Learning

[sectorQ]

Hello! I'd like to get some feedback if you all don't mind.

I'm DH. My wife is 11 weeks and due in October.

We have a 2 year old DD (28 mos.) and we try to do our best at education her. Besides the songs and games we play, we have DVDs that have really helped (especially the Signing Time. We love those!).

To top it off, I'm teaching her Spanish. I'm Latin and my wife is a white girl :)

It's been tough trying to find educational Spanish stuff. Especially Spanish that is closer to what I speak. Spanish isn't just Spanish, it's just like English. There's British English, Australian English, Scottish, etc.

But I digress.

It's tough to get her to go along with learning sometimes. We read to her almost daily. But I'm having a hard time trying to sit down with her and teach her the alphabet. Whether English or Spanish.

She's already singing the alphabet song. She just doesn't have all the letters yet. It's still somewhat jibberish. But we are excited.

I'm not the smartest when it comes to coming up with activities. I'm willing to try anything once to see if it works.

My question is, are we trying to push too much too fast? She's showing strong signs of independence. She wants to do, what she wants to do. So getting her to break from that is tough.

We try to do educational activities with her a little bit everyday. There are certain things she'll like and will do it as long as she can. With other educational activities she just doesn't show interest.

Plus, she's very physical. She loves running, swimming, biking, more running, playing, climbing me, climbing jungle jims, etc. We also take her out a lot. My wife works at Disney so we get in for free. Plus we have connections to SeaWorld and Universal which we also take her to.

She's beyond energetic. Can't stay still to save her life.

[hillview]

At 2 I don't think anything other than singing, speaking and reading is reallyt appropriate. I would just do the "where's the bird?" "what does the bird say" "can you bring the shoes and socks to mommy" sort of thing.

Don't worry -- they will learn!!
/hillary

[KrisM]

First, I didn't know this forum existed!

Second, I think expecting a 2 year old to sit and learn is asking too much. My kids learned the letters by me pointing to them on things -boxes in the store, signs while driving, on blocks or other toys. I'd say the letter and they would eventually learn it.

Games and activities don't need to be formal. Just point things out in everyday life.

[sectorQ]

Hello! I'd like to get some feedback if you all don't mind.

I'm DH. My wife is 11 weeks and due in October.

We have a 2 year old DD (28 mos.) and we try to do our best at education her. Besides the songs and games we play, we have DVDs that have really helped (especially the Signing Time. We love those!).

To top it off, I'm teaching her Spanish. I'm Latin and my wife is a white girl :)

It's been tough trying to find educational Spanish stuff. Especially Spanish that is closer to what I speak. Spanish isn't just Spanish, it's just like English. There's British English, Australian English, Scottish, etc.

But I digress.

It's tough to get her to go along with learning sometimes. We read to her almost daily. But I'm having a hard time trying to sit down with her and teach her the alphabet. Whether English or Spanish.

She's already singing the alphabet song. She just doesn't have all the letters yet. It's still somewhat jibberish. But we are excited.

I'm not the smartest when it comes to coming up with activities. I'm willing to try anything once to see if it works.

My question is, are we trying to push too much too fast? She's showing strong signs of independence. She wants to do, what she wants to do. So getting her to break from that is tough.

We try to do educational activities with her a little bit everyday. There are certain things she'll like and will do it as long as she can. With other educational activities she just doesn't show interest.

Plus, she's very physical. She loves running, swimming, biking, more running, playing, climbing me, climbing jungle jims, etc. We also take her out a lot. My wife works at Disney so we get in for free. Plus we have connections to SeaWorld and Universal which we also take her to.

She's beyond energetic. Can't stay still to save her life.
Thanks Hillview. We do that as well. She cleans up, brings us stuff, listens fairly well when we ask her to do things.

I guess we have unrealistic expectations. Which is why I asked here. I want to make sure we're not going to push so much that she'll end up rebelling or resenting. We definitely want her to have fun learning.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Learning all the way through kindergarten should be play and experienced based. They will pick up everything they need to know from normal interactions if you follow their lead. Most people naturally do it- for example my 2yo can now identify objects well so I am naturally teaching him things like number or quantity to go with it like, "yes, that's a car. It's a blue car." No formal instruction or education is needed. Just make it conversational, natural and part of your every day experiences.

Beth