Hellobee Boards

I have a two year old and I may ask her questions when we read books-like what does a cow say? What color is this? But otherwise, I don't go out of my way to teach her stuff. I think it's pretty organic at this age and happens naturally based on their curiosity, which I'm happy to foster. I feel like she should just be having fun, though

I think my answer would change if I was a sahm and my lo wasn't in daycare. But they do teach her a lot of age appropriate things that then carry over to play time at home.
Like last night we were reading and she wanted to pause and point out letters. She would ask me what the letters were but knew them 65% of the time. I actively worked with her a bit a few months ago but that was because her teacher told me she knew a couple! I guess she somehow knows more now! LOL

I kind of introduced ideas, but let him lead me. I want to give him the desire to learn, so I don't force anything. Turns out he LOVES numbers, and he loves a lot of science stuff - like nature, the moon, how things work, etc. So it turns out I'm always trying to keep up with him and find him things that really stimulate his mind. He's an only child though, so we have a lot more one on one time than if I had two - he doesn't have a playmate, so I'm his playmate.
But he's young like your kids - he's 3 - so I agree with blackbird that it's pretty organic at this age because they're naturally more curious. So respond with their interests, but I don't have a set "learning time" each day.

I've been struggling with this question lately. My 12 month old twins play all day long with little structure. They just run from thing to thing. Because there are two of them, they pretty much entertain themselves all the time. I'm working on once a day cleaning up the living room toys (with their "help"), then we sit down, and read a story. We read books all the time, but their attention span is short and they may run away halfway through a book! So during story time I make them stay on a blanket and listen to a whole (short) story. I imagine if they were at daycare or a sitters they would be getting some structure, so I try to provide that. We do a lot of singing, dancing, signing, reading, and playing together the rest of the day and I know they are learning the most then. I just want them to follow some basic expectations when we go to story time outside of the house so I'm working on this sitting down and listening to a book thing!

I think I spend about 15 minutes a day actively "teaching" my LO things--but it generally follows the structure of me introducing a new thing (a new animal or letter or number) initially, then LO getting interested in it, then her bringing the book/puzzle/whatever to me to do again and again.

She's 22 months and knows the whole alphabet, numbers to 10, and how to recognize her name/"mama"/"dada"/"stop".

When we walk outside, she likes to stop at each sign and yell out the letters.... It's like her favorite game in the world right now--so that's the type of teaching I'm taking about, just taking the time to stop and indulge LO in whatever new thing she's learning at the time.

I don't actively teach my 4 yo anything. He goes to daycare all day and they learn all sorts of things there: letters, numbers, certain academic concepts, etc. However, he is very curious about things in science and nature, so if he asks about, for example, volcanoes, I will explain to him what I know, try to find a youtube video or a book. We also do a lot of reading. He LOVES books, so we read a number of books together everyday. Sometimes I ask questions about what we read, but in a fun way, not a quiz-type way.

With my 18 mo DD, I actively teaching her language in the sense that I make an effort to use our two family languages with her for vocabulary since she isn't exposed to our 2nd language as much as my DS was at the same age.

Nope. We play, read, do art projects, spend time outside, watch cartoons, etc. But, my 3 year old is really different from the norm: she spontaneously knew the letters, colors, numbers, shapes, could count 11 objects, and knew her letter sounds by 18 months, just through her own curiosity and retaining the info after 1 exposure. She also can read, self-taught, though not yet fluent, write, and do basic math. While I'm not sure if I'd feel pressure to get her "Kindergarten ready" if this were not the case, I think absolutely *zero* of this is necessary at her age, so I focus on letting her be a kid and play. She does have intense curiosities, currently it's jellyfish, so I'll Google and answer her questions, or let her watch documentaries, but I would never ever force learning at this age.

I think letting kids be kids and follow their curiosities is the way they learn best anyway-- everyone learns how to read, but a passion for learning should be fostered through fun and exploration.