I know you’ve thought about it. Right from the beginning….How am I going to be able to teach them all the things they need to know to be confident and successful in life? ABC’s, colors, letters, writing their name, etc… It seems like it’s a weight, a pressure from the beginning. Every other week I’ll be posting fun ideas that you can easily-let me say that again EASILY do at home with you toddler. These activities will hide skills through play and get your child ready for preschool and elementary school.

1. Learn Through Play

What does that mean exactly? It means play with your child. Meaningfully.Talk to them about what color ball they’re holding or how many blocks they’re stacking. Not all the time or with every block or ball. Make it part of the conversation. Let’s put the red block on next. Our tower has three blocks.

2.Sing to Them

Your child doesn’t know if you have a good or bad voice. They just love the love you show while singing. Research shows that children can absorb so much through music! Sing the ABC song every time you give them a bath. Sing one little, two little, Rowie’s in the tub. We do! It takes less than a minute. Looking for great music? Dr. Jean! Many of her songs are for elementary level children but not all of it. She’s amazing. And BTW her voice isn’t that great either 🙂

3. Sensory Play

What is this sensory play everyone is talking about? Sensory play allows a person to explore using their senses through scientific method. That’s right people! Babies are scientists too. Allowing children to have a wide variety of sensory play experiences improves critical thinking and processing and it’s fun! Examples are play dough, water play, shaving cream play, etc. I will have a ton of these on the blog-EASY ones!

4.Maintaining Disciplining Through Redirection

Disciplining toddlers is tough. They’re so limited in processing and understanding but they still need boundaries. Redirect, redirect, redirect. At this stage especially ages 1-3 toddlers have difficulty understanding time out. They also have difficulty moving on. If your child is misbehaving for example, throwing things down the stairs. Tell them no. Mommy doesn’t like it when you throw things because…..and then get their attention on something else. Start a toy with music, sing a song, read a book. This is a skill you’re building and they need your help. Plus you fussing at them all day not only upsets them but it upsets you-problem solved.

5.Concepts About Print

Fancy teacher word! It’s book knowledge. What are books? They’re ways we as human beings convey information to one another-communicate. The first step to reading is understanding how a book works. Read to your child at least one book everyday. Increase it every year. “Reading” means I open the book correctly, I attempt to read the words, she doesn’t always let me, and discuss the book. What does this teach? The actual mechanics of how to read a book. We start here,there are words, there are pictures, we end. It’s enjoyable. I finish when she’s done. I don’t hold her down and force her to read every page. I know she gets it-why? When she “reads”on her own she will actually move her body so the book is facing the correct way and she will turn the pages correctly.

See that wasn’t so hard right? You’re doing a great job! Next post Shaving Cream Exploration!