Early Learning: The Toddler Years

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Many parents of young children are eager to start their educational journey but often feel overwhelmed by where to begin. Traditional preschool tips usually cater to kids aged 3 to 5, leaving parents of toddlers (and maybe into preschool) wondering how to best support their little ones’ development. By focusing on purposeful, playful learning, parents can create a rich, stimulating environment that lays a strong foundation for their child’s lifelong love of learning. (Note that I am not referring to simply a foundation for “school,” but for a lifestyle and lifetime of learning.)

One mom wrote:*

I’m new at homeschooling—I have 2-year-old twins. I want to teach them and get them ready for preschool. Please send me info to help me start off on the right foot.

Another mom wrote:

I have a 3½-year-old boy, a 2½-year-old girl and a 7-month old baby boy. I’ve read preschool articles on websites, listened to the sessions on beginning homeschooling from the state convention, read a few books and magazines, talked to homeschooling moms…but now that I’m really looking at schooling my children, I just get overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. I can see the goal or vision…that my children will love to learn…to learn about God, to learn reading, math, problem solving history, art, music, and everything in between…but how do you start? They don’t seem to even want to sit still and read a book…they just want to play with toys and pretend.

and I replied:

They are little; let them play with toys and pretend! At this age, your child’s play is still his work, and he is learning so much through play and through everyday activities.

But you can pick the toys, so you shape the play. Their play is their work—it may look easy to you, but it’s not all easy to them, and it is developing their thinking and providing life experiences—sort of like hooks on which they can hang their future learning.

What can your little one learn through play?

Let’s take a typical toddler or preschooler’s day of play. Maybe he plays with blocks for a little while, then turns to some toy cars or trucks. That lasts maybe 15 or 20 minutes, till he’s ready to head outside to swing on the swing set or at the park for a little while, pretending he is the leader of the castle at the top of the play structure or serves his “customers” at the picnic tables. That won’t last long before he finds a spot to dig in the dirt or the sand.

Or maybe you go on a nature walk and he gets interested in a spot in the dirt and looks for worms or ants. He may choose to run around some of the benches and crawl under the slide in a makeshift obstacle course (or you might create one for him at home).

While he’s in the car on the way home (or in the house), he listens to a story on audio and pretends he is the one driving or going to work. Then it’s lunch time, so you let him help you set the table, and he either helps prepare lunch or pretends to. After his post-lunch nap, he works quietly on a puzzle and listens to music, maybe singing along, until he is ready to go back outside and explore again.

So that all sounds like fun and games, but let’s look more closely….
Your kiddo has demonstrated a broad range of foundational skills through his activities:

Engaging in digging in the dirt and building with blocks showcases his fine motor skills and ability to manipulate objects.
Make-believe play and playing with cars and trucks highlight his creativity and imaginative thinking.
Successfully navigating an obstacle course indicates physical coordination and problem-solving abilities.
Swinging on the playground enhances gross motor skills, while setting the table reflects an emerging understanding of everyday tasks and routines, as well as one-to-one correspondence, a math foundation.
Additionally, puzzle play fosters cognitive skills such as spatial awareness and critical thinking and provides pre-reading visual discrimination.
Many of his activities cause him to physically cross the mid-line of his body, developing crucial brain connections and pathways which facilitate his future learning.
Finally, listening to and singing along to music reveals an appreciation for rhythm and language development.

Altogether, these activities illustrate a well-rounded skill set that combines physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development. It’s been a full day of learning, building brain connections and giving him lots of those “mental hooks” on which to hang his future learning! (There are a lot more benefits from each activity but I abbreviated the list here for time’s sake; you can read more in What Children Learn through Play. Also, here’s a site to help you recognize some of the skills your child is developing in various activities.)

Young children need lots of opportunities for movement and time to discover their world, so part of the day could be comprised of purposeful, exploratory, and physical play. See this article for more info and lots of hands-on suggestions/activities: What to Do with Your Early Learner

Read to your child

I am a huge fan of read-alouds combined with play-based learning, so I encourage you to read to your child daily! For ideas on what to read, how to read, and more, check out Read Aloud to Build Skills and Relationships. Hearing good literature read aloud fosters in children a love for language, builds vocabulary, motivates them to read, and encourages them to use their imagination.

About early development and learning

What to Do with Your Young Learner has suggestions from very relaxed to more structured. Many of my moms of littles prefer a relaxed or Montessori approach; if that’s the case, I highly recommend you look into Mommy, Teach Me! By Barbara Curtis.
Keeping Preschool in Perspective
Play is the Main Occupation of Children
When Does Homeschool Really Start? (Super tips for birth to age 4)
Preschool Essentials podcast by Dr. Jan Bedell of Little Giant Steps (starts around 5 minutes in)
Read Aloud to Build Skills and Relationships – One of the very best things you can do for your child is to read aloud daily!
There are quite a few other links here , with some videos and articles on preschool and early learning.
And there are lots of blog posts out there – simply search for preschool
HLSDA’s quarterly magazine online often contains a 2-page preschool supplement, so you might want to browse those at some point.

What About Learning Preferences/Styles?

At your child’s age, he is just very hands-on and concrete and is a combination of all of them, or uses all of his senses to learn. Any learning “preference” probably won’t really be discernible till around age 5 or 6. So for now, I’d concentrate on a well-rounded approach – let your child use all his senses…. let him hear, see, touch/move, smell, and (if applicable) taste. Again, I cannot stress enough that his play IS his work. Your goal at this stage is to give your child lots of experiences – lots of “hooks” onto which to hang future learning.

The key is: What are you already doing with your child in your daily life? What does he enjoy? Just keep it up, but you may want to be a bit more purposeful once he is about 4-ish. If you need help with that, I do offer consulting services. If you would really feel more comfortable with an outlined structure, I have some ideas listed for you in that first two articles I cited (above, under “early development and learning”) and here are a few more suggestions (in addition to what’s mentioned in the articles above…):

Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready (weekly activities for birth to age five)
My Father’s World packaged program
The Three R’s of Learning (Ruth Beechick – basics of teaching math, language, and reading to littles) If you combined this with Before Five in a Row, you’d have a well-rounded program.
Language and Thinking for Young Children & The 3 Rs of Learning (preschool-2nd)
Before Five in a Row : A Treasury of Creative Ideas to Inspire Learning Readiness By Jane Claire Lambert (Literature-based activities based on classic kids’ books from the library)
A Year of Playing Skillfully
Heart of Dakota
Timberdoodle package
Queen Homeschool materials
Hands-On Energetic Preschool Very budget friendly; faith neutral
Science Is Simple: Over 250 Activities for Preschoolers by Peggy Ashbrook
Science Play (Williamson Little Hands Series) by Jill Frankel Hauser
Marshmallow Math; Early Math For Young Children by Trevor Schindeler
Miquon Math
Rod & Staff preschool set

To help you understand what other kids at this age may be learning: “What Should I Be Teaching?” has several scope-and-sequence resources (in the sidebar of the article) that outline what the typical preschooler (and then the typical kindergartner) might be learning. The typical preschooler here would be about age four. [The Typical Course of Study from World Book (listed there) has a pre-K list for kindergarten readiness; the others have kindergarten skills for 1st grade readiness; again, these are REALLY general and some kiddos’ skills vary at this young age, and they level out around 3rd grade.]

While I have an entire section of Home Education 101 devoted to learning preferences and strengths, I highly recommend that every parent check out:

Identifying Eight Smarts
Five Core Needs of Children
8 Great Smarts: Discover and Nurture Your Child’s Intelligences by Dr. Kathy Koch

More resources for toddler and preschooler milestones….

Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready (weekly developmental activities for birth to age 5) by June Oberlander, available on Amazon – Many parents express concern about being on track with his learning and development and this is a good resource for that.
Your pediatrician should be able to provide you with a list of developmental milestones from birth to age 3 (or older) but if not, here’s a basic list for you with general skills from birth to age 5.
Developmental Milestones from Birth to Age 5 (Child Mind)
Easter Seals Ages and Stages online screening tool http://www.easterseals.com/mtffc/asq/.
ASHA (American Speech, Language, and Hearing Association) has links to several benchmark lists
Fine Motor Developmental Chart
Red Flags Developmental Checklist
Article on the importance of developmental milestones
Also, the Brigance Diagnostic Inventory of Skills walks you through evaluating your child at several levels; the volume of interest to you would likely be the yellow one.

**Books for you (how-to or idea books)**

Most of these lean to a gentle, developmentally appropriate approach to early learning:
• Educating the WholeHearted Child (Clay and Sally Clarkson) – One of my all-time favorites!
• The Three R’s of Learning (Ruth Beechick – basics of teaching math, language, and reading to littles)
• The Unhurried Homeschooler by Durenda Wilson (highly recommend — and it’s such a quick read, I finished the whole book while my banana bread baked, but wow, was it meaty!)
• The Smarter Preschooler (Renee and Mike Mosiman) Outlines creating an intellectually stimulating environment vs an intellectually demanding environment.
• Mommy, Teach Me! (written by a Montessori school teacher/homeschool mom – Barbara Curtis) This is the one I think you’ll especially like.
• What Your Child Needs to Know When by Robin Sampson – resource guide to check off skills from K-8th in language, math, science, social studies – for later; one-time purchase)
• A Year of Playing Skillfully by Kathy Lee and Lesli Richards – for ages 3-7
• Making the Most of the Preschool Years: 100 Activities to Encourage Independent Play by Valerie Bendt • Preschooler’s Busy Book: 365 Creative Games & Activities To Occupy 3-6 Year Olds by Trish Kuffner
• Books by Raymond and Dorothy Moore

And I have to recommend Kathy Koch’s books here again! 8 Great Smarts at www.celebratekids.com.

For future reference about some basics of homeschooling, these may be of interest:

A Day in Our Homeschool – Read what it is like in other families, especially those with small children (links to more family stories at the end of the article)
So You’ve Decided to Homeschool…NOW What? is a one-hour video crash course for getting started.
And of course, this site and my Facebook page are both full of helpful articles and resources for you.