I am a working mom and I leave my daughter with my nanny from Mondays to Fridays 7am to 7pm. Nanny admitted that she doesn’t have patience in teaching my daughter and I can only rely on her to take good care of my daughter and do some fun stuffs but not teach her. Need suggestions on activities where I can prepare and give to the nanny and assign her to do with my daughter so that my daughter could also Learn during the day. Since moat of the time when I come home from work, my daughter is already sleepy. Thanks so much and looking forward to your suggestions.
I’m not familiar with working with a nanny - but I think I’d be worried if they said they wouldn’t teach at all (basically, they’re a teacher regardless since your baby absorbs everything). I’d definitely reqire a nanny to spend time reading to my toddler. On top of that, you could have her play a YBCR video once a day.
I have a similar concern. My nannies can’t read English so forget about reading to my child. I tell them to pretend to my baby that they are reading hte book but you know how it is, they rather sit and do their own stuff. I think videos is a good idea. If the nanny speaks another language, ask her to speak that language to the child. I have tried that with some success. Think of hobbies that the nanny enjoys and ask her to teach those to the baby. Some teaching is better than none. They are more likely to teach something like than.
My previous nanny would read her book all the time but she would never involve my baby. But I think on the positive side, my baby at least learned that books are cool. My current nanny is quite baby oriented. She talks a lot to my daughter and she takes her outside a lot. So my daughter is picking up all that. She is more like a granny so thats not bad. I know nothing can supplement a mom. You could teach her in the morning and evenings.
And lastly, one thing you have to remember, is that even if you were home all day, you would not be involved with your child 24x7 as you would have soo much other house stuff to complete. So I use the time that I have with my daughter to the best as my nanny frees me from all the other house work.
Hope that helps and Let me know how it goes…
Wow… It is sad that your nanny can not do more… I was a nanny years ago and I loved to teach the children (starting with newborn babies) There are so many educational things that can be done in a day. Even going on a nature walk can be turned into an amazing learning experience . Your nanny could be teaching math, reading, art , geography, history, science, all from a simple nature walk. Are you happy with your nanny ? I wish you the best of luck with this situation.
susan
When she says she does not have the patience to teach, what kind of teaching does she/do you have in mind?
If I had a nanny, I would want someone who’s very interactive and talks, sings, includes the child in daily activities…
It would worry me that she said she won’t teach your child. You are paying her and expecting her to be a good caregiver. If she won’t do what you want her to do, no matter if it is washing the dishes or helping teach your child, then I would look for a new one who is willing to do some educational stuff. WHat is she doing throughout the day that she is not able to teach your child? Your child should be her first priority.
It is not hard to work in educational activities into the day. Colors, numbers and shapes can be taught at snack time and play time. Books can be read anytime. Videos are great, if you an your child watching them. Maybe ask her to play 1 video every day. DO you want her to learn letters? Maybe you can print a letter of the day coloring sheet and find some related activities.
There are so many things that can be done. Most of them will not be hard to work into the day, and will be like playing. Figure out what you want your child to learn, and then try to plan a few activities every day.
I had a nanny starting when my daughter was 3 months old and I was VERY specific about how I wanted her to spend her day. I put together a daily checklist of activties that I expected her to do with my daughter and had her check off each activity that she completed and I would review it each evening. I revised my list each week as my daughter grew and different activities became appropriate. Things I included on the list were - Reading books, flash cards, balance activities, kitchen utensils (my nanny liked to cook so each day she picked a different kitchen utensil and showed it to my daughter and told her everything about it - how it was used, what can be made with it, etc.), household items (same thing - name it, eg. chair - talk about what a chair is used for, where you find chairs, different types of chairs, famous chairs, etc.), walks (while walking point out what they see and talk abou it - dogs, birds, trees, leaves, etc.), laundry (name each item while folding it and talk about what body parts it relates to - eg. this is a shirt, it goes over your head and covers your arms, chest, back and tummy), trips to the library, park, duck pond, etc. - all while explaining what they see, listen to specific pieces of music and tell her what she is listening to
My daughter is now 19 months and I no longer have a nanny, but my list would include: LR, LM, German, Spanish and Afrikaans powerpoints and music - one other language per day, classical music, keyboard, memory games, counting, alphabet, puzzels, shapes, building blocks, play dough, drawing, reading books, running, climbing, kicking, throwing, … the list goes on.
The key is to prepare the material for your nanny and make it easy for her to follow. Checking off a list worked for mine, and it now works to keep me on track during my days.
laughingwater, is it possible you can share your checklist with us?
Thank you
Hi all! Thanks for your replies. Actually my nanny isn’t that bad, she works with toys and teaches her sometimes with flash cards but she’s more prone to just making silly sounds with my daughter rather than reading a book or teaching her the alphabet. I believe the checklist would help me. Anyone who has a day to day checklist there? would appreciate it very much
Here is my list for my 19 month old. I revise the list each month. I don’t do everything every day, but try to get everything in the course of a week. My list was pretty similar at 16 months.
- Physical - walk, run, climb, stairs, park, kick, throw, chasing daddy around the garden (90 min per day)
- English vacabulary - introduce 2 new more complicated words every day and use them repeatedly through the week
- Spanish - LR, music, internet sites, class (Spanish on Mon & Tue)
- German - LR, music, internet sites (German on Wed & Thurs)
- Afrikaans - LR, reading books, music (Afrikaans on Fri)
- Reading - at least 10 books per day, LR, flash cards, powerpoints, Readeez, YBCR, story time at library, reading labels on everything - milk carton, cerael box, etc.
- Math - LM, counting, adding, subtracting
- Music - solfedge, pitch training, playing on keyboard, rhythm - playing with drums, maracas, etc., listening to a variety of music, flash cards with composers and facts
- Knowledge - I pick a different topic each week or month and get library books in that theme. This month we are doing Spring (flowers, trees, leaves, birds, butterflies, insects, animals), with trips to the local zoo, duck pond, walks outside to explore, etc.
- Art - drawing (circles and squares), writing (I have her trace her name and other family names), play dough, stickers
- Memory - card games
- Tactile - puzzles (I get new ones from our library each week), blocks, cutting, threading (eg. putting pasta pieces through a whole in a plastic lid)
- Bible - reading stories
- Behavior - in addition to general teaching I focus on a few specific skills at a time, this month we are working on learning how to be gentle with a new baby and how to be mommy’s helper
- Potty - this is daily work
Thank you VERY much for your list.
I will start from there and do my best in following it. You are lucky to have such a good library with puzzles and all. Here in Peru we do not have access to that but every trip to USA we bring some. He likes a lot puzzles and animals.
How is he doing with the 3 languanges? Which is your native language and your husbands. Mine is spanish. Since he was a baby i play english and french music and wee sing all around the world. This week we start with Muzzy DVD in english and he just loves it. At nuersery he is also satarting wih english. But… he says that Muzzy is better in … español so i think we have to wait for another language.
Thanks again
Wow!!!thanks for the list!!! That would be of great help!
Laughingwater
If you read this post, i like your idea of introducing her to two new words a day. How do you decide on the words?.. I’m a bit lost on starting a list…
That list is amazing!! I need to sit down and write one for my son too. I would also like to know how your little one is doing with 3 languages
wow this is really a good list.
most of them are included in our activities too. but as being a working mom i cant take such a big list.
i too want know about introduction of words.
and why don’t you do include the painting ( water color and pencil color)
Laughingwater, thanks for your great post. Acutually I’ve been doing similar activities with my dd. I also would include vestibular stimulation activities e.g. daily swing and slide, go to a local gym every other week. For tactile, I introduce one new thing in the house for her to touch and feel…like one day I let her feel the elbow macaroni and the other day I let her feel the rice. Hope to hear more sharings from all of you. I’m a newbie here. :clown:
Here is a weekly schedule i use. I’ve added elements of laughingwater’s list to suit our needs.
Sorry I tried to attach our daily schedule, but for some reason Brillkids is not letting me attach the file 
So here it is!
Wesley’s School Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri
Math U See
Little Pim DVD
Little Pim iPhone app
Tweedlewinks
Tweedlewinks
Signing Time
Little Reader
Little Reader
Classical Magic
Time cards
Time cards
30mins Storytime
30mins Storytime
Your Baby Can Read
Hooked On Handwriting
Hooked On Phonics
Reading Eggs