Accelerated 4 Year Old?

[Guest Selene]

My four year old daughter is driving me crazy. She's an only child and I've planned on homeschooling her her entire life. She learned her alphabet and basic numbers before 18 months, began reading CVC words before 3, and now at 4 1/2 can sound out any word she wishes. She's working her way through Explode the Code 2.5 and LOVES it. She is intimidated by reading any books other then the first few Bob Books, because she is a perfectionist and everytime she doesn't know a work it bugs her to no end. 

Math I'm not sure what to do with her. She's completed 2/3 of the Khan Academy Early Learning section (which is up to 3rd grade). She's also working on a great app on the ipad which has K-5th grade problems on it (Splash Math). I am thinking about starting her on LoF. 

We also do a weekly lapbook on WHATEVER she wishes (Princesses, Dr. Who, snakes, Japan, the digestive system) whatever floats her boat that week. We use a lot of narration there since writing more then a few words is intimidating to her. 

All of my homeschool friends are unschoolers and I think they think I force this but I don't. I'd honestly prefer some days she would just want to play and explore like a typical 4.5 year old. 

At what point to you actually start on the TWTM curriculum for 1st grade? I don't want her love of learning to deteriorate but I also want to allow her to grow as much as she wants. At this point my goal is "prepared learning environment" so the material is there is she wishes. 

Anyone else with a child like this? I feel very alone most days.

[HomeAgain]

Go deeper.

I wouldn't start on the WTM curriculum for 1st.  Not exactly.  Many accelerated kids are asynchronous, and you have to adapt to that.

 

Find ways to build logic skills.  Spatial, abstract..check out Critical Thinking Company, Timberdoodle, and ThinkFun.
Build childhood skills. Jump rope, using imagination, throwing a ball, swimming..check out lists from Montessori practical life, Charlotte Mason habits, and Klutz books.

Go deeper in topics.  If she wants to learn about Japan, find Japanese cartoons, books, food, simple kanji/hirigana/katana. Make homemade puzzles, origami, etc.

 

The goal is to build the skills necessary for a 4yo/5yo, while maintaining that high level of enjoyment of learning.  The sit down curriculum work can wait for maturity.

ETA: I have a well-read 5yo.  He doesn't always know how to do things that are "frivolous" to him.  For example, up until a month ago he would only build with his legos if he had instructions or a plan to look from.  It took courage for him to abandon the 'right way' and choose to let go, building whatever, and it took dad showing him it's okay to not know exactly what you want to do or how to do it.  That's an important skill, moreso than knowing.  There will come a point where he won't know or have a clue and trying, using his imagination and creativity will be important for him to push through.

[Jackie]

I do sympathize. My daughter's constant need for academic input has been exhausting at times in the past. I felt like she wanted me to just dump all the knowledge in the world into her brain. I was very thankful when her reading took off and she was more able to satisfy her own needs.

 

It's the asynchronicity that is the challenge with my 5 year old, and it's been the challenge for the last few years. I tried doing a couple of "X grade curriculums" with her, but they were all total flops - a mixture of too much writing, and most everything else not being advanced enough. The preset plans (whether they be a grade level curriculum or TWTM) are set up with a neurotypical child in mind. We now work on fine motor at about a kindy level, and everything else at some range of elementary level.

 

Is your child craving more academics or is she content with where she is at? DD demanded academics starting very young, and she was quite specific about it. If she hadn't demanded it, I probably would have supplied some materials and let it be until she was typical school aged.

 

We did a lot of Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems for reading. They're a lot of fun, which motivated DD, and they're written as a conversation, so I would give her one character to read aloud and I would do all the others.

 

Singapore Math, Math Mammoth, and RightStart are all popular elementary math programs. Or you could keep doing what you're doing if it's working for you. Neither my daughter nor I were fans of the math in Life of Fred, but YMMV.

[desertflower]

I sympathize too.  Whenever we go anywhere, my son doesn't connect with anyone his age.  Unless they are playing chase.  lol  He tends to want to talk to older kids, but unfortunately, they don't want to talk to younger kids.  It's hard. 

 

I think what you are doing is great.  Go with her needs.  If you want to try first grade work, then go for it.  It sounds like you know when to not to go too far.  FWIW,  I think First Language Lessons and Writing With Ease are great.  FLL is gentle and can be done orally about 5 mins a lesson.  I started both when my son was 5.  I didn't do copywork that went along with the programs.  I believe copywork can be done later when he wants to write.  WWE was good for him to start on his ability to narrate and understand different passages.  Like you this was not forced and I'm glad I started them. 

 

Critical thinking books are good too.  At her age, she might like Mindbenders (pre-k or K).  Just to give you an idea, I started this when my kids were 4.

 

Math games are always great.  letsplaymath.net;  www.mathfour.com;  www.livingmath.net (good list of books);  rightstart math games;  Peggy Kaye's book titled Math Games (I like this one, although she may be beyond this book.  Not sure.  I'm not familiar with the math programs you listed);  another book titled Kitchen table math (I don't have this one)

 

Read, read, read.  ;)  Which I'm sure you are already doing.  Speaking of reading, I like Five in a Row.  We don't do all the parts to it, but I like it. 

 

And of course, play with legos, kinetic sand, magna tiles, outside, etc.  All the typical 4/5 yo stuff. 

 

Good luck and you can always come on this board when you feel lonely.  ;) 

 

[Tanikit]

My 4.5 year old has an older sibling which does seem to have simplified things for me, though my younger is a perfectionist - I saw her throwing a tantrum that she was "no good" at throwing a frisbee today when her older sister was trying to teach her. She is reading very well and asks to read to me daily.

 

My eldest started with certain K curricula (Horizons K) and Sonlight Grade 1 readers as well as other readers at 4.5, she was also doing brief copywork though we left WWE til later (my younger started handwriting even earlier than the elder had) but because of their age the lessons were kept exceptionally short and were abandoned if they didn't feel like it. We started LOF shortly before 6 though I plan on starting it with my youngest child in a few months time.

 

Most of their learning however came from an enormous amount of read alouds. Because the eldest is so kinaesthetic she would often be standing on her head, rolling around and building with legos while I read to her and she somehow remembered most of it. We also did experiments and talked about descriptive passages asking her to describe what she was seeing, hearing, touching, tasing etc. My younger child is not kinaesthetic at all and in fact hates to touch anything she thinks may be messy so she prefers workbooks and readers and playing with duplo/lego blocks.

 

So basically at this age you have to adapt to your child's personality - introduce her to things and then follow her lead. You can't go wrong. You can use curricula if you are careful to read your child's reaction to it and are happy to start and stop as needed.

[Btervet]

I feel like I just went through that year with my now 5yo.

 

I focused on getting him to read fluently and better able to handle mistakes. I then let him decide what else to do, which turned into a lot! 

 

We had there things that really really helped with the perfectionist tendencies. 1) Ms. Frizzles "take chances, get messy, make mistakes"   2)The bloopers at the end of the Happy Scientist videos (with me pointing out that even adults mess up, and often) and 3)telling him constantly, and having him repeat back to me when upset, that if you aren't making mistakes then you aren't learning. I often remind him of one of those three things when he starts to get upset over something, and it really does help.

 

I spent half of his 4th year trying to avoid curriculum, and keeping him happy in other ways. That was a mistake for us, I should of just started earlier, when he wanted it. We brokered a deal where I would do the curriculum he wanted (science, history, latin, math) if he would do the skill work I required. I required reading(from McGuffey's) and copywork(for handwriting, pulled from our books).

 

Don't be afraid to scribe for your DD. Once we started Real Science Odyssey for science, I scribed for DS for 6 months. After that, I still scribe for him if there has been too much writing. I try not to let his writing skills get in the way of his learning.

 

I wouldn't feel like you had to start anything that looks like school work, but if she is begging for it, don't let her age hold you back. Oh, and lots and lots of books: read-alouds, independent, audiobooks.

[Tsuga]

I don't think there's anything wrong with letting a child lead you. I also don't really understand "go deeper" with basic addition. I know that "going deep" in basic arithmetic has turned off my older daughter to math. She now finds it boring. Except home math. I don't think there's anything wrong with moving forward if a child enjoys it, provided the child is also exposed to a well-rounded education with lots of outdoor time.

 

This is assuming that she's the one jumping to do school, asking for worksheets, and so on. I have one of those so I totally get that and I don't think 4.5 is too early for WTM.

 

That said, I would also examine what else is on offer. Does she have friends that she sees at least weekly in an unstructured play time? How many hikes do you do per week? Does she have a lot of Lego kits and a train set so she can explore that?

 

Some people are definitely naturally drawn to the academic, but I also think some kids gravitate towards books because it's the most interesting thing in their environment. In most cases it's probably a combination of both.

[Momontherun]

My 4 year-old loves Life of Fred and begs for it at night. We're just finishing Cats now and he can easily handle the math. Why not give it a shot? If you buy from the author it's $16 including shipping and has a 30 day money back guarantee if you don't like it.

 

I admit, I don't really get the humor, but my son really loves it and as you go higher in the series, there is a surprising amount of content. I'm glad we are doing it.

[Donna]

I had a child like that. She just turned 13. I always kept learning, art, writing materials on low shelves where she could reach them and sat with her to play or learn whenever she asked, took her to the library weekly for new books, explored outside (walks in the woods, gardening, watching ant hills, etc…), took her to live music performances, and let her help around the house.

 

We didn't start "official" schoolwork until much older. 

 

One of the best things I did was start her in music lessons when she asked. Learning an instrument and "playing" with the instrument helped a lot with her perfectionism!

[mathnerd]

I tried to make academics as fun as possible for my 4 year old when he begged me to do more "schoolwork". He was already reading very well and doing arithmetic all on his own. So, I got First Language Lessons and we started off on it. And subscribed to EPGY, Reading Eggs, DreamBox and bought Miquon, cuisenaire rods and Singapore Math. We also had Song School Latin for fun. I let him choose what he wanted to do from the list of these curricula and I spent 20 mins per session when he felt like he needed to do things other than playing. For instilling structure we started him on Martial Arts and Piano lessons at age 4. They helped him deal with perfectionism and to learn that sometimes things don't come  to us naturally and we need to work towards goals.

We did a lot of informal mental math and a sort of "word of the day" where I came up with a word and every member of the family took turns using it in a sentence.

I scribed a lot for him and let him do lessons orally because writing was an issue.

 

Things that did not work for him at age 4 - SOTW read-alouds (too scary for him), Handwriting Without Tears (we called it Handwriting With Tears in our house), LOF (we could never finish it)

[Dmmetler]

The one thing I'd suggest against doing was what I did-I applied for, and got, early entry to k on a gIEP at the suggestion of my DD's pediatrician. She had a great teacher, but still spent most of the year hiding under a table, reading books to herself. A total waste of time, and I'm still occasionally hearing things that make me think that it was even more negative than I'd perceived at the time, 6 years later.

 

In 20/20 hindsight, I should have done what everyone suggests-start academics at home, at DD's pace, and see what happened from there.

[rebcoola]

I say work on her level academically but look for things that are more fun and colorful.  We did educational board games, critical thinking company books, reading eggs.  Also her when her thinking was better than her writing we did things orally but also with stickers and stamps.  

[Pegs]

Books books books. Read to her, invite her to read to you, and listen to audiobooks together.

 

Games. My 5yo loves chess, checkers, qwirkle, labyrinth, set, memory, war (card game for practicing arithmetical operations), snakes and ladders (use multiple dice for addition practice, and to make the game shorter and less tedious).

 

Oral problem-solving. We call these "Mystery Number Puzzles", and we usually take it in turns to make up puzzles for one another. You can explore SO many concepts with a child who can't even write numerals, long before they ever hear of multiplication tables.

 

Outside play time.

 

Lots of free time for wondering, dabbling, creating.

[Donna]

I say work on her level academically but look for things that are more fun and colorful.  We did educational board games, critical thinking company books, reading eggs.  Also her when her thinking was better than her writing we did things orally but also with stickers and stamps.  

 

I also got my dd a small digital recorder so she could dictate her stories then later I typed or wrote them out for her or let her write her own stories from her dictation as she got older. This way her stories did not have to depend on her spelling and her brain and creativity did not have to wait for her writing skills to catch up.

[Moonhawk]

My 4.5yo is doing the 1st grade stuff with his sister (who is actually 1st grade) so it simplifies it for me. He can read, no writing. FLL is totally doable with him, and he does the WWE with us as well, just doesn't do the copywork. He loves MUS and math in general (incl Splash Math).  I think the structured learning lessons are good for him because of his personality, but we have to balance with other activities and I am careful not to push him into it; he is allowed to get up and leave the table if he wants (not that he has). 

 

I would just go with what your kid would like to do, and intro some programs but don't push or rush it if it seems like she isn't interested. If the lapbooks are working and filling her appetite at this point, I don't see a reason to change it.  If you are doing a lot of reading together, you can naturally incorporate a lot of the lessons from FLL and WWE without breaking out a lesson book.  Same with math.  Maybe get some instructor books for the programs you like and read through the first lessons, then intro the ideas naturally as you go through the day/week.