Teaching early --- am I too kiasu?

[SofiaWee]

Hi!!


I’m a SAHM. I’m new to motherhood, with a 10-mth-old girl. I’m already trying to show some flash cards to my baby, but she’s absolutely not interested in looking at words.

On good days, she would even happily look at the pictures of the flash cards I show her, but once I get to showing her actual words on the cards, she’ll just look left, right, high, low — and never at the word itself. Not to mention that, she’ll lose interest after more than 5 cards.

Okay, so I’ve been trying flash cards with her for about a month now, we are kind of at a bottleneck. Am I putting too much stress on my little one, by "forcing" her to look at something she doesn’t enjoy? Am I being too kiasu here by teaching her so early? Or should I persist, and hope that one day, she may start to enjoy it?

Has anyone had this experience before?

Thanks!!!

[Ran1977]

Had the same thing with my son who was of the same age as your gal.


My aunty who is an educational consultant told me that it means that they are still not ready…try again in 6mths to 1 year.

Thanks

[autumnbronze]

Hi SofiaWee,


5 cards is good enough. Take the cue from your kiddo. You can break up your teaching into segments of 5 mins everytime.

I have a 16 month old DS. My second child. He has his moods too. There are days he enjoys his picture word book or his flashcards. But most days he will just throw them on the floor whenever I take them out.

However, I discovered by chance that he likes sensorial and tactile type of learning. At the moment, he likes stacking. So I am teaching him the concept of small medium large and open and close cuz he likes to open and close the boxes.

For alphabets, I have a set of letters that comes in a box that I bought from
Ikea. Again, because he likes dumping things, I give him each letter and invite him to throw the letter into the box, which he will happily do so.

For numbers, I will start from the bottom if my block and walk up counting the stairs as I do so. When we arrive at each floor, I will point at the number plate indicating the floor and say the number eg 1,2,3 etc ... I do this even when we are in the lift.

As for colours, I let him hold the colour pencil, and as he scribbles some
stuff on the paper, I take the opportunity to teach him colours. You can use the traffic lights as a teaching tool too when you take your kiddo for a walk.

There are so many stuff you can teach in real time. For instance, without fail, every time we go out, my DS will check my ears to see if I am wearing my earrings and my watch. Same goes for my flip-flops. He cannot speak properly yet, but he indicates via pointing and making his own sounds. That
is more than enough for me.

Most times we start off with a fixed idea of how we want our kiddos to learn, perhaps via recommendation, based on experience with our other kiddos etc, but sometimes, the result may not be to our expectation. Or we reach a stalemate due to a myriad of reasons. Anyway, what I am trying to
say is that we need to observe what kind of learning methods our kiddos
enjoy and work around them. Don't get too bothered about how short their attention span is. The fundamental rule is to make learning fun for them.

Enjoy your motherhood journey :hugs:

Hope this helps

[SarChar]

There are really many fun ways to teach our little ones and Flashcard is just 1 way.


I am very pro on flashcards. I do know some parents are not but I AM.

DD2 is 6 now. DD2 was 16 months when we started flashcards. Over the years, I made more than 2000 flashcards. I spent 4-5 hrs every Fri day for years to make those cards.

I didnt do the flashcards to impact knowledge and I flash the A5 size cards really FAST so that she can remember the images and to focus (on what I was showing her). I flashed 2X 200-300 cards each day. Each topic set 8-10 cards.

I did topics like Things in Pink, Let’s go for Holidays (so I had pictures of luggage, Airport, Aeroplane, Australia Map, Koala, etc), DD2’s Family (we have pictures of Grandparents, Uncles and cousins…finally a baby picture of her). Many topics but nothing too difficult.

It came 1 point that she would remember the next card because I only flash the cards in 1 order.

Today…she is very focused on whatever she is doing and has mega memory. Because it was easy for her to remember what her teachers had taught her, she learns Hanyu Pinyin and can read around 5yrs old. She also enjoys school very much and teachers have commented on her progress positively.

We were not as experienced with DD1 pri4/10 yrs old. It takes a lot of my energy to coach DD1 now on her schoolwork.

So you are not Kiasu to start early. You are only making her life easier later in her early school life.

Have fun !

[Lshawn]

Research has shown that foetus responds to music, it’s good to play some classical music for ur preborn babies.

[weatherbee]

SarChar:

There are really many fun ways to teach our little ones and Flashcard is just 1 way.


I am very pro on flashcards. I do know some parents are not but I AM.

DD2 is 6 now. DD2 was 16 months when we started flashcards. Over the years, I made more than 2000 flashcards. I spent 4-5 hrs every Fri day for years to make those cards.

I didnt do the flashcards to impact knowledge and I flash the A5 size cards really FAST so that she can remember the images and to focus (on what I was showing her). I flashed 2X 200-300 cards each day. Each topic set 8-10 cards.

I did topics like Things in Pink, Let's go for Holidays (so I had pictures of luggage, Airport, Aeroplane, Australia Map, Koala, etc), DD2's Family (we have pictures of Grandparents, Uncles and cousins...finally a baby picture of her). Many topics but nothing too difficult.

It came 1 point that she would remember the next card because I only flash the cards in 1 order.

Today....she is very focused on whatever she is doing and has mega memory. Because it was easy for her to remember what her teachers had taught her, she learns Hanyu Pinyin and can read around 5yrs old. She also enjoys school very much and teachers have commented on her progress positively.

We were not as experienced with DD1 pri4/10 yrs old. It takes a lot of my energy to coach DD1 now on her schoolwork.

So you are not Kiasu to start early. You are only making her life easier later in her early school life.

Have fun !

Wow. Your are good.

[SarChar]

@weatherbee, we all want to do our best for our kids…if we dont help them, who will…


With DD1, we were too busy working. We didnt think much about how to "teach" her. So my regret is not giving DD1 a head start. Today I can see her struggling on her school work.

With DD2, we are very involved and motivated. Anyway in short, she has mega memory now so she picks up new things quite fast.

[SofiaWee]

Ran1977:

Had the same thing with my son who was of the same age as your gal.


My aunty who is an educational consultant told me that it means that they are still not ready...try again in 6mths to 1 year.

Thanks

Ran1977: Yes, I know flexibility is key! I'm also wondering myself if I might just take a short break and see how my baby takes to the flash cards again in maybe 3-4 mths time.

[comfy]

SofiaWee:

Ran1977:

Had the same thing with my son who was of the same age as your gal.


My aunty who is an educational consultant told me that it means that they are still not ready...try again in 6mths to 1 year.

Thanks

Ran1977: Yes, I know flexibility is key! I'm also wondering myself if I might just take a short break and see how my baby takes to the flash cards again in maybe 3-4 mths time.

This is interesting, how about flashing cards with colour words. My dd has no problem with word or picture cards but only has issues with number dots cards. Maybe that explain her lack of passion for math when compare with EL in later part of her school life.

[SofiaWee]

autumnbronze:

Hi SofiaWee,


5 cards is good enough. Take the cue from your kiddo. You can break up your teaching into segments of 5 mins everytime.

I have a 16 month old DS. My second child. He has his moods too. There are days he enjoys his picture word book or his flashcards. But most days he will just throw them on the floor whenever I take them out.

However, I discovered by chance that he likes sensorial and tactile type of learning. At the moment, he likes stacking. So I am teaching him the concept of small medium large and open and close cuz he likes to open and close the boxes.

For alphabets, I have a set of letters that comes in a box that I bought from
Ikea. Again, because he likes dumping things, I give him each letter and invite him to throw the letter into the box, which he will happily do so.

For numbers, I will start from the bottom if my block and walk up counting the stairs as I do so. When we arrive at each floor, I will point at the number plate indicating the floor and say the number eg 1,2,3 etc ... I do this even when we are in the lift.

As for colours, I let him hold the colour pencil, and as he scribbles some
stuff on the paper, I take the opportunity to teach him colours. You can use the traffic lights as a teaching tool too when you take your kiddo for a walk.

There are so many stuff you can teach in real time. For instance, without fail, every time we go out, my DS will check my ears to see if I am wearing my earrings and my watch. Same goes for my flip-flops. He cannot speak properly yet, but he indicates via pointing and making his own sounds. That
is more than enough for me.

Most times we start off with a fixed idea of how we want our kiddos to learn, perhaps via recommendation, based on experience with our other kiddos etc, but sometimes, the result may not be to our expectation. Or we reach a stalemate due to a myriad of reasons. Anyway, what I am trying to
say is that we need to observe what kind of learning methods our kiddos
enjoy and work around them. Don't get too bothered about how short their attention span is. The fundamental rule is to make learning fun for them.

Enjoy your motherhood journey :hugs:

Hope this helps

Autumnbronze: Hmmm... you've set me thinking. I haven't yet discovered if my daughter prefers a different mode of learning to flash cards (which I'm thinking is a more passive form of learning and more visual-dependent). If I should try a more sensory method, my challenge would be to find a way to incorporate the written form of language (like words). I might just start sticking huge stickers (with numbers and words written on them) on the stairs and things at home.