Rewind...Teaching My Toddler

This post was originally written by me (Christina) in September 2008. To update, my son is obviously a year older and has learned SO MUCH in the past year. He is now almost 3.5 and can recognize all of his letters and tell you the sound they make. Counting is a little more difficult for him (he must take after me!) so we've been working on numbers a lot lately.

The title of this post is posed as a question for a good reason. Like most first time Moms - I have no idea what this should look like. I'm certainly learning as I go! My son turned 2 in June and I've only recently been intentional about teaching him. A few weeks ago, I had a friend ask me if Will knew his ABC's or was counting yet. I laughed. Her son is three months older than Will and had also shown little interest. I wondered if it was a boy thing as I have friends with girls who have been much more eager and willing to master such skills.

The bottom line is that the most important thing I can teach Will is scripture and biblical truths. I long for him to know the joy of Jesus. Krista shared some wonderful scripture in her post about this. As a teacher, I also want to see him master those preschool skills as well. Since formal preschool of any kind is currently not in the budget, I've been researching some preschool level home school options. Here is what we are currently doing and things I've found helpful.

1. In the morning from about 9-10am, Will has quiet time in his room. I've mentioned this before, but this is what we transitioned him to once he dropped his morning nap. It serves several purposes. First of all, he has learned to play independently. I frequently switch out toys from downstairs to his room to keep it interesting. Second of all, Adeline is also sleeping during this time so I get this time to myself as well. Lastly, as he gets older my plan is to transition this to a time where I encourage him to spend with the Lord. He already listens to praise music during this time, but I hope this expands to time reading his bible or praying once he is older.

2. Once his quiet time is over, Adeline is usually still sleeping. I have started to become more intentional about using this time for one-on-one with Will. We sit at the kitchen table and use this time to do puzzles together, practice his ABC's, counting, color, finger paint, other small craft projects, play with playdoh, etc. He LOVES this time right now. He is so eager to learn and has already mastered a 9 piece jigsaw puzzle!

3.

We have the "Hide'em in Your Heart" (vol. 2) CD. I think someone mentioned this in a comment on Krista's post, but I second that recommendation. We LOVE this CD. And did you know it was also a DVD too? It's a little outdated, but really great. Essentially, it's scripture put to songs. Will already can sing several of them and asks for this one often. I want to add vol. 1 to our collection as well. I think putting scripture to song is one of the easiest ways for ANYONE (not just my preschooler - me too!) to learn scripture.

4. My husband and I have recently started teaching Will's Sunday school class. Yes, we're crazy - 19 two year olds can be intense! But I love it and there was a huge need for teachers. I also love knowing what the lessons are and being able to reinforce those at home. Find out what lessons your child is learning at church and try to reinforce those at home. I know Will loves it when we talk about our time at church during the week.

5.This book has been recommended to me by several friends to teach simple (or maybe not so simple) biblical truths. I have yet to get a copy for us, but thought I would pass it along. There is also a book on Memory Verses and Prayers from the same series. Give us a review if you have any of these books!

6. I have recently begun researching home school options. (This could be another weekly topic in itself!) I do not yet know if we will home school. I am simply learning what I can right now. If we continue to pursue moving overseas - then homeschooling will become more likely. I recently found a great website, ABC Jesus Loves Me, with a free preschool curriculum. So far, I really like it! I've checked out some books at the library, but so far it seems to me that this website would provide all that we need for homeschooling during the preschool years. The curriculum includes a lot of scripture memory verses using simple nursery rhymes. I am not a singer - but I think I could teach these to Will!