Before switching to FM he was already fast. He was on BM for 18mths.
at ard 1mth his neck was very strong already. at 2mths+ he can sit up straight on his own when propped up against a pillow/cushion. By 3mths+, he can flip already. ard 4mths he started crawling w his belly dragging, then ard 4.5mths he could crawl properly already. 5mths+ he started to pull himself up to stand without us pushing his butt up for him and could sit up on his own (push himself into sit position). 6-7mths he started cruising while holding on to support (not more than 5 steps) and started to climb window grilles, by 8mths he can cruise very well and very FAST (omg, it was a nightmare!). ard 9mths+ he could walk while we hold 1 hand, by 10mths+ he can walk totally unsupported plus learn how to climb out of his play yard without falling or injuring himself at all.
he's now 2 and he can recognise all the alphabets and can read simple words. and he's very curious. you'll always hear 'what's that?' from him.
I personally believe it's HOME ENVIRONMENT. from young my son is in a large play yard (queen size bed) with alot of stimulating toys. to make him flip, we always turn the toy the opposite direction and he will wanna turn his head to look at it. then we jus show him how by pushing his leg across his body and pushing his butt. after a few times, he got the hang of it and started to flip on his own.
Bcos of the play yard, he has support to hold onto to pull himself to stand. and he wants to stand cos he wants to look outside the play yard (curious). and he started cruising cos he realise walking to his toy is faster than crawling. and to make him crawl, we tempt him with toys, when he stretch out his hand, we pull it further so he gotta push himself forward to grab the toy (my mum always say me n my hb are meanies)
when we bring him out or show him new things, we always say "what's that?" then "oh! that's an apple!" and ask him to repeat "say apple" (quite silly at tt time cos he din even noe how to say 'mama' but he will try to imitate wot we say but it comes out as baby talk. and we nvr use baby language with him, it was always proper english or mandarin as far as possible.
we also hv flashcards for him but we dun flash it to him like glenn doman method. we jus let him play with the cards and as he looks at it, tell him what that is. he loves playing with the cards (be prepared tt they'll kill the cards the first few times). good time to teach them how to care for their toys/belongings too.
and i make it a point to bring my son out at least twice a week to different places so he learns new things all the time. trips to the supermarket always take hours bcos my maid will show him all the different fruits, let him touch and feel the fruits. and when we feed him, my maid will name all the ingredients he can see as she feeds him so he also learns vocab from there.
And i've brought him to many children's concerts and performances. he loves music, so my parents bring him to my church's orchestra practice every friday night (i used to play the cello for them but now no time, too busy with work). and i also bring my boy to my alma mater to see the guzheng tuan practice (i was from the guzheng tuan). then we discovered my boy has good rhythm and loves drums! so we bought toy drums for him. arranged with my cousin who has a drum set at home to let him go over to 'learn'. she teach him to sit properly, how to hold drum stick and some basic rhythms and he LOVES IT! we've not signed him up for official lessons yet cos he's too young (minimum age is 3yo).
for physical activities i borrowed books on children's yoga n tried to incoporate those into play time with my son bring him to the park to run, walk my dog, play at the playground (they pick up alot of coordination skills at the playground!)
I'm not encouraging alot of TV but my son also learns alot from educational programs like Word World and Little Einstein, etc.
it's a matter of how much opportunites you give ur child to learn something new or at least to be exposed to something new. they are nvr too young to learn
e.g.: i tot my son was too young for science centre, but he enjoyed himself tremendously and i got a 2yr unlimited entry package
bcos of my limited time at home with him and i cant expect my maid to teach him alot though she does teach him, i sent him to school at 18mths old. once he was old enough, i sent him off to school to learn things (things like sharing, taking turns tt's almost impossible to learn at home being an onli child at the moment).
I jus had a Meet the parents with his teachers and principal. their feedback is very good. they say he learns very fast, has very good spoken english, etc. And a check with the principal, she said tt he can actually join the nursery class without any problems. but due to age, he is still in PG1. so the teachers sometimes will allow him to join the older kids for other activities cos he gets too bored at the PG1 class when they now learning how to recognise numbers.
It's good to go read up on home activities you can do with ur child to stimulate learning. there are many free websites and resources online if u dun hv access to a library
btw, i'm a teacher and a trained nutritionist. I can honestly tell u home environment wins nutrition
at ard 1mth his neck was very strong already. at 2mths+ he can sit up straight on his own when propped up against a pillow/cushion. By 3mths+, he can flip already. ard 4mths he started crawling w his belly dragging, then ard 4.5mths he could crawl properly already. 5mths+ he started to pull himself up to stand without us pushing his butt up for him and could sit up on his own (push himself into sit position). 6-7mths he started cruising while holding on to support (not more than 5 steps) and started to climb window grilles, by 8mths he can cruise very well and very FAST (omg, it was a nightmare!). ard 9mths+ he could walk while we hold 1 hand, by 10mths+ he can walk totally unsupported plus learn how to climb out of his play yard without falling or injuring himself at all.
he's now 2 and he can recognise all the alphabets and can read simple words. and he's very curious. you'll always hear 'what's that?' from him.
I personally believe it's HOME ENVIRONMENT. from young my son is in a large play yard (queen size bed) with alot of stimulating toys. to make him flip, we always turn the toy the opposite direction and he will wanna turn his head to look at it. then we jus show him how by pushing his leg across his body and pushing his butt. after a few times, he got the hang of it and started to flip on his own.
Bcos of the play yard, he has support to hold onto to pull himself to stand. and he wants to stand cos he wants to look outside the play yard (curious). and he started cruising cos he realise walking to his toy is faster than crawling. and to make him crawl, we tempt him with toys, when he stretch out his hand, we pull it further so he gotta push himself forward to grab the toy (my mum always say me n my hb are meanies)
when we bring him out or show him new things, we always say "what's that?" then "oh! that's an apple!" and ask him to repeat "say apple" (quite silly at tt time cos he din even noe how to say 'mama' but he will try to imitate wot we say but it comes out as baby talk. and we nvr use baby language with him, it was always proper english or mandarin as far as possible.
we also hv flashcards for him but we dun flash it to him like glenn doman method. we jus let him play with the cards and as he looks at it, tell him what that is. he loves playing with the cards (be prepared tt they'll kill the cards the first few times). good time to teach them how to care for their toys/belongings too.
and i make it a point to bring my son out at least twice a week to different places so he learns new things all the time. trips to the supermarket always take hours bcos my maid will show him all the different fruits, let him touch and feel the fruits. and when we feed him, my maid will name all the ingredients he can see as she feeds him so he also learns vocab from there.
And i've brought him to many children's concerts and performances. he loves music, so my parents bring him to my church's orchestra practice every friday night (i used to play the cello for them but now no time, too busy with work). and i also bring my boy to my alma mater to see the guzheng tuan practice (i was from the guzheng tuan). then we discovered my boy has good rhythm and loves drums! so we bought toy drums for him. arranged with my cousin who has a drum set at home to let him go over to 'learn'. she teach him to sit properly, how to hold drum stick and some basic rhythms and he LOVES IT! we've not signed him up for official lessons yet cos he's too young (minimum age is 3yo).
for physical activities i borrowed books on children's yoga n tried to incoporate those into play time with my son bring him to the park to run, walk my dog, play at the playground (they pick up alot of coordination skills at the playground!)
I'm not encouraging alot of TV but my son also learns alot from educational programs like Word World and Little Einstein, etc.
it's a matter of how much opportunites you give ur child to learn something new or at least to be exposed to something new. they are nvr too young to learn
e.g.: i tot my son was too young for science centre, but he enjoyed himself tremendously and i got a 2yr unlimited entry package
bcos of my limited time at home with him and i cant expect my maid to teach him alot though she does teach him, i sent him to school at 18mths old. once he was old enough, i sent him off to school to learn things (things like sharing, taking turns tt's almost impossible to learn at home being an onli child at the moment).
I jus had a Meet the parents with his teachers and principal. their feedback is very good. they say he learns very fast, has very good spoken english, etc. And a check with the principal, she said tt he can actually join the nursery class without any problems. but due to age, he is still in PG1. so the teachers sometimes will allow him to join the older kids for other activities cos he gets too bored at the PG1 class when they now learning how to recognise numbers.
It's good to go read up on home activities you can do with ur child to stimulate learning. there are many free websites and resources online if u dun hv access to a library
btw, i'm a teacher and a trained nutritionist. I can honestly tell u home environment wins nutrition