I learned something about learning today

I have dreams of teaching my son how to program when he turns 5. My vague plan is to teach him basic reading skills by 3, how to write by 4, basic math & algebra by 5, at which point we will start programming.

My son just turned 2, so the countdown has begun.

Something amazing happened this weekend, at 25 months I taught my son his first word "cat"! And it took an entire week of passive repetition and short bursts of practice to teach him one word.

The very next day, my mind was blown. Because he picked up 4 new words not in weeks but seconds. Dog, Ball, Car, Fish.

This is when daddy learned something new, and I'd like to share it with you.

Before I could teach my son how to read, I had to teach him that I wanted him to know how to read. This was the biggest barrier. It took him a week to learn cat, because he had no clue that I was trying to teach him that letter combinations spell words.

This truly is common sense, but it has changed my perception of learning and teaching. Before I can teach something I have to teach what I what him to learn. He has to understand the challenge before he can meet it.

I think knowing & recognizing this early on will allow me to be more flexible in selecting and modifying my teaching strategies on the fly. As a result, I will hopefully have a bit more intuition in recognizing future learning barriers.