Every Opportunity

My daughter is four years and one month old, and since the beginning I have believed that every opportunity can be a learning experience, even in its joy.  Play is one of the best ways for a child to learn, whether social skills like manners, sharing, and how to handle a disagreement or educational skills, like the alphabet, mathematics, history, shapes, colors, science...

I remember one day She-she an I went to the grocery store, she was perhaps five months old and certainly not speaking yet.  Despite the fact that it was just the two of us I was chattering away with her, asking her opinion on fruits and veggies, talking about the ripeness, and letting her smell and feel things like pineapples and kiwi.  After a while a woman turned and glared at me, "Who are you talking to?" she snapped and I looked pointedly at the carseat with my little angel in it.

"My daughter," I said, not certain what I'd done to upset her for talking to my child.

The woman, tilting her head and full on scowling said, "She cannot talk yet, she is too young."

I just raised an eyebrow and said, "How do you think she learns?"  Then I proceeded to talk to She-she and walked away from her.

Even though that was nearly four years ago I still remember it like yesterday, still remember her "are you stupid" tone and me thinking "you must be crazy."  The fact is every opportunity I get I talk to my daughter, I tell her about the world and what we see, I have since the day she was born.

She-she was an early talker, and she speaks well.  She knows the alphabet, can count, can sing several songs on her own.  And I believe this is because her father and I surround her with enjoyable learning.  She helps me sort the laundry, she helps me count how many apples I have and how many I need.

I believe as a mother my major goals in life are to prepare her for a full and enjoyable life, school, friends, people, conflict, self esteem, and all this comes from taking every opportunity to teach her, I do this by providing her as many learning opportunities as I can and being involved in her life.

Some tips for bringing learning into every day life:

~Teach colors, ask your child to pick clothes of a specific color, explain the difference between dark blue and light blue.

~Count everything.  Count the fruits and veggies they're eating, count the number of books they have, count the photos on the wall.

~Show them signs.  "Please walk."  "The Dollar Store."  Signs are all around us and may be the first examples of letters they ever see.  Point to the letters of their name if you can get close enough.  Let them touch if they can.

~Make up goofy songs to help them spell and learn.  She-she has a song about her name that her dad sang her when she was about a year old.  Even before she understood what the letters meant she was spelling her name.  Its also a great way to teach them your phone number in case they ever get separated from you.

~Take them to learning-full places, parks with numbers and letters, science projects, music.  Instead of taking them to Chuck-E-Cheeses for their birthday take them to The Children's Museum, an art studio-where they can do their own art, a kid's science facility, a restaurant where they can see the chef work, etc.  Its tempting when you go to these places to go with another parent, which is fine, but make sure you take advantage of one-on-one time as well.  Give your child the opportunity to ask questions and to play with you.

~Encourage questions and answer in ways they understand.  About six months ago She-she asked me how crayons were made.  Since I knew only the bare necessities, colors and wax were mixed and melted we went to Youtube and watched a video together.  It was enjoyable for both of us.

~And an obvious one: Books.  Fill your child's life with books, whether they're your own or the libraries.  There are all sorts of different kinds, and picture books can be just as informative as text books, especially to an early reader.  Read to your child, whether at night or in the morning or in the car (not while you're driving.) When they're potty training let them read on the toilet.  (It relieves the stress on them too.)  Ask them questions about what they read, everything from what color is her hair, to what was the problem ____ had?  How did they fix it, etc.

When they start learning to put their letters with what they look like start working on the sounds they make too.  Have them sound out some words with you.  In short, your child can be and is likely a brilliant person, but they don't know it until you show them.  So show them every opportunity you get!