Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Alphabet Diapers & Number Snacks

The Well-Trained Mind famously advises singing the alphabet song every time you change a diaper. I have never actually remembered to do this, but it certainly seems like a great plan.

I have, however, come up with a pre-numeracy idea to complement the pre-literacy idea of the alphabet-song diaper changed.

I've started counting at every meal, and it's turned out to be great for both me and my kid. I realized at some point that while my kid is regularly spammed with the alphabet, he was getting less exposure to numbers. So I started looking for opportunities to count, and I found a lot of them in one of Jackson's favorite things: food. I started out counting tangerine segments (amazing how many tangerines have exactly 10 segments) and now we do chickpeas and Cheerios and broccoli florets. Not only does it slow down Jackson's very enthusiastic eating, I think he's started to say and/or comprehend two. He seems to say two now after I say one, and a couple of times he's held up two objects (binkies and toddler spoons) and said, proudly, "Two!"

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