What am I doing with my 2 year old?

[arvi]

It's been a long time since I read any updates about kids in this forum. Hence I thought I would go ahead and post mine so that others might post as well.

Reading: My son can now decode complex words like 'competence' on his own, though not 100% correct he is near perfect. He is interested in reading Preschool Prep Level 2 series books on his own everyday. He brings one or two of those daily and reads to me. He also reads Usborne Reading level 1 and 2 books with some incentives/coaxing.

Math: This is the favourite subject for both of us and takes lots of our time. He can understand addition and subtraction conceptually with or without manipulatives. He tries to memorize the facts sometimes which I am discouraging at this point of time. I am using Miquon math with cuisenaire rods as the main program currently. My son loves colourful math textbooks. So I have some local kindergarten level math textbooks (equivalent to Singapore Early bird kindergarten I believe) and Singapore Primary Mathematics 1A. He brings one of these textbooks, out of his own interest, daily to work with. I am surprised that he could do few sections of the Primary Mathematics textbook.

Music: After Little Musician beta is out, we have been spending lots of time with it. He can recognize few chords and note names in the 'Hear and Sing' section. Since my son was showing lots of interest in music and singing from the very beginning, we enrolled him in Suzuki voice lessons. He is constantly singing nowadays. Even if he has to convey a message, he sings it in his own tune, which is so cute  He can also play keyboard; few songs from the introductory section in Soft Mozart.

Puzzles: His favourite pastime activity next to Lego is solving puzzles. He can solve new 38 piece framed puzzles on his own without any help. He also tries to solve 45-piece unframed jigsaw puzzles with a little help but he loses his patience toward the end.

Foreign Languages: He absolutely loves foreign languages. Right now, I am introducing two latin based languages and he doesn't find difficulty in reading them. I am looking for more immersion based playgroups in those languages and having a hard time in finding those. I am just wondering what other parents are doing for developing speaking skills in foreign languages.

My son is going to full-time daycare and attends swimming or gymnastics lessons during weekends.  So, all the above are done only during our spare time. The  I understood from Early Learning philosophy is that the parent has to be well prepared in whatever knowledge he/she likes to impart. The time taken to impart the knowledge to your offspring is just a fraction of a time.

Sorry for the long rambling (effect of a sleepless night    )

[A_BC]

Wow, Arvi, congratulations for the hard work to both of you!
Can you tell us more about the reading and math curricula you used?
Well, I woud like to share what I am doing with my 19m toddler(even though the topic is about 2y old :

LANGUAGES:
- Arabic (main language, spoken 3 days a week): LR, Little Thinking Minds, Noorani book and various apps and books
- English (main language, spoken 2 days a week) : just graduated from LR, we have also been doing Reading Bear, More Starfall, Preschool prep (DVDs, apps and books) and YCCR, various books
- French (main language, spoken 2 days a week): LR, Little Pim, lots of books
- Chinese (secondary language, we totally rely on the media we have that we view 2 days a week): LR, Little Pim
- Spanish (secondary language, I don't speak it fluently, 2 days/w): Little Pim, books and apps. I will be adding YBCR Spanish soon isA
- German (secondary language, I don't speak it fluently, 2 days/w): Little Pim, Wink to Learn, books and apps.
- ASL (this is what brings all the languages together, we use it a lot to communicate): Signing Time, we only view the DVDs from time to time to review.

MATH:
- LM
- Peter Weatherall
- Marshmallow math (just started)
- Counting books (I particularly love the Priddy counting book)
- Playing on the Number Line (http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Step-by-Step-Number-Line/dp/B000BZ6TZO)

SCIENCE:
- Peter Weatherall
- Your Child Can Discover (just started)

RELIGION:
- Houseofquran.com
- Learn Qur'an with Zaky
- We listen to Minshawy mp3s (http://ar.islamway.com/collection/210)

MONTESSORI
- At this stage, we mainly do practical life and sensorial activities
- Other toddler toys, puzzles, etc that he enjoys playing with.

SPORTS:
- I have been trying to do the Doman physically superb program though I am not exactly following it. Otherwise, we just play soccer in the backyard and enjoy other activities in the park.

Well, this sounds a lot! We actually have like 30' in the morning for the main language and 30' in the afternoon for the secondary language. We do math whenever I think he is in the "mood". We don't do science everyday. So basically, it is like 1h15' of screen time in total and 1h for books, flashcards, etc.  The rest of the time, he spends it playing with his toys and running after his ball the backyard.

Et voilà!

[seastar]

Wow is all I can say arvi & A_BC! It has taken me a few days to reply as, while I was delighted for you guys and your children, I panicked that I wasn't doing enough! Well, I'm over that now and with the help of 'Mindset' (I've just finished reading it), I've been inspired by both of you to up my game a little. With this in mind, I've just spent the last hour reading over old posts for ideas.

Thanks for sharing and inspiring!

[Wolfwind]

Every time I do an update like this it reassures me that I am doing a lot, more than I think sometimes!  So here's what my 19 month old is working on:

Reading
We started a phonics program, "The Amazing Action Alphabet," and she LOVES it.  Much better than whole words for her, to my surprise (I prefer whole words myself).  She loves pointing out letters, especially B.
We're still flashing whole words and building sentances with her cards, but she likes phonics better.

Vocabulary
She's in a vocabulary explosion!  In two months she's gone from single words to five and six word sentances.  It's so fun!  I got a vocabulary book from the library (sorry don't remember the title) with suggested words for 8-12 year olds and pick one a day to use as much as possible.  Her favorites so far were "gigantic" and "comical."  :-)

Foreign Language: French
With this vocabulary explosion, when she says something and I want to echo it back to assure her I understood, I echo in French instead of English.  Occasionnally she'll say a French word, but it's mostly receptive right now.  I need to speak French more.

Math
Not her favorite.  We still do Doman equations, but she has a very short attention span for them.  I should be getting "Marshmallow Math" for my birthday, so we'll start that.  She likes counting, though, and can get past ten as well as counting specific objects.

Science
No real program, but we're gardening like crazy right now!  And she loves Level One readers about animals from the library.  I'm looking for a toddler program but haven't found one I like.

Music
Oh, my goodness, did she love Little Musician Beta!  We don't have the money to buy it immediately but in a month or so we'll start that again. I'm so excited!

Montessori
Practical life, mostly.  I need to work on helping her dress herself and set the table.  And make sandpaper letters - maybe today.

Physical Excellence
She's discovered somersaults!  She still needs a little help to get over, but she loves them.  And log rolls.  We need to work on walking the tape line, to prep for walking the beam.  Unfortunately I'm too pregnant to feel comfortable doing brachiation, and she won't do it if I don't.  But we're going to start swimming now that it's warm.  And we walk with the dog every day, but she prefers stopping to look at things, so we don't go fast.  We're not making it to it to running.  :-(

Religion: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
We just found a book called "Turn Your Little Ones into Book of Mormon Whiz Kids" that we LOVE.  It's meant for preschoolers but it's easy to adapt.  It's such fun to have her know scripture stories and ask for them!

So, yes, that seems like a lot.  Even though there is so much more I want to do, this reassures me.  We're doing OK.

[mybabyian]

I know how everyone feels but, I try not to worry if I am doing enough because I know I am doing as much as I can handle.  I am sure he could handle more but I can’t.  Here is what my 19 month old son and I do:

Little Reader – We do the BK content but also some homemade and downloads.  He loves the file we downloaded from the library with different kinds of balls.

Little Math

Homemade toys – I have some toys I have made him for counting.  One is a tube we put balls in and count as we put them in and take them out.  He likes to try to put in two at a time.  Another is a bunch of round paint pallets with 10 spots for paint on each pallet.  We put the ping pong balls in the places for paint.  They fit nicely. The third counting toy is 10 water bottles taped together with open tops.  We put wooden dowels in the openings and count them as they go in and come out.  I think all of these toys serve double duty for manual competency skills. 

I have another toy for reading which is just an empty tin coffee can with a slit cut in the lid.  I have 5 tin lids with words pasted on top.  He drops the tin lids in the coffee can and it makes a clanging sound that he likes.   I read the word to him when he drops each in. 

We play with refrigerator magnets but probably not that much.

For physical excellence we swim 3 days a week.  He’s getting pretty good!  He has a basketball hoop in the living room that he sometimes plays for an hour at a time.  His first words he says when he wakes up are usually “basketball hoop”.  I can hear him over the baby monitor.  Silly guy.  He also plays with a baseball tee though not as much. 

Language – I now speak mostly Spanish to him.  I realized I could do it.  I lacked confidence before but when I realized he was starting to speak more Spanish than English I was more motivated.  I felt like I had to try because I realized my husband and in laws were speaking the words he could say in English.  For example he could say ball so they would say “Tira la ball”.  I couldn’t convince them to say pelota instead of ball.  Plus I realized I am the one with him all the time and I couldn’t rely on someone else to teach him.  We read in both English and Spanish plus we live in an English speaking country so I am not worried about him learning English.  I am actively trying to improve my own Spanish because I think it is very important for him to hear quality language.  I want him to be comfortable enough with the language to teach it to his own children one day.  This is why I am not focusing on adding any other languages; it would be too much for me.

That being said, we do attend a Chinese class once a week.  I know it is basically a waste of time because I don’t reinforce it at all at home but I figure it can’t hurt.  At least he gets to be around other kids. 

We read at almost every meal unless someone else is with us so we get quite a bit of read-a-loud.

Hopefully I can add the number line idea too.  I think I could just print the numbers out and put them on the stairs.  He would think that was fun I am sure!  I have some other ideas for phonics toys that I would like to add just need to find the time to make them!

Thanks everyone for your updates!

[arvi]

Wow, you are all doing many things and I am impressed with the multiple foreign languages. Thanks all for sharing! 

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