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Have you taught your kids this young?
- Apr 9, 2009 at 4:59 PM
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- Comments (9) Total Views (120) Everyone can see this journal post.
I mean formally, pre-school-like stuff.
My son Kalten just turned two. My husband goes to school in the evenings, and Kalten was sad that he was always leaving, and curious about what he was doing. I asked if he wanted to do school too and he said yes.
He has known every letter of the alphabet since he was 15 months old, and now he knows the sounds they make, as well as a few sight words. I have not been pushing him to learn anything; in fact, I was blown away when he told me all the letters. He loves the website starfall.com and I guess that's where he learned everything. He is like a sponge, and he loves to learn new things.
So how do you teach a 2-year-old?
I bought two little workbooks. One is a simple maze book.
So proud of him! ^ He did that by himself. First we found the arrow, then we found the star, then we traced the path with our fingers, and then he did it with the pencil. Each maze gets a little harder than the last, eventually there are more complex paths, dead ends, etc.
The other is an ABC dot-to-dot book, which I'm saving because he's not there yet. I don't think he knows the order of the letters enough. He could do it with numbers, so I think I'm going to look for simple dot-to-dot puzzles online or make my own.
Once he's pretty good with a pencil, we'll move to tracing and then writing the letters.
We only "do school" when he asks, and we're done when he feels like being done. I don't want him to feel like he has to do this or associate learning with being forced to do something he doesn't want to.
He's got a backpack and his very own pencil and eraser, and everything is put away when we're done to keep it separate from his everyday toys.
Anyone else have a bright kid who wants to learn? What have you done to help him or her? What non-paper activities do you do? Hands-on stuff?
I actually taught pre-school a few years, but it's all escaping me now. Plus, my kids were 3 and 4, not a brand-new 2-year-old.
Comments:
I got them at Barnes & Noble in Madison, WI (we were visiting friends). The maze one is a Kumon method book. Yeah, I'm near-ish to Chicago.
My daughter is in Montessorri school. She just turned 2 also and moved into preschool a few days after her birthday. I found one of the ways that they are teaching addition interesting. They have a pocket that has 3 pouches in it; one slot is for hundreds, one slot is for tens, and one slot is for ones. Each day they add a new straw to the one slot until they get 10 ones, and then they add a straw to the ten slot and remove the ones. They also put a number above each slot indicating how many are in that slot. So, if there is one straw in the ten slot, they put a 1 above it, and if there are 9 straws in the ones slot, they put a 9. Then they ask the children how many there are. They can think about it conceptually and also see the numbers. The older kids really seemed to get it.
Umm...that would be Montessori, my fellow Spell Checkers. The Wikipedia has a good description of the Montessori classroom.
I think what you're doing is a great idea. For a child as bright and self-motivated as yours, I would let him do as much or as little as he wants and stop when he's done, or even just before that, to avoid having it become "work" and encourage him just having fun and doing his best. It's wonderful that you have such a little learner.
I will answer you here too. Go for homeschooling! If we are doing our jobs as moms, we've actually been homeschooling since birth!
WOW!!! I'm very impressed! My daughter is 27 months and she's barely even talking yet, let alone doing mazes or knowing her alphabet and letter sounds!
Thanks for the ideas about learning to write (starting w/mazes & first tracing them w/your finger) You sound like a pro- That's good for that little boy of yours! My four year old just scribbles on blank pieces of paper. I agree w/clairandamjones & apsahm! Don't let it become work, he's got to think of it as playing, and enjoyment. And I would deffinitely encourage the homeschooling route!!
What a smart kido!
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That maze book sounds like a really good idea! My 15 month old is not anywhere near that kind of stuff yet but it would be nice to get some things to be ready. Where did you get the books? I think I've seen you say that you are in the Chicago area. Is that right? I am too.
- aehanrahan
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