My

Well...you can try it.
Switch activities at the first sign of boredom, loss of attention, etc.
Why not use real life activities instead?
I remember when my son was little like that, and we were in the car, we'd find street signs with different letters, things of a yellow color, etc.
Just TALK to him--a LOT. All the time.
And read to him EVERY DAY. Even if it's his favorite book over and over and over. Hearing you read will teach him volumes about voice inflection, language, expression and vocabulary.
Alphabet books and number books are especially perfect for him right now!
Good luck!

Do what two year olds are supposed to do: play, listen to stories, talk to parents, imagine, and explore! He will get what he needs with that. Kids are only little once... Enjoy it.

Flashcards are BORING!!!!!

Make learning fun...... have him help you around the house, with small chores, as others have suggested.... For example, focus on 1 color a week... (But continue to point out all the other colors).....

Set up several cups on the kitchen floor as you are loading the dishwasher.... ask.... "Can you give me the blue cup?" Have him go find a dirty shirt that is blue....

Every thing you talk to him about, start pointing out shapes.... "Oh, look... that plate is shaped like a circle!"

Tell him the colors of everything.... "Oh, look... let's have a red apple for a snack!"

Don't expect him at this point to be able to identify shapes and colors, but you can ask him to pick out a particular color after doing this for a while.....

The more you talk to them, the more they absorb.....

The question I have is why? Flashcards are for older kids. Little ones like your child learn by PLAYING - not by rote memorization.

Take your child to the store, the park, a museum. Talk, talk, talk to him. Point out what you are buying. Count with him. Add with him. Use real life items. Read, read, read to him. Installing a love for books will help him care to learn from now on.

For his speech-take him to get a speech and language evaluation. That is very important. A little bit of intervention early on can really make a huge difference. You need to be thinking about THIS aspect of his learning FAR more than pushing anything else.

If you don't believe me, ask your ped, and you will get the same answer.

Dawn

no flash cards!

make learning a fun, interactive process. Make it 2nd nature to identify #s while putting away crayons, blocks, canned goods, buttoning/snapping up shirts, etc. Use crayons & blocks to separate, sort, & categorize colors. Use books filled with shapes...instead of flash cards.

The whole key is to make it a part of daily life. He's not even 2 yet! Relax - he should only be able to sit still & focus ....pretty much 1 minute for each year, which puts him at 2 minutes. Not much time to work with!

I also use wooden puzzles to teach colors & shapes, & when I move on to the ABCs. It is amazing how much a puzzle will teach kids to sit still & focus ....+ keep them interested.

Think outside of the box & you'll both be happier!

Please do not use flash cards. Please do not do anything "formal" with your child. Instead, get an ABC puzzle, read lots of books, and have some fun.

Most importantly, talk, and talk, and talk. Do you want the blue cup or the red cup, etc.

In terms of counting, just start counting steps as you walk down or up them. Sing the ABC song while washing his hands. This is all you need to do. Just play with your child and take him on lots of adventures outside the house. In fact, spend a good few hours outside exploring everyday. This is what they need at this age.

YES, IT IS TOO MUCH! He is still a baby whether you see him that way or not. And really what do you think has been learned from flash cards, really? Even for older children they're like a posion to the mind for the most part. What is your motive? Often we become afraid our child won't cut it in school or whathaveyou, but this is not the way to assure anything worthy or education or other wise.
You need to sing to him, love him, let him be 2, educate yourself on this and the stages of life of a child, practice a few nursery rhymes (memorize) and say them from your heart every day to him.

Have fun and you won't be sorry. Push and present things long before they're time and you will both suffer from it. This is just the way of it, it's life.

Human beings grow into adulthood through 3 basic stages - 0 to 7, 7-14 and 14 to 21. One enters adulthood at 21 years and then becomes an adult at 28 - that is if everything goes well. In our modern society it seems everything is out to destroy or in the least disrupt this process which is natural and the way of it no matter what, one cannot change this fact. It's a matter of educating one's self to these processes/stages and working with them not against them.

Until your child is 7 everything will be learned by your actions - by imitating you - what you do , how you do them, why you do them. This is why your heart and mind is so important, your heart full of love and knowledge and your mind full of reason and intelligence.

Grow and Grow and Grow in Love

"Accept the children with reverence, teach them with love, send them forth in freedom." -- R.S.

Put the flash cards away. Read to him, play with him, and just love him. That is all he needs at two years old. Do puzzles, he can learn shapes and colors from that. He is only two he needs to play, run, jump, and get his energy out, he will be in school for a very long time he doesn't need to sit still at his age. Basically sit with him and play, pointing out different things to him, colors, shapes, emotions, etc. He will learn much more through play then flash cards. It will only frustrate him and you.

Much better options at this point are just to keep talking with him all the time. Point to things in his environment and talk about them, "Oh, Look! There's a bird! See the bird fly! Where is that bird going?" You can do this with anything. I'd prop my son up in the shopping cart and have him "help" me with the shopping. " Where are the bananas? What fruits do you like?" Will you put this pear in the bag for me? " Things along this line.

Get some simple toddler tunes CDs and sing & dance with him. He'll probably start learning the songs quickly, and you'll hear him singing when he's in his room or playing by himself.

Play cars, action figures, blocks, whatever and talk with him as you play.

Read board books with him, pointing at the pictures as you read the words. Start bringing him to your local library to get him excited about books. "Let's go to the library today! You can choose some new stories!" Let him go over to the toddler section and pick some books. Go on a regular basis and watch his speech and vocabulary flourish.

I've been taking my son since he's been 18 months. He's always had a great vocabulary. He's now 7, loves books, and going to the library is still a special thing we love to do together.

All of these are much more productive and fun than flash cards!

Best to you and your son,

J. F.

In my opinion, yes, you are starting way too soon.

Flash cards are well-used for 'review' for grade schoolers. You are wanting to introduce new concepts. To that end, here are some 'tried and true' ideas I've found useful over the many years I've worked with little people:

In my toddler group, when I worked on lesson plans, all of the information I introduced was through playtimes. Consider that play is the work of the child and how a child best learns about their world. You can do a lot of great, fun stuff through art, sensory activities and block-building, just to start.

For example: instead of a flash card with a picture of a triangle, cut out several triangles from paper and talk about them. You can make them different colors (and verbally identify each color : "red triangle" "blue triangle"); you can use clear contact paper and let him stick all the triangles onto it, then stick it onto a bigger piece of paper and hang it up. You can also do two sizes of triangles, big and small. Introducing comparative language.

You can use playdough with shape cutters. Playdough is fantastic in helping children with their hand (palmar/pincer grip) and will help with holding a pencil, manipulating scissors and other tools later on.

With letters, I suggest parents find a 'tray' alphabet puzzle (where each letter sits by itself in the frame) and use this for play. It's an investment which will last for years and worth the money. Having the individual letters to handle and play with is fun. My preschoolers loved playing 'cookie bakery' and using a spatula to move the 'letter cookies' onto small plates, trays or paper bags. Name the letters as you go. (Be aware that many children don't 'know' all of their letters by sight until 4 or 5.) Later, you can use those letters to spell out some words. My son is five and now uses it for reference when he wants to write something out but forgets what the letter's shape looks like.

Numbers: counting objects is great fun for kids. Line up a few blocks and point to them as you count them. You will do this seemingly hundreds of times before your son chimes in. This is the first step in counting, teaching 1:1 correspondence. There are also sets of Teddy Bear Counters which some kids really like. It's not just about introducing the number symbols, it's about teaching what each number 'means' (amountwise).

Another useful toy for when your son is a bit older are Pattern Blocks.

One of my toddler group's favorite activities was a gross motor "run to the shape"...I'd use painters tape on the carpet and make large shapes the kids could stand in. You can do this with letters, too. Use the tape to make one big letter for the day; you can run a car on the lines of the letter. This is about providing a 'whole body' experience of the letter/shapes.

Two books to inspire you: MaryAnn Kohl's "Preschool Art" and "Math Art". I think you'll like Math Art... it uses supplies you likely have at home already and will be far more engaging for *you* than flash cards. Also ask your librarian for activity books, ideas. Tana Hoban and Bruce McMillan also do great books for introducing language concepts, as well as Ann Morris, who does a lovely job of taking a simple concept and showing lots of varieties of that object from around the world.

Remember, too, that toddlers are learning a lot, it's just that it often isn't the stuff we're sweating about... but it's still important information they're taking in. So remember that the kind of instruction you are thinking of should come later rather than sooner. For attention span, we always calculated "one minute per year" and tried to keep activities open-ended, short and light. Lots of good storytime with you, hit the library for storytimes, try a music and movement class or a messy art class through your parks and rec.... keeping it fun and playful at this age is most important, and don't forget to watch him and discover what *he* finds interesting. Building blocks, running cars down ramps, water in a bin or sink with toys that sink and float... all of this is learning too.:)

Ok, flashcards are getting a bad deal here. It is all about how you use them. I have a set a flashcards I got to work with my four-year old. My twins got into them when they were about 15 months old and LOVE them! The pictures are very high contrast, which attracts them visually, and they appreciate that they can pic it up, examine it, show it to me.... it is simply a different kind of interaction. I will also sometimes lay out the flashcards in little groups. Like in one area of the room, here are the circle, the square, the heart and a star. Next, here is a dog, a cat, a bird, and a bear. Next, here is an apple, shoes, boat, and a ball. Then we'll play a game about going to the different "stations", labeling the objects, then I will ask them to bring me something. It is not just sedentary "table work." Being creative is a big help to teaching our children. Another tip is to do things in ways that interest you and keep you active and your enthusiasm alone can be enough to captivate your child's interest.

There are dozens of reasons not to focus on flash cards so early. The main one is that, like My Baby Can Read, it drills on the overall "shape" of letters without teaching how they sound in words, and that type of memorization does not do a thing to develop the child's ability to "shape" words in his mouth.

That can only come with lots of practice. Making all those different sounds that become language is very complex, and it's a type of learning that happens in different brain areas than those that enable a child to memorize.

It's not unusual for a 2yo to still have limited and unclear language. But I'll bet your son can understand a great deal of what you say, even though he can't say it yet himself. But practice over the next couple of years will turn him into an expert. Meanwhile, do keep talking to him – explain what you're doing, what you see, read to him at every opportunity so he learns the power and joy of reading. He'll get to that when he's ready, usually somewhere between 4 and 6.

If, over time, he seems unable to form certain sounds at all, then you might have his hearing checked – if that's normal, then a language evaluation might be in order.

Yes, it is way too soon. Learning at this age is through play and experience. You talk about shapes, colors, sounds etc when you see them. Wow - look at the red bird on the green grass. There are two chairs over there, etc. I actually don't see a place for flash cards at ANY age. I think they are a FANTASTIC way to turn children off to learning. They are different from books in that books have a STORY - ok, really simple plots, but there are characters and action.
They should learn numbers from real objects that they can see and often manipulate - looking at and picking up two blocks is different from seeing a flashcard of two blocks. By handling the blocks, stacking, knocking over, etc, they learn what they can do with two. If they have three blocks and you take one away - they can see two. That is way more intuitive with real life manipulatives.

There is ZERO benefit to screen time in this age group. This includes so called educational DVDs so I wouldn't use those at all. The Montessori programs use sandpaper letters and feel the the combination of tracing these letters with the fingers and making the letter sounds is important. BUT - that is started at age 3.

Too soon. The best thing to do is keep talking so he can build his vocabulary and in time he will get it. No flash cards yet please!

Flash cards might end of being frustrating for both of you. He will get bored and you will keep trying to keep him on task and you will both hate it. The best way to build his vocabulary and help teach him new concepts is just through play and conversation.

Use colors and descriptive words in everything you do. For instance, "Where is your blue cup?" , "Would you like some orange carrots?" Use them all the time in any way that you can, even if it sounds silly to you. That's ok. He doesn't know it's silly, he's just figuring out that his cup is blue.

Play with him and talk to him while you are playing. If he's playing with blocks, sit with him and talk about it. "I'm going to make a tower out of these square blocks. I wonder if I can stack 4 of them. Let me see." Then count square blocks as you stack them. If you let him knock them over, he will surely want you to stack them again, which gives you another chance to count square blocks. Get him things he can sort. Let him help you string large beads or buttons or even fruit loops onto some yarn. Sort them by color with him. "Help me find the blue ones. That's a green one, this is a blue one. Can you see another blue one? That's an orange one, but here's another blue one. Let's see if we can find more. I'm going to use 5 blue ones to make my necklance." And so on.

Let him finger paint. Let him color and draw. Anything that will grab his attention, use as a moment to teach.

He's not ready for letters and numbers, but he is ready for colors, shapes and counting. All of these are important. Distinguishing between objects in a pre reading skill because later he will be distinguishing between letters.

Give him a year and let him learn the basics, then if you introduce letters, do it casually. Do it by the sound not the name of the letter. Do it while reading to him and find a book that has a lot of repetitive sounds. Introduce "G" with Green Eggs and Ham. Read it through and tell him, "This makes a "guh" sound. When I see it I know it sounds like "guh". Let's find all of them in the book and keep count. I bet theres a lot." If he gets bored, let him walk away and tackle it again later. Read the same book (although you don't have to JUST read that book, you can read others) everyday for a week and keep introducing that sound.

That's how I would do it. Hope this helps.

For the most part I'd be inclined to relax and let him just be a kid! HOWEVER, I had the early intervention people evaluate my son at that age for speech delays-- it was FUN, INFORMATIVE and FREE! Give them a call!

does he like movies?
Preschool Prep Co has dvds: Meet the letters, meet the sight words, meet the numbers, and so on. My library has them, so I rent them for free.

Another way to make it "fun" at home would be to let him look in a mirror and practice words with you so he can see how they're formed with the mouth. "MOO" Look at how "m" your lips are closed. "oo" your lips look like this.

Get sandpaper and cut out letters for him to trace with his finger. This tactile activity may help his brain make the connection. Have him say the letter as he traces it.

I agree with other posts that say just always be talking about what you see/read. "Oh look out the window. See the cows? Say that. "Cow. Cow." Good job! What sound does the cow make? "Mooo." Great! What else do you see outside? Gas? Oh Grass? Right! Do you know what that thing's called that keeps the cows inside the grass so they don't go on the road? It's called a fence. Can you say that? "Bince." Great. At home lets get out our mirrors and try the F sound. You have to kind of bite your bottom lip a little. "Fence.""

Okay . I read answers below. Mymirror thing and sandpaper thing may not work for such a young age. But I do think that yes, just verbalizing everything you guys do and having him repeat words/colors/shapes that you point out is a wonderful idea. Words wont sound perfectly clear at this age. Blue will still sound like "Boo" and Orange will sound like "onge".

One thing that bugs me is when parents let their children decide what words are. I have a friend that says to her 17 month old "Do you want your booh-bah?" and apparently booh-bah is "juice." WHAT? Your child calls it booh bah. Okay. Well if he asks for booh-bah you should say "You want juice? Say JUICE." and give him the juice after he gets anything remotely sounding like "juice" out of his mouth. The parent should not use the kids words in my opinion. Teaches them that they can make up all the words they want, but only one or two people will know what in the heck they are saying.

Not sure if your son is still in a highchair or not, but that's the best place to start. While they are sitting there eating finger foods is the best time to play the flashcard games. They (did it with my sons, both were reading on their own by age 3 and my DIL did it with my granddaughter who also now reads on her own at age 3) like that intervention while eating. If you are doing math, it's a good time to have them counting cheerios on their tray, etc.

Another is Little Einsteins. Teaches in a really entertaining way, as does Team Umizoomi.

Might be too soon for flash cards IF he isnt interested. My child had a hard time speaking because she had a huge overbite from thumb sucking. Many letter and phogram sounds use the tounge and teeth, or the tounge agaist the back or the teeth or roof of mouth..this made it hard for her to pronounce sounds......
Reading books out loud helps children to learn how to pronounce letters, if he will pay attentoin (my daughter couldnt at that age ). Speak slow and directly to his face so he can watch your mouth when you speak.

It is not too much at all. How is showing your kids flashcards of boats, kits, cats, and balls different from a picture book? It is just a different way of learning. Get flashcards for preschoolers that are simple with pictures on them that they would recognize...like balls, cats, dogs, ducks. I started my oldest with flashcards younger than a year and same with my second. I show the kids the cards, we talk about the pictures and whatnot, like how many balls are on the picture? what color? what does the lion say? etc. you get the idea. It is much more interactive then letting your son watch a video for learning.
Sometimes we do them for 30 seconds, 5 minutes...sometimes 20...sometimes my older child will do flashcards with the younger.

In fact, thanks for the reminder that I haven't done so in a while.

ETA: I really don't think why so many think why flash cards are too much. They even have touch and feel ones. It sparks dialog and it's not like your going to "quiz" your children on them later. Anyways...do what you think is best for you and your child.

Yes it would be too much. Just talk to him and play with him. That is how
they learn at that age.

Updated

No, not too soon. If he likes watching videos try the Letter Factory, it teaches the letters and the sounds they make in a very entertaining way

Get baby can read.. I use to put it on every morning when the baby ate breakfast.. U can definetly start doing it.. It won't hurt..
They say even if a baby isn't listening or looking at you.. If you read to them they will still consume it..