Preparing DS for kinder/school

Hi girls,

Now that I am home full-time again with DS, I am worried that I am not doing enough to 'keep his brain working', or in regards to getting him ready for kinder.

Are there particular things/games I should play with a 2+yr old to stimulate them as much as possible. Is there anything in particular I should concentrate on i.e. counting to???, the alphabet, or colors?

I don't expect DS to be a genius but I want to be the best mother I can by preparing him for kindy and even school! He deserves the right to be a genius, if thats what he wants!

I have bought one of those little touch leap-pad things to help her read and she also has little einstein play cards with numbers, words etc. She loves those. We also have foam letters and numbers for the bath and have been trying to teach Lily the alphabet with them. Like she will pick up a letter, we will say what it is and she will try and say it too and then we'll put together say 'abc' and get her to say that. Only got to b though and then skips to d then p lol. Must be easier to say. Lily is a bit delayed in speech so we are not really getting anywhere with colours right now.

From a teachers point of view just play with him! Read aloud to him but don't push anything, let him just be a little kid, he will be at school for so many years that just giving him your time is enough at this age. I have somewhere a list of things you can do to help your child before they start school if I find it I will post it.
Don't worry, you are obviously a great mum if you are thinking of all this so he is a very lucky boy.

i totally agree with christine

i just talk and talk and talk (lol i love to talk) to my kiddies, have done since they were babies, i am constantly telling them what i am doing, where we are going. we go walking and i talk about the colours and sounds all around etc etc. i even talk to dd whilst we are shopping telling and showing her things etc etc (i do get some funny looks tho pmsl) dd is nearly 2 1/2 yrs and can count to nearly 20 and does the abc and also knows most of her colours - i think this has also come alot quicker than my other 2 as my ds (nearly 7) is constantly telling and showing her things - he loves to teach lol, and she listens to him so intently you can really see their minds tick over taking it all in.

and yes once they go off to kinder - wow does the time fly, it really is a bit sad, they grow up way to quickly just enjoy your little man, i think that these years (toddler) are just so amazing and it just goes to quick

You can work a lot of things into your day to day activities - talk to him about everything you're doing, put simple name cards on the door, cot, bath etc - read or look at anything with words and pictures, junk mail, magazines, the newspaper, books ... go for walks and see trees and dogs and shops and anything. Count peas, nuggets, flowers, blocks. There is an ABC cd with songs about words and numbers thats really simple and catchy, it has a red cover. We also made an ABC book with a big exercise book and a letter to a page with cut out things for each letter.

Between two and three years is a great time - their talking takes off, they understanding is amazing. I also used to emphasize the first letter of things - like t-t-t-t-toast or ssssssss-ausages. I don't know what boys are like with drawing, but Cait loved to draw, scribble as soon as she could hold a crayon and not eat it. So you do a picture as well and write MUM on it and write his name on his.

The funniest thing with my Cait - you know when you talk to gas or phone or anything like that and they need all your name, address phone number etc before they will talk to you ? Cait heard me say those so many times, she knew my full name, her address and phone number before she was three ! She also started reading at 4.5 and could write her name at three.

I agree with Michelle & Christine, just keep talking to Aidan & tell him about everything. I'm not sure about VIC, but when kids go to pre school here (same as your kinder) they are not expected to know how to count or read. My sister is an early childhood teacher & she says that they should be able to count their age up until kinder/school, otherwise it's mimicing & it means nothing to them (same as alphabet).

I'm constantly told that Zander has an amazing vocabulary, which all of his words aren't perfect most people can understand what he's talking about. This is because I talk to him constantly, like Michelle we discuss things at the supermarket & get funny looks "do you remember what we have to get?" then I say something he repeats & this goes on for a while. He knows most of his body parts (including the less taught ones - neck, shoulders, elbows etc) because we talk about them when he's getting dressed or having a bath. He knows under & over from gymnastics. So it's not that he has been taught things in a structured way at all, just through general day to day things we do together.

Thanks for your replies girls, I hope I didn't come across as a bit of a 'pageant Mum' because I am certainly not like that!

From what you all said I am already doing all the right things with Aidan. I was only thinking at the supermarket this morning that people must think I am crazy asking a 2yr old to help me check off the list. But I love it. People also comment that Aidan is a chatterbox (although he is also quite shy), and I think that is because I talk to him a lot. He is CONSTANTLY asking what things are, and repeats what I say without me even asking. He def knows his colors (the main ones and some less common ones), is not far off counting to 20, and is very good at body parts ('cold willy' was a personal fave this morning at the supermarket after helping me get some frozen vegies out!!!).

You sound like you have it all under control so i hope we reassured you (its always nice to get some positive feedback though isn't it?) I even chat to my 9 month old all the time so its never too soon LOL