Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Not Being The Firstborn is Not an Excuse!

A hard reality hit me a couple weeks ago that left me feeling like a not-so-great mom. My son is no where near the level my daughter was at this age of knowing her letters and numbers and actually even able to read two or three words. I know a lot of times second children don’t get the same amount of time and attention as firstborn’s get, but that’s no excuse for him being so far behind her.

He knows his alphabet and he knows how to count to 20. But he doesn’t recognize letters (except for “J” and “K” because those are the letters that his and his sister’s names start with). Like I said, my daughter not only could recognize letters, she could read a few words! It hit me the other day that she was addicted to this toy:


So this weekend I sat my son down and we started playing with it. It’s always been on our refrigerator, and he always pushes the button that plays the ABC song, but he never put the actual letters in it and listened to what sounds they made. I was very nervous about how he would handle this because his attention span can be very short for things like this. But he really surprised me! And each day since then he’ll plop himself down by the refrigerator and say “mommy, do letters with me.” It’s so neat to watch him closely watch my mouth as we both sing the song…he’s watching exactly how I’m saying the letter and the sound. In just three days I’ve seen such an improvement in him! This toy has once again been the perfect thing!

I hope this works and I can catch him up. I know everyone says that girls are usually more advanced at this age, but I don’t want that to be the case just because I didn’t spend enough time working with him.

8 comments:

Sherry said...

You are such a good mom!!! You are right everyone does say the second child doesn't get all the focus that the first born does, and again right there's no excuse.
Educational toys are awesome aren't they? And you son has the willingness to learn. Before you know it he will be right up to speed on the entire alaphabet. You make learning fun for your children so you will have no worries with him!!!
Kudos for being the perfect mom!!

Anonymous said...

Morgan has this toy and loves to hear the ABC song. While I'm in the kitchen, she'll come in and put random letters in. We've been working on finding the letters in her name. She's been able to get the M, O, A so far.

I don't think you should EVER feellike a not-so-great Mom. EVER. Got it? E-V-E-R. You are a wonderful Mom to your kids and they know it.

:)

Amy W said...

It's weird, there are some things Audrey is way better at then Ashley was at this age, and some things she isn't.

Rachel (Crazy-Is) said...

Don't beat youself up about it! Don't consider him to be "behind", consider her to have been "ahead".

Edie said...

Don't worry, he'll catch on *real* quick... especially when he realizes what his big sis is doing, he'll want to do what she's doing. :)

Kelly said...

Oh yeah!! Thats awesome now he's asking you to do them with him. He will catch on...just look at the improvements you've seen in the 3 days!

Anonymous said...

When I took Michael in for his 18-month appointment, I told his pediatrician that by that age Emma was lightyears ahead of him in terms of speaking. The doctor scolded me for COMPARING!! Said that Michael is perfectly fine, and Emma's abilities at the same age have nothing to do with anything.

Point being? You're great. He will learn the letters. And we've all read the studies that say that by Grade 1 they are all at the same level anyhow...

As for the LeapFrog toy... we have it too. Sadly the majority of the magnetics are UNDER the fridge!!!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE that toy. It is the greatest thing ever. (ok, maybe I'm exagerating just a bit) We pulled it out of one of the boxes the other day, and Anya has been playing with it since. She's not onto the learning letters part yet, but we're working on colors with it instead.