Anyone Using Little Hands With A 2yo?

[hsmomof5]

My 2yo dd loves to play school with her four older brothers so I order LHTH hoping it would be a great start and she had a great 1st week but the newness of it all fizzled for her this week. Like most toddlers, she wants to "do" school when she wants to do it which is ok but I just think we will stick to her favorite things which is having mommy read to her (she loooooves books) and coloring/watercolor painting along with some educational toy play. I think a set curriculum may be a little too structured for her right now. I'm thinking we will pick LHTH up again at 3. I know every child is different but I wanted to hear how other 2yos were doing with LHTH.

[Jessi]

I am not in that position as I started LHTH when my daughter turned 4 but I think you are very wise. Just focus on reading with her and being with her and letting her explore. She'll be more ready in a year or two.

[Samuel'sMommy]

My son is 3, but even still there are some days he just doesn't want to do school. So you know what, we just don't do it He loves LHTH and has a lot of fun with it, but at this age, I don't want to force him into doing school and make him hate it. So, if he asks for it -- which ends up being several times a week -- we do it. If he doesn't, we don't. Sometimes if he has said he doesn't want to do school, but then gets bored later in the day I will mention the fun stuff scheduled in LHTH for that day and he might change his mind, especially if he knows he will get to glue or paint. I say just go easy on her and don't worry about a strict schedule. Even if you only do 1 day a week or just go to the guide to pull out a fun activity for her to do now and then, you can repeat it later. She has plenty of time!

[Motherjoy]

I do. I do it with my 4yo and 2yo. The 2yo sometimes likes it and sometimes doesn't. He loves the fingerplays and the painting/glueing. He even did a good job circling all the hidden letter A"s on his paper, when I pointed to them.

If I didn't need to keep my 2yo occupied while I was doing school with the older two, I wouldn't worry about it. It is fun, though, and easy to pick and choose the stuff you want to do.

[SoaringEagle]

We're only doing LHTH on Fridays and we're only doing the finger plays, devotion, Bible reading and music. My son is 2.

[hsmomof5]

It was so great to read how everyone uses LHTH. Thank you so much.

[Kathleen]

My 2 yo has been hanging around while we do LHTH. I started doing LHTH 2 weeks ago with my 4 yo on purpose, and we've let the 2 yo join us. My 4 yo is enjoying being able to "teach" her little brother things. He loves the rhymes!! He listens some/plays some during our time, and I've let him know that he can stay with us as long as he's quiet (as in not pushing buttons on the dump truck with sound effects ). I thought this was interesting, but I'm sure developmentally appropriate, He always asks to do whatever our activity was the day before...but doesn't always act interested in the current one. We "get him on board", and then that's what he wants to do the next day. His favorite so far is jumping over the snake. I've even told him that he can keep the "snake" in his room and jump over it whenever he wants to. I haven't had him do any of the letter or number pages - I just give him a blank piece of paper while sister does those. I'm not sure if he'll tag along all year or not. I'm planning on doing LHTH with him - for him - in 2 years when he's 4. At least that's my plan right now. We're loving it so far!

Kathleen

[netpea]

When my oldest was 4 and doing LHTH, my little 2yo wanted to do everything her big brother did. So we let her, she loved it. We did LHTH again with her at 4.

[6timeboymom]

we are, but I do it on his schedule, pretty much! He LOVES Noah, so he's constantly asking for Noah and "big, big boat" rhyme.
Sometimes he'll bring me his folder and say, "Gabe do school now!!" so we do something. That's what sold me on LHTH so long ago-I could do one little square in just a few minutes when he was ready. (It worked for my 8 and 4 year olds, I hope it keeps working with the 2 year old! )
Since I know he's the last of the mohicans around here, I am a lot less worried about keeping his books tidy, so he has colored on so many of his Bible pages! He sees us underline, and highlight in our Bibles, so he has to get his Bible and do that too!
FTR, I'm only doing the things I know he can "get" at his age. Next year we'll do it again, and work on the stuff he wasn't ready for this year.

[MamaBear23Cubs]

When I first got Little Hands my baby girl was 2. She just did the finger plays and listen to the bible story. She just tagged along with her at the time 3 year old brother.

[crlacey]

My 2.5 yr old DS wants to have his school books like his big sister. So when he wants to do school we're doing like a previous poster and just doing the items that he is interested in and able to do. Then next year when he's 3.5, we'll do the items that he didn't do this year. Who knows, we may not start our second tip around until closer to 4 at the rate he does them. I think the key to doing it at 2 is just to do what they want and enjoy. We often go back to our favorites for a few days before moving on again.