Teaching other people's children is tough, teaching your own children is even tougher. I tried many ways teaching my daughter from speaking to reading, recognizing, morality, attitude and so on. First of all, I teach my daughter to talk but it is hard for my daughter to learn. My daughter is better in listening rather than speaking. She understands what we told her. She can follow instruction very well.
Mood is quite a factor in teaching toddler to talk. If she is in the good mood, she can speak very well, with the right sentence structure and grammar. If she is in a not-so-good mood, she will just say "no..no..no..".
These days I have been teaching her to recognize things on the road. She can catch up with one wording word like the car, road, tree, flower, grass and I'm quite happy with that. So, I started to try two wording words. First, I tried the "lamp post" but she kept on saying "lamp". After several attempts, I said "no..no..no.. is lamp post laa..". This time she finally make up the word, she said "lamp post laa..". Hahaha...this really makes her father laughing at her..ooh no...perhaps my hubby is laughing at me!
A good environment is also very important in terms of building one's character and attitude. I have been teaching for many years and I personally find that children even adults are easily influenced by the people around them, needless to say TODDLER. Toddler is naive. They have no sense of right or wrong. They don't understand what is beating, why you beat her. So, they are even easier influenced by people around them. Just like my daughter, she follows what she saw her cousins were doing. I remember clearly that she followed them jumping down from the sofa. It's dangerous but she has no sense of that. If she really fell down and broke her teeth then, I guess she will understand that it is wrong to do so. But, prevention is better than curing. This is what I did. I neither scold nor beat her and her cousins. First, this is because they are not my children, I have no rights to scold them. Second, scolding and beating is not very effiency in educating her. So, I talk to her nicely. If one day, she repeats, I will punish her ( not physical punishment ) but something that are more direct to the point. For example, no sofa for her for a day or two or cleaning up the sofa as she had made it dirty. Honestly speaking, from that day onwards, I never bring her to her cousin's house. Perhaps, I'm over-protected but this is the best and the most effiency way from letting her learning all the bad manner.
A relaxing and enjoyable environment is also very important when you try to teach your children. Make the whole teaching process very interesting with singing, playing, exercising and so on. Doing art work is what really attract them.
Toddler's span of attention is really short. Make each lesson as short as 5 minutes. Time can be extended as toddler gets older. You could have a short break within each lesson or maybe have a bite. Above all these, you as the educator must be patient. Don't get angry easily, don't give up easily. Try again and again, today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow...one day, your children will get it right. All the best to all the mothers, fathers and educators!
