Understimulating My 14-Month-old?

It's great that you make interacting such a high priority. I'm an early childhood teacher.... don't be concerned with academics just yet! It sounds like you are doing plenty of super things - reading daily, playing and interacting. Singing a variety of songs - they can be childhood favs like ABC's, Twinkle Little Star, or Mary Had a Little Lamb or they can be your adult favs. Turn on a CD or the radio and rock out with her. Then slow it down and pick her her up to waltz across the room to something classical. Exposure to a variety of genre's is wonderful. Beyond the ABC song, I wouldn't be concerned with letters at this age. A really fun thing at 14 months (especialy in the colder months as we all need more opportunities to wiggle and move) is to make obstacle courses for her. Grab teh sofa pillows and some blankets. build tunnels and mountains for her to climb over, around and under. Don't forget to follow her along the course to make the adventure that much more fun!

How about bundle up and go outside for a bit? Or a My Gym/Gymboree type class (if she's walking?)

Allowing your child to engage in independant play is the most awesome thing that you can do! Take her to playgrounds and mall play areas and just let her play...don't follow her around and hover! The lessons that they learn from this are fantastic. I never paid much attention to teaching academics to my kids at this age, other than reading to them. Academics comes later. Don't worry that you are not playing WITH her all the time...you are actually doing her a favor by allowing her the opportunity to entertain herself. My boys are both in school now and I've been told repeatedly by all of their teachers that they can tell that I let them simply PLAY in an unstructured manner with AND without playmates. You can't teach conflict resolution! this is something the kids figure out on their own through playing with others. Like I said, academics comes later but the overall benefits of play are life long and difficult to "teach"! Sometimes I think that the sole purpose of teaching babies their alphabet or numbers early on is for entertainment purposes at family gatherings!
I think that you are doing fine!

I think it sounds like you're doing great with her! I also think that sometimes, because we are stay at home moms we tend to over think what we should be doing. I have a very independent daughter (she's 4 now, almost 5) and she has pretty much always showed an eagerness to learn. It just depends on where your daughter's interests are...if she wants to start identifying letters and numbers she will and if she's not quite ready yet then she won't and you are an attentive mom so you'll know what's what. I know when my daughter was that age and we would take her to a restaurant with her we'd play little games with crayons just to see what she would remember and she surprised us and did really well with that so we'd have to add more numbers or more letters. Now my son is a different story...he's never been that into it and I never pushed...I just let him do things at his own pace and he's 3 now and has displayed a lot less patience for academics but has picked up what he needs to know.
The fact that your daughter is with you and you are constantly talking to her is teaching her and she's being stimulated plenty...it's good to make sure she can just play and digest things on her own. You're doing great! Keep it up Mom!

RELAX you sound like a wonderful mom. I would not push the educational stimulation too much. One simple thing I do is whenever we go up, or down the steps in our house, or anywhere for that matter we count them as we go. As a result, he tries to count along now. But really, just relax and watch her grow a little, she is going to totally AMAZE you over the next year. Good luck and have fun.

get a book about child development; it will help you see that you are doing all the right things; reading, singing, talking, playing, nursery rhymes, playground, music; she is learning a lot! don't force academics;

Read Read Read...keep reading it is the best thing for your little one. When my son turned one, I bought a chalk board and we always watched a Sesame Street video together and whatever the number or letter of the day was, I wrote it on the chalk board and made a big deal of it. No pressure of course for him to learn it, but all day long that number would be there and before long, his Daddy would come home and he would run to the chalk board to show him the number or letter of the day. It was so much fun to do, and he loved that little tradition.

I keep baskets of books in every room of the house so they are always available. Before my son was born, my husband and I made an agreement that when ever our son wanted to read, we would always immediately stop what we were doing, turn the TV or radio off, etc...and make a special quiet time of reading. That special time only lasts a little while, and before you know it they don't want to snuggle on our laps any longer.

Another thing I always did from my son being a new born was say everything that I was doing. Like, "Mommy is now making dinner. What should we make? Oh! A salad? First I'm going to get some lettuce and clean it...." Etc Etc. My son's vocabulary I swear, went through the roof just by doing that! That small interaction is great stimulation to their minds because it teaches words / activity association, etc...

I also sung little songs when I would be cleaning, like, "Mop Mop Mop all day long, Mop Mop Mop, singing my song..." Little stuff like that to just be silly. Which is my next point: don't forget to be silly! Humor is a great mind stimulator an it teaches kids to be enthusiastic and have fun in life.

Take care and best wishes: your little one is precious and is smart and the most important thing is she has a Mommy who loves her very much!

It sounds to me like you are doing plenty of academics with your daughter. I wouldn't worry about the mastery of those particular skills just yet. At this age she is still using a lot of brain power learning how to do physical things. I would be sure to add in a variety of activities (if you already don't) such as running, jumping, using utensils, sculpting with dough, dancing, building with blocks, etc to stimulate her thinking, her motor skills and her interests. It is good that she can play independently and she will surely find you when she needs attention or assistance.

Sometimes I am not the most creative mom and sometimes feel that my kids and I are in a rut. My kids are 2 yo and 3 yo. I bought two books that provide craft ideas and a variety of activities to explore. "365 Days of Baby Einstein" has activities related to feelings, weather, numbers, animals, language etc. "365 Days of Creative Play" has art projects, pretend play, simple science experiments and a few kid-friendly recipies. Even if we don't do the activities as described, we use the ideas to create our own fun.

You could join a mom's meetup group - that way she'll get interaction with kids around her age. Go to meetup.com

J., My daughter will be 11 months and we also read daily to her. I am also a SAHM and 20-30 mins a day we will sing the abc's and do her number books. she loves it and she will already say 1. Our girls are a bit different though my daughter is spoiled and has to right up under me{my fault} I think it's Great she is independent. Leap frog has a lot of stuff from birth up. I don't think there is a set time to start abc's or numbers I would say when you feel she's rdy.