With everyone going back to school, I’ve been thinking a lot about…well, school. Lydia is only 3 but she loves loves loves all things school-y. She loves to read, color, write, draw, spell and sing. She loves doing things in order and learning new stuff. (Do you love my descriptive words—“things” and “stuff”?)
She’s got several school-y type books from KUMON, a Strawberry Shortcake phonics book and a random learn-how-to-cut book I found on clearance at WalMart. The other day I even picked up (are you ready for this?) Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I know, I sound like a freak, don’t I?
Right now we don’t do a scheduled “school” time. I’m not actively trying to teach her to read, write or spell. When we do crafts and other purposeful activities, I’m usually doing a scripture, Bible story or Fruit of the Spirit. We do some of her school-y workbooks while I’m making dinner or while I’m writing on the computer. She just really loves to do it. She makes me hold books right in front of her face while I’m reading so she can “learn to read, too!”.
It’s YOUR TURN: Before your kids were kindergarten age, what did you do about teaching and schooling? Did you just talk about rhyming, colors and numbers as it came up? Did you try some kindergarten-readiness books, websites or classes? Or did you just wait till they were in kindergarten and let the teachers do their jobs? If you are homeschooling, when do you start the “real” teaching?
With Emily, she was in daycare for the first 3 1/2 yrs of her life, so she learned a lot there. After that, I had workbooks my Mom had given me, because I had been talking about homeschooling then. We mostly just did informal things with cutting, gluing, learning shapes, numbers, letters, etc… I chickened out on homeschooling & she went to kindergarten & half of 1st Grade. She was pretty well prepared & her kindie teacher said she was on 1st Grade level, halfway through the year.
This year, Olivia is 3 1/2 yrs old and we are following a curriculum from http://www.letteroftheweek.com. Last week we learned “A” and the #1. She already knows colors from our many coloring projects over the years. This week we are working on the letter “B” and #2. We are also working on shapes each week. Most of what she’s doing is coloring and counting and I have a dry erase workbook to teach her how to write the letters. Best $5 I spent!
It’s informal, but she seems to be picking it up really well & having fun.
.-= AmyG´s last blog ..Pretty Ballerina =-.
I have the “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” book too. *I* love it and think it’s a genius program, but my girls? Not so much. If she reacts like they did, I highly, highly, highly recommend the Explode the Code series. They have a pre-reading series that’s something like “Get Ready for the Code,” “Get Set for the Code” and “Go for the Code,” and my 3.5yo LOVES it.
.-= Mandi @ Doodles’ Place´s last blog ..Motherhood is Overwhelming! =-.
This site from World Book gives curriculum standards for each level, starting in preschool. http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?curriculum/preschool
I check it periodically to make sure we’re on track!
.-= Sandra´s last blog ..Our School Schedule =-.