Children learn from the moment they are born. The first thing they learn is that when he or she cries someone comes to soothe them.
The next thing they learn is that when they fall and get hurt mommy will pick them up and make the hurt go away. But have you ever considered at what age and exactly how you should start to teach your child?
Consider this – An 18-month-old toddler can learn the alphabet. Your two-year-old son or daughter can learn to spell his or her name along with spelling mommy and daddy.
The key to success with this early learning is to make it fun and exciting for your child. When learning is fun your child will pick up the information faster and want to learn more.
Here are some simple and easy tips to help your young pre-schooler or toddler learn what will most assuredly be the base to a lifetime of learning.
The Alphabet
We all remember the alphabet song from kindergarten so pull it out of the recesses of your mind and start singing. Try singing it every time you are in the car. Your child will pick up the letters and be singing the song along with you.
Visual Letter Identification
For young children starting at ‘a’ and moving through the alphabet will not be of enough interest for them to learn. Try instead to start with the first letter of his or her name.
The first letter of his or her name will have special meaning and be the easiest to start with. Then move on to ‘m’ for mommy and ‘d’ for daddy. The next step is the first letter of your family pet’s name or a favorite aunt or uncle.
Before you know it your little one will be identifying letters and asking to learn more.
Counting and Math
To set the foundation for counting and math try making up a song to go along with counting from 1 to 10. Your child will enjoy singing with you and music always makes learning easier for young children.
Once you have mastered singing from 1 to 10 add-in math. Start with a simple song of 1 and 1 is 2, 1, and 2 is 3 then move on until you reach 5 and 5 is 10.
You will be delighted when your two-year-old overhears you say the number 2 and calls out 2 and 4 is 6. This foundation for learning will carry with him or her into kindergarten and throughout grade school.
