When my daughter was 26 months old I bought her a few children's picture encyclopedias, which I read to her. That's how I discovered her love for the solar system, which prompted additional books, videos, and toys. I think they are great tools for piquing children's interests, which will naturally lead to more in-depth learning.

Also about that time she demanded to partake in the penmanship classes at her daycare. In order to help her, her teachers would steady her hand as she wrote. That steadying made the difference between being able to do it and not. She knew what shape she was supposed to make, but otherwise couldn't get her hand to do what she wanted it to. She's 3 and 1/3 now and doesn't need the steadying anymore. I think that in this case her desire to write was really founded in a desire not to be left out.

Also, you might want to check out some of the Montessori activities, which teach but often in a covert kind of way (at the toddler stages). My daughter's penmanship improved drastically as they had her doing push-pins.

The boy on the far side of the table in the following youtube video appears to be doing the same type of push-pin. (Obviously this type of work would need to be supervised.)



Other Montessori activities my daughter has been doing include using cardboard alphabet letters to spell the words associated with a small set of pictures. For example, she might get a picture of a cow, a dog, a bird, and a frog, and spell out the words using the letters, matching the words with their pictures.

On the math side, she's been using manipulatives like the bead triangle, and unifix cubes.

Edit: I forgot to mention that we started with board games around that time. Candyland, Hi-Ho Cherry-o, things like that.

Last edited by DAD22; 07/31/12 11:17 AM.