Making the Most of Toddler Time
Toddlerhood starts when your little one begins walking, usually between 9 and 12 months old. Testing and honing their physical skills is front and center on their minds. They want to explore this world for themselves. "Busy" is probably the best word to describe them. It's hard to keep pace with their need to explore and manipulate their environment. Rituals and routines give them much comfort.
This is also the time of life when your baby finally consistently responds to your invitations to engage in activities constructively. The Learning Game takes center stage - You cheerfully ask for something, and your baby gleefully reaches for it or performs the action. Now, you can assess what they know even though their language skills are in the first stage of emergence. They absorb practically anything you want them to learn, as long as it is fed to them wholistically, simply, daily, with lots of love and giggles. This is a very exciting time when learning switches into high gear! I just LOVED Toddler Time!
This is also the time of life when your baby finally consistently responds to your invitations to engage in activities constructively. The Learning Game takes center stage - You cheerfully ask for something, and your baby gleefully reaches for it or performs the action. Now, you can assess what they know even though their language skills are in the first stage of emergence. They absorb practically anything you want them to learn, as long as it is fed to them wholistically, simply, daily, with lots of love and giggles. This is a very exciting time when learning switches into high gear! I just LOVED Toddler Time!
Early Literacy and the Toddler Brain
Have you heard of left brain and right brain dominance? Did you know that toddlers and small children are right brain dominant? This means they learn best in a wholistic way. This is how they learn to talk, walk, etc. without us telling them exactly what to do.
I discovered with my children that toddlers can learn anything you want, as long as you teach them in a wholistic, simple way. This is how reading instruction is best done. Phonics is a left-brain reading technique. You break the word up and put it back together bit by bit. Toddlers cannot learn to read with phonics. BUT, they can learn to read using whole meaningful words. If you teach them enough whole meaningful words (around 100), then they intuitively learn the phonetic rules themselves. The most important thing is to underline it from left to right as you say it and to not overload the brain with too many things to process.
Those first 8 to 10 words take around 9 months to learn. During that time, I teach my little ones shapes, then numbers 0-10, then letters and sounds (in that order, not moving forward till mastery is achieved, introducing only a few items at a time). By the time they finish those early learning topics, they have learned their first meaningful words. When I say meaningful, I mean words your little one understands -- not sight words.
I taught both of my children to read before 3 years old with just a few minutes each day. I followed the principles explained in the book Native Reading by Timothy Kailing. These are the same principles used in the program, Your Baby Can Read. I recommend both of them. I hope to inspire others to teach their toddlers wholistically and simply, so they can get the results they want.
I discovered with my children that toddlers can learn anything you want, as long as you teach them in a wholistic, simple way. This is how reading instruction is best done. Phonics is a left-brain reading technique. You break the word up and put it back together bit by bit. Toddlers cannot learn to read with phonics. BUT, they can learn to read using whole meaningful words. If you teach them enough whole meaningful words (around 100), then they intuitively learn the phonetic rules themselves. The most important thing is to underline it from left to right as you say it and to not overload the brain with too many things to process.
Those first 8 to 10 words take around 9 months to learn. During that time, I teach my little ones shapes, then numbers 0-10, then letters and sounds (in that order, not moving forward till mastery is achieved, introducing only a few items at a time). By the time they finish those early learning topics, they have learned their first meaningful words. When I say meaningful, I mean words your little one understands -- not sight words.
I taught both of my children to read before 3 years old with just a few minutes each day. I followed the principles explained in the book Native Reading by Timothy Kailing. These are the same principles used in the program, Your Baby Can Read. I recommend both of them. I hope to inspire others to teach their toddlers wholistically and simply, so they can get the results they want.
Toddler, +9 months (walking): Active Sponge
Toddler +9 months (walking)
- Language: Express Needs
- Literacy: Shapes, First Meaningful Words, First Book
Your Toddler's Day Made Easy
- Daily Circle Time - My World quarterly themes for 5 days of the week. Includes quarterly book, songs, guided activities.
- Backyard Seasons
- My Body
- At Home
- My Community
- Daily Learning Time - 5-Minute Homeschool Plan
- Shapes with First Words (8 to 10 meaningful words)
- Number 0 to 10 with First Words (same words)
- Letters and Sounds with First Words (same words)
- After mastery of First Words, add more meaningful words. Also, Numbers 11 to 20.
- Keep adding 8 to 10 more words with the next sequence of numbers.
- Anytime Discovery Time - Freely explore 5-Minute topics through toys and manipulatives. Best done during bath time or quiet time.
- Anytime Outdoor Time - Go for a walk and see what you discover outside. Bubbles and other fun active activities.
- Anytime Exercise
- Anytime Art - Use circle time theme. Use die cuts for easy repeating projects. Paste them onto construction paper or a large mural to make a bigger project with them. Just change what you do with them.
- glue dots, stickers, glue; finger painting; coloring rocks
- glue stick, coloring; glue puzzle pieces together on construction paper; paint with brush
- squeeze glue, pull of stickers; cut along lines, then glue back together; mixing paints
- Anytime Play
- Sensory
- Build
- Pretend
Toddler Art Made Easy
Art time is an important part of your toddler's day. It develops important fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, and academic skills. Make the most of that time by working towards clear skill objectives. The challenge with art time is the mess created AND planning what to do from day to day. I hope to simplify all of those aspects for you.
|
Level 1
|
Level 2
|
Level 3
|
Don't ever think you cannot repeat a craft. In fact, I recommend it. This allows your toddler to practice with familiar resources. In fact, by repeating the same craft, you can gauge improvement! Below are your go-to art resources for toddlers to make art time a quick set-up. Get almost everything at the Dollar Tree (DT).
|
Glue/Sticker Supplies
|
We always say that the first three years of a child's life are the most important to character formation. The impressions made during that time are imbedded in our subconscious minds and guide later life.
During a right brain education class I took, I learned that little ones, especially under 4 years old, are almost totally right brain dominant. That means they have an amazing capacity for rapid, photographic learning. I have personally harnessed that rapid learning time for teaching my toddler the following things by the time he reached 3 years old:
What is most amazing to me is that my non-stop busy toddler could learn all these things with just a minimal time investment of no more than 15 minutes a day and usually with just 5 minutes a day. That's it. But, it was nearly EVERYDAY.
Most topics he did not want to learn at first, so I would just expose him for a minute at a time, and then try again the next day. Usually, within 2 weeks of tiny daily exposures, he would get interested. Once he was interested, then he learned rapidly. But we would usually not spend more than 5 minutes on learning one topic, anyways.
You might be wondering why I would even want to accelerate my toddler's reading and math skills. To answer in as succinct a way as possible, I want my son (and daughter) to be able to do something significant for the Lord in his youth. Yes, I plan on accelerating him all the way, so that he is done with high school by 12 years old. Am I planning on moving him out of the house, etc., of course not! There are actually so many other things I want him to learn, so he can be of valuable service to the Lord. We want him to have time to learn business skills, like bookkeeping and marketing, computer skills, like graphic design and programming, practical skills, like car mechanic and electrical. I am tired of seeing our young people spend so many of their most free years tied down to a classroom relearning over and over the basics. Then when they finally acquire some skills to make a contribution to society, they have but a few years before it is time to settle down and have a family. Family life is a real blessing, but it is also consuming, and it is very difficult to pursue further education or engage in full time voluntary service and be there for your spouse and children. I know some do it, but it is very difficult. Why not get all the education out of the way in various areas? Why not be able to spend 10+ years in dedicated service as a single person solving real problems with professional skills? Why not be able to move forward with family life at the time when it is optimal to have children of your own knowing you already accomplished a lot with your life? Call me a dreamer, call me crazy. I don't care.
I tell my son everyday that he will do something for the Lord in his youth. I don't know what it is, but based on his affinity for the abstract, numbers, and the stars, I think he will be a scientist. As we study his ten commandments each day, we talk about how as a great scientist he will study the laws God has ordained for nature, but as a great scientist, he must also obey God's 10 commandment laws for happiness and service. I think of Jesus who by 12 years old had a clear understanding of his life work. Should not my children have the same? And bypassing the regular educational system, he spent time gaining practical skills and working in the apprenticeship model. Yes, I want to get the basics done, so my son can explore other areas of service to a degree of acquiring professionalism in at least 3 areas: something medical/health related, something practical/handy, something for career or making a living. With the first two areas, he will have skills helpful in the mission field. With the last one, he will be able to support himself in an area of his interest, even if it is physics.
Now that I am a mother, I see how few years we actually have in our youth to serve God without being tied down to heavy family responsibilities. By the time my children are 20, I hope they will have whatever degrees and practical skills they need to actually make real, significant contributions to whatever line of work God calls them into. By the time they are 30, I hope they will settle down with a family. But actually, I hope and pray that Jesus comes before then, and that my children will be used by Him in mighty ways to hasten His coming.
Update: Since I wrote this, I was also able to replicate similar results with my daughter. My daughter made all of my minimal goals by the time she was 36 months old even though we got interrupted twice with moving! She was fully reading at 31 months old, and she could count to 100 and could read and sort the names of the books of the Bible in order by time she was 36 months old! By the time she was 4 years old, she memorized all her states and capitals.
During a right brain education class I took, I learned that little ones, especially under 4 years old, are almost totally right brain dominant. That means they have an amazing capacity for rapid, photographic learning. I have personally harnessed that rapid learning time for teaching my toddler the following things by the time he reached 3 years old:
- shapes by 15 months
- upper and lower case letters and their sounds by 17 months
- numerals 0 to 10 by 18 months
- first 20 reading words by 21 months
- the meaning of quantity for the numbers 1 - 10 by 23 months
- numbers 11 through 20 by 23 months
- fully reading anything by 27 months
- memorizing and recognizing (reading) the names of all 66 books of the Bible in and out of order by 30 months
- memorize all 26 stories verbatim of The Rhyme Bible Storybook for Toddlers by L.J. Sattghast and where they are found in the Bible by 34 months
- addition math facts up to 10+10 by 35 months
- numbers up to 1,000 by 35 months
- skip count by 5's, 10's, 100's, and 2's by 36 months
- play his first hymn (No. 217, When He Cometh) on the piano (single notes) by 36 months
What is most amazing to me is that my non-stop busy toddler could learn all these things with just a minimal time investment of no more than 15 minutes a day and usually with just 5 minutes a day. That's it. But, it was nearly EVERYDAY.
Most topics he did not want to learn at first, so I would just expose him for a minute at a time, and then try again the next day. Usually, within 2 weeks of tiny daily exposures, he would get interested. Once he was interested, then he learned rapidly. But we would usually not spend more than 5 minutes on learning one topic, anyways.
You might be wondering why I would even want to accelerate my toddler's reading and math skills. To answer in as succinct a way as possible, I want my son (and daughter) to be able to do something significant for the Lord in his youth. Yes, I plan on accelerating him all the way, so that he is done with high school by 12 years old. Am I planning on moving him out of the house, etc., of course not! There are actually so many other things I want him to learn, so he can be of valuable service to the Lord. We want him to have time to learn business skills, like bookkeeping and marketing, computer skills, like graphic design and programming, practical skills, like car mechanic and electrical. I am tired of seeing our young people spend so many of their most free years tied down to a classroom relearning over and over the basics. Then when they finally acquire some skills to make a contribution to society, they have but a few years before it is time to settle down and have a family. Family life is a real blessing, but it is also consuming, and it is very difficult to pursue further education or engage in full time voluntary service and be there for your spouse and children. I know some do it, but it is very difficult. Why not get all the education out of the way in various areas? Why not be able to spend 10+ years in dedicated service as a single person solving real problems with professional skills? Why not be able to move forward with family life at the time when it is optimal to have children of your own knowing you already accomplished a lot with your life? Call me a dreamer, call me crazy. I don't care.
I tell my son everyday that he will do something for the Lord in his youth. I don't know what it is, but based on his affinity for the abstract, numbers, and the stars, I think he will be a scientist. As we study his ten commandments each day, we talk about how as a great scientist he will study the laws God has ordained for nature, but as a great scientist, he must also obey God's 10 commandment laws for happiness and service. I think of Jesus who by 12 years old had a clear understanding of his life work. Should not my children have the same? And bypassing the regular educational system, he spent time gaining practical skills and working in the apprenticeship model. Yes, I want to get the basics done, so my son can explore other areas of service to a degree of acquiring professionalism in at least 3 areas: something medical/health related, something practical/handy, something for career or making a living. With the first two areas, he will have skills helpful in the mission field. With the last one, he will be able to support himself in an area of his interest, even if it is physics.
Now that I am a mother, I see how few years we actually have in our youth to serve God without being tied down to heavy family responsibilities. By the time my children are 20, I hope they will have whatever degrees and practical skills they need to actually make real, significant contributions to whatever line of work God calls them into. By the time they are 30, I hope they will settle down with a family. But actually, I hope and pray that Jesus comes before then, and that my children will be used by Him in mighty ways to hasten His coming.
Update: Since I wrote this, I was also able to replicate similar results with my daughter. My daughter made all of my minimal goals by the time she was 36 months old even though we got interrupted twice with moving! She was fully reading at 31 months old, and she could count to 100 and could read and sort the names of the books of the Bible in order by time she was 36 months old! By the time she was 4 years old, she memorized all her states and capitals.
Maybe I can share with you some ways to target learning towards objectives. To help me feel like I was working with them in a purposeful way, I filled in a diary (just a student planner). I used the "weekly" section to keep track of any learning activities I did with them, and in the "monthly" section, I wrote down achievements (milestones or learning activities they mastered). I have continued this ritual into official homeschooling, and it serves as my attendance record as well as student memory book.
I found it helpful to have learning objectives. For example, for your baby, one language skill you can work on is sign language (start with the eat sign). One physical skill is tummy time and raising her/his head. One important nature concept is daytime vs. night time (after every nap, take the baby to the window to experience sunlight and sing a little song about it. Decide on a "bed time" and morning wake up time, then after that time, every waking is all business -- no songs, no lights, no talking, just eat and back to bed -- until wake up time in the morning. This is part of gentle sleep training, but that is a whole other topic). And so on!
I started literacy skills at 9 months when my little ones would pick something up that I requested. I started with shapes and their first words, which were put on the wall in super big print. The most important aspect of literacy is underlining from left to right as you say a word. Their first words were meaningful to them -- mommy, their name, pray, butterfly -- and they were associated with a fun movement or song. I did not read a bunch of books to my children at those ages. I discovered less is always best -- just focus and do the same thing everyday till they master it. I only read 2 books to them at those ages (large lower-case print, only 1 word or phrase on a page). I taught both of my children to read fluently, count to 100, and know their books of the Bible in order by the time they were 3 years old. It only took a few minutes a day, everyday, in a most gentle, meaningful way. Even after that time, I did not encourage reading for the sake of reading (According to Spirit of Prophecy, nature should be their primary book till they are school age). We used reading as a skill to explore our world -- read labels, signs, instructions, diagrams, etc. We still follow what my husband likes to call The 5-Minute Homeschool today, so books are kept to an absolute minimum and more time is spent just exploring our world. If you are interested in early literacy, feel free to message me. Your 2-year old is in "prime time" learning mode for me.
Finally, I want to stress that if you want your child to learn something at that age and going forward beyond that, remember that daily repetition of just a few items in the most simple way will facilitate their learning, never moving forward till they master whatever it is you are working on. You only need to present something to them in a 30 second to 1 minute lesson. That's it! If you do it everyday, they will pick up that it is important to remember it.
I found it helpful to have learning objectives. For example, for your baby, one language skill you can work on is sign language (start with the eat sign). One physical skill is tummy time and raising her/his head. One important nature concept is daytime vs. night time (after every nap, take the baby to the window to experience sunlight and sing a little song about it. Decide on a "bed time" and morning wake up time, then after that time, every waking is all business -- no songs, no lights, no talking, just eat and back to bed -- until wake up time in the morning. This is part of gentle sleep training, but that is a whole other topic). And so on!
I started literacy skills at 9 months when my little ones would pick something up that I requested. I started with shapes and their first words, which were put on the wall in super big print. The most important aspect of literacy is underlining from left to right as you say a word. Their first words were meaningful to them -- mommy, their name, pray, butterfly -- and they were associated with a fun movement or song. I did not read a bunch of books to my children at those ages. I discovered less is always best -- just focus and do the same thing everyday till they master it. I only read 2 books to them at those ages (large lower-case print, only 1 word or phrase on a page). I taught both of my children to read fluently, count to 100, and know their books of the Bible in order by the time they were 3 years old. It only took a few minutes a day, everyday, in a most gentle, meaningful way. Even after that time, I did not encourage reading for the sake of reading (According to Spirit of Prophecy, nature should be their primary book till they are school age). We used reading as a skill to explore our world -- read labels, signs, instructions, diagrams, etc. We still follow what my husband likes to call The 5-Minute Homeschool today, so books are kept to an absolute minimum and more time is spent just exploring our world. If you are interested in early literacy, feel free to message me. Your 2-year old is in "prime time" learning mode for me.
Finally, I want to stress that if you want your child to learn something at that age and going forward beyond that, remember that daily repetition of just a few items in the most simple way will facilitate their learning, never moving forward till they master whatever it is you are working on. You only need to present something to them in a 30 second to 1 minute lesson. That's it! If you do it everyday, they will pick up that it is important to remember it.
Setting Learning Goals and Reaching Them
To help me stay on track and organized with meeting my learning goals for my toddlers, I used a simple student planner book as a learning diary. In the weekly section, I wrote down what we did (note - past tense), with enough detail to know exactly what was worked on. In the monthly section, I wrote down achievements or milestones reached. I continue this little system today as I homeschool my children. There is something about writing things down that keeps you focused and working towards your goals. I treasure these books, as the month you look at here reminds me of when my 2 year old reached learning around 50 meaningful words. By that time, you can feed them practically a word a day! It is amazing.
|
|
