Random Observation/Comment #614: Parents sometimes treat their kids like PR brands or pets. “Look at what my toddler can do.” “See how my child’s intelligence reflects my own.”
Why this list?
I’ve been reading a lot about what to teach Evie at 18 months so she can build a foundation with learning physical feats, language, grasping new concepts, and understanding boundaries. It’s a crucial time in a child’s development where she’s getting better at mimicking phrases and starting to process longer sentences and social cues.
All that being said, we’ve devolved a lot of these ask/replies into Mommy/Daddy tricks. High fives are not that far off from “shake” or “paw”. Plus, if she doesn’t respond to “say hi”, we can pull her aside and say “c’mon, we talked about this…”
- Say “Hi” or “Bye” – Doesn’t always happen because she’s shy, but we get some “bye” now and again
- Touch your <body part from “If you’re happy and you know it”> – Nose, toes, eyes, ears, mouth, belly, hair
- We’re going out. Where are your socks and shoes? – She usually goes to grab her shoes
- Sit – She crawls up the couch to sit with hopes of watching Peppa Pig
- “It’s time to put the toys away” song – She starts putting her items back in the box
- Which book do you want to read? – We choose different books and she picks with “yes” or “no”
- Do you want to play the piano? – She can turn on different beats and play on the keyboard
- Sneeze – she says “Bless you”
- Do you want “more” or “all done”? – She signs and says either “more” or “all done”
- Where are your friends? – She goes to look for her stuffed animals
- Do you want to flip? – She sticks up her hands and we practice forward and back flips from Little Gym
- Time to put on your jacket – If she wants to go home then she’ll stop to give her arm and zipper up
- “1, 2, 3, 4, …” – Counting different things with her, she’s able to mimic counting
- “a, b, c, d…” – She usually repeats or continues with the song melody and vague letter sounds
- “Go help Mommy” – She walks over to Mommy to see if she needs anything
- Are you thirsty? Do you want your water cup? – She also asks for water cup regularly
- Does it taste good? – We’re trying to teach her “yummy” or “ho sik”. Right now she just says “Mmm….”
- What color is this? – She hasn’t said any colors consistently, but we like to emphasize the term for her to know the question is asking about a type vs “how many are there?”
- What sound does the <animal> make? – So far we have cow goes “Moo” or she calls the dogs in our building “woof woofs”- we have a book that does animal sounds
- Where’s Evie? Peek-a-boo! – She does her own peek-a-boo to hide her face and mimic other people
- “Hello, How are you?” – She tends to repeat this a few times after we say it – probably something from daycare
- Dance party? – If we’re playing a song, she likes to clap her hands and sway
- Let’s wait for our turn – Teaching her patience for things and it’s okay to be upset over ownership of things
- Throw it in the garbage – Usually it’s a wipe she’s used to wipe up the floor and then she opens the garbage can and throws it in
- Want to go on the slide? – She’s learned to walk her way up to the slide and sit down. When we tell her to, she has slide down by herself a few times
- Who’s Mommy? Point to mommy? Point to Baba – She points or pokes at us or taps our chest
- Stack the blocks – She does this with Legos or regular blocks on top of each other before she knocks them all down
- Play with the buckles – She has this toy of buckles she’ll open and close whenever she’s bored
- “Evie, fist bump” – She’s better at high fives, but a fist bump or ET finger touch is good too
- Say “I love Mommy” – She’s done this a few times, but has not yet said “I love Baba”… … which is fine. I’m not jealous.
~See Lemons Teach Evie Tricks
