What does it take to learn? Does it take sitting and doing flash cards? Does it take running around to every kids’ class at the library or community center? Does it require mapping out a plan, and following it without exception? Does it mean you have to buy every “educational” toy on the market?
Nope, nope, nope.
Can I simplify learning for you? Can I simplify in your mind what it takes to help grow the mind of your toddler?
Lifestyle learning is basically just remembering to teach in moments that lend themselves to learning, and to create teachable moments in everyday life.
Around our house we do love educational toys, flash cards, workbooks, and all that. But there are days we don’t crack open a workbook, build a puzzle, or look at maps and charts…. there are even entire weeks that we spend much less time sitting to learn. Toddlers can learn so, so, so, so, so, so much with just a little extra thought and communication from us, and it doesn’t have to be in a certain format or a certain place for them!
Here are some ways to keep your children engaged and learning new things even when your schedule is jam packed and you have less time to dedicate to it.
{In the car}
Aside from the obvious things like playing audio books or having board books handy in the car, you can also use the visuals outside of the car to engage your toddler’s mind. When driving, point out road signs, talk about their shape, their color, what they mean.
We live in rural Indiana, so we pass lots of farms, fields, and pastures while driving. This brings up many great discussions. We can notice that cows come in different colors, that they need water and grass to live, that corn is taken from the fields to silos, and lots of other “farm things.” If you live in the city, maybe you could talk about the people walking their dogs. “What kind of a dog is it? Dogs needs exercise just like people do! How many people can we see out walking or jogging?”
Anywhere we go we can notice and point out colors, shapes, and materials. “That house has red brick, and this house has gray brick! The siding on that two-story house is green. The shutters on the ranch-style house are white. How many mailboxes can we count on this road?”
It’s SUPER easy to create learning and entertainment for little ones on a simple drive to the grocery store. We just have to get in the habit of doing it!
{At the Table}
There are so many ways to incorporate learning with meal times. The obvious “table” things are learning proper table manners, and talking about food and nutrition.
“How many orange slices are on your plate? Oranges grow on trees. They have lots of vitamin C in them. Vitamin C helps us have a healthy immune system, which keeps us from getting sick. Can you name some other veggies and fruits that are good for our bodies?”
It may seem funny to you to rattle off random facts about food, but your toddler won’t think so! They’ll soak up that information. Asking questions makes them think even more, and once they get talking, they’ll continue leading the learning session with their own questions.
In addition to that, you can always read aloud to them at lunch or breakfast, do flash cards, or make up little math games, like this:
“Kenny has three carrots left to eat, and Addie has two. How many carrots are there in all?”
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This is visual math, and helps so much when they start doing math in Kindergarten!
You don’t have to turn the entire lunchtime into a learning session, but even just a few minutes of chatting like this each day adds up to lots of information in their brains over the course of time.
{When Reading to Your Child}
Straight-up reading books to kids is fantastic for learning! But if you want to create a deeper learning experience, it’s quite easy to do. Ask questions about the pictures on the page. Have them count the trees in the picture. Have them see how many circles they can find on a page.
To prep for future reading readiness, teach them what a specific sight word looks like, like “and” or “the.” As you read, slide your finger along underneath the sentence, pointing to each word as you read. Every time you get to the sight word you showed them at the beginning let them “read” it. They’ll feel very smart and at the same time they will be getting smarter. That’s what I call a win!
{In Their Play}
Choose Toys, Books, and Puzzles that make your child think. If you read my blog on a regular basis, I call them “smart kid toys.” Building toys like classic Duplos, the current popular Magformers, Lincoln Logs, and Wooden Train building sets, are a good example of toys that develop their mind. Realistic looking toy animals make fun play and lend themselves to learning as well. All puzzles are good, but we especially like the Melissa & Doug puzzles, because they usually have an educational element to them. These are very popular puzzles, so it’s pretty easy to pick up the chunky puzzles at yard sales, thrift shops, or occasionally on clearance racks.
You can easily figure out what toys are good for creative and educational play time without me giving additional details. The main takeaway here, is that if you put a little thought into what children’s toys you get for your kids; you can purposely give them things that build their little brains.
Does your 1.5 year old love Mickey Mouse? Instead of the Mickey Mouse plush doll, you could get the Mickey Mouse Duplo building set. Paw Patrol fan in the house? Pick up a Paw Patrol coloring book instead of plastic figurines.
Some of our favorite toys and puzzles are listed on the Favorites page of this site: Click Here to see those.
{At Bedtime}
I just told someone last week that I won’t be blogging about Bedtime anytime soon! The reason? My kids aren’t so great at bedtime yet. We’re working on it, but the struggle is very real over here in my house! After brushing teeth, putting on pjs, getting a drink of water, kisses & hugs, talking time (aka when they’re allowed to get all their questions out), more kisses & hugs, requests for extra water, requests for additional hugs, more questions that were supposed to happen during “talking time”…. yeah, bedtime is basically a circus. The ONE thing that is currently working for us, is also educational, so I will share as a part of this post… but I really will probably never do a post exclusively on a bedtime routine, because this is not an area where I shine. Perhaps you could direct me to a great article on that!
So as an idea for bedtime learning (and to keep them laying down for goodness sakes!) we’ve recently been playing audio books and narrated children’s stories on CD or downloads on an iPad. We do have to go in after awhile and shut it off for the night so they actually go to sleep–but it is a great way to keep their busy little minds engaged in something other than excuses to get out of bed.
Well, that wasn’t a very strong last point for this post. But what can I say, it’s real, folks!
To wrap this up, I just want to say that teaching your toddler all throughout the day can become second nature to you! Just start talking about things—how they work, what they look like, where they come from, why they’re helpful to us, and guide your child’s thoughts toward learning. Children naturally have inquiring minds, so they will love every minute of it! I am discovering that the things learned in Kindergarten are easily learned well before Kindergarten in this way. Maybe I’ll write a post on that later. 😉
[…] recently wrote an entire post about this over on my blog (you can see that here: http://thelittleyears.com/lifestyle-learning-looks-like-toddler/, but in a nutshell, Lifestyle Learning is simply talking about the things around you in everyday […]