Smarty Pants Take 2 or how I teach

After my post about what Livy has learned before turning 2, I was asked by a parent how I teach her.

I have divided the alphabet, colors, shapes and numbers into different months and put various flashcards and books into Ziploc bags. I want to continue to review what we have already learned and add to it. I have one bag for each month and plan on focusing on one letter for a two week time period. Some months will have 3 letters, but should still work out fine. We do one color, shape and number a month since they are less than letters. (We are working to number 10 for now.)

I don't sit and drill Livy with these things. The bag is perfect to take in the car when we are driving an hour to grandma's (naturally I'm not driving when I do this) or while I'm making dinner Livy likes to look at the pictures and in a way play school with me. She'll ask what certain things are. I think it is important for her to drill me and remember the pictures and letters that I tell her as it is for me to ask her what the objects are.

Now details for the bag contents. These are all things I have had around the house with the exception to the sandpaper letters that I purchased at a local educational supply store.

Each month I have flashcards for a color (one color card shows the sign), shape and number.

Letters. The black and white cards are sandpaper letters. Livy likes to trace her finger around each letter since it is textured. I read in a Montessori book that this was good to form pre-writing skills plus another way for the child to learn the letter. We each have a way of learning whether it is visual, audio, etc. We like to review the sign for each letter as we learn them. Signing time is great for learning this. They have an ABC video which is perfect! It is another way for Livy to learn her letters.

For each letter I have various flashcards, mainly animals since that is what I had on hand, that show the letters. I ask Livy, "What is this?" And she will respond with the correct animal. Great way to boost vocabulary. Naturally she knows what these animals are, but I will point out the letter to her. "You're right, this is a Bird. Look here is the letter B. What sound does the B make?" Sometimes I will point out the other letters to her. To my surprise a few days ago, I was showing Livy the cat flashcard. (We're currently working on our C's.) I covered all the letters and showed her the C and asked her what is that. Her reply, C. I uncovered the A and since she well knows her A asked her what that was and she replied A. Before I could uncover the T she shouted T. She knew what came next!

For fun, I recently added some animal flashcards we picked up at the zoo. I like to ask her what the animals are. She doesn't know all of them, but it is fun for her to look at the pictures and learn new words for animals. We have advanced past calling every primate a monkey. Now they are monkeys and orangutans.

I purchased these toddler friendly magazines off of eBay while I was doing daycare years before I had Livy. I put these into the bag as well for another fun way to build vocabulary, learn about new animals and to look for letters, colors and shapes.

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We look for letters on signs, shapes around the house and colors. It surprises me how much Livy has grasped!

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Another great resource are the videos from Preschool Prep Company. Meet the Letters, Meet the Numbers, Meet the Colors and Meet the Shapes. We haven't purchased Meet the Sight Words yet. Before Livy can watch any other shows she can choose from one of her educational videos. So she can choose from Signing Time, any of the Meet the videos, or a few others. I like to point out the letters or shapes that we are talking about while we are watching. Just another way for her learn. It is actually surprising how much she has gotten from these videos alone!

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Livy loves the website Starfall. We mainly stick in the alphabet section. If you are not familiar with Starfall, you click on a letter and it will introduce it to you. After that the only words or noise I should say that it will say is the sound that letter makes. I have other friends who have used this site and found their kids love it and are learning the letter sounds.

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I have also started a homeschool preschool curriculum with Livy from Sonlight. It is a very basic curriculum for her, we are doing the pre-preschool but we are enjoying it. Filled with fun books and activities we can do after reading. Basic things like building blocks, baking cookies or building a tent under the table. It is another way to make learning fun and we get to talk about the story afterwards.

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For our family, education is more than just learning your letters and such. We also have some religious activities. We read and look at the pictures in the Book of Mormon reader, talk about the stories in the Bible with various books, we have Family Home Evening every Monday where we get to talk about different things. We have been using the new nursery manual for this. Livy has been fascinated with temples after we took her to the Draper Temple Open House. She also loves to look at any picture that has Jesus in it.

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Do you have any fun activities you do with your children to teach them the basics like their letters, numbers, colors and shapes?