Hi,
I just had my second child two months ago. How do you balance teaching two when they are at two very different levels? I don’t want to cheat my second son.
I just get the little one involved in whatever the eldest is doing, even if she’s just watching. Also, be sure to set aside a block of time each day just for teaching the younger of the two. Our oldest loves to teach her little sister things, so you might try that as well.
It can depend on what you are doing. If you use LR/LM software, you can hook your TV up to your computer to display the lessons, if you use any sort of DVD, just let them both watch.
You’ll still need a couple of minutes day to focus on each child individually. Kid the first might enjoy helping mom “teach” kid the second, Talk ALOT to the baby, engage your toddler in helping you with the baby and around the house.
What are you trying to teach? Thats the first question that needs answering in order to better answer this post.
If you are using flash cards, show them to the new baby after diaper changes. Keep your material right there so you remember. Show them to baby 2-3 times per day. Use some videos either YBCR or MonkiSee and show them to your baby regularly. I would show these in the morning after baby was fed. It gave me a chance to take care of the rest of the family while baby was entertained and learning.
Well, I don’t have two on my own, but I do tutoring with a small group of kids at the same time…I prepare my classes ahead of time, give them different activities for they to be busy while I work with the other ones. My only advice is planning your activities.
It was very hard in the beginning, I was in over my head with two little ones to begin with born just 13 months apart and I didn’t discover Doman until DD was 16 months old. From 13-16 months DD watched her fair share on Preschool Prep and YBCR while I adjusted to being a mother of two. I didn’t know anything about teaching my newborn so I didn’t even “worry” about teaching my little guy.
Found Doman etc when DD was about 16 months old and bought LR/LM, she’sdoing both ever since. I think I started my son on it at the same time? I should try to go back and see if I can look it up. I know he watched the last 2 DVDs/months of YBCR b/c that’s what DD was working on, and then moved on to watching YCCR with her because again, that’s what she was working on. Same with Leapfrog Word Factory, My Montessori House, and so forth.
When my DD’s progress really started picking up the pace over the last month or two, she has been doing more workbooks and I made a conscious decision to make DVD selections with him in mind, not her. He skipped over a lot of the “basic” stuff because I didn’t want to give her too much repetition and she had already mastered the material. Now, I need to backtrack to some of the basics with my son. So I was/am exposing him to more of the early YBCR and Baby Signing Time because he missed out on that earlier. However, he is now the “same age” that I started it with DD, I don’t really have any guilt about it if that makes sense.
DD’s window was smaller because I discovered Doman so late with her (about 16 months) so for a while, I needed to work at her pace, not his, because he simply had more time. Now, I feel that she has caught up enough and I am accustomed to parenting the both of them without the strain of a newborn. So, I can bring him up to speed without sacrificing her program.
I am starting to encourage DD to help teach her little brother. Often, the words might be sideways, she might mumble, and I’m guessing the 3 words barely shown to him are are completely ineffective but the heart is in it! <3 And it’s teaching HER compassion and sharing, so I will keep at it.
Oh, and as you can tell, my kids are no strangers to DVDs but we use flashcards & LR/LM too among other things. As I said to a friend of mine, initially if you just can’t make it and life is rough adjusting to two, if you simply replace all non-educational TV with educational DVD’s, you are still several steps ahead of the general population. You probably already do that already, but she was just starting to cut out junk TV and it worked wonders for her son.
As I said to a friend of mine, initially if you just can't make it and life is rough adjusting to two, if you simply replace all non-educational TV with educational DVD's, you are still several steps ahead of the general population. You probably already do that already, but she was just starting to cut out junk TV and it worked wonders for her son.
That is so true! If parents did only that there would be a huge change in the world.
Yes, he learned letter sounds in a week and a half at 24 months old by watching leapfrog while she look a shower. My friend is by NO MEANS an early learning enthusiast, she dabbles as she watches me. Kids are just amazing, and that one small change helped her son tremendously. She literally did nothing except hit play, give him the opportunity to learn, and let him play with/barely showed him some free leapfrog flashcards downloaded online.