The attempt at early learning

As other first time parents before me have discovered, we can be too eager and over excited in our endeavour to do the best for our firstborn. My DH and myself fall into this ‘trap’ willingly, all the while acknowledging our propensity to go overboard with things. Realising that this could be a double-edged sword where our DD is concerned (and due to a certain lack of financial means), we consciously try to be level headed about what we indulge her with. Nevertheless, our enthusiasm can be difficult to curtail at times. One case in point is our recent attempt to teach 22 month-old DD to recite the Al-Quran. I asked the ustaz (religious teacher) when would be the right time to start teaching her. He told me 3 y-o would be about right, or if you are willing to try, you could start at 2.5 y-o. Regardless of the ustaz’s advice, we didn’t hesitate to buy the muqaddam set on our recent trip to the bookshop. Our rationale is that it doesn’t hurt to buy early. At least, when we are ready to start, we would have the tools ready. However, the rationale was thrown out of the window by the time we reached home. Suddenly DH was all eager to get DD started and his eagerness rubbed on me. Since between the two of us, I was deemed as a better educator, DH decided to pressure me into teaching DD. I read the introduction of the first book of the muqaddam set which contains tips on the proper teaching technique. It is certainly different from my time 26 years ago, when the lesson would go “Alif di atas Aa, Baa di atas baa, Taa di atas taa” and so on. Instead, the new way of teaching the lesson is by omitting the spelling, so you would just say “Aa Baa, Aa Aa Baa, Aa Baa Aa, Baa Aa Aa” etc. Armed with the new technique, I held DD in my lap and started pointing to the letters on the page. I cannot go past Aa Baa, however, because my DD insisted on flipping the pages and pointing everywhere why saying “Baa, Baa?” and I would tell her “No, that not Baa, this is Baa” etc etc. After a few minutes, I was ready to give up, so DH took over. I took the latest copy of Reader’s Digest and started reading it when I heard endless giggles from my DD. Despite the giggle, DH had her attention and she excitedly repeated after DH. She pronounced a letter, than giggled, pronounced again, followed by another giggle, then another pronunciation and followed by a delighted scream. I was curious, so I asked DH what he was doing. He smugly told me that “This is fun learning”. That got me more curious and I continued asking him how he managed to make her laugh so hard and repeat the words after him. I didn’t get an answer from him so I feigned jealousy, while actually it was quite fun watching the two of them enjoying themselves reciting the muqaddam. The next day, I tried to teach DD again and received the same response. All she wanted to do was flip the pages and point her fingers everywhere. DH took over but the previous day’s magic didn’t work this time. We couldn’t get DD’s attention . Perhaps, like the ustaz had said, our DD is too young to learn the muqaddam. I told my Mother about our effort, and she said that my sisters’ children in Terengganu were only accepted by the ustaz when they reach the age of 5. Nevertheless, we decided not to give up. I don’t have much expectation, really. All I want to do is fill a teeny-bit of her time with learning. Or does anyone know of a method that works to retain a 22 m-o’s attention?