ABC easy as 123

Trenton is a quiet, gentle, sensitive soul.  Verona talks incessantly and he sits back and observes and only makes requests when needed.  He doesn't like yelling by Verona or us.  If he get's in trouble, he cries, not because he got caught, but because he is afraid you are mad at him.  He is such a sweet and thoughtful guy. He is also very smart.  He has been saying his ABC's since 16 months. I credit this with 2 items. First, Nana is a kindergarten teach and her favorite author is Eric Carle.  She has bestowed her love of all things Eric Carle on our house, and we(me) love it! She got the twins this book.

Each letter is representing by an animal that corresponds with that letter*duh*. There are some unusal animals that make it fun and one fake animal. The Unicorn. It drives me crazy, that a unicorn is in the book! But I have to admit, since a unicorn is in the book, I thought that the Narwhal was also fake. I mean, it has a horn just like the unicorn and I had never heard of it. Andy had a good laugh when I told him I thought it was dumb that there were 2 fake animals in the book. He made me pick out the other one. Doh. Trenton loved this book so much, that we had to get a 2nd one because the first one became ripped to shreds. The 2nd one, I had to reinforce all the pages with packaging tape.  We could say to him, "Trent, go find the ABC book" and he would set off to search for it. I love this book for the other reason that both kids made their first animal sound from an animal they saw in the book. An owl.  When Trent started Who Who-ing I would lose it. Soo cute.  He also learned Tiger, Snake, Penguin, and Xolo as well.

The 2nd item I credit with him learning his ABC's so young is this item.

This toy by Alex Toys is amazing.  It has the alphabet, and numbers 0-9.  When he was just leaning, at 14-16 months, we could say "Trent, where is M?" And he would point to M. We would pick random letters and numbers and he would search for them.  We finally decided to stop confusing the poor kid, and would sing the ABC song so he knew the order. On the back of each letter is a picture that starts with that letter, and the back of each number the amount of an item. 5 Apples, Leaf, Horse, etc.

To say that he loves his ABC's and Counting his putting it mildly. If I ask him a questions, and he doesn't feel like talking to me, which is often, he only speaks when he really needs to, he just starts counting or doing his ABC's.  At night, when the lights are off, and he hasn't laid down yet, you can hear him counting" 1,2,3," all the way to 20 and sometimes to 30.  He counts steps he walks down, peas on his spoon, bubbles in the air, ice cubes Andy puts in his drink, couch cushions, etc etc etc.  His ABC's are the best.  Walking around town, we will see Bank of America, Trent" B-A-N-K, Me: Bank that spells bank. Trent: BANK!  Costco is also popular, as they have large letters for their signs all over, and he doesn't quietly say the letters, HE YELLS THEM!  C! O! S! T! C! O!. Yes Trent we and every person knows you can see and spell. 

What Andy and I find most impressive is the shapes.  My mom's mom sold Tupperware all thru the 1950's-80's.  So my mom has LOTS and LOTS of Tupperware.  I remember this toy as a kid. A ball that had shapes that fit into it. Nana got this toy when they were still babies, like 6 months. Here is a pic to jog your memory.

He knows his shapes: square, circle, oval, pentagon, hexagon, trapezoid, pie(that's what we call it) triangle, plus, and star.  We would get all the shapes out, hold up each shape to the kids, and say what it is and give to them. They would drool on it, and set aside the shape.  As they got older they paid more attention to the shapes. Pretty soon we were seeing Trenton pick up a shape, like the oval, and turn the ball over until he found the oval opening. Most kids might try and fit the oval into every single opening, but he didn't.  He would match first. It was like he didn't want to waste his time.  Soon, we were able to dump all the shapes out and he would match them into the correct hole in no time.In the last 6 months, we say "Find me the Hexagon" and he finds the Hexagon, that puts the Hexagon in it's opening.  It was crazy at first. We were shocked! Now we hold up the shapes and ask, "What is this?" While holding a shape and asking him to name it. Plus and Pie are tough, but the rest are pretty easy for him.  Verona isn't as into the shapes as much as Trent, but she is a shape smartie herself.  We have a book, alright, many books, that have a drawing/picture of a stop sign. I always say, what color is this(red), what shape (octagon) what does it say(stop).  They both would say red. Then nothing for shape, and they knew, only because we have seen the sign all over in books and while driving it says stop.  Last week, Verona opened up a book, pointed at the stop sign and said "Octagon".  It wasn't a shape from the shape sorter, but in a book that she remembered.  These two smartie pants amaze me.  I don't compare them to other kids, because all kids are different and learn differently, but I like to think that they are on a fast track of learning.