Schooling Starts At Home - Teaching Babies and Toddlers

At 2.5 years old, my toddler is able to speak full sentences; can recognize and identify letters, numbers, shapes, colors, and body parts; has memorized at least 10 nursery rhymes and 3 Dora books; knows her fruits, vegetables, and animals; and can count to 50. She is currently learning how to read and write. She accomplished all these long before I enrolled her in Gymboree classes. I'm often asked by parents and yayas if she goes to school already, to which I say no - I've been teaching her myself since she was born. I haven't followed any tried-and-tested approach or teaching methods, mostly I just played it be ear, so I thought it best to list some of the things I tried that seemed to work:

(1) Start reading and singing nursery rhymes to them early on. Even if it seems like it's a useless effort as they don't appear to listen or understand, it does get through. This is evident in the way my daughter - when she finally learned to talk - suddenly sang the songs we sung to her when she was less than a year old. I had a yaya who sang Nobody (Wonder Girls) when she was about a year old. She'd changed yayas since and no one else sang that to her. Imagine her current yaya's shock when she suddenly burst out "nobody, nobody but you!" just the other week, complete with head bobbing action.

(2) Introduce them to books. I can't stress this enough. Let them handle books appropriate for their age to get them interested. I started with Fisher Price books with bright colors. Dora's Little Library came next - it's just perfect for little hands! I also kept telling her that books were not toys. She was not allowed to tear, bend, or fold the pages, or stand/sit on the books. Fully Booked is her favorite jaunt now and she has a huge collection of Barney, Dora, Pooh Bear, and Mickey Mouse books.

(3) Allow them to watch educational shows while eating. When we first introduced solid food, we also introduced her to TV for the first time. She could watch TV while eating, and we showed her Sesame Street videos full of songs that teach ABCs, numbers, colors, shapes, and body parts. This made her grasp basic concepts easily and she actually enjoys eating (I have a lot of friends whose babies refuse to eat so this is a coup for me!). The only drawback was that she eventually graduated to Barney and would watch over and over and over again. She eventually got off this habit though.

(4) Make every moment a learning experience. Buy alphabet bath stickers for the bath. Show her colors and shapes when you're out and about or while playing with her toys. Make her count groceries while sitting in the shopping cart.

(5) NO baby talk. Treat them like little adults so they will learn to act and speak accordingly. You'll be surprised at how they will try to pick up singular-plural and past-present-future tense rules on their own by listening to you speak. Refrain from screaming and shouting when they do something wrong or won't stop crying. Instead, explain things to them calmly, in simple terms they will understand. Keep talking and they'll eventually calm down. And yes, the lecture does get through to them.

(6) Teach them regularly. When my daughter turned 1, I started teaching her ABCs, numbers, colors, shapes, and animals through Brainy Baby books. Flash cards were also a big help. It's best to use simple flash cards, I got ones with the letter in front and sample word and picture at the back. I found that cards with too much information on one side - especially those featuring popular characters such as Mickey Mouse or Barney - were too distracting. This was also about the time we started her on the First 1000 words book.

(7) Do as you teach. My daughter saw me and my husband reading (even if only comics and magazines) and wanted to read as well. She saw her lola do crossword puzzles and wanted to learn how to write. She saw us building puzzles and wanted to try it out on her own. Toddlers love to emulate - be sure to be a good role model to them. If you want them to say Please and Thank You, be sure to always say these key phrases when you hold conversations with other people.

Time to put my toddler to bed :) More tips to come on my next post!