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How early do you start before schooling?


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It depends on what her schedule is- how many hours she sleeps, how long her day is, etc. We leave for school at 745, and DD5 wakes at 6 most days so we can easily do 15 min in the morning. Personally, I wouldn't before school if she wasn't already an early riser. She goes to bed at 745 so she always wakes up easily and on her own.

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For your child's age, my advise would be to stick to before or after schooling for the K year. Because, if she is spending all day at school and then has extra curricula's like dance or gymnastics or instrument practice at home, it might prove too much.

My DS is in the 1st grade - at K, we did after schooling for 40 minutes.

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I'm not planning to wake my DD5 up early for before schooling.  I may read to her during breakfast and have something ready in case we get ready early (like piano practice).  My DS8 awakens early on his own, so he will be able to have 30 minutes of something (not sure what yet!) no problem.  

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Since she only just turned 5 last month, in July, and she is right on target for average kindergarten skills and is headed into a kindergarten classroom, you do not need to do all these extra academic things with her.

 

Let her sleep in the morning until time to have breakfast with the family and get ready for school, and read to her very often. Support the kindergarten teacher in her goals for the class, and let your little girl be what she can be with your support and patience: A happy, bright, little kindergartner with a normal school day and a balanced home life.

 

 

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I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with getting your child out of bed at any particular time. What really matters is how your child's time is balanced between different activities, including sleep. She needs to have enough rest, enough unstructured play, enough time to get through things like meals and baths without too much rushing, and so on. You can't simply 'find' half an hour out of nowhere, so you need to consider that if you before/after-school 20 minutes per day, you are going to be taking those 20 minutes away from some other activity. It's not going to be a good idea to reallocate sleeping time. But if, for example, she currently watched television for a couple of hours every afternoon, it might be quite feasible to 'steal' a portion of that time for school work. (And, of course, if you preferred to do the school work in the morning, you could wake her up half an hour earlier, then turn off the television half an hour earlier in the afternoon so that she winds up going to bed half an hour earlier.)

 

As you think about your options, you also need to take into account how this child's schedule is going to work in with the rest of the family. Are you a 'morning person' who can happily be a patient teacher at 6.15am? How will a changed morning routine impact your husband and his studies? Are there other people who will be effected? And so on...

 

Also, may I gently suggest that you try not to get too concerned about her being ahead or behind at this age. I am aware from your other posts that you have identified a number of issues with the school your daughter is attending, including the worry that she is not likely to be challenged. But remember, the first couple of years of school are mainly about teaching a child to 'do school', getting them to feel comfortable and behave appropriately in the educational setting, and all those kinds of non academic aspects (which I'm sure you are aware of, as a teacher yourself). Even though your child is bright and learns easily, she is still very little and you may want to avoid adding too much to her life until she is fully comfortable with school. You will have plenty of time to accelerate her later on (or homeschool her, if your circumstances change and you are still interested in that option).

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Unless she already awakens on her own, getting a 5 yr old up before Kindy to do extra material is nuts. And something to consider: have you seen the research on what a difference an addition 27 minutes of sleep makes with regard to behavior and cognition? Absolutely nothing you can cram in in that amount of time is worth the detrimental effects induced by less sleep. You might get a couple of pages of X done, sure. But at what cost? She will be more likely to struggle all day, have behavioral problems, be unable to focus, and generally not learn as much all DAY that she might otherwise.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/27-extra-minutes-of-sleep-may-make-kids-better-behaved/

 

 

My dd4 is probably considered radically advanced. I have investigated all sorts of options for school. Mine is actually going to attend Montessori 3 mornings a week- yes, it is possible that they will find works to challenge her...but if not there are stil plenty of things she will learn being in that setting. Connections, different approaches, working with a group and a plethora of other more intangible things. I dont know if it will work. The program we tried last year to 'let her play' a couple of days/week was an abysmal failure. But we give her the option because we see it as just as important to expose her the other things she can learn. Next year we will probably HS full-time...but if you treat this as something she needs, and give her a bit of time in the afternoon, it will work out.

I get that the time you are losing with her you see as 'wasted time' because you feel you can teach more, and more efficiently. And you probably can of specific materials. But there are a million things that she will learn at school that may not seem evident at first. You can eventually work with her teacher to provide work for your daughter. Give it time. After you see what your dd''s teacher has in mind (and there may be several kids at her level) you can do things like send in books to read whilst other kids are working on learning to read or when she finishes early. Possibly even math pages that you have taught the day prior. Read a ton at home, get some materials for the car to listen to, and take her out every weekend for opportunities to play, explore museums, etc.

 

Good luck. I know how hard it is to let go, and not have your plans work out the way you intended. Mine certainly haven't! My dd has distinct ideas of how/what school will be for her:)

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  • 2 weeks later...

We before school my kindergarten adn 2nd grader.   But they get up (naturally, how I wish it wasn't so) at 6am, and we don't need to leave for school until 9.  That's 3 hours!  So, it seems natural to do a bit of before schooling. 

 

The unfortunate thing about this school is that it doesn't end until 4:10, we are often not home until 4:30, and my kids are just so done by 8pm.  Sometimes by 7. 

 

I've tried and tried to change their natural sleep rhythms to meet the school, but it seems impossible, so we roll with it as best we can.

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