How to teach a toddler

DS is 2.5 and although I would love to send him to nursery school, it's not in the budget right now. I'm A SAHM and have been trying to teach him colors, numbers, letters, shapes, etc.

I find that he gets easily distracted and isn't interested. I realize I need some "fun ways" to teach him. Any advice? Toys or books to look into?

Re: How to teach a toddler

Youtube videos!

Type in abc song, or alphabet song, and so many options come up.

The same goes with numbers and shapes. But the alphabet ones are fun and got him interested first.


A is for Apple, ah ah apple
B is for Ball, buh buh ball....

My son learned all of them. A is usually always Apple, but different songs use different words for the letter Z for example, like zebra or zoo. Those different songs helped him associate different words with the same letter and sound.

We also used a lot of iphone and ipad apps at that age. They are flash cards, but on the phone and they say the letter, name, shape, color, etc. I believe they were the iTot apps. My son learned a lot from these apps.

Message edited 8/9/2012 12:36:32 PM.

Re: How to teach a toddler

Leapfrog video "The Letter Factory" helped my DD so much. She is 23 months and in about 2 weeks she knew half the letter and their sounds. She also uses the leapfrog "fridge phonics."

For colors she has the melissa and doug puzzle which is all different color fish. She now knows most of the colors on there.

For numbers I have shown her the leapfrog video "Numberland." She has some trouble with numbers. I would actually like to get her a puzzle for learning numbers.

For shapes she has the melissa and doug puzzle too but she only knows the diamond right now.

Re: How to teach a toddler

Re: How to teach a toddler

I agree with the phonics videos. They're great and my DD loves them. Also, the alphabet boards with the letters are cute and Melissa & Doug makes one with sounds. The fridge letters are great too, with or without sound. I also love the Little People books with the flaps. They keep her interest (most of the time-) and incorporate counting, colors and other activities. There's Let's Go to the Zoo, Farm and others too.

Message edited 8/9/2012 2:47:51 PM.

How to teach a toddler

We go over letters and colors just in our everyday life and when we read. What color is that shirt? Do you see the letter M? You get the idea.

I'm starting an alphabet book. Cutting out pictures from magazines of all kinds of objects that she knows, plus letters. We'll go through the alphabet day by day or week by week adding a letter and pictures until we're through the whole thing. Then we'll do numbers. I think being involved will help her stay engaged, plus she loves crafts.

How to teach a toddler

Loved these Videos

Leapfrog Letter Factory
Meet the Numbers
Meet the Colors
Meet the Shapes

I have a video of her at a little over 1 tries to make the 2 sound. It shows the number 2 blowing out candles by saying 2. haha! She lit up when she saw the Leapfrog video and was captiviated by the Numbers video. Then colors and shapes she begain to find favorites.

Now at nearly 4 she STILL watches Meet the Numbers because she thinks its fun and is now moving on to Meet the Sight Words (3 videos)

Re: How to teach a toddler

The book brown bear brown bear what do you see, helped ALOT with colors.

I just kinda point out things wit what we are doing except she's getting confused with numbers and letters now haha.

I am looking for an alphabet placemat so I can point to the letters and say them b/c she doesn't sit still with puzzles and stuff. She likes the pieces and walks around with them, puts them the bag and stuff.

Re: How to teach a toddler

we taught my son all of his colors (and sooo quickly) with legos! we would play with them and ask him to pick up or use certain colors - took maybe 2-3 weeks and he had them all!

they also make tons of toddler books with colors, shapes, #s etc. Puzzles were very helpful also.

There is an Eric Carle colors book too my son was obsessed with it from 21-24 months.

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Message edited 8/9/2012 3:39:44 PM.

Re: How to teach a toddler

Posted by shellyru

I agree with the phonics videos. They're great and my DD loves them. Also, the alphabet boards with the letters are cute and Melissa & Doug makes one with sounds. The fridge letters are great too, with or without sound. I also love the Little People books with the flaps. They keep her interest (most of the time-) and incorporate counting, colors and other activities. There's Let's Go to the Zoo, Farm and others too.
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Re: How to teach a toddler

*read! We have many books geared to colors shapes numbers and letters. Even if a book isn't specifically about those topics, we talk about the pictures (how many cats are in the picture? Let's count them 1,2,3. Do you see the blue balloon? Etc...)

*we have an alphabet puzzle and Vinyl letters on the wall. As we do them I would say the letters. Just repetition.same with colors/shapes. Just naming everything (look at this pink flower, what color is it? Pink)

*iphone and iPad apps are amazing!!! He has definetly learned a lot from them because it's fun (more fun than we can make it) we have a ton of flashcards apps. Some are geared towards letters numbers colors (a lot are picture and words) thereis also one that shows a bunch of an item and dc has to tap each and it counts it and displays the number. (might be called toddler counting). We also have elmo abcs (totally worth the $5) tab tales is also great lots of stories (some on numbers). We also have abc ones that sing the song or when you tap them it says the letter

* we also have flashcards. Check out the dollar tree we got some awesome sesame street alphabet cards, number cards and shape cards. DS loves to do these with me!

*we just got some wiki sticks you can form these into shapes or letters or numbers and ask DS what it is. DS loved this!

The best advice is to just talk a lot and label everything. If there is a sign point to te letters and tell dc what they are or ask what letter is this? It's B.

HTH

Re: How to teach a toddler

Another vote for letter factory. My kids are actually able to spell short words by sounding out the letters.

Get on Pinterest! There are SO many blogs out there with activities to do at home. If you'd like to look at my kid stuff board my name is mamabird1124.

Also search home school blogs and things like that. A teacher I know recommended starfall.com for activities