When can I teach my 4 month old baby girl numbers and letters?

Question

I knew the whole alphabet and numbers 1-30 when i was 3 years old. So I'm thinking when can I start teaching my baby these basics? Nice smart answers please

Answer 1

my sincere recommendation is to not use any sort of "program" out there to teach numbers and letters and reading to your baby. even if they work, i think they are unnecessary and may be depriving the baby of more important attention by the parents focusing on teaching rather than other things. that said, i do feel that it's great to help babies learn! you can read to your baby immediately and you can read to her often. by six months old, my daughter ahd favorite books and knew many books already. babies love to be talked to and by reading to them you are showing them about words and how m=words have meanings and how words go with pictures and how words go with writing. my daughter learned to rad very young and i never "taught" her to read at all. she just picked it up all on her own because i read to her a lot. at one year old, she would sit on the floor with a few dozen of her books and look through them herself. you can have separate ones for you to read and for your daughter to have access to if you want to be sure they don't all get ruined (dirty, torn, chewed on, whatever). you can have books that she can look at in the car or the bath or in her high chair or her stroller. i read to my daughter on the supermarket waiting line because they sell children's books there and it was a good way to pass the time. you can also have things like alphabet puzzles and letter magnets and letter and number stickers that she can see and point to and hear about and play with as she gets older. just treat them like toys though and don't worry what she's "learning." it should all be fun without any sort of pressure at all. i think it's important that you have a clear expectation that she's a baby and that it all has to just be enoyable above all else. then she will take to reading like ti's the best thing there is! you can sing the alphabet song to her over and over and the same thing with counting. you can do the same thing with colors too. babies like to be read the same books over and over and over again so you should expect that. it's good for you to have lots of books just so that you don't get too bored reading the same ones over and over and over even if it turns out that she wants you to. when she starts to be familiar with certain books, and "pretends" to read them, let her, and encourage her, and she will end up memorizing them and learning to "read" this way. it's okay!! it's how she will first learn to read and slowly she will just recognize familiar words. she will pick it all up so easily and naturally and she will learn to read early and learn to love to read. good luck!!

Answer 2

The earlier she hears them, the sooner she will connect the words with the concepts. We have a game with our 6 month old where we count 1-2-3 then 'toss' her into the air (not letting go). I swear, she knows that the 1-2-3 always comes first, because she gets a look of anticipation on her face. And our 3 year old son (4 in July) can count to at least 40, knows all his letters, the sounds they make and is starting to read, and can write all his letters and numbers too. Early exposure is the key.

Answer 3

you can introduce at any time, the sooner the better. My son is 3.5 and had been able to count to 20+ for well over a year now (now he knows the numeric pattern and if he gets help with 30, 40 50, etc, he can take it from there - we still get an occasional 29, 20-10, 20-11, but we correct him into 29, 30, 31, etc) and knew his alphabet very early too. the sooner you start, the sooner they learn. even if they cannot recite it, they are learning it in their heads. make the lessons into silly songs they will stick.

Answer 4

Yes start now that's how you were able to know them at such a young age. It works best if the letterrs and numbers are in song form because young children respond to that best. Its never too early to learn. What I did was got the tapes/CDs that sing the alphabets and numbers. They might be REALLY annoying but it helps the baby out in the end.
My 3 year old is the same way; knows her ABCs, can spell her first and last name (still working on the middle name) and count to 25. We are working on her remembering her phone number now just in case she gets lost

Answer 5

She weighs 17 pounds at a little over 4 months

Answer 6

At about a year my Oldest daughter and I started counting the stairs everytime we went up and down. About 16 months she would say some numbers and at 23 months could count to ten. Don't wait as long as I did start now it won't hurt anything.

Answer 7

While you can expose her to letters and numbers at any time -- and you should -- she probably won't be able to actually remember or recite them back until sometime between 18 and 24 months. That is based on my own experience with my 2-year-old, anyway. Good luck.

Answer 8

Read her books, talk to her a TON. Talk about everything you do. ex "mommy is putting on your socks. First we're putting on the left sock, now we're putting on the right socks. Now you have socks on both of your feet"

The more you talk to her the more she hears. Also instead of regular lullabys you could sing the abcs or numbers to the tune of the abcs to her.

When she gets a little older you can count her fingers and toes with her, her ears, your ears, your fingers and toes, her arms, your arms, cars that go by the house, that sort of thing.

Answer 9

I used to sing the ABC's and count when I was carrying my son, and when he was born we used to sing the ABC's to get him to sleep. He could count and recite at 20 months. I am doing the same thing with his baby sister who was born just 3 weeks ago. The earlier the better

Answer 10

When she starts reacting to your promptings... Count things out for her..- Her fingers; pieces of food; toys- etc... Once that's started & she's getting the idea- Begin familiarizing her with her A-B-Cs as you read to her... -But remember; every child's brain develops at its OWN pace; so don't push her where she isn't ready to go yet. Just because YOU were a "slow learner" -doesn't mean that SHE isn't gonna be even slower. :)