Similar

When I read to my 1 year old son L, I try to teach him something new. Even if it is a small thing, such as a new shape or animal, I’ll point it out to talk about. When he understands it, we move on and a few days later, I’ll quiz him to see if he understood and remembered it. One night, it was not something small I was trying to teach him.

How do you teach the word and the concept of similar to a 1 year old? I was trying to be creative and thought about it. I usually say the phrase same same if things are exactly identical. To teach similar, I tried to say it wasn’t same same…it was similar. I pointed to a few things in books where it was almost identical and tried to reinforce the point. It was a tall task, but I was determined.

By the end of the night, I felt like I made some progress. L was slowly starting to understand that similar was in fact almost identical, but not quite. Even though he may not fully remember exaclty what it means later on, I like trying to teach my kids things to give them early exposure to it. That way, they will learn it easier the second time around when they actually need to absorb things at school (or elsewhere!). It also provides a challenge for me since teaching a hard concept to kids comes with some funny and creative ways to paint the picture for them!