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What more can I be doing? :?



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zuncompany




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 09 2004, 11:10 am
My older son is almost 17 months. B"H he picks things up quickly. Every morning we negel vass, daven (mode ani, torah torah, and shma). I also do music with him most mornings (he loves negunim. he knows like 5 or 6 by now!) since Pesach. We sing and dance around. When we go into CH for meat this sunday we are going to stop at the tzivos hashem store and the other place shmais advertises for aleph beis stuff. We have a little, but not much. I want to start doing it with him cause he is always repeating what I say (or at least trying) and my husband's mashpia suggested now is the time. Also once a week another boy thats 2 weeks older than my Zusil (we call him Zu) is going to be coming over to do an art project about the holidays, aleph beis, or parsha. This week we are doing apple prints. I have tons of projects for them from teaching pre-school. Before bed we say Shma and hamapil (he was having horrible nightmares before we started and now doesn't.) with him. Also we say brachas for him before he eats anything and wash him for motzei. What more can I be doing at this age though? I did not grow up Lubavitch or frum for that matter, so I am not 100% sure. When I ask my mashpia she is just in shock I do this much. But he wants to learn. He loves loves loves music time and art time. He loves sitting with my husband when he learns and he is always stealing the sfarim off the shelves, opening them up, and pretending to daven with them. The other day I came out from going to the bathroom and in that short time he had all the lekutai sichos out on the floor, opened them, and was looking through them and babbling. It was halarious!!!
So any suggestions?
Sara
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zuncompany




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 09 2004, 11:24 am
oh... forgot... we do tzedakah with him each day. Its his favorite thing to do! He loves putting change into his pushka. In fact he gets mad at me when I say no more (he could do it all day if I had enough change in the house) and when its Shabbos and I tell him not today.
Sara
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Rochel Leah




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 09 2004, 11:26 am
Sara, you are going great .Yasher Koach!!! Our children are like sponges and the take in everything. if he is willing to learn then go ahead with aleph bais. it gets abit much though if the kid isnt intrested, we wanna make torah learning as positive as possible so as soon he gets restless,stop.

my son doesnt speak yet, he babbles, I daven with him and do pesukim and aleph bais, but I know he isnt ready for crafts etc... he loves to look at books so I try give him as many jewish books so he is surrounded by holy things. every child is different and learns at their own pace. I am amazed at hwat you are doing allready, and I am sure your son will grow to be a Chayal in Tzivos Hashem!!
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zuncompany




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 09 2004, 1:23 pm
Thank you so much! You made me feel better. I really thought I wasn't doing enough. I can tell you, Zu was so not ready at 15 months for art. Its only in the last two weeks that he has been ready. When Tevye was born someone got Zu crayons and we have been making pictures. He wants to do it non-stop now.

How do you do pesukim with him? We watch the video, but other than that I have no ideas.

Sara
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Rochel Leah




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 09 2004, 1:36 pm
I just sing them "to " him while he eats his breakfast, or before he goes to sleep. I would love to get the video. with some of them there are english songs that go with them, so I sing those also.
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Pickle Lady




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 09 2004, 5:46 pm
My aunt sings the 12 psuekim with her kids at night. Her ritual was aleph beis, 12 psukim and shema, I am trying to make that our ritual too. My problem is that I have to be consistant Oh my gosh sara I can't believe you do crafts. Where do you find the time? I tell my husband I feel that I have a successful day when I am still happy and the end of the day and the house is still in one piece.
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micki




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 09 2004, 7:13 pm
you are doing amazing. you really are. but just something to keep in mind is that you don't want to sit and teach him as though he is in college, you want to immerse him, and surround him. there is no need for a special alef bais instruction book at this age, you need just alef bais. or like my my older kids bring home letters they lerned, and I with them cut out the letters and pasted them on a train then we hung up the train. so when there was no more room in the girls, we put it int he boys.
so every time we are in the room at the changing table or get dressed to distract the kid I would ask them to point to letter. or ask is this the bais? or even if I was busy and could not look ask them I'd ask what color is the gimmel. this immersed them I'm not sitting down to make a formal teaching. at your sons young age he can only absorb as you say but he can't sit and have a proper learning session.
my oldest knew the letters at 18 months fluently, and my baby is even now pointing at the letters and says bais bais and other sounds to indicate that he is saying letters.
at the same time you daven, add the alef bais song in. he sounds like he loves music and will pick up the names of the letters just by your singing them .
it sounds like you are doing more than a great job. you are giving so much to him, and I just wish you koach to continue in this way with each of your children.
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micki




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 09 2004, 7:16 pm
oh also- the time to start educating is when they are concieved. but pratically when they are born. "waiting" till 17 months is almost too late. start singing the pesukim, torah tziva etc... as lullabies when they are babies.
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Ozmom




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 09 2004, 7:36 pm
I think you are doing an amazing job
Just one concern, try to remember that he is still a baby and yes he may want to learn and be very absorbent but don't confuse your eagerness for him to be a certain way with what he wants to do. Often well meaning parents want something so much for a child they imagine what they want to be what their child wants, so all I'm saying is remember his age and be carefull that you don't overload him. I am aware of a superbaby supermom syndrome and thats where my concern is stemming from. Do you know this concept of teaching babies to read with cards with sightwords? it actually causes problems later on in life when they get to around 6,7 and they have learnt to read early but missed the whole process thay builds up to reading.

Often first time mothers get really excited about teaching their babies and so you should, just make sure you let it come from him at his own pace, and not from your desire for him to be super.(which is completely natural)
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Yael




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 09 2004, 8:48 pm
wow it sounds like you are really doing a lot. I wish I could do half the things you do with my son. I just say modeh ani, we wash negel vasser, we try to say brachos and we say shema at night. I wish I had the time to teach him aleph bais. whenever I try to though he doesnt seeem like he understands the concept that each letter has a name. (he's 2 next week). so I dont push it. but I should really sing the aleph bais song to him. I need to get an aleph bais poster cuz I dont have the aleph bais any where in my house where he can see them.
does anyone know where I can get a nice poster? I've been saying that I'll make one for the past year and a half, and its not happening so I think I'll just buy one. (his birthday is next week if anyone needs an idea for a gift!!! Smile
my son also loves to look at sefarim and "davens" he says "ma-aama, ma-aama". he loves going to shul and kissing the torah.
I would love to get him the 12 pesukim video, I didnt even know they had one, where can I get it?
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proudmom




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 09 2004, 9:21 pm
Yael, you can get an aleph Bet poster from Kehos in NY and the 12 Pesukim video from Kehos too. I got them both there.
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zuncompany




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 09 2004, 10:05 pm
A lot of it isn't formal sit down... I do make a point of having art once a week when the other little boy comes over so they can both benefit. For aleph beis I was planning on doing exactly what people said, put it up around his room (maybe a train... thought he was to young for one though) and when we are changing his diaper, hanging out, or just playing pointing out letters. I also wanted to get the big magnets for the fridge so when I am cooking and he is playing on the floor he can play with those. When I notice him not happy, I do stop... I remember a little from teaching pre-school. I guess I feel like I am doing so little because we have been adding on things slowly slowly over the past 16 months. When he was born we said shma and washed negel vasser. When he was like six months and start solids we started saying brachas on the food. I think I started modei ani, torah torah, and shma in the mornings at about 8ish months. The art projects we only started this week. When I see he can handle something else, I slowly add it on.

We got the 12 pesukim video from JEM. When we ordered living torah we got it at like half off. I got him a few others than too. They have a bunch of stuff.

Smile
Sara
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RachelSteph




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 10 2004, 12:41 am
I'm not an expert or anything but I think you are doing great, I do Mode Ani and the Shema with my son and my husband does negel Vaser I hope I got the spelling right. Pluss I do the brachot with him when ever we eat. Oh and I have this TT Video that we sing and dance to almost every day but the only thing he can say right now is Baruch and Amen along with the other typical words like dog, cat, fish, plain, bus, car, bug, aba, papa etc. I can't wait to hear him say one blessing, or the first line to the shema my Grandfather will be so proud to see that. Oh and what's Torah Torah that you do with your son? I'm still learning along with my son. I'm a ba'al teshuvah.
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curlyhead




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Sep 12 2004, 7:02 am
I also think your doing a great job. My son 19 months also loves giving Tzedaka. He begs us. I say Yud Beis Pesukim as part of his bedtiem routine. It used to work well. But not so much anymore. Every Motzei Shabbos they show the living Torah on a big screen in shul so I try to take him there in the winter. He loves the Nigunim on it. My son already know some of the alef Beis orally. I haev to start showing him them visullt
I am evry impressed that you have the patience to do arts and crafts. I tried to get my son to use crayons but he just bit them. I try to sing songs and make up action. he loves "Hashem is here." I need soem new ideas of songs to teach him.
Just having a chassishe atmosphere in the house is good. Seeing you daven (which is hard around these kids), having niggunim in the house.
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Yael




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Sep 12 2004, 10:49 am
my son also bites the crayons.
I give him crayons to color with and I feel good that I'm giving an activity to do, and I look at him a minute later and he's bitten the crayon into 10 bite sized peices. and working on the next one!! lol!
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amother


 

Post Tue, Nov 16 2004, 4:02 pm
Quote:
When he was born we said shma and washed negel vasser.


what do you mean about negel vasser - you washed the infant's hands whenever he woke up?

p.s. you're doing great
an alef-beis puzzle is a nice idea
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