The Boy sat in his high chair at lunchtime, looked at the slice of mini pizza that I had give him and declared, "triangle!". He was right, it was. He had a big kiss as congratulations and looked, quite rightly, pleased with himself.
(Today he had a vegetarian lunch. When meat is involved lunch can be a game of cat and mouse with him offering me his ham sandwich and lovely sloppy chicken kisses. I've succeeded in avoiding sharing his food, but who can resist a 'tiss'?)
Last week at the soft-play centre, we were building towers with giant lego. He broke off from play, glanced up at the shapes painted on the wall and said 'cirtle, tri-gle, skwar' (I do know how to spell in case you were wondering if I'm the worst teacher ever).
Of course, he was completely correct but how on Earth does he know this? I know we play together and it is directed to facilitate his learning, but that's not what I mean. I find it fascinating how babies and toddlers learn. My mum and I were discussing this last week. The Boy has a very expressive face and as a result, you can see his thought processes especially when he glances up to the top-left, like when a person lies and is accessing the creative part of their brain. (I don't think he's lying anyway. First of all he's 20 months old so I hope he doesn't know how to. Secondly, he comes out with factual statements, so if he is trying to lie he's a bit rubbish at it!).
Watching The Boy learn is like nothing short of seeing the neural pathways fuse together and make a new connection. In older children, when they have an extensive vocabulary and a sense of reasoning and logic, it is easier to see a 'learning moment', but in a toddler with a limited lexicon it's not so easy to pinpoint why he has 'picked something up'. Either way, this is why I love watching him play; the wealth of information that his little mind has to acknowledge, digest and assimilate. They are nothing short of miracles really!
Although, I do believe that Mister Maker may have something to do with it. Altogether now,
"I am a ….."
The little one used to love the shapes on Mister Maker. She seems to have grown out of that and her current phase is about making letter shapes with her body (I would say fingers but she uses legs and arms and everything) and spotting letter shapes anywhere she can. It's so much fun watching them learn
That must be hysterical to watch. Aren't we lucky?
he's a clever little one!
I was just saying to someone the other day about how they manage to distinguish between men & women – Jack seems to get it right most of the time – occasionally he might say ' dere man' when he's sees an elderly lady in a big coat & a hat. I'd love to know what goes on in their little heads!
x
Ah see, to The Boy everyone is a man. He knows the word lady but so far isn't able to distinguish.
Aww I love this blog!
My son is only 15 months so not at the recognising shapes yet, but his logic astounds me sometimes. It is one of the things I find most rewarding about parenting – watching their understanding develop. You got it to a 'T' in your post. 🙂
Thank you! Very kind of you.
You watch his logic and understanding deepen over the next few months; it is astounding.
Aww he sounds very bright, it is amazing how they learn! My nieces new word is "tock" (clock) and she'll point to every clock or watch. The other one is "poo poo" whilst patting anyones bum! 🙂
Of course, he's bright: he's my son! 😉
The Boy does the tick-tock thing too, very cute. He doesn't do gthe poo-poo one though, that's really quite cute!
Thanks, I've now got that stupid song going round in my head and I've not even watched the silly prgogramme for months!
I now have the Mister Maker, I am a shape, song in my head! ha! Lovely post. Watching them learn is amazing, I'm fascinated.
At the moment, Charles will happily sit there playing, and I can be chatting to someone and all of a sudden he repeats something I've said, they are listening and learning all the time!
He is the same with the 'lady/man' thing sort of. EVERYONE is man, even though he knows when someone is a lady. Does that make sense?
We also have the poo thing, but only if its me or my husband :-O I went to the toilet at my mother in laws the other day, he got upset as I left the room so I said mummys just going to the toilet, to which he replied "mummy poo"! Then the same happened with daddy.
Back to your post though, I'm very impressed with your boy knowing his shapes already!! Very clever!
That makes complete sense, he does know the difference just thinks that man is a term used to refer to people! And yes, the toilet thing, but ours is wee-wee!
So lovely when they seem to be learning something new every day, isn't it? Their interest in the world and everything in it knows no bounds. It's a very special time.
yes it is amazing what they pick up, rmember my daughter at about 19 months old humming a line from Beethovens 5th. very odd, not something I ever played, and I only listened to radio 2.
later on that week back round my friends house, and she had on her tv ( I never had ours on during the day as no kids programs on back then), and on came a tv advert and all 4 kids in the room statred humming the Beethoven line in time with the advert…
they are like little sponges and I love them pre 5 as everything is new and interesting to them and the whole world is a learning curve
I love watching Baba learn things, he is the same I never know where he has learnt things from and it always amazes me. xx