Lily and her Learning at 16 months - Numeracy and Literacy

One of the things I wanted to write about on this blog is all the things Lily Learns. Children learn so much in there first years and I'm wanting to make sure I can read back on what she is doing at what age. 

Also I would love to let you all know all I did to help Lily learn the things she did. 

Lily impresses me each day with something that she has learnt and she is really keen to learn more. 
I'm going to write about all the things Lily can now do at 16 months in all the different learning areas. 

Numeracy

At 16 months numeracy isn't something that needs worrying about. But that said its never something to be avoided and can easily be brought into everyday activities to help your child learn. 

One thing I've always done with Lily is count. We started with singing songs that include numbers. Our favourite is the Zoom Zoom Zoom song that goes like this. 

"Zoom Zoom Zoom, were going to the moon"
"Zoom Zoom Zoom, we'll be there very soon"
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ..... BLASTOFF"

Although at this age they won't understand and learn the number themselves they will start to understand that when you get to 1 something is about to happen. Lily always got more and more excited each number I said as she knew that when I got to 1 she would get thrown into the air.

Now that Lily is a little older, we count things on a daily basis. Firstly we will count things in a every day way, for example if walking up steps, we count as we go, 1, 2, 3. Then we use counting when she plays, Lily loves to put items into boxes and so we count them as she does. We also have things around the house that we count. Just like the butterfly wall stickers we have going up the wall, we count them just before we go to bed or before I change her nappy.

One way that I know this has helped Lily is that I've seen her counting things herself. She doesn't say the numbers but makes a noise as she points to each object. I first noticed this when I was at my neighbors and her cupboard has squares on it and she was pointing at each square making this noise.

Another thing I always do with Lily is count my fingers. She always copies me and points to each finger making a noise. So Lily understands the concept of counting even though she doesn't know the numbers. 

Literacy

Lily has known some words from quite a young age of about 10 months when she started knowing words like "fish" and saying "what's that" and "hiya". But when she used to say Fish it came out Fshhhhhhhhh and she missed out the I. Now she can say it a lot better and actually says fish.
Lily also now knows Car, and Baby and I've started to hear her say a few more words like bye, and teeth and the latest word.. Peppa (peppa pig she is referring to)

I think that Lily is going to be a talker when she is older, she may not be saying many words but is constantly mumbling random noises when she plays almost like the characters are speaking to each other and she really knows how to hold a good conversation on the phone.
You can also tell that I read a lot of books to her as now she understand the concept of a book. She will sit with a book and mumble random things like she is reading the story to me. Also Lily has books all about words and she loves to read through them. 

 

Numbers and words aren't something I'm rushing for Lily to learn, as I know there is plenty of time for her to learn that. But I am always talking to Lily and letting her know what things are. Lily constantly points to tree's so I've been trying to teach her the word tree. 

All children develop different things at different times and so don't worry if Lily does something that your 16 month old can't. I expect there are things your 16 month old can do that Lily can't also. 

Tips to help your child learn in this area
- Sing songs with numbers in them. 
- Count toys and objects as you play with them or tidy up.
- Count your fingers or your child's.
- Count ever day things.
- Count down (for example going down a slide, 1, 2, 3, GO!)
- Always talk to your child, although they can't talk back they still love a good conversation.
- Read stories, hearing your voice read stories will encourage them to talk and learn new words.
- Point out objects and say what they are. 
- Buy a word book that shows objects and the words for them. 

These tips are great for any young child and can all be put in to practice to help encourage learning. 

Do you have any tips? What helped your children with their numeracy and literacy?