Try to speak with him as much as possible about everything like with your friend. Comment every your action, ask him to help you with the something very simple. ( My daughter likes to take clothes out of washing mashine when they are washed. Also she likes to put there dirty clothes. She likes wash potatos and other vegitables)

Praise every time he will do something for you and especilly when you speak with your husband and friends. Children of such age admire to overhear everything even if they don’t show that they are listening. He will feel himself involved and very important. This will be the best encouragement.

Have you showed him Baby Einstein and Brainy videos for kids? This video is great. It will help me a lot because it gave me possibility to something about the house while my daughter was watching it. She learned numbers and all animals with help of this video while I was washing the dishes or cleaning, ect. Then when I had free time we spoke about everything she saw there and look for animals and numbers in other books, count apples and spoons while washing them. This video will help you while your other son will grow a little. Then you’ll have more free time to read with both of them and play.