Hanging Hooks

(Image from Photobucket)

Hanging hooks is a phrase I think of often when teaching my Littles. I think I first read of it in "The Weaver", the curriculum I used during my eldests PK-K-1. It's the idea that you introduce interesting, challenging ideas to very young children for the purpose of 'hanging hooks'. Introduce hard things, whether or not they understand or even remember them, and you are hanging hooks. You are preparing them with a foundational hook from which to add understanding later.

Do you use real words with your babies or do you baby-talk them?
Do you expect your toddlers to sit and listen when you read from the Scriptures?
Do you make a habit to use rich vocabulary through the day?
Do you involve your Littles in the studies of your older children, when they can?
Do you take your Littles to the museum, the library, the field trips you go on, or do you get a babysitter so you can focus on the bigger kids?

All of these (and many more examples) are opportunities to hang hooks in their little lives. Take advantage of the time you have with them! Don't sell them short just because they are young.