Since I studied elementary education in college, and have pretty much always worked with little kids (including infants and toddlers), I started studying up on how best to foster Elise's curiousity and encourage a love of reading and learning when I was pregnant.
I started by watching a couple dvds (I opted for dvds vs books because I was so tired at the end of my pregnancy and after E was born that it would've taken me forever to read the books. I finished the dvds in two days). I watched "The Happiest Baby on the Block" and "The Science of Babies". The former was actually a gift from my amazing mother in law. Who happens to be a nurse who specializes in child development. The latter is actually a Discovery Channel find my husband and I stumbled upon and loved! Both are short and gave us great insight as to what to expect from our upcoming arrival.
Elise was constantly changing things up on us as she grew older. Another tool we used that I found helpful was an app called "The Wonder Weeks". This app follows your child from birth and helps you decipher their developmental leaps, how it can affect their sleep and temperament, and even ways to help them master new skills. It was always nice (for me) to know there was a scientific reason for Elise's change in behavior, mood, or sleeping/feeding schedule. Even if I couldn't do much to change it.
From day one, we did a couple things with Elise that we still continue to do and we are really starting to see the fruits of those labors!
-Reading to her: we started when she was in the womb and we have read to her pretty much every night since. She is now starting to recognize sight words, and can recognize every letter in the alphabet and tell you what sound each makes. I know I'm her mother, but as an educator, I'm impressed. A lot of two year olds have the alphabet song memorized, but not many can tell you "a" when they see it or give you a word that starts with A.
-Counting: Everyone always harps on how important it is to develop a love for reading early on with kids. This is true. Reading well is the foundation for their entire education. But my husband and I felt counting and learning basics in math was just as important. So we have always counted with her. Sometimes we count objects in her room, or if we are pressed for time or her attention, we count things in her bedtime story. She now can recognize numbers up to 20 and can even count to 14 by herself. She has an app (ABCMouse.com) that she uses to play games and she has begun to learn to add and subtract without even knowing it.
-Baby Sign Language: My husband and I cannot recommend this practice enough to anyone. We started using them from day one with Elise. She didn't start using them back until around 11-12 months. But we are confident that we avoided several tantrums past the one year mark because Elise was able to use sign language to tell us when she needed or wanted something. Don't get me wrong, she still had tantrums. She is a normal toddler! But it's not a daily or even weekly regular occurrence, and we attribute that to sign language. Now she is a chatterbox and still uses signs along with spoken word to get her message across. It's pretty amazing.
Now that Elise is communicating with us pretty well. We are currently working on teaching her to manage her emotions. Toddlers feel many complex emotions (just like adults), but they don't always know how to respond or handle them. Daniel Tiger has been a great help to us in that respect. The show mainly focuses on helping kids understand social cues and emotions, even learning empathy. There's many songs and jingles that are easy for us all to remember and Elise LOVES them! These songs have not only helped us with learning emotions, but also with helping her understand that when we leave, we always come back, and that she is expected to help mom clean up before bedtime. I don't really get much fuss from her when I see the song as we do these things. I don't really care what people keep saying about kids and screen time, we have used this technology in ways we believe will benefit our child and help our relationship with her and it's been a life changing decision for us. We have limits (that I'll admit are becoming more flexible the bigger I get), but for the most part, it's just been a good learning tool or way for her to wind down before sleeping.
These are just a few of the ways we have been learning about Elise and how she's growing. We have really enjoyed learning this process and we are anxious to do it all over again with little Lena. With Elise's help, I just know she will be successful also!
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