Teaching toddlers can be a challenge, but you don’t always need a lot of fancy preschool lessons to help kids learn. Here are seven tips for teaching your tot and preparing them for preschool or kindergarten.

1) Talk to your toddler constantly! Children learn to talk by hearing others speak, and by imitating you, so don’t talk baby talk unless you want your preschooler to speak baby talk. When your toddler asks for something, repeat the words back to them so they can hear how they should sound. If you give them something, don’t forget to teach them to say please and thank you.

2) Read with your child daily… This is proven to be the best way to teach toddlers and preschoolers to love reading. To get them interested in books, start with just looking at and pointing to the pictures, as you talk about what is going on in the story. Later you can move on to reading the simple words as you move your finger across the page. This will make it easier for them to understand preschool lessons in the future.

3) Count Everything! Take every opportunity to count different items. don’t limit this to counting fingers and toes. Try counting cars on the street, cookies on a plate, glasses on a table, etc. Make it into a game by adding or removing items, then counting how many are left.

4) Re-arrange letters… Refrigerator magnets are great for this. Put letter magnets on the refrigerator and spell out your child’s name or favorite food. Ask them to tell you what the letters are, or what letter their favorite toy starts with. Create your own mini preschool lesson by spelling out simple words like cat and dog, then have your child sound them out with you.

5) Play music… Although most children are born with perfect pitch and a good sense of rhythm, they may lose both as they mature. Help them stay in step by playing music for them from a early age. As an added plus, studies show that when small children are exposed to classical music they do better in math. Is there an easier way to improve your child’s math potential?

6) Sing! Toddlers don’t care how good, or bad, your voice may be. Teach them little songs, rhymes and ditties along with finger plays and body movements. Many preschool lessons use songs to teach math, phonics, body parts, etc., and there is no limit to the number of songs and rhymes available. Go to Nursery Rhymes on the Weekly Preschool Lessons website for easy access to nursery rhymes and hand plays.

7) Ask for help… Toddlers love to be helpful, so get them moving and looking around by asking them to find and get things for you, put things away, put things together, etc. Provide lots of encouragement, and if they seem reluctant to put their toys away its O.K. to help them out. This makes them feel less overwhelmed and teaches teamwork.

Take the steps above and you can rest assured that you are giving your toddler or preschooler a great head start.