"Teachable Moments"

Being a teacher makes you look at everything different when you are a parent. Being a teacher of young children REALLY makes you think about everything you say and do around your child. It's my occupation to teach children to read, and of course I want to ensure that my own child is more than ready for school when the time comes. I am always encouraging language development by talking non stop to him and explaining everything even though he does not have a clue what I'm talking about most of the time. Books are a big deal in our house too. I look for "teachable moments" in everything we do. I've been in a class at ASU for the past two weeks where we have done nothing but talk about young children's development, and preparing them socially, mentally, emotionally, and academically for school. Today as I sat in class I got a text with the cutest picture from my mom. It made me think. Sometimes we are so busy thinking and planning what to do with our children that we don't even realize that the real "teachable moments" are ones that happen spontaneously and on a whim. Here's the picture of Claire and Hudson. They found a turtle on their walk today and mom put him in the bucket so they could look at him. What an amazing real life experience "teachable moment"! How exciting for the babies to see a real turtle crawling and climbing around! They were fascinated. I'm so glad that Hudson gets to stay with Mom and Claire everyday.