2nd Child

I realize that I don't work with Tyler as much as I did with Kaitlyn.  It was a whole lot easier with Kaitlyn because I could focus all my attention on her with no interruptions.  I always sang the ABC's with her in the car on the ride home from daycare.  I always counted with her.  I always told her the color of whatever toy she was playing with.  We read books all.the.time.  We practiced shapes & animal sounds with all the puzzles we put together.  With Tyler, I do half as much.  Sometimes it's hard to work with him because Kaitlyn is eager to please and loves to show off and will jump in and answer my questions.  Poor boy doesn't get a word in edgewise.  He's also ALWAYS.ON.THE.GO!  He never sits still enough to do anything.  If we try working on a shapes puzzle, he'll do it once and then want to move on to another puzzle.  So then we will move on to an animal puzzle and then he'll want to build with blocks.  So then we'll move on to blocks and he starts throwing them all over the place.  Then he'll want to get out his cars, all five hundred of them.  On and on and on.

I am thankful that we are able to pay for the daycare he does go to.  I have said it before and I'll say it again, I love our daycare.  I know that he gets the stimulation that he needs and the structure he craves.  He just moved up to the older 1's room and he's already shown that he's benefiting from it.  He's now more willing to sit down a  read a book with me and point to the objects or animals in the book and say what they are.  I can now sit and build block towers with him and not be afraid that he's going to sling one of the blocks at my head...most of the time.  His speech really blossomed this summer when he stayed at home with me but it really seems like now he's in the mood to never stop talking.  That one really surprised me because NONE of the other kids in his class say even one word.  I figured he would stop talking as well, but he seems to have started talking more.  Maybe he feels like he needs to make up for his nonverbal classmates.  Even my mom commented on how he seems to be talking a lot more.

We'll be taking the kids out of daycare for two weeks over my Christmas break so I hope that I am really able to focus on him and give his the extra stimulation that I was able to give Kaitlyn.  I need to do some research on how to involve Kaitlyn as well in helping me teach him.  I definitely see the impact it has on student achievement when parents do little to nothing to stimulate their children in their early years and I do not want my children to have to struggle through school.  I'm not looking to raise future brain surgeons, but I do want my children to be productive members of society and will do everything in my power to see they are.