Toddlers are both the best of students and the worst of students. They have an incredible amount of energy and a limitless curiousity that would appear to bode well for learning new skills. But that is countered by a very limited attention span which makes it difficult to sit down and learn anything more abstract than, “The stove is hot,” or “Daddy is fun.” But you can take advantages of the traits that make your toddler an excellent student and begin to teach him letters, numbers or something else at home if you rely on some time-tested methods of teaching toddlers.
Give the child something to be excited about when you first start teaching. This is easy if your toddler wants to be more like you and has asked you why you do certain things, like reading a book. That is the perfect situation to tell your child that you’re reading a story and if they’d like to find out stories all by themselves, you can show them how by learning letters. Even something more complex, like a card game or how to play an instriment can be taught using this method of engagement.
Once you’ve decided on a topic that you’re going to teach to your child, make a lesson plan. Lesson plans don’t have to be – and in this case, shouldn’t be – too formal since you’ll be engaging your child throughout the day with lessons about your chosen subject instead of one chunk of dedicated teaching time. However, planning out the best opportunities to teach your child or help them use their new-found information will help to both teach and reinforce the lesson for you. For instance, if you’re teaching a child their colors, you can make a game of getting dressed in the morning by finding the same colors of clothes to get dressed in and emphasizing the name of the color with ever choice. Continue through the day with meals or when identifying favorite television characters.
Lesson plans don’t have to include just passive learning experiences like those listed above. You can make actual activities for your children to help teach almost anything. Check online for lesson plans and ideas.