I used to “teach” my now 11 year old things as an infant just because *I* was bored. So I’d walk around the room showing her everything that was green, for instance, at weeks old. I didn’t expect her to learn any of it (and she didn’t). Reading to them and talking to them is really the best as other have said. Later I feel like it’s easy to work math into life without a curriculum. Like my younger DD (now 7) likes to bake. I’ll say “okay, the recipe calls for 2 tablespoons, but we’re doubling it. Can you tell me how many tablespoons to use?” Things like that.

My 11 year old is a strong student, and my 7 year old has done a great job learning to read this year.

Anonymous wrote:As a first-time mom, I'm feeling overwhelmed trying to teach my 15-month-old all the basics like colors, numbers, ABCs, shapes, and animals as well as encourage speech and appropriate social skills. Should I be more structured in my teaching approach? Has anyone followed a relaxed curriculum with their toddler? I'm worried about her not keeping up with other kids her age. My husband says I should just relax. Is he right?

Give it a rest,! She is only 15 months old and you're driving her crazy

For now, relax a bit.

As you ordinarily talk about things, include the correct color and shape words. (“There is a blue ball”) Also, talk about left and right, while pointing in the correct direction but from where their eyes look, not from where your eyes look. (“Oh, look, there is a brown dog on your right.”).

At DC’s age, their brain is wired to learn these things automatically. You help them build that concept and that vocabulary by always using color words, shape words, and so on.

If your kid knows the alphabet but isnt potty trained don’t tell me they’re so smart. You have failed as a parent.

Hugs, OP. Make friends and get out of the dc mad house!

Anonymous wrote:As a first-time mom, I'm feeling overwhelmed trying to teach my 15-month-old all the basics like colors, numbers, ABCs, shapes, and animals as well as encourage speech and appropriate social skills. Should I be more structured in my teaching approach? Has anyone followed a relaxed curriculum with their toddler? I'm worried about her not keeping up with other kids her age. My husband says I should just relax. Is he right?

Please relax. I have three very intelligent kids and the eldest was around this age (a few months younger) when CoVID began and we just read books and talked to her and she’s doing great. My middle child is also doing well. Kids learn through osmosis…their brains are sponges so to speak (hence picking up languages is much easier) so just focus on creating a stimulating, happy, active situation for your child. You being stressed will impact your child more negatively than you not teaching your child about koalas.

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, OP here. Thanks for the responses. I appreciate the feedback, it helped me see how silly I was being. Dealing with mom guilt is a constant battle for me. I often find myself questioning if I'm doing enough for/with my daughter.

I get it, mom guilt can make me crazy too. All I focused on for my kids under four was being good human beings. I’m pretty confident they’ll learn all the other things (first started preschool at 3 and 2nd will start at 2) when they need to know them.

My mostly hands-off on skills has worked out pretty well, though my 4 year can’t draw a person w 3 body parts so apparently I should work on that (honest to god that was a q at his check-up recently) But then we worked on having some coloring/drawing time and he figured it out.

Anonymous wrote:As a first-time mom, I'm feeling overwhelmed trying to teach my 15-month-old all the basics like colors, numbers, ABCs, shapes, and animals as well as encourage speech and appropriate social skills. Should I be more structured in my teaching approach? Has anyone followed a relaxed curriculum with their toddler? I'm worried about her not keeping up with other kids her age. My husband says I should just relax. Is he right?

15 months is barely out of infancy.
Please tell me this is a joke?

OP take my advice as the mom of a fairly high achieving high schooler.

Go to a teacher store and hang up ABC/123/whatever posters in your child's room. We had ABC as decorations, numbers to 100 grid, and flags (he loves geography to this day). I think we had bears, which he picked out. Just...hang them up. Put one above the diaper changing station. 5 posters is about $20.

Get the Melissa and Doug letter and number puzzles. Watch basic Sesame Street alphabet videos in the background. Be chill about this.

Don't expose them to 100 different alphabets with cursive and cutesy fonts (where the letters stop looking like letters).

Read to your kid. Talk to them all the time and explain things...even things they don't ask you to explain (like a real person, not always a baby).

Chill out. It's gonna be fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, OP here. Thanks for the responses. I appreciate the feedback, it helped me see how silly I was being. Dealing with mom guilt is a constant battle for me. I often find myself questioning if I'm doing enough for/with my daughter.

Hugs OP! Sorry there have been so many mean comments. If you feel your child is behind or is rebelling against learning, do you think it could be an expression of dissatisfaction with their assigned gender at birth?

Np. Have we been reading the same comments? No one has been mean. It is understandable that op wants to be a good mom but sometimes doing 'nothing' is the best...let her be a baby! Splash in puddles, bang pots together, dig in the garden

Have fun and enjoy your baby!

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, OP here. Thanks for the responses. I appreciate the feedback, it helped me see how silly I was being. Dealing with mom guilt is a constant battle for me. I often find myself questioning if I'm doing enough for/with my daughter.

Hugs OP! Sorry there have been so many mean comments. If you feel your child is behind or is rebelling against learning, do you think it could be an expression of dissatisfaction with their assigned gender at birth?

Just narrate, sing, read and explain. No need to "teach" anything. I SAH and my kids went to part-time loosey goosey church preschool with no formal "curriculum." All started K right where they needed to be and are great students in MS and HS.

I totally get why you feel the way you do, and felt the same way with my first. Unless you have a background in psychology/child development/early childhood education, it can be really daunting! I also felt like there were no easy to digest books about child development at that age (like no “What to Expect”, etc) which makes it even harder.

The best resources I found, that help with understanding how and want your baby should be learning, was the CDC’s milestones program and Zero to Three’s website. Here is an example of info from the CDC https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/parents_pdfs/milestonemomentseng508.pdf

They also have a great app that us helpful for tracking milestones and that has good demonstrations/suggestions on exercises. Tbh both resources are kind of clunky and get less specific/helpful over time, but I found them at a basic level really informative and helped me better understand where my daughter was developmentally.

Good luck!! You are both learning so much and doing amazing!!

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, OP here. Thanks for the responses. I appreciate the feedback, it helped me see how silly I was being. Dealing with mom guilt is a constant battle for me. I often find myself questioning if I'm doing enough for/with my daughter.

Have another one. It will cure you of worrying too much about the first one. Lol.