Scheduling for age 0+

When scheduling you have a few things to take into consideration. Until a child is about 3 months old they really can't do most of the things that I will be doing, let alone there attention span is not really developed enough to start broadening it. After they have reached this age there is several things they can do. They can watch the TV (educational video or PowerPoint), they will start to grasp things and really start to interact with you. At this age each child is a little different and activities will need to be modified to your child's talents (can they grasp or not, do they watch the TV/ computer screen). For instance if your child is not yet grasping objects, this might me something that you would want to work on, you would do this by replacing activities where grasping is needed with activities that would practice this skill (i.e. replace play do activity with a rattle or some links). Another thing to consider is the fact that children this age have a very short attention span. This is nothing that you really need to worry about because it is normal, but when scheduling you have to keep this in mind. At this age 15 min at an activity at one time is a really good goal. If you schedule an activity for 15 min and your child loses interest after 2 just try to get their attention back on the activity. If your child decides that they do not want the activity and just want to cuddle, just cuddle, and maybe you can just talk in a nice, calm voice. One of the most important things you can do is keep working at it. At this age children are a sponge and if all you do is talk about a subject, they will get that information and you will know that you have exposed them to vocabulary that you normally (on a daily basis) would not be exposing them to. You are also teaching them the learning routine. Eventually your child will love the activities, extend his/ her attention span. This is when you will be grateful that you stuck with this. Happy learning