ABCs and 123s

As every parent learns, every kid learns differently, at different times, and knows different things. One child knows the alphabet, another counts to 20, another can name every tool in the toolbox, and yet another knows 10 different body parts by the time he is 15 months (that would be Jacob!). As long as the child continues to learn and grow, he is doing exactly what he needs to be doing.
That being said, it is still my job as a mom to provide the best possible environment for learning. This is often times easier said than done. The key to teaching anything to anyone is to make it fun or relavant to that person. This is especially important with small children - especially one like my child with endless energy and little desire to sit still to listen and learn. I honestly have tried time and time again to teach Jacob "the basics" like letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc. He often times is uninterested in what I have to show him. He would much rather play with his cars. So, we have had to become a little more creative. We are starting with 2 tactics to teach Jacob some of these basic skills, and, so far, they seem to be working.
First, is the bath. Jacob loves his bath and will stay in there for awhile, if we let him. So, we use this opportunity while he is in one place for a bit to work on his letters and numbers. He even seems excited to learn. He can now recognize and say about half of the letters and a few numbers with pretty good accuracy. When he sees the letters outside of the bath, he will often times point them out to me. It is amazing to me.
The second tactic is to use Jacob's obsession with cars/trucks/buses, etc. We count cars to help with the counting skill and name the colors of the cars to help learn colors. This newest trick is only a few days old, so he hasn't learned much yet, but I think it will work. For now, everything is blue. :) We'll keep you posted on our progress on this one.
It is funny what kids pick up. Jacob may not count or sing his ABCs, but he sure knows his animals, forms of transportation(cars! trucks! jeeps! airplanes!, etc), and food. Can you guess what his interests are?