To stop DH teaching DS about countries/the world?

[NewNameEveryWeek]

DS is 16 months old. He seems pretty bright for his age (he can say 20+ words already) but DH seems to think that DS is a genius.

We've already had arguments because DH was trying to teach DS colours at 14 months old. DH would ask DS to bring him something red, and DS would usually look confused and fail, or sometimes randomly choose something that happened to be red and DH would take this as conclusive proof that DS knows colours now. It was frustrating to watch as DS looked so bewildered most of the time. I actually thought the way DH was going about it could be bad for DS's development, eg DS can understand what a dog is and will point them out and say "dog" and trying to get DS to associate brown dogs with the word "brown" as well as "dog" is a bit much at this stage if that makes sense.

Now DH is asking me to look for a globe or atlas for DS. He wants to teach him to eg point at Australia when DH asks him to. I haven't bought one yet as I think it's a pointless thing to teach DS at his age. With enough practice he probably could learn to point at the different counties/continents but it won't mean anything to him and he's be better off learning useful easy words first.

AIBU to tell DH we're not buying a globe?

Or should I just let him get on with it? He seems to want me to buy the globe though as he expects me to do all the shopping which is frustrating. I suppose it won't be as bad as the whole colours fiasco anyway.

I don't think it puts a child at "huge advantage" to recite names of countries that are meaningless to him.

That’s not what I said. I’m not expecting a 2-year-old to remember recitations 16 years later.

But children are sponges, Smiley and the more we rain experiences and information on them, the more they soak up.

It’s about nourishing them then letting them decide how they want to eat. Far too many children are malnourished in mind, body, and soul.

Far too many.

Fair point Andy perhaps this dad does struggle to pitch his interactions with a 16 month old. I'm sure he has good intentions.

However, these comments by Op Dh thinks that ds is a genius...he thinks he has conclusive proof sets off an alert on my 'slightly deluded performance parent who believes he has a prodigy on his hands' radar.

It's about nourishing them and letting them decide I do agree.

I just think a geography lesson with globe is absurd for a 1 year-old. Perhaps he will decide he's not interested and throw it on the floor.

That's a really nice post andyindurham I'd never really thought about it like that before. You have to learn how to interact with them don't you, and I'm sure I waffled on a lot to my DD when she was small.

I just think a geography lesson with globe is absurd for a 1 year-old.

Again, fair enough, but the child is 16 months and developmentally that’s huge. You know that.

Also, it’s just information, just teaching, just exposure to the things in this world that don’t yet make sense to a toddler.

If you think of it as being no different from a parent teaching colours, or even food at the dinner table while feeding a baby, it’s normal and reasonable and helpful. “Here’s a spoonful of peas, yum yum, it’s green and so is this bite of broccoli!” or whatever silly things we say when eating with young children. “Here’s what Australia looks like! It’s bigger than England!”

As long as there’s no hot-housing or expectation—and yes, I agree OP indicates that from her perspective the dad might think he’s training a future Einstein —it’s just normal and lovely interaction of parent and child.

Perhaps he will decide he's not interested and throw it on the floor.

And then they’ll know!

Throwing the globe on the floor is an important lesson in gravity to be fair
Toys will probably break if you throw them is a valuable piece of knowledge for most toddlers.

Honestly, so many parents seem to devote so much time and effort to teaching their children things that they are not ready for. Things they'd pick up in no time once they are ready.

It is so not worth it. Spend your time with your toddler doing nursery rhymes and reading all the wonderful books that we have these days. The very hungry caterpillar, the Alfie books, Mog, Spot, Billy Goats Gruff, Meg the Worst Witch......

FFS I would have killed for books such as these when I was 2 years old!