Non Stop Learning…

I read a wonderful post over at Jamin’s blog yesterday, about creating a learning rich environment. I couldn’t agree with her more. Even though I have only been homeschooling for a couple of years, I have always believed in my home being a learning rich environment, probably comes form having been a school teacher.

As my younger son (age 20 months now) grows up in a homeschool environment I notice how much more “rich” his environment is than P’s was at this age. K is surrounded by learning toys, as I saw him playing with our little boxes yesterday, I realized that everything he was playing with wasn’t around when P was his age. They were all things we have acquired since beginning to homeschool! K loves these things…which I like to refer to as open-ended toys. Of course I was overjoyed to here him saying, “coocool” (circle) and naming some colors. He has just naturally picked up on so much by being immersed in it.Here’s a photo of one of the main parts of our rich learning environment…our beloved drawers from Target :). I was in heaven the day I got these for the schoolroom! They are filled with (and labeled so P can find everything)…play doh, drawing paper, construction paper, counting bears, unifex cubes, craft supplies, stickers, coloring books, Color Wonder supplies, workbooks, notepads, writing supplies, art smocks, small blocks, completed lapbooks (so he can go back and look at old ones, which he does a lot) and more. Since this photo was taken I added another set of drawers, I’m telling you, I LOVE them!Be sure to check out Jamin’s blog if you don’t already, she has some wonderful ideas and thoughts about this topic!