To teach a toddler

It's easy to see that learning starts way before a child sits at a desk or walks through kindergarten doors. The first year, the teaching comes pretty easy. Teaching baby how to eat, drink, crawl, walk--babies do it all in their own time, in their own way, and a parent's involvement is pretty straight-forward. Heck, a lot of the responsibility in the first year is just keeping baby alive. Feeding them, keeping them from tumbling down a set of stairs or choking on a penny, padding the furniture so they don't crack their heads open trying to walk. These are the ways parents occupy their time that first year. While the sleepless nights, colicky days, hundreds of bottles, thousands of diapers and the occasional heart attack as you watch baby take a spill may be hard on your health, the first year flies by. And with Evie, the first year was easy.

The second year is where the real learning started for us. We have been reading to Evie since before she was born. I remember reading "Piggie in a Puddle" to Evie while I was about 6 months pregnant. We always have pointed out things in the pictures, narrated, used sound effects, etc. We talked to Evie constantly. Repeated sounds, stressed syllables and said words over and over and over. Despite our efforts, Evie's first words didn't come until long after the 6 month average. She was about 10 months old when she really started using "mama" and "dada," words that most babies have long since mastered and moved on from. Now at 20 months she's finally progressing in her speech and starting to catch up to where she should be.

While her communication skills fell behind, Evie has always been ahead on all her physical milestones, from fine motor skills to the bigger stuff. She walked at 10 months, was stacking blocks, walking up stairs, climbing ladders, jumping, dancing, and more long before the baby books said she should. Heck, long before they thought she might be trying them.

Believe me, I'm one of those parents who obsesses a bit over milestones. Every month I read my "What to Expect" book for both Evie and Elly and look at what they should be learning to do this month. Granted, Elly's list is much longer than Evie's. But Elly obviously is lacking a lot more! And I push them every month towards those goals. Like this month Elly needs to be able to hold her head up when pulled to sitting and push up on her arms. So that's what we're working towards.

But now Evie is almost two. While we of course work on her language development daily, we have also been teaching her other things this year. Things that, before you have kids, you don't think about having to "teach" someone. Like the names of body parts and laughing at the hilarity of when they misunderstand (No baby, that's your belly, not your butt.) or stammering to come up with a cutesy name for the girl parts. Lately, we've been going over shapes and colors and counting.

Thank goodness for educational toys. They make this easier.

We sit in the floor and I ask Evie where the blue shape is or the purple shape. And she picks it up or points to it. Where the star is or the triangle. And she tries to identify it. Every time I ask her to find one by both color and shape she gets it, but sometimes she mixes up shapes if I ask them solo.

She tells me that the purple star is her favorite.

Like anything else, learning shapes and color and counting has its successes and frustrations. And unfortunately Evie has a Molotov cocktail of temper and patience that she inherited from her parents. My husband's temper and my lack of patience combine into a hell-cat combo. Frequently these games of "learning" dissolve into Evie screaming and throwing the toys across the room before she gets up and leaves. She cannot handle any form of failure. I've found that even telling her in a kind, constructive way that she's doing something incorrectly brings on tears and trauma. Telling her she's being silly for deliberately pointing to the wrong pictures in a book led to a complete meltdown one night. A snot-covered, sniffling toddler curled up on my lap having to be reassured that it was okay for 20 minutes kind of meltdown.

While she never got frustrated with just shapes and colors today, she did get really ticked that the square wouldn't fit through the triangle's slot. And when the heart and star weren't interchangeable...well, meltdown city here we come!

Teaching is hard. It's tough to stay positive and focused and not get frustrated. Especially when dealing with a wanna-be two-year-old who throws a hissy fit when she gets something wrong. But it is also incredibly rewarding when she gets it right and grins proudly. And she's so adorable sorting her shapes out and putting them in the container.

At times I'd even call her highly entertaining. Next up...counting past five! Woohoo.