Does your toddler sit long enough to learn...

Does your toddler sit long enough to work on things?

Megan is all over the place. I have to incorporate her learning into her play mostly. I talk constantly so I know shes learning things but she wont sit down long enough to focus on what I am teaching her. I sat down with flash cards before, she was running all over. Every day I try to sit with her letter puzzle and/or her abc coloring book. She sits for 5 minutes at most and she is gone.

Am I expecting too much from her to sit longer to focus on these "lessons" or do most children just want to run around instead?

I was a preschool teacher for 10 years but it was such a different setting. Being in a classroom is so different from your own child being in her own home being able to manipulate Mommy.

Just interested in seeing how other toddlers react to "learning time."

Re: Does your toddler sit long enough to learn...

I think 5 minutes is about the norm for their attention span---probably even less time.

My DD doesn't sit much longer than your DD but she has soaked up a lot of learning in her 22 months. She can count from 1-13 (actual objects), knows her colors and knows her ABC's (and pretty much can name all animals). For her, I think it's the repetition, not so much the length of time for each lesson. I do a little something daily but pretty quickly & informally. It probably helps that my DD is a talking machine and she repeats everything I say!

Message edited 7/22/2008 1:53:50 PM.

Re: Does your toddler sit long enough to learn...

I can't get Lauren to sit still for 5 minutes straight. It's just her temperment. I stopped trying to teach her things a long time ago, I just have no patience.

Re: Does your toddler sit long enough to learn...

I have one of the most active toddlers around, and it is definitely tough these days to teach her stuff. We just have to be creative in the ways we go about it, I guess. We do it all through play. She's into playing games with cards, so I'll thrown them on the floor (it gets her excited that we're being "wild" ) then she has to go search out pairs, or look for a specific letter, etc. This way she's still running around, but with more of a purpose. If that's possible
We tried to use scissors today, and as I was showing her how to use them, she lost interest, and said, "You try, Mommy," and ran away. Whatever, I'm sure she'll learn along the way!