My husband and I have been blessed with two amazing daughters. Our oldest, Skyler (3), has the memory of a baby elephant and has loved to learn as long as I can remember. She is not in a daycare/classroom setting, as my parents are gracious enough to keep Skyler and her baby sister, Nia (1) during the day while my husband and I work. We have really worked hard to encourage her desire to learn by incorporating different learning activities. Often, I had difficulty finding activities that she would find to be fun but would also not be overbearing, but here are a few that worked great for us!
1. Singing Songs
I will, reluctantly, admit that I am no Beyonce. The good thing about kids (until they reach a certain age) is that they actually don’t care if your singing voice is stellar or if it sounds like a squeaky wheel. From the day we brought Skyler home from the hospital, I started singing different nursery rhymes to her to calm her, get her to sleep, or just for fun. Did I feel silly at first? Of course! Especially since I had to Google the lyrics to many of them. But that feeling quickly faded when I got the instant gratification of her calming down and playing along with my far-less-than-Beyonce-like singing. Before she even had words, Skyler was able to hum the songs that I would sing to her. That quickly turned into her being able to say a few – and then all – of the words to each song. My anecdotal testimony is that, while understanding that all kids learn and develop differently, I believe that singing these songs to her so early and consistently has had a hugely positive impact on her ability to memorize and her vocabulary development. What’s better is that a learning experience came from something my husband and I intended only to enhance our bond with our baby girl.
2. Flashcards
The best thing about flashcards (other than the fact that you can get them EXTREMELY cheap… Target Dollar Spot is our go-to) is that they target such a wide range of levels of development. With both girls, we started with shapes and animal cards, and Skyler has progressed through letters (upper- and lowercase), numbers, and many more. Her current fav are her Spanish word cards. Just a quick forewarning about flashcards – they can be easy to cross over into “overbearing” territory. We take two approaches with flash cards to keep from heading in that direction. We either do 1-2 cards per day and really focus on learning those before we slowly add more one at a time, or we go through all of the cards, giving the child the opportunity to say what they see and helping them out if they don’t remember. Not quizzing or forcing them to answer, just jumping in, identifying the card when they seem to be struggling to remember, and moving on to the next one. With the second method, you will be so proud when they start needing your help less and less, eventually getting through all the cards on their own.
3. Purposeful Conversations
Something that we implemented with both girls is having real conversations with them. I don’t mean talking to them about things that aren’t appropriate for their ages, but I do mean talking to them, allowing them to respond, and keeping the conversation going. We purposefully have dinner “conversations” with the girls daily, asking them how they like their food, how their day was, and any other random topic. Of course, the “conversation” is very limited when they are very young. Like, right now the conversation with Nia goes: Me: “Nia, how is your dinner?” Nia: “Good!” (with the biggest smile). But surely, as they begin to string words together, you will be amazed at how well they can articulate and explain things that are going on around them. I am always impressed by how they’re able to process what you’re saying, respond, and formulate their own ideas to keep the conversation going. It also makes me chuckle when, if it gets too quiet at the table, Skyler breaks the ice with, “Mommy, how’s your dinner? Dad, how about you? How’s your dinner?”
4. Learning Workbooks
I remember, as a child, being so excited when my mom would bring me learning workbooks over summer break to complete (weird… I know). Naturally, I was too excited to find that they make these books for kids who are younger than school age. I haven’t found any for Nia’s age yet, but I have been doing “learning books” (that’s what she calls them) with Skyler since she was about 2 ½ years old. They come in different “subjects” such as shapes and colors, numbers, creative skills, etc. Skyer and I periodically have time where we sit together at her tiny table and do a few pages of her learning books. She usually specifically requests to do her learning books or I’ll ask her if she wants to do it versus me telling her “it’s time to do your learning book.” I find that this approach gives her an opportunity to be accountable and excited for her learning. Workbooks can be found in so many places – I recently found some great ones at 5 Below, but have also found good ones on Amazon.
5. Encouraging Imaginative Play
I know, I know… this is the one that most parents are excited about at first and then slowly try to avoid at all costs. But imaginative play doesn’t only mean pretending to eat delicious meals that your kid cooks you (because it’s all delicious) or having tea parties. The key to imaginative play is to let the child lead, including allowing them to pretend some toys are something completely different from what they are. Nia pretends everything that’s flat or has buttons to be a phone… remotes, blocks, the baby monitor, everything. Instead of telling her “that isn’t a phone”, we play along (because they actually know that they are pretending). It can get pretty comedic and entertaining for me also. It makes me feel like a big kid, and the girls think it’s silly too.
6. Sight Words
We didn’t start this one with Skyler until she was closer to 3 years old, but I do think we’ll start with Nia a little sooner. I, honestly, wasn’t as familiar with sight words before. I mean, I knew of them and the concept, but I had never seen them in action. This is basically when toddlers learn to “read” by memorization of how a word looks (versus reading by knowing the sounds each letter makes and sounding out the word). My mom thought this would be great for Skyler since she does well with memory, so she purchased this kit [INSERT LINK] and began teaching her site words. Skyler is doing great with her sight words, and can get through a couple of the books from the kit. The jury is still out on how this contributes to actual reading comprehension, BUT, it is a great tool to keep her mind and memory recall challenged.
There you have it! A few tools to help get or keep your toddlers interested in learning. I hope you found this helpful! Have you tried any of these? Do you have any learning activities to add? Let me know in the comments below!
