Two thoughts with a nearly four year old
1. What should I be doing now to get ready for HSing? We do regular learning as we play stuff now but I don't have any materials, research put into it, etc.
2. My friend who was planning to HS and possibly set up a co-op space at her (large!) home has decided her child is better served in a classroom environment. I'm pretty :cry and need some sympathy please. |
Re: Two thoughts with a nearly four year old
When do you plan to start formal schooling? I always swore we wouldn't do anything until he was solidly 6, but Mr Smartypants needed more to challenge him.
I'd mostly have an idea of what you want to do when you do go. At four sensory play is still huge wrt learning. |
Re: Two thoughts with a nearly four year old
The polite answer is probably read to them a lot.
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Re: Two thoughts with a nearly four year old
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2) Hugs :hugheart - sounds like jitters, but better to know now that later perhaps. |
Re: Two thoughts with a nearly four year old
1. Dirt, mud, rocks, paint, unbreakable fat crayons, and other messy things.
2. Some storybooks. If you remember them fondly from your preschool years, they're good. 3. A few songs, ditto. There, covered. :D But seriously, if I had 3+ to do over again, I would pick an outdoor spot that was easy to get to/from and visit it at least once a month, all year round, with appropriate clothing and some basic stuff in the car or stroller (like extra socks). My kids kind of picked their own; Sophia insisted almost before she could talk on making regular stops at a great big cottonwood tree that grows at the edge of a quiet parking lot downtown, and when she could talk she named it "Mrs. Tree." All three kids still visit the tree to this day, noting seasonal changes and tracking the progress of the two naturally bonsai-d rowans that grow in a fork in its branches. Keeping a small garden designed to yield through the entire growing season is another possibility if picky little fingers can be kept out of it (grumble grumble this is why I can't have parsley or chives grumble gripe). Whatever you choose, gently and briefly direct your child's attention to something interesting, perhaps tell a little story about what things were like a few months ago and how they may be a few months from now, then back off and leave room to explore. At home, read storybooks and sing nursery songs. If you are self-conscious about your voice, find simple arrangements of the songs on Youtube (Super Simple Songs has some nice ones) and play them. Slowly and gently practice things like: *Colors: Crayola makes bath color pills in red, yellow, and blue; this is good for teaching red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, brown. Plus at the end you get a clean kid. :) *Numbers: Counting songs like "Five Little Speckled Frogs," giving a finger countdown for transitions between activities, saying "I'm cutting your sandwich into four pieces, look," etc. *Letters: Think BIG. S-T-O-P, O-P-E-N. Focusing on big letters is less tiring for little eyes and brains. Don't try to teach all of the letters. At home, you might look at the alphabet games section at Starfall.com, which is free, and allow joint or solo exploration for a few minutes a day. But, again, the goal is recognition of some letters, and the bigger the better. *Place in time: Seasons, the order of holidays, signs of impending weather, and the order of daily activities are about as detailed as you can get. *Shapes: IME kids like to show off their shape knowledge at this age. Look at the gently presented shapes songs from KidsTV123 on Youtube. They have a lot of good stuff. Keep it short, keep it simple. Five to ten minutes per day of directed learning--less if there is resistance or lack of interest--plus some good stories and songs and daily outdoor time if possible. |
Re: Two thoughts with a nearly four year old
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Re: Two thoughts with a nearly four year old
Remember: Unless you are talking about a bona fide prodigy or someone with serious deficits due to issues in the brain, your kid and their kids and everyone else's kids will be at the same place academically by about 8 no matter when they start. Personally I do not like to push.
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Re: Two thoughts with a nearly four year old
Find things you both enjoy and enjoy them with gusto. Read books. Play outside. Take walks. Look at things.
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Re: Two thoughts with a nearly four year old
It sounds to me like without a specific philosophy, you'll do best just living life the way four year olds do best: lots of time outside, reading books, asking questions, playing with other four year olds.
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Re: Two thoughts with a nearly four year old
Four you say.
I'd read to her as much as I could and leave it at that. Because yeahfour. :shifty :listentothekiwi |
Re: Two thoughts with a nearly four year old
Adding my voice because it's admittedly different... So clearly not what most do...
At four we bought Timberdoodle's pre-k boxed curriculum. It was mostly fun hands-on stuff like cutting, pasting, construction, etc. DS1 loved it. The parts he didn't card for we didn't bother with, and it was really, really good for ME to start getting my head around how to be a parent and teacher at the same time. It helped us a ton to start on the right foot (school is FUN!) and also get a bit of a rhythm to our days that had been missing. |
Two thoughts with a nearly four year old
I mostly let my children play at that age. I took them to parks, read lots of books, and worked on getting a rhythm to our day. Such as, do we get dressed before or after breakfast? Do they pay attention to stories better during mealtimes or during play? I taught them a routine of brushing teeth, dressing, and learning to make their beds with help each morning. I designated an outdoor playtime, to make certain we got out enough each day, and established screen time and quiet time rules.
Then, I tried to meet my own personal goals, such as trying to bake with them once in awhile, involving them with simple household chores sometimes (like folding wash cloths and socks, dusting furniture), and helping me spot things in the grocery store from our list. I used those early years to create some family holiday traditions. I also wanted them to get to know my grandmother, so we visit her often. One website I enjoyed whenever I got the itch to do something more was Pamm's House Curriculum. It's designed for an in-home daycare, but has so many fun, but easy/simple ideas. Bible stories, color of the week, poems, paper crafts, etc. Most of all, have fun. Like someone else said, you spend a lot of time just getting through the age/stage. [emoji4] But I enjoyed using that time to figure out how I wanted our days to look going into the future, too. Things change all the time, but having certain things you do daily helps. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
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