Our tiny tots are eternally curious about the world around them. Heres how we can channel their energy in the right direction. Toddlers do not need to be subjected to structured learning, but as they are naturally curious, it makes sense for us to harness their curiosity and channel it in the right direction. Using these tips you can devise relaxed and fun ways of teaching your child to recognize letters, numbers and colors. Remember that visual (seeing), audio (hearing) and kinesthetic (touching and doing) methods work best with children. In this articleSing and washEatPlay the color gameUse flash cardsInnovateUse familiar tools Sing and wash Very often children dont wash their hands well after going to the bathroom or before meals. Sing the alphabet song to them when they wash their hands, so they treat the exercise like a game. They will come out with clean hands and a lesson learnt. Eat Point out the chapattis to your child, and let her identify the shape. Then, break it into pieces to make rectangle bites, square bites and triangle bites. This way not only does your child learn something about shapes, but she gets distracted and doesnt fuss as much. Point out the round bowl, round plates and rectangular or square table. Play the color game To begin with, pick one color for one day, say green. Point out all green objects to your child through the day. When she is playing with her toys, separate all the green ones into a heap. When eating, show her the green vegetables. When you go to the park, you are surrounded by green grass and green leaves. Use flash cards Flash cards make great teaching aids. You can either buy them or make some on your own. Keep separate sets for alphabets, numbers, colors, shapes, vegetables, fruits etc. When your child is bored, simply pull out the flash cards from your bag and let your child identify the object. Innovate Invent new games. For example using colored chalks, draw triangles, squares, rectangles and stars on the floor. Now make the child play a hopping game. As you give instructions the child jumps from the red square to the blue star to the green rectangle and so on. If there are two friends they can give instructions to each other and score points. Use familiar tools Teach your child letter recognition with the help of his favourite objects. N for Noddy, P for papa, M for mummy, D for didi or dadaji and so on. At the table, teach your childs numbers by counting the peas on his plate. So also, remove some peas and add some more to teach him addition and subtraction. When playing with your child, talk to her about the different colors and shapes of her toys and how many of them she has. Count out the toys aloud. As you pick up a toy, encourage your child to call out the colour. When in the car, read aloud the text on billboards, point out the colour of the traffic light and of other cars, and so on. Soon you will realize that you are surrounded by learning tools and it is up to you to extract their potential.
Our tiny tots are eternally curious about the world around them. Here's how we can channel their energy in the right direction. Toddlers do not need to be subjected to structured learning, but as they are naturally curious, it makes sense for us to harness their curiosity and channel it in the right direction. Using these tips you can devise relaxed and fun ways of teaching your child to recognize letters, numbers and colors. Remember that visual (seeing), audio (hearing) and kinesthetic (touching and doing) methods work best with children.
Very often children don't wash their hands well after going to the bathroom or before meals. Sing the alphabet song to them when they wash their hands, so they treat the exercise like a game. They will come out with clean hands and a lesson learnt.
Eat
Point out the chapattis to your child, and let her identify the shape. Then, break it into pieces to make rectangle bites, square bites and triangle bites. This way not only does your child learn something about shapes, but she gets distracted and doesn't fuss as much. Point out the round bowl, round plates and rectangular or square table.
Play the color game
To begin with, pick one color for one day, say green. Point out all green objects to your child through the day. When she is playing with her toys, separate all the green ones into a heap. When eating, show her the green vegetables. When you go to the park, you are surrounded by green grass and green leaves.
Use flash cards
Flash cards make great teaching aids. You can either buy them or make some on your own. Keep separate sets for alphabets, numbers, colors, shapes, vegetables, fruits etc. When your child is bored, simply pull out the flash cards from your bag and let your child identify the object.
Innovate
Invent new games. For example using colored chalks, draw triangles, squares, rectangles and stars on the floor. Now make the child play a hopping game. As you give instructions the child jumps from the red square to the blue star to the green rectangle and so on. If there are two friends they can give instructions to each other and score points.
Use familiar tools
Teach your child letter recognition with the help of his favourite objects. N for Noddy, P for papa, M for mummy, D for didi or dadaji and so on. At the table, teach your child's numbers by counting the peas on his plate. So also, remove some peas and add some more to teach him addition and subtraction. When playing with your child, talk to her about the different colors and shapes of her toys and how many of them she has. Count out the toys aloud. As you pick up a toy, encourage your child to call out the colour. When in the car, read aloud the text on billboards, point out the colour of the traffic light and of other cars, and so on. Soon you will realize that you are surrounded by learning tools and it is up to you to extract their potential.
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Nice article! When my kid was around 2 I started teaching her addition and subtraction using pebbles. Sometimes I colour them or instead write alphabets on each and every pebbles which made her to identify it as well as learn alphabets through fun way.
i totally agree with this that kids can e made to learn basic things from the things at home or things in our surrounding us.i taught colours to my daughter with the help of traffic lights.she was less than two when she could recognize most of the colours. moreover kids take more intrest in the surroundin things.my daughter came to know that traffic lights regulate traffic and soon she could make out that red means stop, green means go and so on.so we must help kids to develope this habit of learning from original things.they really enjoy i.
interesting article. i have used some of the tips with my daughter and she finds it interesting.can u suggest me how to teach her phonic skill without giving her stress and from what age.she is two years old.
one successful teaching method i found helful is story time. encourage toddlers to make up story of their own. toddlers can use thier immagination and develope therir vocabulary and sentence construction ability