Colour me WILD...

I’m convinced Early Literacy (Reading and Math) is extremely important in building a child’s vocabulary, and eventually his affecting his growth and maximizing his potential. An early start gives us, as parents the opportunity to lead our little ones to love reading and not to look at it as a chore or something one is forced to do. Learning should be made to be fun and easy to do.

About 4 months ago while driving my car, Julian (then 20 months old) suddenly pointed out to a red Honda City and said, “Red car!”. I was surprised (who wouldn’t be?), so I decided the next day that maybe I could start showing him different colours to promote colour comprehension. I had a stack of  10 printed butterflies of various colours and laid it out in front of him, and as I was beginning to name the colours, he NAMED EVERY single colour (without help). I was stunned, and tried immediately thinking back of when and how he could’ve learned it. All on his own? Maybe. By observation? Could be. Then it struck me that I had actually flashcarded him colours sometime ago, not too aggressively but I did. Probably 2-3 times, maybe. What an amazing memory. I believe that young children are sponges. They soak it all in. Young kids are more able to retain information. I know that I can recall more from my early childhood than I can from high school.

This is a blurb from Babycenter  “Your child's ability to recognize different colors heats up at around 18 months, the same time he begins to notice similarities and differences in shape, size, and texture. Then it will be a while longer before he's able to name the colors — most children can name at least one color by 36 months.”

Awhile ago, someone told me that I was “pushing” my children to read and “study”- as he referred to it -  too early and that they should be having a fun-filled childhood, not bogged down with reading and difficult stuff like schoolwork . Pushing? I’m not too sure. Difficult stuff? I don’t think so. At that point, the only thing I was doing was reading to my 2 bubs roughly 2 books a day (their favourite board books, Little Puppy and Puppy Dog, don’t ask me what the fixation with puppies are, and STILL is) – which is VERY few, and doing a little flashcards for about 10 minutes a day, 3-4 times a week. Nothing much else, lots and lots of play and of course plenty of wooden puzzles, also for them to play with. Genevieve, at that point 8 months old was only putting the puzzle pieces in her mouth, and Julian at 20 months  was only interested in throwing the pieces around. I still persevered thinking that one day, they might actually take a liking to it. (STILL persevering, HAHA). In my opinion, why not teach and ingrain into them the love of reading/study/schoolwork (however one may refer to it) so when the child eventually goes to school (which in this day and age, they have to, to be socially independent) they don’t perceive it as a burden or duty.

I don’t think my son is “precocious”, no way. Mainly because, I have in fact been practicing a little reading, bits and pieces of  flashcards when I have the time and a some music (although very little), without which I don’t think he will be able to know as much as he does. One of the main approaches of the program I wanted to use with my children was that it should be a fun experience, nothing forced nor punitive. We enjoy it, our “learning time”. If it helps them in any way, then why not? Let learning be fun and casual and most importantly always improvise to make them want more!

 This is a video of Julian naming the colours