teaching your toddler-preschool kid

[rikki21]

Hi mommies! i would like to ask your advice and tips about teaching your toddler - preschool kid. I have a 3 year old kid, she recites the alphabet, counts 1-15, knows the shapes and colors and animals, she's into tracing alphabets and numbers na din. i would like to ask what will i teach her next? she recites the alphabet and numbers but she doesn't know how to read it yet. A-E and 1-5 only. she'll be entering nursery next year pa, pag 4 y/o na sya, but i want to teach her ngayon palang yung foundations para pag dating sa school, okay na sya.

I'm the only one teaching her, when I come home from work.I try to make it everyday teaching, but i cant make it, every other night. sometimes din if she's not in the mood to write or color, i don't push her to do it. tama lang ba yun mga sis? or should i convince her to do it at that moment?

tips and advice naman mga sis on how to teach our kids. thank you!

[helencons]

^^^

You can start teaching your child alphabet recognition and at the same time, introduce phonemic awareness, meaning that each letter consists of a distinct sound.  For numbers, you can introduce one to one correspondence.  Most kids kasi excel in rote memorization of letters and numbers so its up to you the breakdown it down and explain every concept to the kid.

Start doing art projects, actually pwede na letter of the week art based project gawin.maraming skills na matutunan ang bata kahit simple art project lang yan.

try to improve your child's fine and gross motor skills, most parents they don't put a premium in these skills pero they're vital in a child's development.

[jaiaquino]

i like this topic!

i have a 2-yr old now who can also count na somehow til about 19 pero putol-putol. since she was about 6 months old, i instructed the yaya to let her watch yun dvd na baby einstein on abc's, numbers and animals during the day - one program that last about 30 mins a day. continuous lang yun until she started talking. then i asked yaya to reinforce what they watched while they play during the day. medyo apprehensive lang ako kasi may punto si yaya and may mga pronunciation slips like seven becomes "siben". so kailangan din i-train si yaya.

when i get home naman from work, we go thru flashcards, i've also introduced her to coloring books and clay. wooden blocks also help develop her creativity pati yun megablocks.

that's what we've been doing so far.

when she's ready, i wanna introduce sana some sort of reward system for her, especially when she starts asking for stuff to buy or "projects" to do. para she'd learn to "work" for what she wants. and that having tantrums would mean losing points. i guess its a way to teach her to be responsible in a fun way. 

[ceejhei]

that's one of my dilemma too. my accent nga din yung yaya, like, when she heard me talking to my 1 y.o i was like, iana, hold your bottle. and i heard her once, she said "iana, hold-in na ur butel." OMG!!!!!

i don't feel like correcting her, kasi baka ma-offend, what i do is, i will say it to my daughter again and again enough for the yaya to hear me.

[delisyus]

your child will learn to read better (and by read, I mean to actually read and not just sight read) if you tell her more stories... don't focus on the actual alphabet but rather on comprehension and recognition, on association and concentration, on cause and effect... these are the things that will help her LEARN someday... and reading stories to her (esply pag paulit-ulit) will build on this...

just make sure you read the same story in different ways... and that you discuss each book after (and not be finished after saying THE END)

I never taught my son the alphabet but since he was a signing baby and I have a chart for fingerspelling... he reads both, fingerspelling and alphabet...

also... build on your child's interests... you can teach basic science and math and even values just by building on what she is really interested in

it will never matter if your child already knows her ABCs when she enters school... but it will forever matter how early she developed a love for learning and if learning IS fun for her...

lastly, read these
http://www.newsweek.com/2005/08/14/reading-your-baby-s-mind.html
http://www.magicalchildhood.com/articles/4yo.htm

the magical childhood site is also replete with activities you can do with your child... instead of focusing on academics, you can focus on LEARNING IS FUN   good luck

[jaiaquino]

that's a great tip on reading to kids! i've been doing it with my daughter but i wasn't too sure if she's getting something out of it. but now i know that she does. we usually don't rely on the story on the books but make up our own depending on how she leads it - then it becomes something like a choose your own adventure book!

[lalei]

I read to my 2 year old son everyday. We also dance and sing on a regular basis. I use songs to teach him.
Mag-start na rin kami sa letters and numbers per week using arts and crafts and will continue on activities I found from Montessori books that would develop his motor skills and eventually learn how to write. It would also be good to teach your pre-schoolers how to do things themselves, packing away their toys, helping in household chores,  mga life skills kumbaga.
It might take me a while to accomplish everything I want since I work full time and I also do all household chores, but we will eventually get there with the help of his carers. He is attending child care centre and family day care by the way.

[delisyus]

yes... life skills are actually better kasi it will help boost esteem and foster independence...

ako nga, the curriculum am coming up for my son is more on hand dexterity, hand to eye coordination, grooming, manners... mga ganun... not academics...

plus, the years that a child really still imagines are few... so make-believe is a better way to play than say, introducing concrete stuff like alphabet and numbers...

[helencons]

There are different approaches on how a child can be taught how to read. there's the phonetic approach, where the child is taught alphabet recognition and phonemic awareness in order to decode the words on their own and the other one mentioned here is, the whole language approach where the child learns it thru repeated stories.

It would be helpful if you know how your child effectively responds to an activity (learning styles). is he a visual learner (the whole language approach is better here) etc.?

But I do agree that a child should never be forced into something, it should be a child led activity. For example, if your son likes to play with cars you can device a way where he can actually learn the alphabet and/or numbers using his favorite toy.  Personally, I have taught my child how to spot the correct alphabet I call out by making a sheet of paper to look like a parking lot, each parking space corresponds to a letter, so if i say "will you pls. park your car at Letter A?, my child manouvers his car to the correct letter.

That way, my son learns while having fun.

[stormy]

^nice sis nag iisip tuloy ako ngayon paano iincorporate ang reading and grooming eto hilig kasi ng anak ko ngayon

[lalei]

There are different approaches on how a child can be taught how to read. there's the phonetic approach, where the child is taught alphabet recognition and phonemic awareness in order to decode the words on their own and the other one mentioned here is, the whole language approach where the child learns it thru repeated stories.

It would be helpful if you know how your child effectively responds to an activity (learning styles). is he a visual learner (the whole language approach is better here) etc.?

But I do agree that a child should never be forced into something, it should be a child led activity. For example, if your son likes to play with cars you can device a way where he can actually learn the alphabet and/or numbers using his favorite toy.  Personally, I have taught my child how to spot the correct alphabet I call out by making a sheet of paper to look like a parking lot, each parking space corresponds to a letter, so if i say "will you pls. park your car at Letter A?, my child manouvers his car to the correct letter.

That way, my son learns while having fun.

I like your parking space idea. May I borrow it? I will use trains to introduce numbers and letters since he is fond of trains at the moment. Inaayos ko pa lang ang aming materials and hopefully we can start by end July. No rush naman since the practical life skill activities are progressing well.

[kaiz]

I'm learning a lot from this thread. Thanks sisses. been surfing the net for weeks now for ideas on how to teach my barely 2 year old son. Don't know where to start  gusto ko sana is teach him first on good manners and right conduct.

[lalei]

Sis, you can probably start with "Thank you" and "Please." Repetition lang ginawa ko dyan sa anak ko. If he asks something, I always ask him to say please before I give it to him. Then I just remind him by asking "What's the magic word?" And now it's automatic. Ganon din with "thank you."
You can also teach your kid to learn to wait. Minsan sinasadya ko to ask my son to please wait if he asks something and I tell him why and he's okay with it. Hindi naman sya nagta-tantrums or anything.
I also always remind him to be gentle kasi minsan he can be rough when he's excited.
Yon pa lang so far ang natuturo ko plus po and opo which was a bit of a struggle kasi 5 days a week syang "Yes" ang reply sa carers nya (Aussie sila) at pag-uwi sa bahay "Opo" sya sumasagot. Siguro na-fifigure out na din nya what to reply with whom.

[yang]

i dont have a kid yet. pero im glad to come by to this thread. very nice inputs thanks sissy!

[kaiz]

^^thanks sis LALEI.actually hindi pa nakakapagsalita ng maayos son ko. Delayed talker. Now limited pa lang talaga ang nabibigkas nya ng maayos. When he wants to watch cartoons, he'll say "mama kuko" i dont know how he came up with kuko. Haha.

[lalei]

Kaiz don't stress too much with the speaking side of things if he is barely 2 years old. Just always engage him in a conversation (you can incorporate the good manners here) and try to give him opportunities to socialize with other kids his age and a bit older so he can imitate their words. It worked for my son and his speaking has sky-rocketed since. If you are still worried, consult the dev pedia.

[kaiz]

^actually i'm not worried sis kasi he can follow naman simple instructions and recognize na things and people agad. yun nga lang di ko pa maturuan to say 'thank you' 'please', etc

[delisyus]

Use the toys your child loves playing with... my son loves dinosaurs and trucks/cars, so we let them 'talk' and introduce themselves to each other, say 'excuse me' and such... take turns going through gates...

When I weaned my son, I used dinosaurs... when I want him to eat well, I use dinosaurs (remember the meat-eaters? they are so strong because they eat meat!... and the leaf-eaters, they have all these protection in their bodies because they eat leaves [vegetables])... and then I supplement with storybooks (Joey and the Veggie Gang).

We watch a lot of videos (which isn't good) but I make sure to talk about it with him during and after... so he remembers lessons. Studies show that pareho lang in the end ang range ng learning ng those who watched TV and not, but those who interacted with their parents a lot angat talaga... kaya PLAY is very, very important right now

Parents also have a choice... to pursue a child's interests in a major way, or give more of what he's weak at. I believe in giving a child early opportunities for success so I just really let my child lead me... but when I do see that he's weak at something (hand to eye coordination), we sometimes include activities that would help him with that (weaving yarn in a basket, transferring water in cups, etc) pero I don't sweat nga what he's not naturally good at. And I celebrate what my son knows and loves to know about, regardless if it's what all the other kids his age knows.

Oh you can also check out Booksale... I have at least 3 books, all less than P100 for activities one can do with toddlers and preschoolers   I don't even use the books but at least, if am stumped, I know where to look.

Some art activities i've tried with my son, which delighted him, but he didn't seem to really be interested in... include coloring, writing on erasable tablets, writing on erasable books, painting, saving eggshells and asking him to draw faces on them (Egbert wants eyes, will you put eyes on him?). He painted the inside of the shells instead and loved crumbling them and using them as confetti lang. I think, as a rule, my son hates just sitting down, hehe. So I let him run after flying and rolling balls instead or teach him dance steps... if hindi pa time for his fine motor skills, at least his gross motor skills development are under way

[marose_anagap]

help naman mga sis, my daughter was first honor in nursery, now that she's kinder parang nababago na sya, before kasi lahat ng exams nya perfect now may mali na , parang i can't stand it parang ako yung na pepressure bakit ganun sya . what will i do?

[kristetay]

joining this thread..

what i do with my 2 year old daughter is since she likes mega blocks and she can do several things with it like animals horse, giraffe, etc. I also teach her to make letters out of it, slowly she's learning all the letters not just by reciting it. she also learned colors because of that. I also try to teach her out of her simple toys, for example sa balls I ask her to put all the same colors on the container that has the same color and i will ask how many it is.