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As parents I think we all struggle to find the right balance of play and learning for our toddlers. The drive seems to be towards having the best, brightest and most gifted toddler so you can brag to all the other moms at the park. It drives me crazy when parents compare their children, especially when they hype up what their child can do, like saying their child can say the entire alphabet at the age of 18 months when really all their child can do is repeat the letters after them. Parents who don’t see through this think their child is behind and start stressing about it, not a combination for parent or child.
For toddlers the best approach to “teaching” them things is through their play and their interactions with you and others throughout the day. Toddlers learn by watching what others do, hearing what others are saying and repeating those behaviors. The more you talk to your child throughout the day be it by reading books, narrating your day or having a mini conversation with them the more your toddler will learn about language and how to use it.
Here are some great ways to use your every day interactions and playtime with your toddlers into teaching tools:
- As you are out running errands point out things of different colors and have your child tell you what color it is. Like point at a yellow bus and ask your child what color it is. If they don’t get it right tell them the color and keep doing that. Eventually as your child learns their colors more they will be able to identify them better in the real world.
- Another great errand game is asking your child if they see something that you have spotted, say a picture of a dog. Ask your child if they see and dog and to point it out. My daughter loves this game, she will play with me now by saying she sees a bear and then I have to look around to see if I can find it.
- You can practice number recognition as you are putting the dishes away. Ask your child to pass you two (or whatever number) spoons from the dishwasher.
- As you are folding laundry practice colors with your child by seeing if they can find and pass you the red shirt, or the blue socks, etc.
- Shapes are every where and as you are out and about or in the kitchen working on dinner or out in the yard playing point out shapes, as your child begins to recognize certain shapes like squares and circles ask your child to point out certain shapes. For example, ask your child to show you where the square window is, or the circle cup, etc.
- Sing with your child while you are going about your day, songs like the ABCs, twinkle twinkle, and the wheels on the bus at great.
- Just talk to your child and tell them what you are doing as you go about your day, they will learn so many new words just by listening to you.
My daughter is big into identifying shapes, naming colors and pointing out objects as we are walking around a store. She loves to “help” with household chores as well and has learned so many new words just be listening to me tell her what something is. Toddlers are little sponges and love to learn. Their learning doesn’t have to come from structured lessons at this age, they learn so much more just by interacting with you and others and watching what is going on in the world around them.
What games do you play with your children to help them learn new things?
Learning about your child’s school day is very important. Finding out what happened, what homework they have, what might have gone wrong, what might have gone right are all keys to figuring out how your child is doing at school and what sort of attitude you can expect from them that evening. Asking the right questions at the right time can make all the difference. Engaging your child in a dialogue about their day not only makes them feel important and special it also helps make sure you are on top of your child’s education and playing an active role in their school life.
Taking the right approach can make the difference between a real dialogue and a one word answer. Here are a few tips to help open up the lines of communication and get your child talking about their school day.
- Set the expectation that you and your child will talk about their school day, everyday.
- Give them a some time to unwind before starting the dialogue. This will give them a second to regroup from the school day, unwind and relax a little. It will also give you a chance to go through their school bag, including any notebooks the teachers may use to tell the parents what has gone on that day and what homework your child has.
- Be specific when you begin your dialogue with your child. Ask open-ended questions like “Tell me your favorite thing that happened at school l today” or “Tell me about something new you learned at school today.”
- Children are usually pretty social beings and love to talk about their friends so ask questions about their friends as a way to keep the dialogue rolling.
- Go over your child’s bookbag with them. Discuss what homework they have or what tests/papers or art projects they brought home and the grades they got.
- Talk about your day as well. Include any struggles you had to deal with as a way to help your child learn about communicating about their own struggles and that they are not alone, everyone has a bad day sometimes.
- Listen carefully to your child’s responses to your questions. They may not be completely open about something that is bothering them at school but you will likely find hints to what is bothering them in their answers to your other questions.
A child who feels like you care about what they did that day, enjoy hearing about what they did at school is more likely to keep talking. Building the discussion into your daily routine will help your child get used to talking about their school day and encourage them to open up.
When do you talk to your kids about their school day? What sorts of questions do you ask them to encourage them to keep talking?
It is that time of year again, back to school time. If your kids haven’t already started back they likely will be over the next couple of weeks. Here in my neck of the woods most kids start back this week or next. It is fun to watch all the new little kindergartners heading off to school with mom and dad carrying their cool new backpacks so proudly.
Whether your child is going to school for the very first time or returning after the summer break that first day (and often first week or so) can cause a lot of feelings and emotions in your kid. They’ll be feeling excited, scared, happy, nervous or most likely all of the above. So many new and unknown things surround the first day of school so it is completely understandable that it can make your child a little wary.
Here are a few tips on how you can make your child’s first day a little less scary and how you can help them with this big life transition.
- As the first day of school approaches talk to them about how they are feeling. Don’t down play their negative emotions, talk them out with your child.
- If you are scared or upset about their first day of school try not to let that show. Play up the excitement and happiness of the moment.
- Purchase some books about going to school, or pick some up from the library and read them with your kids. Children learn a lot by reading storybooks.
- Get your child involved in the purchasing of school supplies. Let them pick out their backpack, pencil case, etc.
- If your school offers it take a tour of your child’s classroom before the first day of school so they will be familiar with the layout.
- If your child will ride the bus to school be sure you talk about and practice how that will work.
The most important thing you can do for your child is to listen to them. If they are nervous or scared they will feel better once they have talked it out and know that you understand how they feel. After the first few days your child will likely get over being scared and will just be excited about school.
Don’t forget to take those priceless first day of school photos!!!
How do you handle the first day of school? Is your child usually excited or scared?
Children begin learning about language at a very young age. They begin saying and repeating sounds when they are just babies. A baby’s early babbling is the beginning stages of learning to talk. One day you’ll find that those bababas and mamamas and dadadas turn into real words like ball, mommy, daddy, etc. Most children will begin saying real words (well what sound kind of like words anyway) at around a year old. Throughout their second year of life their vocabulary will really begin to increase and they will go from saying single words to forming short little 2-3 word sentences. It is so fun to watch their faces light up when they correctly repeat a word or get their point across the first try using real words. You can just see the pride written all over their darling little faces.
An important part of helping your child grow and develop language skills is teaching them their ABCs. The alphabet is the first building block to being able to read. Once your child begins to use words you can begin to really start teaching them the alphabet. That early reading, singing and talking you did with them as babies will work as building blocks for learning and grasping the alphabet and counting.
Here are a few suggestions you can use to work with your child to help them learn their ABCs and 123s:
- Read to them early and often. Children learn a lot about language simply by listening to us talk to them and read to them.
- Sing the alphabet song regularly and encourage your child to sing along once they are old enough to copy and repeat sounds.
- Repitition, repeat letters and numbers often and encourage your child to repeat them with you.
- Use flash cards once your child is old enough.
- Invest in some books, puzzles, letters/numbers fridge magnets (or bath toys), etc.
- If you let your child watch television or DVDs include programming that helps them learn their alphabet and counting.
Now that my daughter’s language is really beginning to develop we have begun working with her on letters and numbers. She can repeat all the letters of the alphabet and all the numbers up to 10 when prompted. We make it fun by including it in fun activities like reading, singing or games. Since she was born I have read to her every day. She loves books and will sit and listen to stories or flip through a book on her own for long periods of time (a trait she gets from her mom!!). She doesn’t recognize the letters yet, but that will come with some time and practise. We use fridge magnets and bathtub sponge letters/numbers to help her with recognition and to give us just another opportunity to include learning in her play.
When children start school having a firm understanding of the key building blocks for learning such as knowing their ABCs, 123s, having some early reading skills, some early math skills, etc will help them learn more easily and enjoy school more.
The ABCs and 123s are such a simple thing but they truly are the building blocks for all learning. Getting started early and making the learning fun are great ways to show your child that learning is fun and they can do it.
The summer break will be over soon and for many kids the summer has meant losing touch with their school friends. It can be hard for children, especially younger ones, to stay connected with the school friends over the summer unless they live close by. The first day of school is often nerve-wracking for a lot kids especially if they haven’t seen their friends all summer. Helping your child reconnect with their school friends before school starts may aid in the transition back to school.
Here are a few tips on ways you can get the kids together with their school friends before summer is over:
- Host a picnic at the park with a few of your child’s “best” friends from school.
- If you are friends with some of the parents talk to them about doing your back to school shopping together so the kids have a chance to hang out and you’ll have a shopping buddy.
- Find out if the school or local library is hosting any activities in the last weeks of summer break and enroll your child, odds are a few other kids from his/her class will be there as well.
- Host a pool party for your child’s “best” school friends either at your house if you have a pool or at your local public pool.
- Have your child invite a few friends over for a playdate.
The key is to get them talking and reconnecting. Knowing your friends from last year are still your friends this year will make the first day of school a little easier.
Do you do anything special to help your child reconnect with their school friends before the new school year starts? What do you find works best?