I've mentioned many times in this blog about the rather slow speech development of baby Rynus as compared to his elder brother Renzo. After he started full day childcare since July 01, we've finally seen some pretty good progress recently.
Just like Renzo, Rynus has been picking up knowledge really fast through educational DVDs. I confess, I do give them ample TV time at home since they are in school the entire day, and they are not given Ipad or Iphone for apps, games, youtube etc. But most importantly, I do see them learning A LOT from just Disney Junior and educational DVDs.
In fact Rynus is not quite a fan of Disney Junior at this age, Renzo only developed his interest since he's about 4. So they both enjoy Thomas&Friends, Dora the Explorer, Leapfrog series and Hi5 the most, well actually they do not have anything else except for some Chinese sing a long song tracks. We only have 3 Dora, 2 Thomas, 1 Hi5 and a bunch of Leapfrog (maybe more than 7) at home, and they could watch again and again without getting bored at all. 
About half a year ago, we realized that Rynus has learned all his alphabets and phonics sounds from Leapfrog. He could read the letters with clear articulation, except for letter W. Sometimes, he mixes up the sound of certain letters and their phonics sounds but that's not too big a concern for now. And he enjoys singing ABC or the Leapfrog alphabet song with us before bedtime. Slowly, but steadily, he progressed on to counting numbers. I seriously think both of my boys love numbers, unlike their mother. I still remember how we taught Renzo 1~10, and then 11~20 with a number poster hanging on our wall, but for Rynus, he picked up 1~20 on his own from Leapfrog, almost effortlessly. And whenever he is in good mood, he counts. Initially he often skips a few numbers like 7(for some weird reason many kids skip number 7 when they first learn to count, including Renzo), 13, 14, 16.. But since about 2 weeks ago, he's been doing better and better, and no more skipping of numbers!!Here's a clip of him happily counting from 1 - 20, though I only managed to take out my phone camera when he's at number 4, and he repeated 15-17 at one point.
If I say Renzo has amused us by memorizing train names and numbers from Thomas&Friends and talking in British accent like the fat controller when he's 2, then Rynus has definitely amused us by interacting with Dora and Boots with zero communication breakdown when he's 2!! Watching Dora DVD with him is probably the most fun and relaxing bonding experience. One moment you see him sitting next to you on the sofa, hiding his head under your arm while staring at the TV, next moment, he rushed to the TV like a space shuttle and "press" the answers on TV as if he's using a touch pad, and before you know it, he's back to the sofa snuggling under your arms again, waiting for the next chance to run to the TV, pretty busy to be honest...
And, once I saw him washing his hands in the washroom and Dora was asking, "Which path should we take, blue, yellow, or purple?" on TV further away in living room, he shouted, "YELLOW!!"... Trust me, he got it absolutely right!!
Though he's been trying to "participate" in the 5-A-Day-Books routine we set up with Renzo every evening, Rynus is still learning most of his stuff through educational DVDs, he can say words like "Icy bridge", "Purple", "Circle", "blue mountain", "mama duck", etc, and some Spanish words too, all thanks to Dora & Boots!!
