Parenting Toddlers

Parenting works out sometimes because I get to get the things that I think are really cool - like crayons and Play-Doh. I love Play-Doh. LOVE IT, and having a kid gives me a perfect excuse to buy some. Thank God for Peanut! She’ll be 16 and I’ll still be buying “her” Play-Doh. Ohhh, and the wooden train set that I want to get for Christmas. For the kids.

Anyway, here is something that I think is really cool and that will benefit Peanut and the Little Guy as soon as he gets over the urge to put everything in his mouth. The Melissa and Doug Alphabet Stamp Set. It’s great. This set has both upper and lower case letters and a stamp pad with four colors. Parents, this is something that drives me nuts - Peanut mixes the colors. She puts the stamp into one color, then the other, so everything turns brown. If that drives you nuts too, you can always buy a single color stamp pad.

With young toddlers, this is a great way to work on the alphabet. Kids love stamps, and it’s a great activity to do together while you sing the alphabet. Plus, they’ll just love it.

When you’re teaching your child, you don’t really have to push it. They absorb so much. The other day, Peanut was in the bath and said, “I can feel my backbone. I’m a vertebrate.” She picked this up; we didn’t drill it into her. Kids will learn the alphabet through singing and just being exposed to the letters. So you don’t have to have a half hour lesson on the letters. Just pick up a stamp and say, “This is a B.” There, you taught. You may have to say it a few times, but just keep it casual. Toddlers are primed to learn and will with repeated exposure. And fun. They love to learn, so I always just let Peanut set the pace. If she gets sick of hearing me talk about letters and decided to start stamping her hand, so what? That’s exactly the perfect way to teach toddlers. And then you can say, “Oh, Peanut, you just stamped a P on your hand!” Or “What did you put on your hand?”

It’s also great for older toddlers and those verging on preschoolers. They can learn the difference between upper and lower cases - which can be confusing with letters like A and a that don’t really look the same. And they can start spelling words. Peanut can write her first name, MOM (YAY!!!), and Bo. You know, all the important words. It’s a great way to work on things together.

While I’m on the subject, other great ways to help your child learn the alphabet is to have magnets on the fridge. When we’re getting a snack, we take a minute sometimes to spell out a word. Usually “Bo” (oh, excuse me! I just assume everyone knows Bo. He’s our dirty, nasty, smelly comfort stuffed toy that Peanut brings everywhere). Again, though, it’s great because you aren’t pushing anything. The letters are there, your child sees them, and you can talk about them as the urge strikes. Alphabet soup, alphabet blocks, writing letters in sidewalk chalk or on marker boards…these are all great ways to expose your child to letters. They will learn in no time.