Colors/ letters - Teaching kids

mommymommy wrote: What age has everyone started teaching their children about colors and abc's?..We sre trying to teach Cate about colors ( primary) and she seems to be understanding a few..I'm just trying to decide if I should keep going and reeinforcing what she's learning or just waiting..She's able to say blue, yellow red and pick colors out that I've shown her immediately afterwards..However I'm not sure if it's too early or not..Please advise!

Calimama replied: How old is she?

Miabella is 22 months and we do colors, numbers, and letters. She's picking them up.

grapfruit replied: My niece turned two in April, and I've been working on her w/that when I see her for awhile. I'm not 100% if mom is or not....but the other weekend we were at a birthday party and she knew a yellow balloon was a yellow balloon She beat it up.

my2monkeyboys replied: I never intentionally taught Will, but ever since he was a baby, when I would talk to him or show him things I'd just always say what color, shape, number, letter, etc. it was.
For example, if I noticed him looking at a bear, I'd show it to him and tell him about it, mentioning that his fur is soft, and take his hand and rub it, and that he was a brown bear, and bears eat honey and live in the woods. That kind of thing. I always try to use every situation as a chance to learn, but in a very relaxed way, without being like, Oh, I must teach him this or that. If that makes any sense!

grapfruit replied:
Yes! That's what I do w/Alyx.

My Nannie said that when I was REALLY little (I moved to Oh at 2, so before that). She would push me in the stroller for a walk everyday and we would call out the house numbers. Look at the birds, colors of cars, things like that.

DVFlyer replied: I don't think it's ever too early.

stella6979 replied: It's never too early! When Avery was only a few months, I would grab a bunch of things of one color and place them in front of her and just say the color over and over. We did different colors everyday and by her 1st birthday she knew all her colors and could count to 10. They are tiny little sponges and pick up so much more than we sometimes give them credit for.

Sam & Abby's Mom replied:
Sammy, too! By one he was counting to "eleventeen" LOL and knew his colors -- even weird ones like brown and gray.

Like others have said -- just use every situation as a chance to teach -- keeping it fun, of course. Good luck and have fun !

My3LilMonkeys replied:
I agree. I think at a young age you don't want to push them or force them to learn if they don't seem interested, but if you just keep talking about it all the time they'll pick it right up.

Cece00 replied: I used to teach my kids that sort of stuff when I just had 1 or 2 but now that there are 4, I have a lot less time for that I admit I didnt really try to teach my other 2 kiddos that, but Natalie has picked it up nonetheless, and she is GOOD at it...colors, numbers, letters, shapes...we didnt even know she knew them, but she points all those things out ALL the time to us. She is 2.

my2monkeyboys replied: That's proof that kids really are sponges... the soak up the good, the bad and the ugly!

Boo&BugsMom replied:
Ditto. Even with Aiden (14 months) as we are playing with things I will say things like "blue ball" instead of just "ball". It's never too early. There is a difference between forcing/pushing and challenging/teaching. You can make any moment a teachable moment even when it's just random playing. You can say things to help them learn their colors, #'s, and letters as you are free-playing without making it seem like you are pushing a concept on them. After much repetition it will start to sink in with her as time passes. Introducing them to those concepts also fosters their language skills.

Tanner knew his letters (upper and lower), colors, and numbers (numerals) pretty early. By the time he was 2 he knew all those for the most part. At 3 we started to do sight words and writing. He was very intrigued by learning, and still is. Fostering that love for learning is extremely important.

HuskerMom replied:
I agree.

Keith loves to color so whenever we get his crayons out I tell him the color when I give him one. He's not saying what color they are but if I ask him where's the red one or blue one and a few others he's able to pick them out.