This is how.....

I have had a few people ask how Mathias knows his ABC's so well already. Mathias starting singing the ABC's the whole way through when he was around 26 months. He was a bit fussy around nap time one day and I could not think of any nursery rhymes that day for some reason so I just sang the ABC's over and over a few times and put him down. Then he would request it. Mathias LOVES to sing and picks up songs really fast, so that was a pretty easy thing for him to learn.


I was chatting with a friend online and she told me about these AWESOME leepfrog videos. Seriously, I LOVE them. You can sit your child in front of the TV for a half hour, get something done around the house, and not feel guilty about it because the video is educational. Best of all, the kids love it and are learning something all at the same time. What the video does is set the scene, or rather, a room, for every letter and the letters themselves are learning their sounds. So it is like a classroom for every letter. For instance, they walk into the "A" room and the "A" students are there and then a monster opens the door and they all say "Ahh!" Then they sing, to the tune of "Farmer in the Dell"...

The "A" says "ahh"
The "A" says "ahh"
Every letter makes a sound
The "A" says "ahh"

I hope that all made sense. Just trust me, it is worth the $9 or so it cost.They also have math, words (how to sound out and spell simple words such as cat etc.), and a few others. Mathias learned all his sounds within a couple of weeks by just watching it a couple times a week.


This is a magnet that most people stick on their fridge, ours is on our vent in the hallway (don't want to scratch up the stainless fridge). Mathias played with this a bit at first then lost interest quickly. He will instead point out a letter when passing through the hall and say, "Mom, that is a "Y"" or "Mom, I want the "Q." This toy is kind of annoying because it only has two settings, loud and over the top loud. But still educational.


I just got similar bath letters and numbers a few weeks ago because A. He needed new bath toys, B. I thought they would be fun, and C. I mostly just wanted him to be able to recognize his numbers since he already recognizes his letters. So far they have been mostly just toys and I have not tried to teach him to recognize his numbers yet.


We also have a few ABC books. Mathias is very into his Curious George one right now.