Building onto the schedule

What I've been trying to do to flesh out the schedule a bit is a lot of research. I don't have a degree in child development, but I still want my son to be stimulated. He's at the age where he will sit down and watch tv if I let him, but that is no way to spend an entire day. 

I do however allow him an hour in the mornings while he eats breakfast. It's still more than the recommended amount for his age, but it makes it a lot easier for me to catch up on the news/blogs and do some quick cleaning. 

But I digress, what I want to talk about is research. There are a lot of websites out there dedicated to homeschooling. These are dedicated more to the school-age kids (as they should be) so they weren't exactly helpful for me. I did come across a lot of great news and information websites for parents, which are fun to read but not exactly helpful for my purpose. But then I came across www.babycenter.com which is the most helpful one I found. It goes into a lot of detail about kids' development at every age. It even had sections where it recommended some activities to do with kids and help them learn. 

The next thing I did was go to the library. I picked up a bunch of books that have activities for toddlers. Then I looked at his schedule from his old daycare to see how they broke up the day. Finally, I've been paying attention to what my son's interests are so I can make sure he will like what we're doing. 

All the research I've done says that kids learn best through play. I'm not planning on trying to make him sit down and do flashcards or drills. Instead I plan on asking him how many trains he has as we're pushing them along the tracks. If I can teach him to count or know his colors while we're playing, I think that's a great thing. 

Of course, I'll also make sure there's plenty of time for free play as well since that's just as important as anything else. 

And that, in my long-winded way, is how I'm creating a schedule for my son.