Funny as it seems that I am running out of ideas to teach my 39-month-old son.
Muhammad Essa had just turned 3 years old last August. By his tender age, he has already mastered the alphabets, phonics, numbers, shapes, colors, days of the week, months of the year, the solar system, and even flags of the world.
All these he had learned at home, from me, his own mother, who strives to juggle various roles as a parent, a wife, a part-time teacher, and nanny to him while working as an executive secretary by profession.
So, my dilemma now is how to stimulate a very curious toddler, who at this time due to COVID 19, I and his father, postponed the idea of sending him to nursery until the condition stabilizes.
Learning is a continuous process; I firmly believe so which is why I don’t stop thinking of ideas on how I can support my son’s curiosity and innate ability to learn and comprehend things fast.
I remember quite well when Muhamad Essa was just 3 months old. His attention span was so intense. Watching him eagerly paying attention to what I say or do had amazed me.
By the time he reached 5 months old, my toddler was already watching nursery rhymes in a controlled and supervise manner. We could see his growing interest with images and objects, so we introduced him to books which at 7 months he could already associate objects with their names.
At 17 months, our boy was already doing the phonics. At first, it was a struggle to enunciate H-A-T for H or A for A-I-R-P-L-A-N-E, but later Muhamad Essa had a hang of it.
When he turned 21 months, he shocked everyone that he can identify all the letters of the alphabets and can even count 1-10.
It was no surprise then at 26 months, our toddler almost memorized the contents of five of his favorite story books that it seems he was co-reading with me.
All these developmental milestones are documented to monitor his progress and help me track and sustain his interest.
Sharing with you here some links of Muhamad Essa’s YouTube videos featuring his developmental milestones at 2 years old to show moms out there, especially working mothers like me, that learning with your toddler could be fun and it’s the best way to bond and make up for the loss time.
So back to my current dilemma. How do I need to sustain my son’s interest while not making him feel bored?
Well, the mother must level-up.
I never had done crafts in my whole life, except when I was in grade school because our art teachers forced us to be involved in activities that create things by hand.
Never was I an artist too, although, there is a keen interest in me towards art, but I never truly developed my skills in perfecting sketching and painting which I would have loved to do if time and opportunity permit me.
But my current situation has forced me to learn the art of craftmanship. Novice as I am in this field, I have done several crafts using recycled materials in the office.
Since I don’t have time to do crafts at home, I create crafts using recycled paper pins, disposable cups, and plates, used water bottles and their covers, old stacks of calendars etc during my spare time or office break.
With sheer determination and with the help of Google images, believe it or not, I was able to create several pieces of lovely, crafted school bus made up of used medicine box and old staple wire box, a smiling sun made of used paper pins, a beautiful blue-winged butterfly made of used disposable black spoon, a rainbow with clouds made of old stacks of calendars and a lot more.
The best thing about creating toy crafts by yourself is that the immense joy you feel when your toddler loves and adores them.
It’s like teaching our toddlers to appreciate simple things, use ingenuity and boost their creativity while advocating sustainability and recycling.
Sharing some photos of my handmade crafts here to show moms out there, yes, we can do it!
Now that Muhamad Essa is introduced to crafts, we will begin a journey soon that the two of us will make creative stuff together using recycled materials.
As making crafts is vital for child development as it will help them refine their motor skills, increase their literacy, join me in my next adventure with Muhamad Essa on how it is great to create crafts together with a 3-year-old.
See you on my next blog on this topic!
Nov 24,2021
Image are my own
Glad that your son already know some basic things like that even he's not yet five years old. My younger sibling can't relate, though she already know how to count, spell her name, and the like by watching nursery rhymes on YouTube.