Storytime and learning

There's no substitute for the bedtime-bottle snuggle. It was haaaaaaard to let go of that, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss it. But we do still get an occasional snuggle at night when Little Man sits in our laps to read his favorite book of the moment, Time for Bed. He will sit quietly while we read, and he likes to help turn the page when we prompt him that it's time. He's gotten to where he can point out the "little calf" or "little goose" or the other "little animals" when you ask him where they are. Time for Bed is the only book we own that he will sit through beginning to end. And anytime we are in his room, he points right to that book for us to read it to him.

I do hope he's like his Noni when it comes to reading books. She's an avid reader. Me, on the other hand, not so much. But I am trying to read books to him all throughout the day as we play together - even if we do only make it through a page or two before he moves on to the next thing - because I think it's sooooo important for his development.

Speaking of development, I've started looking at some preschool curriculum that helps children learn letters, numbers, colors, and shapes. A girl's got to be prepared when the time comes. I've talked with one of the ladies in my women's group about developing our own curriculum that we can share and use to teach our children because the stuff I've found online is expensive. Really expensive. We've decided we need to develop a framework of content that each lesson would have. For example, each lesson (letters, numbers, colors, or shapes) would have a story, a song, a craft or a game, a snack idea, and a bible verse. So if we were learning about the letter "F," maybe the story would be about Jesus and the Fishes and loaves. The snack could be goldfish. A craft could be making Footprint Fish. A bible verse would come from the story. You get the idea.

What I'd love to hear from you is - what age did your kids start learning colors, shapes, numbers and letters. And what kinds of things did you do to help them learn? Or, if they were in school, did you learn any tricks from their teachers? Do you have any good resources you can recommend? Any good stories for preschoolers? I'm trying to get a head start in the organization of some of this stuff so that when Alex is ready, I've got some things together to start teaching him with a bit more structure.