This morning V woke up at 6 A.M., not quite her normal but a great place to be. When she wakes up this early she usually takes her nap earlier in the day which then means that she goes to bed at a decent time.
Judging by what I just wrote, you can probably tell her sleeping times are not set in stone. Let me first explain before I go on with ABCmouse.com.., V co-slept with us for about a year and a half. Our bed is higher than usual, so after she had her heart surgery and became really mobile, I started rocking her to sleep and putting her in her crib. The thing about rocking her is that falling asleep and then transferring her to her bed is a fairly slow process --like around two hours! I don't like letting her "cry-it-out", we've tried that route and she doesn't give up and my heart shatters with every tear that she sheds. Anyway, I get V ready for bed at the same time every night and have recently found if I keep her up until 8 P.M. and then lay with her, she is asleep before 9 P.M. Its later when I start her bedtime at 7 P.M. So, if I lay with her she falls asleep quicker, wakes up earlier and takes a much better nap during the day. Spoiled? Probably, but she is happy and so are we and that's what counts. :)
Back to 6 A.M. this morning...
We were the only ones awake. I had fed her breakfast and I put the Bernstein Bears in for her to watch while I made some coffee. V wasn't interested in watching a show or playing with her toys, she had a full belly and was tired again but I was determined to not let her fall back asleep.
I have been looking online for learning program's geared towards preschool aged children and one that I have really been interested in is ABCmouse.com, so I decided to try it out this morning. With V on my lap we went through the tutorials, we practiced using the mouse and then we dove into the toddler section (for ages 2+).
Our first stop was a "field trip" to the virtual farm, where we learned all about farm animals, like cows, sheep and horses. We even read books that were specific to each animal.
Next we decided to check out ABCmouse.com's zoo. Like the farm, we were able to choose which animals we wanted to visit, we could hear their specific sounds that they make and learn about their different characteristic.
After our "field trips" we began the alphabet section, this was after already investing an hour in the program! We spent about five minutes in this section and then Vada spotted her sister eating banana bread, so Vada's attention began to diminish.
I did however, get a chance to look through the learning options in this section and "Wow!" is all I can say.
V can color things that start with a specific letter, she can learn songs, read books, play games and much, much more! There are even printable work sheets for lowercase and uppercase letters and sight words.
I love that we tried this site! Are there any sites that you specifically use with your toddler?
