10 Reasons Your Kids Will Love Mother Goose Time Lessons 4.7.17 by Haydee Montemayor from Love and Treasure Blog that you can find at www.loveandtreasure.com

10 Reasons Your Kids Will Love Mother Goose Time Lessons

When was the last time your child told you that they couldn’t wait to start a lesson?

 

When was the last time they followed you around the house to let you know that they wanted to do a learning activity with you?

 

If your answer is “never”… then let me tell you that Mother Goose Time Curriculum is a resource that your children will love.

Let’s Talk About The Big Elephant In The Room

Although it is true that Mother Goose Time sent me this month’s curriculum for free in exchange for my honest review, in the end, I think that the my opinion of the program isn’t the most important.

Why? Because ultimately, the people that could potentially be the toughest critics of this program, are my kids.

But, they are the ones who approve this curriculum the most.

They:

  • have the most fun
  • benefit from it the most
  • are enthralled, intrigued by it and excited by it
  • they look forward to it the most
  • use this curriculum as the lifeboat to understand this river of life the most

Don’t get me wrong, I also love the curriculum and what I do for my kids.

And, just to be clear, I have purchased Mother Goose Time for my kids in the past, so I enjoy this program not only because I received it for free, but because it’s worth it.

 

Here Are 10 Reasons Your Kids Will Love Mother Goose:

1) To them, it feels like they’re playing.

    1. Yes, it’s true that for many children learning is playing and playing is learning… however, with this curriculum it goes a step beyond that.
    2. Everything from the delivery box, the illustrations, the activities are fun.
    3. Nothing will feel boring.
    4. There are many fresh and new activities every day.
    5. Even though these activities may follow a structure… they’re literally fresh and morph depending on whatever they’re learning.

 

2) No matter wheat the subject that the kids are studying for that day is, to them, it’ll feel like exploration. Like discovery. Like fun.

    1. This is not like “take out your math book and turn to page 142.”
    2. Like I explained in my last post, the lessons are so multidisciplinary that the content feels rich. Cohesive.
    3. They consist of monthly thematic units. With one focus topic for the day, explored through many subjects.
      • This framework provides two things:
        • It’s a golden opportunity to explore one topic for a few hours, half a day or a full day without jumping from one unrelated lesson to the other.
        • It boosts both the focus, the productivity and the metacognitive (brain) connections that they can have.
    4. It’s like a streamlined, but a very creative curriculum at the same time.
    5. If you’re having trouble imagining what it’s like, pretend that for a half a day or a full day, you get to explore topics that are interesting to you or that someone could make interesting to you. Or that you would have this time to explore things that you wonder about. Wouldn’t that be fun? ? I think so!

 

 

3) The kids get to do play with colors, markers, glue, paper, scissors, craft materials practically every day.

    1. And they often to play with play-doh, ink stamps, stamps, paint, rolling cube quite often, cookie cutters, building blocks, water, earth.

Paint by Haydee Montemayor from Love and Treasure blog www.loveandtreasure.com

4) They get to play actual games while they learn.

    1. If they were traditional school, games would be the “treat.” With Mother Goose Time Curriculum, games are a common practice in the curriculum.
    2. I don’t want to say that it is ALL fun and games… but IT IS a lot of fun and there are several educational games.

 

5) They get to understand things that you wouldn’t have otherwise learned. It’s easier for them to make connections.

    1. And they’ll be so proud to make connections that they will share them.
    2. Don’t be surprised if they share with grandma on the phone or with dad when he gets home.

 

6) Mother Goose Time provides a safe way to learn.

    1. There are hardly any instances in which kids can be “wrong” in the way that they respond to things… because the curriculum is based largely on what they want to know, what they wonder about, what they’re learning through hands-on activities and what they’re curious about.
    2. You as the teacher don’t often expose your kids/students to feel less than.
    3. It’s not a graded curriculum.
    4. On the contrary, you encourage kids to do what they can.

 

7) It takes their academic abilities into account.

    1. You can modify the activities to increase the challenge or simplify it.
    2. You can cater to the interests of the kids based on what you know.
    3. So the result is that the kids feel supported.

 

8) It takes into account their interests.

    1. Regardless of what the kid is into, there’s a bit of everything for everybody.
      1. For example,
        1. if the kids is into art, they get to do artistic activities.
        2. The same applies for:
          1. science
          2. Math
          3. writing- although many of the lessons are for pre-writing…
          4. You can supplement with the More Math and Reading activity books.
          5. Music
          6. Dance

 

9) They get to read stories that connect to what they’re learning.

    1. Every lesson contains a book recommendation.
    2. You can get these books from Amazon, or borrow them from the library.
    3. As you know our brains are wired for stories, so this type of literature adds even more cohesion and interest to what the kids are learning.

 

10) They get to spend time with you.

    1. While the activities may be great, the fact that they are doing these activities with you will be what they most enjoy.
    2. If they were doing these activities with a traditional preschool teacher, yes, it could be fun and all, but at the end of the day, they want you as a witness and cheerleader for their accomplishments.

 

One Example Of A Kid-Approved Activity This Week

The monthly topic for the month of April is Birds & Eggs.

 

As you can see, the topic is perfect for Spring and Easter time. This timeliness makes life more interesting.

 

We decorated some paper eggs and put them on a poster with a nest as way to describe you was present and absent for that day. This is sort of like the “preview” to decorating actual eggs next week.

The kids made a nest out of paper, paper bag and shredded paper.

The kids then made a nest out of blocks.

 

We Played a “Nesting Game”

Here is a nest that we built several times by gathering popsicle sticks.

Mother Goose Time Nest by Haydee Montemayor from Love and Treasure blog www.loveandtreasure.comThe premise of the game was to put various popsicle sticks around this nest.

The children would then roll a die and they would either gather sticks or return sticks to “nature” based on the number that they rolled on a die.

The numbers on the die were -1, -2, -3, -4, 7, 8 . 

So if a child rolled a 7, they would get 7 sticks from around the room that we referred to as “nature”.

Mother Goose Time Nest Sticks for Love and Treasure from Haydee Montemayor

If they rolled a -4, they would take 4 sticks from the nest and return them to nature.

But in order to increase the challenge, the kids rolled twice in order to do simple addition or subtraction to determine how many sticks they should get.

The kids enjoyed building the nest so much that they made me promise that we would do it again the next day.

The neat thing is that they were doing addition, subtraction, shapes, coordination, science, practicing their number recognition, practicing gross motor skills, practicing fine motor skills, was taking turns and practicing self concept, practices spatial awareness,  at the same time… but for them, it was a fun activity that that they couldn’t wait to do it tomorrow.

 

In Conclusion

As parents, we can’t always let children have their way.

 

But, there is a great sense of comfort that comes with knowing that there is a curriculum like this can cater to what kids benefit from in a curriculum, and from what you, as a parent, value.

 

Now It’s Your Turn

What learning resources have you used that your kids REALLY enjoyed? What about those resources was the most appealing for your kids?

 

Feel free to leave links to these resources in the comments below.

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