Whatcha working on?

[xanthepants]

I'm running out of ideas for basics/concepts to teach Cosette. I'm curious about things you might be working on with your LOs. 
We are working on days of the week, her address, her last name and our full names, police and firemen are good, helpful and you can talk to them. Things beyond the obvious letters and numbers I guess.  I know there are others, but I'm hoping something will spark an idea for something fun. Let's hear them.

[somethingcleverer]

We are just on letters and numbers. I kind of feel she is behind on that but she's probably just behind on j12 and average in the real world lol. She's pretty good with shapes and colors knows her full name and Shane's full name. I think I mostly want her to work on sharing.

[ultramonkey]

We are working on the same. We are also teaching M his states, countries, and getting him to identifying words based on the letters they start with. At the moment he likes to build things with windows, doors, and bridges. It's been kind of fun!
Any ideas on what preschools require kids to know before starting? I've been meaning to look into this but haven't yet.

[xanthepants]

Cosette can count and recite ABCs but is definitely still working on recognizing them in print. She is working still on counting items and is about 50/50 in getting to counting 5 items. Also working on what 3 fingers mean, etc. think we are pretty average here too somethingcleverer. ultramonkey. Our daycare has a decent list of things they need to work on. I'll see if I can find it. Also this is something we've checked out as well. www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-3yr.html

[trixi282]

We just started working on her full name, and she has her first name/last name but still grasping middle name. She knows Daddys name, but i dont think she knows mine yet really.... Its kind of funny.

We also have numbers (and counting items) and colors pretty well. Shapes are still a little bit in the works, she knows a basic 4-6 shapes, and alphabet too... She can sing most of the ABC's song but still gets a bit slipped up in a few areas.

I think once we get them better we'll start working on what numbers and letters look like. She has started to recognize numbers with her puzzles, but not really letters. She knows Minnesota and Virgina, but has as no idea what that means in the scheme of things! Haha.

ultramonkey, from what I've read/been told, the things we're all listing (colors, numbers, letters, shapes) are what most preschools start with and work on in the first year (3-4 years). I think if they know that going in they're already pretty good and possibly ahead of the curve. My MIL works with kindergarten classrooms and said that some kids come into K not knowing some of that stuff sadly. Preschool is meant to teach them the basics to prep them for Kindergarten.

[ultramonkey]

Feb 3, 2015 23:09:47 GMT -5 xanthepants said:

Cosette can count anod recite ABCs but is definitely still working on recognizing them in print. She is working still on counting items and is about 50/50 in getting to counting 5 items. Also working on what 3 fingers mean, etc. think we are pretty average here too somethingcleverer. ultramonkey. Our daycare has a decent list of things they need to work on. I'll see if I can find it. Also this is something we've checked out as well. www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-3yr.html

Great list, thank you for sharing. I think M is going struggle with the social part since it's always just him and his little brother. I'm thinking maybe I should put him in a daycare center a day a week or sign him up for a class with other kids. He is still not remotely interested in potty training
@trixi262 I love when kids sing the ABC's with a string of mumbles then look all proud when the finish! It seriously melts me when M sings "l, m, n, o, p" I'll be sad when he finally gets it right.

[lizwinderson]

He has been doing shapes the longest. Before he really started talking he could point to them all when asked which is the triangle, etc. So we have moved on to adding hexagons and octagons.
He can't recite his ABCs yet but does know recognize them all. i didn't work a lot on that so he learned mostly on his own then I bought foam letters for the bath to practice.
He can count to twenty but prefers to stop at 14. I think he has a favorite number or something. He loves to say 14. He only recognizes 1-5 though.
He can't even pronounce his first name so we havent discussed whole name etc. Maybe he will eventually stop calling himself "And"
But I do find it helpful to see what everyone else is working on. Lots of ideas I had not thought about!

But if anderson doesnt enjoy it, he truly won't try. Anyone else have this? Almost like he is bored with the material? Lol I thought that would come later.

[rollerrink]

The address is a great idea, xanthepants. He loves counting things, he's got some letters down (like when he sees an R on a sign, he recognizes it), and he knows our names and his full name.

This week, I started explaining traffic lights to him because he was getting so impatient when the car wasn't moving. Red light: stop & wait your turn. Yellow (he says orange): Uh-oh, get ready for red. Green: Now it's safe to go.

What we NEED to work on is how to be nicer to daddy. He gets so pissy when DH tries to help with something instead of me. It really sucks for DH, and I do not want to be the one to do everything.

[ultramonkey]

lizwinderson M is the same way as Anderson. The only reason we started working on states and countries is because he is fascinated by maps and globes at the moment.

[britbratjf]

We're working on counting items. She can count but we're trying to get the concept of counting items. She's got colors & shapes down and is really good at sharing/taking turns. I need to work on dressing & undressing. She still can't really do much (although she can take her pants off). Some of it is me being too impatient.

[laurski81]

Henry has his alphabet, counting things/numbers to 15, and is good with shapes and colors. We are working on full names now but considering my last name is his middle name, pronunciation is a bit difficult for him. He refuses to learn my name and every time I recite my full name to him he says "no. You, Mommy!" I didn't think of addresses but we will probably wait on that for now. I would like for him to learn to dress/undress himself as well. While he definitely helps with dressing, it doesn't really click when he tries it on his own.

[origamimommy]

I am going to be really honest. We are working on kindness, sharing, eating new foods, fine motor skills (cutting, coloring, etc) and pooping in the potty. Everything academic I leave to school unless they need me to work on something at home. He knows the alphabet, can count to 30 in English, 10 in Spanish, knows all colors, shapes (including weird ones like octagon and pentagon). Daycare is expensive. I work full time so on our weekends he has soccer, we go to indoor parks, we play with him, and we run errands. Just call me world's okayest mom!

[babywinks]

Wow, I feel behind. Abby knows colors and numbers counting to 12, and shapes. She also knows a buttload of animals because she loves animals and Diego.

[heatherbee]

Feb 4, 2015 8:33:19 GMT -5 origamimommy said:

I am going to be really honest. We are working on kindness, sharing, eating new foods, fine motor skills (cutting, coloring, etc) and pooping in the potty. Everything academic I leave to school unless they need me to work on something at home. He knows the alphabet, can count to 30 in English, 10 in Spanish, knows all colors, shapes (including weird ones like octagon and pentagon). Daycare is expensive. I work full time so on our weekends he has soccer, we go to indoor parks, we play with him, and we run errands. Just call me world's okayest mom!

I'm joining you as okayest mom And I'm ok with it lol. Maybe this is backwards but as a teacher, I know he's going to spend 13 years of his life being pressured to master things and he has my perfectionist personality. I work on things while we play but he hasn't mastered his letters or numbers (saying them, yes but recognizing no). He knows about half of his letters, colors and shapes some days if he is interested lol. He knows his name, mine and DH's name, working on phone numbers. Otherwise, I focus a lot on the social expectations that I hope he has when he goes to school such as dealing with being angry, how to treat friends, how to be respectful to adults.

Also, I will just put it out there - its awesome the things our j12's can do and obviously we have a very smart bunch A lot of these skills (letter ID, color ID, shape ID, etc) are 4-5 year old skills in schools. If your kid knows them before than, that is awesome. But for a lot of kids, cognitively they wont be ready to do these for awhile and that's completely normal Just throwing some teacher prespective out there!

[heatherbee]

Oh another thing we work on - recognizing rhymes and creating words that rhyme. It's one of the first skills kids need to learn to read.

[babywinks]

Feb 4, 2015 8:55:32 GMT -5 heatherbee said:

Oh another thing we work on - recognizing rhymes and creating words that rhyme. It's one of the first skills kids need to learn to read.

Oh I like this - Abby might like this too.

[summergirl1211]

We don't focus specifically on too many things, just reinforce things I know they talk about at daycare- numbers (1-20 in English, 1-10 in Spanish), colors, shapes, days of the week and alphabet. We're also starting to focus more on dressing/undressing as we move closer to potty training. But yeah, I don't work too hard on it because I know they focus a lot at daycare and she usually gets bored with "educational" things when I prompt her. Sometimes it works and sometimes we just let it be.

[aylafsu1881]

Feb 3, 2015 23:44:30 GMT -5 rollerrink said:

The address is a great idea, xanthepants. He loves counting things, he's got some letters down (like when he sees an R on a sign, he recognizes it), and he knows our names and his full name.

This week, I started explaining traffic lights to him because he was getting so impatient when the car wasn't moving. Red light: stop & wait your turn. Yellow (he says orange): Uh-oh, get ready for red. Green: Now it's safe to go.

What we NEED to work on is how to be nicer to daddy. He gets so pissy when DH tries to help with something instead of me. It really sucks for DH, and I do not want to be the one to do everything.

We have been doing the same thing. Last week LO was screaming at me to go, I had to calmly tell her that red meant stop and green meant go.

We are working on recognizing her ABC's and drawing shapes. She knows them but does not draw them well.

[aimeefarrahfowler]

A knows the letters, can count to 20 or so, colors, shapes, etc. I think I'm going to start lower-case letters with him soon.

He's really into animals, so we've been talking about what they eat and what they give us. Last night in the tub he said "chickens give us eggs! cows give us milk! horses give us.... hay?" lol

[meow84]

Crazy social worker mom here. I've been focusing a lot on being able to identify feelings (i.e. when she is flipping out, being able to say that she is angry/frustrated/whatever about ____". We talk a lot about what characters on TV or in books are feeling and why they might be feeling that way. She is still in the self-centered stage of development, but I figure it can't hurt to start talking about others' perspectives and work on empathy. I also started the good touch/bad touch stuff a few months ago and reiterate that every so often when the opportunity arises (i.e. when the doctor checked her out at her 2.5 year check up, reminding her that it's OK for doctors to look there when Mommy or Daddy are there).

[origamimommy]

Feb 4, 2015 10:14:11 GMT -5 meow84 said:

Crazy social worker mom here. I've been focusing a lot on being able to identify feelings (i.e. when she is flipping out, being able to say that she is angry/frustrated/whatever about ____". We talk a lot about what characters on TV or in books are feeling and why they might be feeling that way. She is still in the self-centered stage of development, but I figure it can't hurt to start talking about others' perspectives and work on empathy. I also started the good touch/bad touch stuff a few months ago and reiterate that every so often when the opportunity arises (i.e. when the doctor checked her out at her 2.5 year check up, reminding her that it's OK for doctors to look there when Mommy or Daddy are there).

Good callout!  We do this a lot.  So I guess we are working on more than I thought.  Nothing crazy academic, but definitely feelings and compassion are things we talk about daily.  The more he can identify his feelings, the less he flips out.  But, I mean, he's still a toddler, so...

[heatherbee]

Feb 4, 2015 10:14:11 GMT -5 meow84 said:

Crazy social worker mom here. I've been focusing a lot on being able to identify feelings (i.e. when she is flipping out, being able to say that she is angry/frustrated/whatever about ____". We talk a lot about what characters on TV or in books are feeling and why they might be feeling that way. She is still in the self-centered stage of development, but I figure it can't hurt to start talking about others' perspectives and work on empathy. I also started the good touch/bad touch stuff a few months ago and reiterate that every so often when the opportunity arises (i.e. when the doctor checked her out at her 2.5 year check up, reminding her that it's OK for doctors to look there when Mommy or Daddy are there).

Ditto. I was really pleased the doctor actually talked to DS about when its ok for a doctor to check him.

[origamimommy]

Feb 4, 2015 10:17:00 GMT -5 heatherbee said:

Feb 4, 2015 10:14:11 GMT -5 meow84 said:

Crazy social worker mom here. I've been focusing a lot on being able to identify feelings (i.e. when she is flipping out, being able to say that she is angry/frustrated/whatever about ____". We talk a lot about what characters on TV or in books are feeling and why they might be feeling that way. She is still in the self-centered stage of development, but I figure it can't hurt to start talking about others' perspectives and work on empathy. I also started the good touch/bad touch stuff a few months ago and reiterate that every so often when the opportunity arises (i.e. when the doctor checked her out at her 2.5 year check up, reminding her that it's OK for doctors to look there when Mommy or Daddy are there).

Ditto. I was really pleased the doctor actually talked to DS about when its ok for a doctor to check him.



######STUCK IN BOX######



Our doctor did this too, and I was really pleased.  I am adamant that we only refer to it as a penis, and I have even had the conversation with his teachers.  I was really happy with the way the doctor talked about it.  And at first he told her not to touch his penis, and she waited until he was ready.  Just the respect she had for his body and the way she explained it in toddler speak was awesome.

[bliz1712]

hmmm I feel like we are WAY behind the curve here. She knows some numbers but won't actually count, except to say 3 2 1 go or 7 8 9 10. Does not know any of the alphabet and colors are iffy. We are working on counting and colors right now.

Could you work on drawing better or coloring in the lines? What about cutting things out with scissors? What about matching games? We have a Monster's inc one that is probably above her head but I bet they have some easier ones. Or what about asking her for words that start with a specific letter?

[danielle1220]

Feb 4, 2015 8:33:19 GMT -5 origamimommy said:

I am going to be really honest. We are working on kindness, sharing, eating new foods, fine motor skills (cutting, coloring, etc) and pooping in the potty. Everything academic I leave to school unless they need me to work on something at home. He knows the alphabet, can count to 30 in English, 10 in Spanish, knows all colors, shapes (including weird ones like octagon and pentagon). Daycare is expensive. I work full time so on our weekends he has soccer, we go to indoor parks, we play with him, and we run errands. Just call me world's okayest mom!

This is pretty much what we are doing as well.  He has known and recognizes his letters, numbers, shapes, colors and counting objects for quite a while now but the kid is so stubborn, self centered (obvs) and hyper that we are working more on slowing down and focusing on an activity, listening/following directions, and verbally working on stringing words together since he is behind on that.  He says a lot of words but just doesn't make sentences.  Also piggy backing off meow84 we are also working on him trying to communicate when he gets upset instead of just freaking the fuck out like he usually does.

[summergirl1211]

Feb 4, 2015 10:14:11 GMT -5 meow84 said:

Crazy social worker mom here. I've been focusing a lot on being able to identify feelings (i.e. when she is flipping out, being able to say that she is angry/frustrated/whatever about ____". We talk a lot about what characters on TV or in books are feeling and why they might be feeling that way. She is still in the self-centered stage of development, but I figure it can't hurt to start talking about others' perspectives and work on empathy. I also started the good touch/bad touch stuff a few months ago and reiterate that every so often when the opportunity arises (i.e. when the doctor checked her out at her 2.5 year check up, reminding her that it's OK for doctors to look there when Mommy or Daddy are there).

meow84: I like this. We talk a lot about how our actions make other people feel (you make me happy when you listen to me, etc.) but adding the good touch/bad touch, etc. is a good idea. 

[xanthepants]

I like ton of these. I think I feel like since we are only in daycare/"school" part time, I want to fill some portions of our days off with some learning opportunities. And not necessarily school type stuff, but along the lines of keeping her safe (knowing her address, who she can looks to if lost) or emotional ones(that is great I hadn't thought of expanding on that!). I think some days I feel like I am really lazy and should be doing something more if you know what I mean. Some days are just about surviving. But others could be more. I get that she has years to be in "school" I just want to take advantage of our time together and do more than I am sometimes.

Honestly I don't know what these kids might be capable of understanding, so it helps to hear ideas of things that others are doing just as something new to try. I think she is bored with me trying to get her to recognize letters so I wanted some alternate things to play too. Thanks all!

[tribute17]

I think Patrick got his love of learning from both of us so I've just been encouraging it. I don't necessarily push anything but he LOVED the foam letters so I just started spelling things out for him. Now he can spell his name, mom, dad, and stop (from stop signs). He doesn't go to daycare at all so my mom and in-laws have also been encouraging it. They are both retired teachers too so I think it just happens. We play but try to make some things more academic when he wants to. He loves rolling the pool balls in the holes so we just started asking for specific numbers or colors. The new thing he loves to do is have me write a word on his magnadoodle and he tries to guess it. I pick ones from the books we read all of the time and if he doesn't get it then I give him clues or describe it. Like COW, and then I say it goes moo or whatever. He has always kind of been obsessed with letters and spelling and reading, so maybe I got the weird kid. Oh, I'm also a biology teacher so he knows a ton of animals, even the difference between orangutans and chimps.

He isn't close to potty training, is still a little scared of kids and especially other adults, is a crappy sleeper, and won't try any new foods. I'm hoping preschool can work on some of those things, maybe not potty training.

I agree with others though, do what your kid loves to do. He will learn everything else he needs in formal schooling and he will be there for plenty of time.

[Riverdong11]

Right now we're focusing on fine motor skills and feelings. I actually just picked up the game Operation and he's having a lot of fun learning to use the tweezers. We were working on numbers and letters but he started regressing/refusing when I started working on site recognition so I backed off. At one time he could count up to 10 and count objects up to 5. Now everything is 1-2-3 which is ok. Colors he's great with and we are introducing shades of color now (light vs dark blue, gray, etc).

[mightybee]

Interesting post. I guess I follow D's lead and interests. Right now we're learning the eye color of everyone he knows...haha! I don't really having an agenda when it comes to things to work on, I'm just going with the flow!

I do focus on labeling his and others' feelings and try to show him empathy.