ABC as easy as 123

The first topic I'd like to tackle is the ever so serious education of a toddler. While all children learn at different speeds and interests vary, the debate on what, as a parent, you should be doing rages on. I will be the first to raise my hand to admit I am a tv watcher. This means my children, 2 and 4 months are tv watchers as well. I'll pause for the gasps of horror. Yes, I've read articles and know better and when your kid is entering Harvard and mine are entering McDonald's, you can rub it in my face. Well that's only funny if it doesn't come true.

This brings up the question: how much tv (if any) does your child watch? What kind of programs? Our tv is usually tuned to adult shows and not kid based shows. Before you judge me and feel sorry for my poor child, let it be known my son can watch any kid show he wants on his iPad or Kindle Fire. His favorite is watching Barney, Mickey Mouse Club or random educational videos on YouTube and he loves watching the PBS shows on their app. What effect do you think tv has on children? Immediate and future repercussions?

That leads me to my main point. How my child learns. He loves (obsessed) with the alphabet and numbers right now.  That sounds a little dorky, but I'm so proud of my little dork. ;) Anything dealing with these two topics he is interested in. Which is why he can recite the alphabet and count to 20. Here are some of his favorite ways he's learned the ABC's.

This Melissa and Doug puzzle is one of his favorites. He got it around Christmas time and still plays with it everyday. At first the 26 pieces seemed a bit daunting but after a week he had mastered it and was putting it together like a pro. Usually has to sing the alphabet song whole doing so. You can buy it at Target or on Amazon for around $7.

This YouTube video goes through the alphabet. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BELlZKpi1Zs Jacoby is a YouTube pro and found this video himself. He almost has it memorized and we often sing it on our walks. You can subscribe to this channel, KidsTv123 and others such as Super Simple Songs and vidz4kids which has the alphabet train song. Great tools for teaching kids through repetition. Best of all they are all free!