. ⠀

"Why are you like this, why can't you just put this child in school like everyone else?" ⠀
"What if you ruin him for life? - you know there is no second chance" ⠀
"Does he even know the things he is supposed to know?" ⠀
I kid you not, all these thoughts have passed my mind a number of times this year and because of that I decided to use this week as a form of evaluation, I was asking a lot of "What is this?" the boy has even picked it up to start asking me "Mummy, what is this?" not because he doesn't know but so that he can tell me "No mummy, It is Xyz" 🤷 ⠀
All-in-all we had a good week; 

How I planned: 

I planned with the different colours to explore, activities to do on which days, outing to go, books to read.

Colours to explore:
Red
Green
Blue
Yellow
Black
Purple
Orange

Split activities up into the days of the week and created activities around them. 

• Colour Sensory bags
• Colour sorting with pompoms & Cupcake Pan
• Ladybug craft
• Sunshine craft 

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What I 'evaluated';⠀

- Colour Recognition & Identification ⠀
- Ability to follow instructions ⠀
- Focus on one activity - attention span ⠀
- Developmental milestones ⠀
- What he is interested in based on the activities. ⠀

Our Activities 

Craft Stick Matching

Colour Rainbow

Colour matching with printouts

Pom Pom Colour Matching

Colour Mixing With Ziplock Bag

Created ladybuug

Sunshine

We got all materials from @thecuddleplayhouse 
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I was surprised to see what he had picked up over time, from our interactions, the places we go, what he watches and all, it is amazing how much they soak up. I learnt this week to trust the process and give him much more credit than I do. I am also learning to stop worrying too much. I mean, what's the worst that can happen right?⠀
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We went to Lekki Conservation!
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What have you been up to in your homeschool?

The NCF is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to sustainable development and nature conservation. It also serves as an area of biodiversity conservation and environmental awareness centre. The foundation aims to preserve Nigeria's species and ecosystems, promote sustainability when using natural resources and advocates actions that minimise the impact on the environment and prevent resource wastage. ⠀
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This is the second time we are going to LCC, the first time I wasted my money as my son ran away as soon as he saw the monkeys and in his defence, I never prepared him for it and since then he's been asking for the monkeys, so when the opportunity to hang out with a fellow homeschooling mama came up, I jumped on it!⠀




When you get to LCC, you have to pay and wait for the tour 'crowd' to be plenty before you go for the tour, the tour guide will then give you a pep talk about what to expect and how they don't tame their animals, so what you see is what you get. Lol. then you commence the tour, the walk was really really long and walking with a toddler made it even longer and I didn't enjoy it at all because I wasn't a huge fan of the unpredictability of the place, like a monkey cam just jump out and stay beside you (this actually happened twice) but as soon as we got to the end of the walk I started to enjoy it.
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The highlight for me watching the fishes as they came and gathered together, it was a delight to watch them in their habitat and an amazing thing happened while we were watching them s duck came and gulped one fish down its throat(come and stealth moves) we the crowd went wild. LOL.



love that they had environmental sustainability information around the environment, 

What I didn't like, there's the Naija syndrome of maintenance culture that is lost, while you have to give them kudos if you've been around for that long but they can do better sha. I also didn't like that as soon as the tour guide got to the canopy walk-way side he abandoned us that had children and couldn't go on the walkway, we literally guessed our way after that point. It was an adventure and the kids absolutely loved it!!!!

Things to note.

• They close their gate to the public at 4:30 (but if you are already inside can stay till 6 pm), it says 5:30 online but it's not true. We were turned back the first time we went. 

• You can also decide not to do the long walk, they have a back gate that takes you directly to the family park where the fishes are and you can have a lovely picnic.

Cost:

Children: 200 (5>) Free for below 5
Student: 300
Adult: 1000 
Canopy: 1000 
Group (max 25): 25,000 

So, I literally paid 1k for this lovely outing! + 1k for uber (I live close by) 



Cuddly rating: 4 Cuddly loves 

• Talk to them: Give them a warning before you start to cut it back. “Hey baby, so mummy noticed that you watch a lot of TV, I know you love your programs but mummy loves you more and wants to spend time with you, so from tomorrow we will start cutting back the time you spend watching tv so we can hang out, okay?” Or use a line that involves you telling them that too much tv is not good for them and you want what is best for them.

• Take away personal devices; if they have a personal device, take it away and use the TV, while it is a good strategy it also helps for them to know you are in control of when it comes on and when it goes off however with a personal device, they own it and there is a risk of them staying longer than necessary if the adults are watching their own TV. 

• Cut back on the hours one day at a time; What is the maximum time they spend daily? From the next day start cutting it down till you get to the number of hours you are happy with, ensure you give them warnings before the TV goes off. “You have 30 mins left and the TV goes off” and on and on till it’s time.

• As your child continues to get used to the new habit of not requesting for TV, ensure you reward them. Reward doesn’t have to be like sweets or anything a simple acknowledgement, “I noticed you’ve not asked for Tv for a few hours, way to go darling” or give a high five, anything that shows that you notice the new behaviour can be a reward. 

• Now give a designated TV time that they will look forward to and stick with it. If you want to do one hour daily - stick with it. If you want to do once a week - just stay consistent so they can look forward to it! 

• Have alternative activities in hand; Books, crafts, water play, free play, outdoor play etc. have alternative activities for your child to engage in when the tv or tab goes off.

• Say Hello or Sing the hello song.
• Weather Song 
• Different Action Songs 
• National Anthem 
• Theme song 
• Read a book
• Introduce what you might be working on in your homeschool that day 

• Your child might not be interested at first and that is okay. Just keep doing it and inviting them to join you. One day you’d sing a song they like and they would join you. 
• Let go of perfection. It won’t be perfect especially with younger kids, just be consistent. 
• You have to plan ahead, you won’t know until when you are in the thick of things and all the songs you think you know are not coming to mind. 
• Have a routine but also be flexible. Have some particular songs or activities you do that it predictable but also be flexible enough to listen to your child
• Be focused. Put your phone away, attention span is very short and you can lose them quickly when they are not engaged. Don’t. 
• Depending on the age of your child, circle time should not be for too long. 

"...the only problem is I can't get her to sit still through an activity"

Quite a number of parents are worried about the attention span of their children and in this article, we would talk about what is a real attention span for children at different ages, the type of attention there is, what we can do to increase attention span and when we should be worried.

What is an attention span

Attention span is the amount of time spent concentrating on a task before becoming distracted [Wikipedia]

What is the realistic real attention span; 

Children in their early years are not developed for the expectations we put on them in different areas of their lives, from walking to running to writing, and more so in our part of the world but today let's look at what we should expect.

There are different studies that the numbers can be different but here's how to calculate it

Children's attention span is 3-5 mins per year of your child age. 

 Here is an example chart:


This list only shows what they are capable of, it doesn't exactly mean your 2-year-old will actually sit for an activity for 6 mins because there are other factors that inform if they will actually sustain their attention for the stipulated time. The time we should be worried as parents are when all things being equal (check the what affects attention span below) is when they still can't seem to pay attention and hyperactive. Don't forget to always consult your paediatrician if you feel anything is out of place.

Factors that affect attention span; 

• Environment; A highly stimulating environment can affect the attention span of your child. If there is a lot of distraction in the environment, it's not realistic to expect that they will be focused on the activity. Even as adults, who have the developmental capacity to focus for longer, we get distracted by something as simple as our phone ringing how much more kids?

• Maternal Behavior: This study shows that maternal behaviour can affect the attention span of children. I would not necessarily say maternal behaviour, I would say primary caregiver because whoever interacts with the child the most can affect them. The summary of the study is if we are not warm and interactive with our children and we fall back to snapping at them, nagging them about something constantly intruding into their focused time to "correct" them can interfere with the cognitive function of focus that is developing. 

• Their needs are not met: If the needs of the child are not met, there is so much focus that can be achieved. The need for food, expend energy, sleep, love, are some of the things that can affect them. 

• Exhaustion: We know how hyperactive children get when they want to sleep? Imagine trying to get them to do an activity that requires focus at that time. Isn't it impossible? Sometimes we don't pay attention to those things. 

How can we help our children increase their attention span?

5 areas of attention to note;

• Focused Attention; When a child's attention is focused on visual or auditory information
• Selective Attention; When a child can filter all the distractions around them and focus on a task
• Shifting Attention; When a child can begin a task stop and focus their attention on another task 
• Sustained Attention; When a child can focus their attention on a task for an extended period of time 
• Divided Attention: When a child can multi-task.