It Doesn’t Take More Time, It Takes More Words
Question 1: Who is your child’s first teacher?
Question 2: What is a teachable moment?
For answer # 1 Look in a mirror
For answer #2 Any moment will do if your child’s first teacher makes the moment teachable.
A baby eating his own toes or a banana can learn about toes and bananas and eating from his mom if she’ll put on her teaching hat.
See how many words you can say to a child eating the banana. This picture gives a lot of teachable word moments: Look at that yellow banana. It looks delicious. You are slobbering all over it. The banana peel is sliding under the table. Are you still hungry? Do you want more? Are you finished? …. Can you say 50 words to a child about this photo? Next time your child eats something how many can you say? It doesn’t take more time, just more words.
When a baby eats his own toes, a mom can count the number of toes in his mouth, “You are so hungry, you can eat 2 toes.”
Or mom can count all of his toes: “One toe, two toes, three toes, four, five toes, six toes, seven toes more, eight toes, nine toes, TEN TOES in your mouth or on the floor.”
Mom can tell the poem:
“This little piggy goes to market,
This little piggy stays home,
This little Piggy has roast beef,
This little Piggy has none.
This little piggy goes waaaaaahhhhhh waaaaaahhh waaaaaahhhhhh all the way home.
When a child is interested mom/teachers can grab the teachable moment and give that baby the gift of words. It doesn’t take more time to make a moment teachable, it takes more words.
