I know there are a number of people on the boards teaching second and more children to read and do other things. How do you find it differs with your second and are you following a similar program or are you more relaxed with the next child/ren.
DD2 is now 14 months. I started earlier with her though not at the same pace as with the older. She has met milestones early, but not quite as earlier as my eldest child. Her fine motor skills however are more advanced. I have been less consistent with the second child though am trying to fix that, but despite being less consistent I have also not had as many LONG breaks when teaching her as I had with my first. She is showing more interest in words and flashcards than DD1 and seems to be more a visual learner which may make things easier on me (my first is very kinesthetic even now)
Carrying on with DD1 has at times been hard - she needs less supervision than earlier but is still not reading much on her own - recently she did start reading short books to herself and I have come on her reading the Mr Men books by herself. We usually do shared reading at her bedtime while I try to keep DD2 from crying and getting in the way which is less than ideal. DD1 is also doing a math and handwriting programme both of which involve writing and it is hard to keep DD2 out the way for this also - luckily she likes drawing too and only gets to do so when her sister is working, but fetching crayons and preventing tears when the eldests work gets drawn on are the order of the day.
I have a feeling that DD2 will just assume that reading is a normal thing that everyone does - she does see me reading more than my eldest ever did as I make more time for it now and DD2 plays by herself more easily than DD1 did at the same age.
What do you do to cope with educating more than one at these young ages?
Hi Tanikit
I think my dd’s are same age as your dd’s are. I was more consistant with my youngest than I am with my eldest. although my youngest is progressing very well milestone wise she is behind in her reading compared with my eldest was at the same age. They are also completely different to teach. My older dd has always loved left brain shows like YBCR much more than my youngest who only likes flash vard dvds and is not as interested in the tv as my eldest one is. My dd2 is also more likely to sit down and ‘conquer a toy’ like a shape sorter more than my eldest who does not have the patience for that stuff and is very much into her art and craft and happy to do that.
I need to change how consistant am with my eldest now . I find it much more easy to teach DD2 because so many programs are now push the button and play and she is quite happy to sit back and watch for a few minutes. My eldest almost can’t handle flash cards anymore andneeds a calmer environment to learn in. Now I am unsure if that has to do with the fact that she goes to a Montessori school and that is the environment that she is in now. but in saying that she has always been a little more left brain dominant and that is okay.
It is hard trying to fit everything in and my dd1 needs a longer time to complete things like handwriting and maths and she is also needs incentives at times to help her stick to the task at hand. I do readers with her most nights of the week and her reading is coming along beautifully, but I also need to work on reading comprehension with her and it is only inthe last few months has she picked up a book and read on her own and she also wants to read to her sister as well. The othwer thing I have noticed is DD1 has only just started enjoying being read to and my youngest has always enjoyed it. My eldest is a very visual learner and not really into tactile stuff as the youngest has to touch everything.
Things do need to be adjusted to suit each child. That’s the hardest thing I havefound and also my DD1 is she also like to drag things out and be silly when teaching her which interrupts my teaching of DD2 so i try and do alot with DD1 when DD2 is asleep.
Don’t worry your not alone
When compared age to age, I feel like I have done so much less actual “teaching” with my younger son. He started earlier because he was simply around it all and “got it” earlier, especially in reading. So at 2.5 when DD wanted to sit down and start doing work books, my son has no interest and he doesn’t need to complete the same ones she was doing at that age anyway because he’s just past it. With math, he’s at least 6 months to a year beyond her age for age, and computers? I think he’s actually better at navigating them than she is now. He started on the Ipad at 1.5ish and it made a huuuuge difference so far. he’s a tech junkie and “talks” to computers the same way his Daddy does. The kid has figured out how to switch user log-ins, go into random folders and find music files, use google to get to the youtube songs he likes, and so on.
So, with #2 I had way more confidence and was way more relaxed, and he picked it all up faster and easier, and is more self-directed in a sense. He learned nearly everything by osmosis of teaching DD, I don’t think I’ve ever bought any curricula specifically for him that I can think of offhand. I mostly worry about keeping up with DD and he just falls in line. The only places he differs from her at the same age is in verbal expression/skills and non technological fine motor skills, which is so gender stereotypical anyway. I do worry I don’t do quite enough one on one reading with #2 though, with #1 those habits were naturally built in more because the process took longer. He does love books though so I’m not too worried.
The biggest challenge? Keeping one quiet and distracted while teaching the other. Often I would teach particular topics while the other was sleeping so I had their complete attention. We did play dough last night and they still both need a certain amount of help with some of the tools, like rolling out the dough and using the cookie cutters. There is only ONE of me and TWO of them. They learn patience to an extent but I am just meeting the minimum when trying to work with both of them at the same time, moving back and forth between them.