September 3, 2010

Growth and Development

Lil Sippy Cup and I have come to the agreement that we need to incorporate more structured educational activities into his daily schedule.

Since my own exorbitant imagination and ridiculous sense of creativity often leads to tragedy (read this post for an example), we have opted to utilize formal instructional tools instead.

Our first set of activities: this awesome Alphabet Box from the good folks at Lakeshore Learning.

  Image courtesy of Lakeshore Learning

If you aren't a teacher, you have probably never heard of Lakeshore Learning (I know I hadn't).

Lakeshore is a great resource for parents looking for educational and engaging activities for children in all age ranges and educational levels.  I have come to realize that my son learns best when he doesn't even realize he's busy learning phonics or numbers.  The Lakeshore products reinforce good habits and promote the active involvement of parents in their child's educational development. 

While teachers are professionals and have access to specific techniques and instructional theories, I have always believed that education is a team-based activity; the educational success of any child is dependent on their parents/guardians reinforcing the lessons learned while at school.  Without getting into any specific municipal or national politics, I will say that major strides can be taken towards fixing our educational systems if more parents took an active role in their child's education. 

It doesn't mean that we will do a teacher's job for them; it just means we will help teachers do their jobs better.

With all of that said, I am pretty sure Lil Sippy Cup will find a way to turn these activities into violent war games.  I will make sure to keep you posted of his development and of any injuries I may suffer along the way.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Amen- however, I do fear Sippycup may pick up your bad grammatical habits. btw, the word verification to post this comment is "cankles." Most excellent.

Unknown said...

Probably my favorite post so far :)

Anonymous said...

Great post Mr. Cufflinks. A lot of parents now a days don't realize that education is fundamentally a full time job and children should always be inspired to learn more and more. Education should not be left only to teachers.

Lil Sippy Cups is very lucky to have such a good father.

Lakeshore Learning Materials said...

Sippy Cup and Cufflinks, we are so honored you took the time to mention Lakeshore and our products on your blog! We are always looking for ways to provide our customers with the best possible products and service...and it's great to know we're on the right track. Thanks again for mentioning us! And we wish you and Sippy Cup the best of luck on all your educational activities!