Our little toddlers are extremely inquisitive and always learning, and that’s a good thing! What we as parents can do is to help them out in fun and easy ways – they’re still young and while they’re definitely smarter than we think (have you seen them play with our smartphones?), we have to tailor the way educational activities are presented to them!
Our aim shouldn’t be to force-feed knowledge to them in hopes of producing a genius, but to build a foundation for them to remain curious throughout their life. Like the saying goes, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” – so we’ll be nurturing their desire to learn through their own abilities!
1. Label Household Objects
Choose several objects at home to stick a label on, like your television, drawer, fridge, cabinet, chairs, tables. Get some cute paper, write the name of the object in big, easy to read letters and use some blu-tack to stick it on the object. If your child is able to recognise and read letters, ask them to read out the individual letters and help them with pronouncing the word if they need help.
If they’re too young to read, help them out by reading the letters to them, and then the whole word. Show and tell them what the object does, keep repeating yourself daily, and they’ll eventually come to understand the name of the object.
2. Sing a Song, Learn Some Words
Nursery rhymes are catchy and a great way for our children to pick up new words. Some classic nursery rhymes include the Alphabet Song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Itsy Bitsy Spider! Not only do our children like the sound of these songs, they’ll also begin to hum along and repeat those words too!
Not only are our children learning new words, they’re learning how to hold a tune! Introduce singing in the car and at home, and you’ll be surprised at how much they’ll learn through singing.
3. Introducing Responsibility
This tip works hand in hand with the first tip where you label your household objects – let your child help you out with keeping and organising things in their proper places. You could start with things like putting their toys in the storage containers (label it as ‘ToyBox 1’ and so forth) after they’re done playing with them, then proceed to their clothes (teaching them a simple way of folding clothes will help their fine motor skills too!).
Once they’re used to it, you can actually turn it into a game! Ask them where the ‘homes’ of certain items are, and deliberately put items in the wrong places to get your children to move them to the right places.
4. Using Textures to Engage Toddlers
As mentioned before, toddlers love using their senses to learn and experience things! They grab, sniff, and bite almost anything that they can get their little hands on – all out of curiosity and without malicious intent.
Another easy way to get them started on the alphabet and numbers is to make use their sense of touch! Write the letters of the alphabet and numbers on a large sheet of drawing block/art paper, and then decorate the letters with your child – use items with a range of different textures, like cotton balls, glitter, beans, sandpaper, pasta, and any other items with unique textures!
Let them trace out the way the letters and numbers are written, and read it out to them as they trace it. After a week or two, do the same with names – their own name and the names of family members – and once again read out the letters, along with the names after they’re done with tracing those letters.
5. Make a Book With Shapes
There are a ton of books out there that teach kids about shapes, but what about creating one of your own? You can use a cute notebook and draw out the basic shapes on it as a guide for your toddler to look at, then flip through magazines or newspapers with them and pick out shapes that match those in the notebook. Once they find matching shapes, cut them out and paste them in the book!
You can also use your camera on your phone to capture photos of objects with distinct shapes while you’re out and about with your family, then print them out and paste them in the book too.
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