Toddler School

Lately, we've been watching Tyler pick up new concepts and words at lightning speed. It's crazy the things that he spits back at us and we don't have a clue where he is learning them. For instance, he knows all of the letters in the alphabet... other than having Super Why on at breakfast - I can't imagine where he has learned this so easily.

James is no doubt every bit as smart as Tyler, he just isn't as quick to tell us about it. He is more quiet about it, but also waits until he has something completely down pat before he says anything. It was like that with walking - he just got up and took off with no wobbling.

Tyler on the other than is more verbal and works through it with you - so you know exactly what is going on in that little brain of his. He also wobbled for months, and we thought he was going to permanently have some sort of visible injury on his face from running into things or falling. Poor kid - he wanted so badly to take off like James, but as soon as you'd let him go - he'd fall down. Hard to remember those days now that they are running around my house like two mad men.

For Christmas, we got the Teach My Toddler kit... there is a version of this kit for babies and for preschoolers. So, once we've mastered this one -- I'll order the next version. I'm going to be working with the boys which I'm pretty excited about. It teaches the alphabet, colors, numbers, and shapes. We've got a good start on these concepts, but I want to foster a bit more with them... if any of you have any creative ideas that you'd like to pass on to help a momma out -- you will become my new hero.

They also got this set of Early Learning Flash cards, and the accompanying set for Math and the one for Science & Social Studies. (if you open this link -- 1/2 way down the page it shows a link for you to get them all at once)  I haven't pulled these out yet, but if they are flimsy -- I may take the time to laminate them.

I sat down with another cheap set of flash cards today, and to my surprise the boys actually sat on the carpet with me in the living room and went through them. They repeated everything I said, and I was really pleased. The only thing was that they wanted to hold the cards and the set I had was really cheap... so I need to prepare for that and let them be able to take them and hold on to them. I just want to make sure that they are reinforced so that they don't destroy them in the first day.

We also got the Toddler Busy Book that claims to have 365 activities for 1 1/2 to 3 year olds. There is a Preschool level book by the same people and one for Arts & Crafts. We are at the upper end of this age group, but in a lot of activities we are a bit slower. Maybe it's because they are boys, but James has literally no interest in crafty stuff... so I need to work on that a bit.

I'm hoping to start doing some activities surrounding different concepts -- has anyone else done this? Like planning a week out and doing activities that are all things that start with a letter -- or number -- or color -- or shape. Help me out Moms, what has worked for you? What gets your kids excited about learning? I know they are doing these things in school too, but I just want to make sure that I'm giving them the best start possible since these are the years that they learn like little sponges!