Katigre
03-08-2010, 12:24 PM
I am really looking for guidance and insight.
Background on myself: I was an early reader and was ahead in math too, both came easily to me. Anyone who sees me post around here much knows I'm still quite verbally inclined ;) and fairly nerdy :glasses Now DS...he is so much like me...both in personality in general and his academic abilities.
He turns 4 at the end of this month. I'm of the general mindset that early academics are not beneficial long-term and can make kids associate learning with 'work' instead of enjoyment. That play is the work of childhood.
But DS...he really enjoys the academic. Since he was a toddler he's been really into letters and numbers (He taught himself the letters before he was 24 months, and he made a calculator his lovey when he was 2-3 :giggle) We don't have 'educational toys' in our house, he doesn't watch videos that emphasize those things, he just naturally gravitates to them (he's also very musically inclined so I think the numbers/music interests go together in his brain).
He's teaching himself to read and can do 2 digit addition/subtraction in his head (i.e., here are two examples from last week when he got a bunch of straws from his grandma - "Me: You have 50 straws in each package, if you have two packages, how many straws will you have? DS: 100!" or "The package has 50 straws, we've picked up 47, how many do we need to find?" DS: Three!" I asked him those questions out of curiosity b/c I wondered how well he did numbers in his head b/c he's always counting and categorizing things...and I was shocked he could do them easily).
He just started writing all his letters in the past few weeks - before he could only do them if we dotted them for him to trace (which he'd often ask us to do).
And now I'm stumped about how to proceed from here. He was looking at a Lakeshore Learning catalogue a few weeks ago and picked out a bunch of math stuff he wanted for his birthday. He's memorizing sight words left and right, I'd say he's got 100-200, many of which I didn't even know he knew.
Does "Not pushing early academics" equal "Discourage a focus on them"? He gets plenty of free play time each day and does a variety of things to entertain himself. What does it look like to help a child learn to read and do early math when they are newly 4?
FWIW, we're not sure if we'll homeschool or do a dual language immersion program at our public school. If we homeschool he'll go to a classical homeschool coop that I currently teach at.
Ok, this really rambled. I just want to support him and not hinder his growth. Should I just leave him alone and see how he progresses on his own, answering questions as they come up? Is it important that he learn phonics along with (or before) he amasses a huge vocabulary of sight words (and do I need to try and introduce that) or just let it happen in whatever order?
Background on myself: I was an early reader and was ahead in math too, both came easily to me. Anyone who sees me post around here much knows I'm still quite verbally inclined ;) and fairly nerdy :glasses Now DS...he is so much like me...both in personality in general and his academic abilities.
He turns 4 at the end of this month. I'm of the general mindset that early academics are not beneficial long-term and can make kids associate learning with 'work' instead of enjoyment. That play is the work of childhood.
But DS...he really enjoys the academic. Since he was a toddler he's been really into letters and numbers (He taught himself the letters before he was 24 months, and he made a calculator his lovey when he was 2-3 :giggle) We don't have 'educational toys' in our house, he doesn't watch videos that emphasize those things, he just naturally gravitates to them (he's also very musically inclined so I think the numbers/music interests go together in his brain).
He's teaching himself to read and can do 2 digit addition/subtraction in his head (i.e., here are two examples from last week when he got a bunch of straws from his grandma - "Me: You have 50 straws in each package, if you have two packages, how many straws will you have? DS: 100!" or "The package has 50 straws, we've picked up 47, how many do we need to find?" DS: Three!" I asked him those questions out of curiosity b/c I wondered how well he did numbers in his head b/c he's always counting and categorizing things...and I was shocked he could do them easily).
He just started writing all his letters in the past few weeks - before he could only do them if we dotted them for him to trace (which he'd often ask us to do).
And now I'm stumped about how to proceed from here. He was looking at a Lakeshore Learning catalogue a few weeks ago and picked out a bunch of math stuff he wanted for his birthday. He's memorizing sight words left and right, I'd say he's got 100-200, many of which I didn't even know he knew.
Does "Not pushing early academics" equal "Discourage a focus on them"? He gets plenty of free play time each day and does a variety of things to entertain himself. What does it look like to help a child learn to read and do early math when they are newly 4?
FWIW, we're not sure if we'll homeschool or do a dual language immersion program at our public school. If we homeschool he'll go to a classical homeschool coop that I currently teach at.
Ok, this really rambled. I just want to support him and not hinder his growth. Should I just leave him alone and see how he progresses on his own, answering questions as they come up? Is it important that he learn phonics along with (or before) he amasses a huge vocabulary of sight words (and do I need to try and introduce that) or just let it happen in whatever order?