ABCMOUSE.com...anyone have experience, reviews to share?

I would not delve into the computer world as he will get there soon enough! For our grandson (and when he was younger), we have lots of age appropriate games, all of the crafty items you mentioned. We take walks, play I spy and I had a jar that he would deposit all of the little treasures he found along the way on our walks. He is 7 now and we try to keep him away from the computer because he gets alot of that at home and school.

I love ABC Mouse. However, my son is 5.5. I didn't start him on it until 4.5 and even now, he gets to use it on a severely limited basis. I think 2 is too young for that kind of technology. Beyond that, I think ABC Mouse itself would be too advanced for him.

If you do pay for it, look for a 50% sale or coupon-they run them all the time.

This is my experience as well. My daughter's kindergarten teacher used ABC Mouse in their classroom which is why we decided to get it, to reinforce.

Your grandson isn't going to be behind in preschool. My daughter was in daycare from 10 weeks until right before she was 3 years old before she went into preschool and she didn't know anything more than the kids who stayed home. Honestly even with the "lessons", my day care was basically all day play group (which I liked, I don't think kids need to be hard core learning at such an early age). They started the more structured preschool program at age 3. If your grandson is anything like my kid, he is probably getting plenty of computer/tablet/phone time at home so that parents get a little bit of downtime. Let grandma time be unplugged, he will probably get way more from that anyway.

What is more important is that he has socialization. Learning how to share, wait in line, be quiet, follow simple rules, that sort of thing.

M's Speech Therapist had us get him a tablet for Christmas. We use pop up type apps and some fun one. We stay in control of it and have him sigh or say the things he sees. Be for we can move on.. He favort is one that tell him the name of different car and truck.

(just a side note) Both of the girls have tablets and laptops.

You are doing amazingly well. And he is doing well to be doing all that before two. I might not have him standing on a chair to cook as a fall could happen, though.

I would take that money and buy Dr Suess books. One of the predictors for reading readiness is phonemic awareness, associating letters and sounds. Dr Suess books are fantastic for that.

I'm a tech junkie. My DD was looking at/interacting with my iPad at 4-5 months. Fisher price has TONS of free apps for babies. As she got older we got the free tiny hands apps. Abc mouse has books that read to them or you can read them. At 4 my DD is reading at 1-2 grade level and doing skip counting and basic adding/subtracting. We also spent lots of time reading, counting objects, asking questions about stuff and investigating everything.

I think you're doing great.

I got it for my 3 year old great grandson and his mother says he loves it. I may renew it, now that he is 4.

What does it even mean to be "behind" in preschool anyway? Preschool isn't required, although it can be helpful for children from disadvantaged homes or for kids whose first language is not English.

He's only 2 but if you're worried in a year or so you could look on the county school's website and find the page "is your child ready for kindergarten?" These days it's more than what it used to be, but still it's stuff like "recognizes name" and "knows colors" and "counts to ten"...stuff like that. Just in the ordinary day-to-day time spent with him your grandson will learn all that. 

For example, grocery shopping with kid in cart: "Okay, next on my list I wrote 'apples'. Should we buy red ones or yellow ones?" Kid: "Red!" You: "Okay, here are the red ones." [get plastic bag] "One, two, three, four of them." -- etc. all the way around the store. "Oh wow, look at those pretty pink flowers!" or "hey there sure are a lot of people here today, it's crowded." [believe it or not, many kids come to kindergarten without understand "a lot/many" and "few".] -- But don't make this "forced"...just talk to him naturally and he'll absorb everything.

At the library: This one is easy, just take out books. Read to him. Let him hold books (if he won't rip them) and learn about turning the pages, and that the words move from front to back to tell the story, and we turn pages one at a time.

In my humble opinion though, there are other things more important than academics for little ones (because like I said above, they'll just pick up stuff from your day-to-day interactions) -- that's physical activity, exploring, hiking in the woods, touching everything, getting messy, doing crafts... etc.  Also playing with other kids. School today is SO academic and even kindergartners often get very little time to play. Also, often the curriculum is so packed with academics (kindergarten today is what late first grade used to be when my kids were in school) that there's almost no time to interact with other kids in a non-structured way. They used to get that when they'd play with the kitchen equipment, or the blocks, or the Legos, or whatever.... a group of four or five kids has to work it out how they'll play together without conflict, or how they'll build a house, or how they'll make the pizza that they're going to pretend to serve to the teacher. This skill is SO lacking in kids these days because school is so structured. 

Anyway, that's just my opinion as a mom and an elementary school substitute teacher. I love the littlest ones, kindergarten or 1st grade and I just feel so sorry for them with today's crazy standardized testing. And I feel even more sorry for the teachers! But that's another thread. (saints, all of them).

eta: I see KatyBee's post a few above mine. I'm happy to see a kindergarten teacher say it doesn't matter what academic skills her kids have when they come to her.