Alright, so they aren’t even a year old. pre-school is way off in the distance. Daily homeschooling for twin infants from six months seems ludicrous. Well, we’re not exactly reciting the alphabet or doing addition, but there is a learning resource center nearby that we visited for some baby geared toys and I was amazed to learn how many puzzles and books were made for baby’s 6 months and up! We promptly grabbed anything that appealed to us and then narrowed it down to a couple of things we really wanted and went home anxious to begin teaching our twins.
Encouraging Infant Minds
We have never worried about either one of our babies development. There have been health concerns and minor scares that often plague first time parents. Some doctors are more understanding of that than others. However, where it comes to learning how to do things we simply encourage and facilitate. We do that by assuming babies are sponges, understanding the basic timeline of baby development, and providing access and proper motivation to make the next steps.
Sponges
Though I don’t have any science to back the premise, it is widely believed that babies are sponges that absorb everything. I here it all the time and have never seen it disputed. We assume this to be true. So when our babies became more alert and aware of their surroundings we tried to stimulate their minds with travel, books, and play. Most of our travel was around town to expose them to public places, however we did fly to LA and take them to Disneyland after just 3 months, and across the country to Disney World only on month later.
Again, I have no proof, no theory, not even a study on the subject, but I firmly believe Disneyland jumpstarted their little minds and Disney World too. There are basically two camps on the subject of infants and Disney Parks. The ones against it see babies as a hindrance and say the baby won’t remember anyway so there is no point. I’m for it. I say that if they are indeed sponges, there is no better place on earth to take a baby.
The whole place is designed to activate all of the senses. Every detail reinforces a positive concept and builds an idealized environment that is not merely artificial, but an optimized version of reality. When we came back from both trips the level of alertness from Gwendolyn and Lawson jumped dramatically. They were like different people. As for being a hindrance, they don’t have to be. You just have to plan a different kind of trip.
Timeline
Understanding a common timeline for growth is good for keeping connected with your baby’s capabilities and what they’ll do next. We don’t want to stress about it or force it along, every baby is different and we have especially found that to be true between Gwendolyn and Lawson. The reason behind following the timeline is not to hurry a baby or worry about not making milestones “on time.” Instead, its something to keep in the back of your mind so that you can be the proper support for that stage in you babies development.
Babies tend to figure things out on their own eventually, but as parents we will be guiding them for a good couple of decades at least. I see this as an opportunity for parental development, just as much as it is for the development of baby.
Access
Access and support are so important. For me this started with the NICU when he needed to learn how to feed. It continued with giving him and his sister enough tummy time, and later motivation to roll over, sit up, crawl, etc.
In the spirit of providing access and encouragement the same way we encouraged them to start crawling, we brought home some age appropriate learning materials in the form of 2-piece color puzzles and an interactive counting book. Both are puffy and soft. I especially linke the color puzzle because it works on different levels. four pieces are fruit/veggies, and four are animals. The object is to connect a piece with the corresponding color which requires fairly refined motor skills as well.
Our School Sessions
One great thing I have been using with the twins is a kit of four separate sets of teaching subjects that come with books, flashcards, puppets, etc. Every day at around 11:oo– once they’ve settled down from their big meal– I set Gwendolyn and Lawson in their little booster seats and give them a new lesson.
The lessons are only about twenty minutes long and focus on facial features, numbers (1-5), first words, and animals. The animals section comes with a touch and feel book and describes various animal sounds. The first words section contains a book and a stack of one piece puzzles. The hardest one for me is the numbers section. The finger puppets are difficult and there is not much for them to respond to. It’s hard to get twenty minutes out of that one. Thankfully they have a very entertaining number book that I think does a better job of explaining numbers.
After the twenty minute session I do a quick lesson with their color puzzle. It eases them into their free play and I think Lawson in particular is really picking up on some of it already. He consistently chooses correctly when offered multiple choice.
I like that I can offer them lessons at this point in the day. They have a lot of structure in their days; but the period from 11:00 to 12:30 has always been kind of unspoken for. It used to involve a lot of crying, which lead to trying distract them until meal time. This is so much more productive and it seems to make them happier.
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