Inquiring Mind of a Two Year Old!

Ever since Carter was born I've been amazed watching him take in everything around him. What an overwhelming prospect if you really think about. Babies have to learn to walk, talk, and understand the world around them. Ideally, we also want them to learn to have patience, manners, to share, to be kind, to be honest, and we can't forget - to fall asleep on their own and stay asleep until morning!

We as parents have the responsibility of behaving in a way we want our little ones to, to teach when an opportunity presents itself (please, thank you), to guide when they may try their own approach (no we don't hit Johnny on the head because he took your toy), and to learn the clues of when they have had enough and need a break! Luckily though, most of what they need to learn is done by just observing what we do. When in a loving environment they will learn so much all on their own! They are like little sponges that observe everything, process it to the best of their abilities, and use it to help them learn even more.

As they get older they start to take on more of the responsibility of learning themselves. This is when "what" and "why" become their favourite words! They start to consciously decide what they want to learn (while still subconsciously learning). This has become blatantly obvious with Carter lately! The most common phrases I hear from Carter are "why mum?" (and I better give a really good answer or another "why mum?" will follow), "where you going mum?", "what you doing mum?" (he just said that to me now), "what's that mum?", and one of my favourites "what you thinking 'bout mum?"

Carter has most recently started asking "what letter is that?" and "what's that say?" This started with Carter's new fascination with letters and numbers. He has always loved to read but any time we previously tried to teach him a letter he didn't seem interested. I put some stick-on letters on his wall a couple months ago that he loved to look at and sing about, "a-b-c-f-g" while pointing at any letter! Then he started to enjoy playing with a set of magnetic fridge letters. Although he still didn't care what they were, he loved dumping them out of their case on to his train table and tossing them over the studio wall into the front hall. It became a favourite pass time!

Then one day he decided to bring the letters to the table with him while he ate his lunch. They haven't left the table since. Now every time we eat Carter wants to play with the letters and learn what they are. He says "let's learn letters mum!" or "let's set up alphabet mum!" Because he's so interested in the letters we've started putting a new letter on his chalk board every day. We've also pulled out some alphabet flash cards that we used for sign language and he plays with those at the table as well. After 2-3 weeks Carter now knows 21 letters (capital and small).

It is just so amazing to watch him learn and be so interested in it! We went to the grocery store last night and he was asking what every sign said and even what the label on every item said. It opens us up to so many more learning opportunities!