The Fill

Tate has a quota of "car time" he needs daily.  If we're gone all day, it's hard at dinner to get him interested in eating instead of playing with his cars.  The other night I said, "Hey Tate do you think your cars are hungry?"  He came over and gave them a bite and then himself and ate his whole plate.  He now really likes to make sure they get their fill.  "Oh, yellow car hungry mommy.  Oh, convertible car eating hot dog.  Oh, double decker eating hot dog."

A couple of Tate's friends know all of their ABC's, colors and shapes.  When one of the mom's was telling me about it, I thought to myself, "Oh yeah, that's probably part of my job description teaching Tate colors, shapes and ABC's."  Tate's more interested in learning about automobiles.  He's quick to remember convertible, double decker, digger, crane, BMW and point them out as he sees them around the city.  We're after 2 months still working on A-G.  He's got A down pretty solid and can point it out around town.  B and C are coming slowly.  As a teacher, I'm a big believer in "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass"-a little every day and don't push too hard.  At the beginning, Tate made it clear he didn't have much interest in learning ABC's and shapes.

Instead of abandoning the effort, I decided to take it on the road.  I bought a few shapes and ABC books to read every day during our 1-2 hour commute around town.  His attention only lasts for about 2-3 minutes then I give him the book, and he looks at it himself and teaches me what he knows (he likes to do the teaching).  At first I thought it wasn't sinking in, then I started having him teach Dan each night what he learned that day.  Watching him teach Dan made me realize he is picking up something!  At least we're using the somewhat otherwise wasted time we spend commuting to and from play dates.  I was very proud when the other day he brought me an object and said, "Look mommy, oval."

Two Saturdays ago we went to the Llama Temple.  Dan said Tate wouldn't like it, but that was wrong.  He cried when we left, asks to go back, and any time he sees a similar structure around town says, "Llama Temple, so pretty, I want to go Temple Mommy."