Recently Ryan has started amazing us not just with his formation of sentences in his speech but also the way he uses words as expressions. This has taught us that whenever he is around we need to be very sensitive in using the right choices of words. Unknown to us, he is always picking up things. He may be playing while we’re talking amongst ourselves but his ears are actually listening to what we’re saying too.
One example of something he picked up without us knowing is one of his grandma’s phrase, “Oh my goodness!” We all had a shock hearing this come from him. It sounds weird though to hear such an expression coming from a little kid!
He’s also excellent at doing jigsaw puzzles. He’s able to memorise the image quite quickly before he starts fixing up the puzzle. Often we only need to guide him once on where the pieces should fit together and after that there’s no stopping him.
Ryan also remembers names very well. Names of people we have forgotten but he remembers. He remembers places and the things he did at different places very well too. It’s really no doubt that kids’ minds are truly absorbing like a sponge!
Because of this, it’s also important to filter the kind of programs they watch. Sometimes it’s inevitable that we adults may want to watch our kind of shows instead of always tuning in to Barney, Little Einstein, etc, but just make sure the kids are not absorbing what we don’t want them to. Speaking of TV, Ryan has a liking for smaller TV screens. He finds shows on those big lcd monitor kinda overwhelming. We adults go for big screens, the bigger the better but this little one prefers the smaller ones. Strange…maybe kids just find the bigger TVs more intimidating.
I think kids in this generation have been exposed to lots of TV shows since Astro came about with their cartoon channels. I suppose it’s good educational stuff for them but once they get addicted, that’s when the problem starts. At the moment I’m quite happy that Ryan is not exactly addicted so I still find the TV an educational tool.
One of the shows that I encourage him to watch is Ni Hou Kai Lan which aims to teach children some Mandarin through the animated stories. So far he finds the show funny because he’s not used to Mandarin words yet. But I think over time he will pick up a little here and there. We are also encouraging his babysitter to teach and speak with him in Mandarin.
Funnily enough, he’s not absorbing it as fast as the other things that he’s picking up. Hmm…wonder how we can help him along with that. Any idea how to start teaching a second or third language to a kiddo, anyone?
