I’m a SAHM to a 2.4 yr old girl. I do early learning activities at home with her and have reached a point where I don’t know what to do next. Everything I have my daughter do, she masters it so fast with very little repetition needed. I would like to introduce some more challenging activities for her to do; maths, puzzles, anything early learning really, any suggestions? I haven’t introduced her to learning how to read: though something that has crossed my mind.
These are the things she knows:
Entire alphabet + sounds
Numbers 1-30 (then counts 40, 50, 60 etc)
Can add up small quantities of objects up to 5
Masters any age appropriate puzzles quickly
Matches objects, letters (for puzzles etc) with eaze
Colours: pink, purple, red, yellow, green, brown, black, white, orange
Shapes: triangle, square, oval, rectangle, circle, star
I still continue to go through all the thing she already knows with her but she has become quite bored with what I am working on with her now. I look at blogs for suggestions but maybe there might be someone else out there who might have better ideas on what my daughter may be interested in. She loves anything math or alphabet related.
The only things that immediately leap to mind are reading and what the Doman crowd calls “EK,” or “encyclopedic knowledge.” Brillkids has some of the best presentations for EK. I’ve made over 150 of them myself (here on Brillkids and also here: http://www.slideboom.com/people/papa123abc).
As to reading, well, what can I say–if your girl is 2.4, you might want to try out Reading Bear, demo at http://watchknowreader.busedge.com , to launch next month at a different domain. Note that the timing data is not edited past o or u (it depends on where Heidi is now–thanks again Heidi!). And see my ebook on the subject, available at the URL in my sig.
My LO’s 15.5 months and we do a mish mash of activities. He loves math dots, we do skip counting with the doman cards
We also do Tot trays with a lot of alphabet & phonics. My link is my siggy. Hope you can find some stuff you like
How does she do with nonacedemic things? Is she dressing herself, eating with utensils, etc? Is she running, jumping, hopping, tumbling, and brachiating?
If she’s very far ahead in some areas and on level or even behind on others, it would make the most sense to give her lots of opportunity to improve the weak areas, while keeping her challenged in the other areas.
Knowing number names after twenty follows a pattern until one hundred. If she didn’t intuitively know that thirty-one follows thirty then it’s not time to move into those numbers yet. I would go back and do more addition and subtraction with the small numbers that she knows well. You could even introduce multiplication as serial addition. IE There are three groups of two, how many are there in total? 2+2+2=6
For reading, try teaching her a few CVC words, and then use sight word flash cards to teach enough words to read easy readers. Starfall.com has some simple stories, as well as reinforcement of letter sounds.
Melissa and Doug have 12 piece wooden puzzles. They are recommended for 3+, as most puzzles are, because technically a child could choke on a puzzle piece. If your daughter does not put things in her mouth anymore, it shouldn’t be an issue. Once those are mastered M & D have puzzles up to 48 pieces.
I wouldn’t worry about review very often, most skills are cumulative (One cannot master the second level without knowing the first) But if she starts struggling learning a new skill, it would be worthwhile to do some sleuthing to see if something was missed or forgotten.
@Mum2tiger: I like the thought of sensory bins, I might just give that a try. I’ve read a lot about tot trays and such but never really put much thought into trying them out myself with my LO. I’ve heard of BFIAR but honestly thought it was a bible based curriculum! Certainly love your blog!
@ carpe vestri vita: she’s on par with all the developmental areas/stages but mostly ahead compared to the average child her age. She is dressing/undressing herself (attempts to button up but gets frustrated when she can’t), uses utensils, running, jumping, can’t hop properly, can tumble but very rarely does it and we have no access to monkey bars.
She knows her numbers past 30, she gets the pattern but prefers to say 40, 50, 60 but on the rare occasion she will say 41, 42 etc. We haven’t worked past 30 yet. We practice all the necessary skills she needs to know, I don’t move on to something until I’m sure she’s ready and don’t work so much on her strengths. I don’t get to work with her often in early learning but I think she’s at the stage of moving past what she knows after acing her revision week.
Everything she does whether little or no previous exposure at all, she masters things quickly and nothing seems challenging enough for her. I lack creativity I think and need to find more ways to make it fun. I will purchase some M&D puzzles and try adding subtracting/multiplication to see if that’s more challenging. Not sure if she’s ready for learning how to read yet (?)
Thanks again for all your wonderful suggestions!!!
Thanks you very much for the comments ; I should have been more specific : my ‘concern’ is not so much my child’s ability to read time from a normal display, but rather that she is able to progressively learn the notion of time passing, time remaining, and that she can associate key moments of the day (meals…) with moments in time. That is why I was intrigued by that pictogram watch and their claim that their method was helping children place themselves in time (http://www.watch-kids.com/). Anyone knows of that method?
I would start teaching Reading simply because reading opens doors to all other areas of learning - is she ready for it? I think that depends on how you plan to teach it - if you make it fun and don’t teach like they teach it in schools then she’ll be ready, if you plan on formal instruction then it might not be such a good idea.
I would also read to her from a wide variety of areas, work on art projects - she can start learning cutting now and pasting and you can use art projects to teach shapes and colours, encyclopaediac knowledge in any form is a good idea as they take things in so quickly now. Maybe get her to do some swimming or outside games (running and climbing etc) and I’d move to more difficult puzzles with more pieces.
There is absolutely no reason not to start teaching her to read if she already knows her letter sounds. That might be the challenge she needs, but if not there is a lot more stuff out there to learn.
Keep us posted, I’d love to hear how everything works out.
Thanks again for all your responses! We do a lot together to help her work on her gross motor skills and was at a complete loss academically as she wasn’t being mentally challenged. When I offered a bit harder yet still do-able for her level, she became frustrated and would give up so backed off for a while as she was becoming grumpy.
I did try a sensory bin with anything that I could find the other day and she LOVED it. She has been showing interest lately in learning how to read so going to do my research on the best programs out there. It’s difficult on a tight budget but I am proud of what she already knows so it’s telling me I am doing something right.
I have bought a few more puzzles with more pieces, a M&D puzzle but she has trouble placing the pieces in as it’s a very stiff wood & even I find it to be difficult to put in place! But I am sure it will loosen up soon. I know brillkids is an excellent sight so will do some extensive research on EK.
Thanks again to you all for taking the time to reply.
