Preschool is Unnecessary
Okay, I'll confess that when I first moved to this house, I had my first two kids in Mothers Day Out two days a week. I knew nobody here and I wasn't aware of any play groups or homeschool groups. I didn't think homeschool groups really kicked in until you actually missed the school bus. I promptly removed my kids from MDO when I found a homeschool group to play with. Enough said about that.
Don't pay for preschool. It isn't worth it. Find a play group/homeschool group or whatever to meet others at the park. Your kid will actually get more time on the playground this way rather than being trained to mimic an older school age child at 2,3, & 4.
To teach your kid to count play Hide and Seek and Chutes and Ladders. Easy enough. You can count just about anything with your child too. Also if the TV must come on, put it on Sesame Street.
For colors talk about rainbows and jelly beans and play Candyland. Ask what color crayon they want to color with or what color shirt he wants to wear. My third child required no intentional color training at all. (She also indirectly learned the Sanctus prayer in Latin without my having "taught" her.)
For writing first let them scribble all over the lines on a coloring sheet over and over again. Then take notice when they draw an intentional - you'll know the difference - kind of "line". Have them draw lots of these almost-lines for rain or just to play. When they get the almost line, try some easy dot-to-dots with those numbers they know. Eventually you get to tracing, stick figures, and then the letters and numbers!!!
For the alphabet. Sing the song. Again and Again. Draw letters with sidewalk chalk. Ask what different letters are in the title of a book. Read, read, read, and read and make it fun. Have books to play with that are easily digestable as these also have to pass. lol Make letter pancakes and eat them into other letters. B to P to l. Or O to C. M and W can turn into V then if you eat it just right, you can get an 'i' out of it.
That is preschool and with enough reading they'll be reading before kindergarten.
Don't pay for preschool. It isn't worth it. Find a play group/homeschool group or whatever to meet others at the park. Your kid will actually get more time on the playground this way rather than being trained to mimic an older school age child at 2,3, & 4.
To teach your kid to count play Hide and Seek and Chutes and Ladders. Easy enough. You can count just about anything with your child too. Also if the TV must come on, put it on Sesame Street.
For colors talk about rainbows and jelly beans and play Candyland. Ask what color crayon they want to color with or what color shirt he wants to wear. My third child required no intentional color training at all. (She also indirectly learned the Sanctus prayer in Latin without my having "taught" her.)
For writing first let them scribble all over the lines on a coloring sheet over and over again. Then take notice when they draw an intentional - you'll know the difference - kind of "line". Have them draw lots of these almost-lines for rain or just to play. When they get the almost line, try some easy dot-to-dots with those numbers they know. Eventually you get to tracing, stick figures, and then the letters and numbers!!!
For the alphabet. Sing the song. Again and Again. Draw letters with sidewalk chalk. Ask what different letters are in the title of a book. Read, read, read, and read and make it fun. Have books to play with that are easily digestable as these also have to pass. lol Make letter pancakes and eat them into other letters. B to P to l. Or O to C. M and W can turn into V then if you eat it just right, you can get an 'i' out of it.
That is preschool and with enough reading they'll be reading before kindergarten.
posted by Tiffane | 11:31 PM
3 Comments:
When I was in college, I "worked" at a preschool. I also worked in a couple of group homes. There is something about the structure of both that tend to burn everyone out. I have seen Preschool accelerate certain parts of development in some children. Some people liked preschool for that reason.
Amem! Amen! Amen! I'll just add I love the Leap Frog letter factory video. Learn all your letters and sounds easy smeazy and lots of outdoor activities that triggers the "learning is fun" side of the brain.
I just came across your blog by hitting "next blog" when I was on my own blog. Let me just say that I agree with you 100% on your preschool comments. I only wish more did. I was in a store once with my then 2-year old who was talking about different shapes and naming them and someone looked at us astoundingly and said "Wow you must have learned that in school!" And I said, "No, she learned it from her mother at home like she should." Drives me nuts.
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