Fun Ways I Taught My Toddler

Like many new parents, I found that though I had prepared well for the birthing and initial infant stages of our son by way of baby classes and parenting guides. As my son grew, my available time for parenting education gradually decreased while my need for such educating continued to increase. This left me largely on my own when it came to my parenting role as a work-at-home dad; yet I knew that it was my duty to find creative and fun ways to educate my son.

My time and energy for such tasks after making breakfast, stopping for snacks, lunch, potty breaks, spills, and attempting to do some of my own work, was greatly diminished. Still, I knew I had to find a way to make time for teaching. But doing so often required a little thinking outside the box for ways that made learning fun for both of us, in order to push daddy to do it a little more often than he might have otherwise.

Shower and Car Time

Our time is often not our own as work or stay-at-home parents; therefore, I tried to make the best use of every available minute that I could with my toddler. If I ever wanted to shower during the morning or day, it meant that my son must be nearby. Therefore, while he was piddling around in the bathroom waiting for me, I decided to make this time, as well as down time when we were driving somewhere, productive.

I started this time off by singing to him in his younger days — usually nursery rhymes or cartoon theme music. Eventually this evolved to singing the ABCs and having him join in. After he’d mastered the ABCs, we moved on to numbers. First he made it from 1-10, then 10-20, and by the time he was four he was working his way into the 30s, 40s and higher, and counting by 10s as well. Just last night, he counted a deck of cards (52-count) completely on his own…and he’s four years, four months old.

It just goes to show what the effect of having some fun and multi-tasking can have during what might otherwise be considered down times or boring gaps in the day.

Flashcards

For many of us, teaching a child isn’t easy; I know it’s not for me at least. I didn’t really know where to begin, what activities to do, and where my child should or shouldn’t be with his education at certain ages. I didn’t let this slow me down though.

I found that by using flashcards of letters, numbers, shapes, and objects starting a little before he was two, I could create a fun daily activity for both of us. It made for a simple and habitual daily event for me — just going through a stack of flashcards with him — and a repetitive and educational event for him that he enjoyed and looked forward to. I could easily switch up the order of the cards by reshuffling them, focus on one particular area (i.e. numbers, letters, shapes or whatever), they were handy to take on trips with us, and weren’t things that were too overly complicated for those first few steps in structured learning.

General Communication

I think that many people tend to forget that what seems commonplace or common sense to us as adults can be amazing — almost magical things — to a toddler. I think that people also tend to forget that even though there might not be other adults around with whom to communicate, that it doesn’t hurt to speak to our little ones.

One of the things that I found has been beneficial to my son’s early education has been the fact that I communicated regularly with him, even when he couldn’t respond, and continued to point out a variety of what, to me, were commonplace items and objects, but that to him, were brand new and often intriguing things.

His responses and reactions to such interaction often made for funny stories to tell my wife when she arrived home from work or to relate to family members, and I think this interaction went a long way to making him the brilliant little boy he has now become (sorry, no false modesty when it comes to my son).

Active Television

I know there are a lot of people out there that feel television is detrimental to the educating of their children, but I’m of the opposite frame of mind. I feel that watching the right types of educational children’s programming, and in the right amounts, can be helpful in building a child’s intelligence and can be fun for both child and parent.

I felt that if I was interested in and interacted with my son as he watched such shows that he would also be more interested and pay more attention. Singing the songs (I can’t help but learn them), pointing things out, asking questions, and keeping his attention focused on the learning activities, not only made such shows fun for him but more bearable for me as well.

Hands-on

As a dad, I can’t help but occasionally get my son involved in some of those activities that make many mothers cringe. Whether it is sawing, hammering, using a hatchet or canoeing — all in a safe, supervised environment mind you — I feel that some things just have to be taken head-on, and in turn, make the educational process not only a bonding experience but a fun and exciting one as well.

Doing things like hands-on work or a special project with a parent can strengthen bonds, be educational and be fun for all involved. Even things like gardening, watering plants, collecting leafs in the yard and similar activities could begin teaching your little one some work ethic and how to be helpful while also sharing experiences with mommy and daddy.

More From This Contributor:

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