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Hi everyone
I have a 2 year old ds and i know that i dont spend enough time teaching him things. A friend of mine her daughter also 2 ( i know that i should not compare) alreadys knows colors and talks much more. But my friend spends alot of time with her daughter going over colors and everything else.
With first ds i was working f/t and he was watched by his grandparents but I am sahm mom now and i know that i am not doing enough with younger ds
Any suggestions or advise??????
Answer:
I think I teach mine as I go about my daily life. I do sit down and color with her, etc, but she learns more from listening and watching me. I interact with her all day, everyday..and she learns from that!
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You don't have to "sit down" and teach, but as you are eating fruit or veg. teach what color they are. My dd is almost 5, but I just taught her how to play go fish with regular playing cards and she knows all her #'s now so we moved onto war so she can learn which #'s are higher/lower. It's really fun to play w/her and she's learning at the same time. Better than video games IMHO.
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my ds is almost 4 and I feel guilty that my obsession over keeping the house kept is taking away from him. I can't help myself even if I am playing with him I am thinking of what housework I need to get back to before my baby wakes up or etc... I do teach as I go though. We talk alot and I explain everything. I just wish I could relax and spend more time with my babies.
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I spend alot of time teaching, but we don't "sit down" to learn. We have fun all day and they are learning. How much do you read a day? Do you color and do playdoh and other art activites daily? Puppet shows are alot of fun too and you can act out favorite stories. You don't need to sit with a workbook or flashcards, we don't, they learn through play. Just make it fun! Make up your own silly games.
Editing to add, you can make any and every moment a teaching moment. At the grocery store tell them the color/texture/name of all the produce, tell them why you buy one brand over another, etc.
Answer:
Those are all great ideas. I would add to give your ds choices throughout the day. If you want to give him a cup to drink from, ask him and show him, "Would you like the green cup or the red cup?" A couple of words that I learned NOT to say were "that", "this", "thing" and a few others, but instead, use color words, shape words, any easily understood words so your son is hearing them from you. I would not worry about sitting down with him at this age to teach, just think about tasks you do throughout your day where you can include him and lots of fun new words and other concepts!! Have fun!!
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my ds hates sitting down to learn. so we learn as we go. we do puzzles together, the wooden ones with the shapes and colors he loves those. otherwise he learns from everyday things. if he wants a drink he has to tell me the color of the cup, and when eating fruit we say the color of the fruit. and when we see shapes we say the shapes together. he is doing good this way. he is 2 1/2. i know he isbehind compared to some other kids his age, but its not significant and not something i am going to worry about. we only have girls to compare his learning curve to and girls seem to definatley learn faster than boys and have more interest inlearning than boys do.
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Read, read, read to her. Ds learned all that stuff when I read it to him. It was fun, I never drilled him. I went to Half Price Books and bought a whole bunch of the Little Golden Books and they had great Alphabet, Number, Color books, etc. He learned so much from these books! Personally I'd never drill a child with flash cards or anything like that at that age (or really any age) to me that is just boring. Reading is so much more fun for all parties involved!
Also what really helped us was I took the time and made ds my own number book (specifically for him) that I cut out Thomas the train trains with their numbers on them, Ex. Thomas is train #1, James is #5, etc. I'd find out who was who and make my own book - he LOVED that I made a number book just for him and really learned his numbers this way.
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I kind of feel bad but I just let my 23 mth old son do his own thing. he will bring his favorite books to me and have me read them 10 times each. I also get out his crayons and let him color pictures of Thomas and Elmo. He only knows about 15 words, I've been tryed to teach him some new words. But most of the time he plays with his toys or watches Thomas or Noggin.
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I find every mother thinks she could be doing more than what she is. I was beating myself up that I wasn't 'sitting' down and teaching my 2.5year old. She was in daycare from when she was 8 weeks old and she learned all of her colours, numbers etc there. However, the other day I saw her take one of her books to her 4mth old brother and she sat down and started to read to him the way I read to her (by asking her what is that object or colour etc). Now I know that it is the ordinary stuff I do with her every day that is enough. When reading instead of reading the story exactly I give a quick explaination of the page (if it is a long.... story) and then we concentrate on the pictures. 'what colour is her shirt''what colour is the bird' etc. We also have a lot of shape, colour and number books. She likes to paint only by herself so when I am pouring the paint we go over the colours. I have also only brought blue, yellow, red, white and black paint, so if she wants a different colour she asks me and then I go and mix it for her telling her what I am doing as I do it (it is cheaper this way too). When shopping, I get her to help. I ask her to get me 4 dog food and we count as she puts it into the trolley. When I cook she sits on the bench and as I chop we count how many things there are that we need (ok we need 4 potatos can you get me 4 potatos). She really enjoys this and it makes shopping and preparing dinner a lot easier as she is being kept occupied.