I know in public schools you can put your child into pre-k as early as 3 and then K at 5 (I think). My question is did you start any toddler-based activities to get them prepared for home-schooling. My son is 16 months and I am a SAHM and I would love to start some basic activities with him (obviously activities that would work with a 16 month olds attention span) but I am unsure if I should just wait till he is a bit older, or if there are some basic activities I can work with him on. Any ideas/advise would be greatly appreciated. -Jessica
I think you should take a look at how you plan to homeschool, and prepare your child for that type of environment. The purpose of "preschool" as most see it today is to teach a child the basics (colors, numbers, etc.) and how to sit still in a classroom setting. Homeschoolers don't (usually) need to teach anything like that. Really, all that's necessary is to read a child's cues for when they're ready to learn something. Don't push and don't hold back. Both are equally detrimental in the long run.
Might I suggest this quick read http://www.magicalchildhood.com/articles/4yo.htm and then I suggest checking out Better Late Than Early by Raymond Moore and How Children Learn by John Holt from your local library. Read to your son-kids in households where they are read to, have access to books and see their parents read are much better off academically than any other 'group' of kids. Talk to your son, ask him questions, answer his questions, help him explore his world-simple things we take for granted kids use to figure out this world! Look at nature, catch a bug, pick flowers, blow bubbles, play in the mud, splash in the water, talk to him as you go about your daily lives together, sign songs...he'll learn more than you could ever imagine and have a blast doing it!
In New Zealand children start our version of kindergarten at age 3 and continue until their 5th birthday when they start school. Our kindergartens are set up with lots of different activities that the children choose from as they like while the teachers watch and help as needed. Loralei's kindergarten had mat time right before washing hands and eating lunch together. Mat time involves storytime, singing and dancing and a bit of show and tell. IMO children learn through play so I'd set up activities like painting, playdough, collage, etc. You could buy a glue gun and make constructions from empty boxes and milk bottle, lids etc. You could raise sea monkeys, triops, tadpoles and monarch caterpillars. Blowing bubbles is great for speech development. Bake scones, they're quick, versatile and yum. Make cubby huts. Do it all with him so you can talk through it and answer his questions - "You're using green paint." "This playdough is warm and soft." "That's your left foot." Make mud, hunt bugs, spash in puddles. Give him a variety of plastic containers and let him pour water from one to the other, to the other, to the other and back again. If he's having fun he's learning ETA: When you start is a matter of opinion, some say it's when you started bonding with your child, some say it's the day they should've started school with their friends. According to the ministry of education here in New Zealand I haven't started yet because Loralei hasn't turned 6 yet. I feel we started when she was 4 1/2 years. Read. Read. Read. Children who are read to reguarly have better attention spans and can sit still longer.
Kindergarten and prekinder usually focus on doing these sorts of activities, and the main things they teach are the names of colours, how to count, how to recognise letters, and how to write their names. That's about as far as the traditional education goes. The rest is all learning through activities and games. I think as long as you're spending time with your son rather than sitting him in front of the television all day, he'll learn things by picking them up from you. Read books together and do activities like lego and play dough, since kids learn a lot this way. Spend some time outside and look for bugs or grow a plant. There is plenty to be learnt from nature. Studies have shown that children who are read to daily end up with higher IQs, better jobs, all the rest of it. Reading is a good habit to get him into at an early age!
Children are learning since birth, so your homeschooling has already started. Read, read, read to your child. Make learning a natural part of life, embrace your child's curiosity. Explore everything. Go to the library, do art projects (even messy ones....), go for walks, talk about colors, numbers, shapes, alphabet, sing loudly and often. Let him help with dinner - I know...young, but there are things even a 16 month old can do with your help. ENJOY your child. They will learn just by being with you. Hold off on the "formal" schooling until they are older, and even then, make it a natural progression that you introduce SLOWLY....
Talk. Talk. Talk. Read. Read. Read. Play. Play. Play. PS. And forget about what everybody else's kid is doing at the same age (or not doing).
Read and play. Exposure to lots of different things-animals/zoo, baking, imaginary play, everything. Being with you is learning. Talk about what you're doing throughout the day. This is an amazing time. Enjoy it!
I didn't do anything formal to prepare Ems for Kindergarten. We played, read together, sang, basically we lived life. You can teach numbers through baking, drawing, painting, collecting rocks, riding a bike. Texture can be taught with play dough, rocks, sand, etc... Motor skills can be taught through drawing, painting, playing in the mud. ...and of course, reading to your child is a great teacher in and of itself.
Encourage a lot of pretend play. Play with him expanding his play ideas and go in new directions adding more complexity to his play. Research shows that engaging in extended pretend play (i.e. playing store with parent or other children for hours) does more for future cognitive skills than early academics.
Ems was the queen of sock puppets. We or she would read a story and then go to her room and decorate socks. She would come out and put the show on for us. lol She went through a lot of socks but it was worth it!
I'm actually in the same situation as you. My oldest turned 4 on Saturday, my middle is 2 and my youngest 4 months. I am in the process of deciding when to begin my oldest. Right now, we do a lot of reading, walking, playing, and singing. He knows all his colors, shapes, ABC, and can count to 30. (my 21/2 year old can do most of these things to and has learned just by watching us learn an play) I've learned that if I make everything fun, they will learn it. Right now, I'm starting to work on teaching him letter identification, and writing his name. I am new at thus and have asked SO MANY questions on this forum. Some probably very dumb questions, but if you track down the questions I've asked you would probably get some great answers. It's been very helpful.
I don't believe in starting formal education until the child is ready. I agree with read, read, read, talk, talk, talk and play, play, play.
I agree. We aren't saying hold your child back, but don't push forward too early. I believe the context actressdancer is using the quote is a philosophy that starting formal education early (like public schools) is actually detrimental in many cases (especially boys). I think there is some merit to that belief. I really think my son "learned" early on that he "couldn't" learn some stuff, just because his brain wasn't mature enough to get it when the schools said he should (he went to private/public school until 7th). While it is great that you want to give your child every advantage possible (it shows you care), I think you are best off if you just don't even think about how to start teaching him at this age. Just be his mom and live life with him.
I'm another big believer in Raymond Moore's theory of better late than early. Just reading,playing, singing, and outdoor exploration is sufficient for young children until about 6 or 7. Or even later for boys.
Wow thank you all for the responses! I will have to go through all of them tomorrow but from what I scanned though I saw a lot of great articles/books to read. I understand what you mean by 'better late then early'. I had a discussion with my mom the other day about when she started me in school. My bday fell on that magical date where she could enroll me (and I would be the youngest of my grade), or hold off a year (where I would be one of the oldest in my grade). She decided on the latter and I think it was the right call. I was a year older, a year more mature. I rather be a few months older then the rest of my class then be the youngest, and possible behind the curve. My son is still very young, but we read every day, and we are starting to work on chunky puzzles that have the basic shapes and colors. We play simple games and do some sing-alongs (like the itsy bitsy spider, heads-shoulders-knees-toes). My son is still not speaking so, as I am trying to encourage him to use his words, we have gone through basic sign language so he can at least communicate basic needs (drink, eat, all done, more, no). I give words to just about everything he does and I see that he understands quite a bit. I can give him simple commands and he will do them with a smile on his face. I guess I am just looking for some new, more creative ways to play. I always feel that I don't stimulate his mind enough. To say my son is inquisitive and energetic is quite the understatement (as I am sure most 16 month olds are). I just want him to have fun and be challenged (age appropriately). I am getting a little stir crazy with my husband deployed and living at home with my parents so I am always looking for new things to do with him. I need to crash, but thanks again for all the responses! I think my focus is definitely going to be to learn as much as I can about the process of HS so that I can stay as up to date as possible so that, when my son is ready, I will know what to do.
Google "tot boxes" to find tons of ideas to keep him interested and motivated to explore. There isn't any formal teaching required for tot box activities. Split his time between independent learning (exploration/play) and focused learning with you (cuddling with a book, showing him something, etc.).
The question is WHY are kids being pushed into "early" school? JMHO here, but I believe it's because working parents want free babysitting. Many (very young) single moms on welfare really don't have the tools to raise their babies (generalization, I know!!!), and it's easier to take the kids away for several hours of the day instead of teaching the mom how to BE a mom. Look at Head Start. And other "middle class" moms have bought into the lie that their kids NEED institutionalization at such an early age. I have worked in both daycare and preschool. The first is just glorified babysitting, the later puts children under high pressure to achieve, when they should be busy playing all day. And the results of both are dismall. As others have said, let the child lead. When Phillip was almost three, he wanted to know if 3yos could read. I told him they had to learn their letters first. Did he want to learn his letters? So I got busy and started teaching him his letters. Well, after two weeks, he was no longer interested, so I quit. As others have said, I don't believe in holding back, but I also don't believe in pushing. When they're ready, they'll let you know. Push to early, and you develop a child who hates learning. As others have said, READ, READ, READ to your child. Kindergarten teachers universally say that this is the one thing a parent can do to insure success in school. And play, play, play. Make learning a part of life. Taking a toddler grocery shopping is one of the greatest learning experiences there is! You teach color (Do we want red apples or yellow apples?"), counting (Let's see...we need four cans of soup!), classifying (We need buns. That will be in the bread aisle.) I even gave my children a shopping list (Here's the bananas. There's BANANAS with the "b" in front; can you cross it off for Mommy?"). My little ones could count to 13 before they were three. Why thirteen? Because there are thirteen steps going upstairs, and we'd count them each night as we climbed them to bed. I taught one-to-one correspondance while setting the table. "Here's a fork to put at Daddy's place, here's one for Mommy, here's one for Sissy...." But I wasn't really "teaching". I was just "living" day to day.
