Last year was my first year “really” homeschooling. Which meant it was the first year we sat down and did hours of school everyday. Of course some of the learning was not sitting down. The point is that my poor 2 year old was VERY bored. Some days he did fine. I threw a snack at him and then he disappeared to play for a little bit. He did love science as we were learning a lot about animals and did a lot of hands on activities. But the majority of the time he was lonely at best. This year I vowed to do better for the little guy.
Our first day of school this year we made a very special school paper for Israel and put it up on our school wall with our calender, Drew’s spelling words, and verses, etc. It is a visual of some learning activities he can choose from: shapes, colors, letters, numbers, and getting read to. He was so thrilled to be included this year! Excuse please the scribbles and tears on the paper… This is real life and this paper has had much use!
There are SO many learning activities for 2 or 3 year olds! The key if you ask me (and you are on my blog so…) is to make it casual, flexible, and fun! The goal is to provide the opportunity to learn and the most important thing they are learning is… the love of learning!
When I started this Israel could (mostly) sing his ABCs, say his numbers to ten, and knew the names for a few colors and shapes.
ABCs for a Toddler
Ideas1. One of the first things we did was letter matching. We put together the ABC puzzle mat we have and jumped letter to letter while we sang the alphabet song. This helped him mentally match each letter with its name. The ABC puzzle mat is one of the few materials we do have and we use often. Drew (at 7 years old) still uses it for “jump spelling” which is an awesome active way to get a kid to do their spelling! You could draw the ABCs with chalk on a driveway as a substitute.
2. The next step with ABCs was to become familiar with the shapes of the letters. Israel matched alphabet blocks to the same letter on the mat. You could do this same thing with alphabet cards and blocks, or again use chalk outside.
3. We talk a lot about alphabet sounds casually. A says (insert phonic sound) like apple.
Hmm… It seems my blogging time is yet again up. A side effect of LIFE with a toddler in tow. So see tomorrow’s post for another super fun idea to teach ABCs to toddlers!
One of the many gifts of homeschooling is that you have the time and the option to make it fun and interest based. There are lots of fun ways to teach all kinds of subjects with food, games, and even basic practical daily chores that incorporate subjects kids need to know like reading, math, science, etc. that can be embedded daily in learning. You can find the ways your children learn best and find activities that work with those learning styles to master a variety of topics.