by Sas Freeman

Created on: February 01, 2008

Parents are the backbones to our children learning. It is important for a parent to teach their children as much as possible. This is especially true at an early age. They younger a person is, the easier it is for her to learn new things. Teaching your toddler is as simple as singing, playing and reading to her.

Lets start with singing. You can teach your toddler simple songs like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Old McDonald had a Farm. This is going to teach her a little about music, listening, and memorizing. She doesn't know she is learning anything. She is just having fun singing with mom or dad. If you put a little dancing to it, you are helping her out with honing her coordination a little more.

Playing. Children play all day long. This is how they learn most of what they know. Join your child on the floor. Help your daughter put a puzzle together. If the pieces are shapes like triangle, circle, and square, name them as you and she finds where they go on the puzzle board. Ask her what color the piece is. If she doesn't know, tell her. Point to the red square and say "Red". Then trace the square with your finger and say "Square". Your daughter will most likely want to imitate what you are doing and trace it as well as she can.

Get out a box of crayons and some blank sheets of paper. Each of you take a crayon and start coloring on the same sheet of paper. Write Mom, Dad, child's name, numbers, alphabet, and anything else you want to write. Your child may not be able to copy this yet, but this is how she is going to learn. Say each letter and number as you write it. She will repeat it and soon, she will say it as you write it. A little bit later, she may even try writing the letters and numbers herself. Draw your triangles and circles. Color them different colors. Point out each color. Have your child tell you the colors and shapes on the paper. Make it a game. Make patterns. The sky is the limit with paper and crayons.

Buy some big Legos or some kind of building blocks. You and your child stack them by color, make shapes on the floor, build houses, pretend boats, trains, and cars. Your child is going to be learning motor skills like hand-eye coordination. She will also be learning colors and shapes as the two of you play.

Reading. It doesn't matter if it is morning, afternoon, or right before bed, pick out a book, sit down together and read. Point out some of the smaller words in the book. Point out the colors and shapes found throughout the book. Let your child point things out to you. Talk about what is in each picture. Ask your child what she sees. Listen to her and ask questions. She will want to share what she knows and learns.

By doing all of these things with your child, you are giving her some very strong building blocks on learning. You don't have to try hard to teach these fundamentals. They are learned through play, and the greatest part about all of this is, you and your child get to enjoy spending time together. You have both benefited from these things and your bond has grown stronger.

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