I think what you're paying for is the worksheets, as much as anything else. Plus they're supposed to be handcrafted (whatever that means.) I've just seen them talked up on so many hs blogs, using them with kids of all different ages, and some of the projects and pictures made me drool. They look like they'd feel so good in your hands. I don't know, I'm (obviously) a sucker for those sorts of things! I agree the IQ thing is ridiculous, but I'm sure kids could learn a ton from them.

http://www.spielgaben.com/learning-resources/

Have any of you heard of or tried Spielgaben manipulatives? They look so wonderful, and seem like with the included worksheets they could be a great learning tool, but they cost almost $400 USD! I'm so tempted to buy them as an XMas present, but I'm not sure I can justify the cost, even though I know they could (ideally, as long as the kids were interested) be used for years. Opinions? http://mamasmiles.com/high-quality-educational-toys-spielgaben/

This area is upper-middle to upper class (high COL) and about half the kids come to school already blending CVC and CVCC words, many reading at 1st grade level or higher. It's a pretty high pressure area, with many successful parents. Letter sounds and blending are taught in many of the preschools here, and I'm guessing many of the parents work with their kids on reading well before K. If a child came to school not knowing his letter sounds, he'd be considered "behind." This brings up the question again about what it is that decides when children will begin reading...Partly exposure to books obviously, which leads to motivation on their part (which is probably the main reason my DD started early, she adores books.) But is the rest due to nature (brain readiness) or nurture (a parent guiding/pushing)?

Very helpful, thank you! I'll definitely look all of those up. (I remember watching the Number Rhumba with my DD a year ago, and for a week that song was playing in my head. ;) ) (Sorry for the thread hijack!)

Koralle, are you referring to the Weatherall youtube songs, or is there something else? I've seen you mention them before, but looking them up I've only found videos that are simplistic (baby/toddler level) or seem like they may be too complex for this age even if they're done in an engaging way (like mitosis.) I haven't looked too far into them though...How do you search on applicable videos?

Csolomon, sorry for the acronym! BFSU is Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding. It takes a little pre-planning to use, a lot of reading on the parents' part, but Nebel does a great job of outlining ways (through explanation and experiments) of introducing scientific vocabulary and concepts, and gives examples of books to enhance that understanding, a lot of which we've been able to find at the library. You can buy an e-version here for just $5. http://outskirtspress.com/webpage.php?ISBN=9781432706104

I love the books "Science is Simple" and "Science Arts" for fun experiments at this age. They're great teaching tools. I've also looked through BFSU, and a lot of the ideas can be discussed in ways a 4yo would understand. There are a ton of ideas online as well, if you search on science experiments for preschoolers. As far as social studies, I think at this age their understanding is going to be pretty limited. You can show them a map and tell them different places exist, but for the most part they're not going to be able to conceptualize that there are countries on the other side of the world, and what that actually means. With that said, there are a number of picture books that discuss different cultures, and I think my dd has gotten at least something from them, an understanding that there are people with lives very different from her own. We've also done map skills (again at a basic level), and had a lot of fun with games were I've hidden puzzle pieces throughout the yard or in our living room, drawn the "landmarks" (furniture/trees/etc.) and marked the pieces with an X, and she's used the map to find them, then put the puzzle together!

I'll be interested to see the answers (and I'm prepared to feel bad as well!) I'm lucky for now because I only have one (3.5yo), so can more or less follow her interests and dedicate all my free time to her. She just started preschool 3 mornings/week, so that'll eat into some of her time. We have library story times 1-2 times a week, and other than that we spend probably 75% of our time doing imaginary play, going on walks or at the playground, and a lot of the rest of our time reading together. I try to schedule at least one project a day (art or science) but that doesn't happen if she's not into it. She's also sporadically into workbooks, and we've spent time on Critical Thinking Skills, Kumon books and other fun-type workbooks. She's starting to read on her own now, so we spend about 15 minutes a day (which is all she can stand at this point) working through easy readers. But really I mostly just wing it and do whatever she's into at the moment. She really doesn't spend much time with her toys at all, other than using them for imaginary play. She'd much rather play with loose parts than all the legos/blocks/puzzles I've spent hundreds on!

We've fallen in love with Mr. Putter and Tabby. (All Cynthia Rylant books, actually.) In addition to many of those named above, we've had fun with Fly Guy, and Splat the Cat books, Nate the Great, and (of course) love anything by Richard Scarry.

Going to go against the grain here a bit...My daughter is going to be starting in a multi-age preschool next week, ages 2.5 to 5. (She's 3.5.) It's actually supposed to be a great experience, where the older kids learn to help the younger kids and so learn themselves by teaching. My mindset has always been that academics aren't as important at this age as social skills, as long as they learn the basics (letter sounds/beginning to form letters/counting to 30) by K. There hasn't been any research showing more than that is advantageous in later years. She's going to a non-academic Reggio-based preschool, so all the learning is through imaginary play, nature study, art and music, which again I think is most important at this age, and it means the age difference isn't as important. (She'll only be going 3 mornings a week, so I can do some basic academics at home, but don't really plan to do much since she's been reading CVC and CVCC words and doing basic math, so I'm not concerned with her readiness for K.) In the end (IMO) I think the benefits of a multi-age classroom far outweigh the minuses. So this wouldn't bother me personally (but I can understand being upset since you wanted something different when you first signed him up for the school.)

This is another favorite. All SmartGames toys look amazing for teaching logic skills... http://www.amazon.com/SmartGames-SG-011-Camelot-Jr/dp/B004TGPQDW/ref=sr_1_2?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1378418219&sr=1-2&keywords=Castle+Logic

All Thinkfun games are great! We love Rush Hour Jr. and Trucky 3. My DD (3 as well) has also had a lot of fun with Mighty Mind, and these pattern blocks: http://www.amazon.com/MindWare-25105W-Pattern-Play/dp/B000WWJ5SO/ref=sr_1_16?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1378417957&sr=1-16&keywords=pattern+block

I'm looking for ways to give my preschooler a better idea of how the world works. We learn a lot through books, obv, but I'd love to show her more in person. Have any of you done anything fun and unusual with your kids? We do the obvious things like the zoo, a local farm, apple orchard, etc., but are there ideas I haven't thought of?

Do any of you keep Pinterest boards with ideas for your PreK/K'er? I'm looking for interesting boards to follow, and hope you'll link yours here! Mine are: http://pinterest.com/elizabethjoy1/preschoolkindergarten-art-and-sensory-activities/ (I use this board more than any other, a ton of ideas here...) http://pinterest.com/elizabethjoy1/learning/ http://pinterest.com/elizabethjoy1/file-folder-games/ http://pinterest.com/elizabethjoy1/tips-for-improving-a-child-s-self-confidence-socia/

I love these! What an amazing find, I can't wait to do this with my DD. (Great scissor and folding practice too!)

I read this study back when I was considering Waldorf education. Regardless of how you feel about Waldorf (my own feelings are mixed), some of the findings are pretty interesting. Test scores were actually significantly better for Waldorf kids who weren't taught to read until 7: http://www.academia.edu/1585023/Holistic_Education_and_the_Brain_A_Look_at_Steiner-Waldorf_Education I'm posting this not to say that we all should be delaying reading, but just to say we probably shouldn't be overly concerned if they don't learn when we think they should. "The current trend to assure every student can read has led to earlier andearlier efforts to teach reading. There is some evidence that this push for early academics canhave negative consequences (Schweinhart & Weikart, 1997). Based on brain development, afocus on early academics may draw brain resources that are needed for the maximal functionalityand neural connectivity of sensory and motor systems. In order to examine the alignment of our educational system with brain development, we can look at the unfolding of different brain systems. There are two key concepts in defining howsuch processes are aligned, first that brain develops in a flexible, but sequential order, ands econd, that the connectivity and organization of the brain is activity dependent. In the early years, sensory maps are being defined. These maps are created through interaction with theexternal environment. The creation of these sensory maps is critical for sensory integration.Because brain development is not passive but activity dependent, environments must allow foractive exploration. A failure to provide this will result in a high incidence of sensory problems,and is perhaps related to the increase in sensory integration dysfunction and autism. In the laterchildhood years, the basal ganglia develops via connectivity of the striatum to cortical regionsespecially parietal and frontal lobes. This system links motor responses to learning routines,motivation, and voluntary attentional processes. A failure to provide support for this period of development could potentially result in high levels of motor impulsivity and ADHD. It is notuntil later adolescence, and even into early adulthood that we see the maturation of the prefrontalcortex, a period associated with the facillitated learning of higher level abstract concepts.Brain imaging studies show that adults and children do not perform academic problemsin the same way. Children, although they may be able to perform the same cognitive tasks asadults, have greater involvement of regions not activated in the adult brain, in particular, childrendraw on resources in prefrontal cortex (Ansari, 2010). In asking children to perform skills thatfocus on frontal cortical activation, we can get short term performance but at what expense. Theengagement of non-sensory cortical regions draws resources that would otherwise be used tohelp build sensory and basal ganglia systems. Research along these lines has shown that earlyacademics do not relate to improved academic performance in later years, and to the contraryappear to relate to poorer relational skills and life outcome (Nel, 2000; Hyson, 2003;Schweinhart & Weikart, 1997). This is consistent with what would be expected from limitedresource theory.Limited resource theory states that the brain is able to processes only so much information at once, and that systems involved in attention, perception and memory draw onthese limited resources to perform tasks (Montague, 1996). Based on the understanding thatbrain development is activity dependent (Kolb & Whishaw, 1998), this model indicates that byfocusing on the development of academic skills, we limit the resources that would otherwise bedirected to the development of socio-emotional and somatosensory motor networks."

This sudden "clicking" all makes me wonder whether it's more related to brain development or practice. I mean, of course it's a mixture of both to some extent, but if they're just not ready yet, is continuous practice going to make all that much of a difference? I wonder if after they learn letter sounds and the concept of blending it makes all that much sense to push them before their brain is ready. The vast majority of kids are going to pick it up by the age of 6 regardless.

Do you spend time with various word families? I think what happens with CVC words over time is that they recognize the last 2 letters almost as a separate letter in itself, a picture that makes the "at" (or "og" or "it," etc.) sound, in the way they memorize sight words or blends/digraphs as a picture. Once they know that word-picture, they can add on the sound of the first letter and read more fluently...Bob books are great for that.

That made me smile...That is so amazing, and what we all want for our kids! Kudos to you!!!

That's so fascinating, MinivanMom! I don't think I'd be able to do that for a full 2 years, but it might be worth a try for at least a couple of months. I'd be a bit worried she might get bored (I guess I'd have to make up some very creative games and field trips, which she might actually have more fun with.) I'll admit I do sometimes wonder whether I should try to hold her back a bit so she can just enjoy being little. There's no real benefit in learning reading and math so early, IMO. I was following her lead, she loves being able to figure out words and stories, but only when it's going well, and I'm worried about her getting so stressed about it that she loses her enjoyment of it.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's gone through this, so I'm looking for advice! My 3yo DD gets so easily frustrated when she can't do something well, to the point she's not even willing to try. Examples: She's able to write letters, but starts crying almost immediately when she tries because her lines aren't straight. She'll rarely draw or color either because she thinks she isn't good at it. She was so proud of herself a couple of years ago when she mastered peg puzzles, but when I switched her over to jigsaws she realized she was having a hard time, so now isn't even willing to try even when I sit with her and help her through it. The few times we have tried them always ends in tears. She hasn't learned to jump and won't even attempt to dress herself, at least in part because she knows she won't be able to do it as well at first as her peers. It's the same with reading (and of course she's young and has plenty of time, but she's been the one pushing herself to read.) She'll be doing just fine, but then I'll gently correct her on a word or ask her to sound it out slowly to get it right, and she'll again burst into tears.I've always praised the effort rather than the result, even more so when I realized she had these tendencies, but it hasn't seemed to sink in that trying is the important part. Have any of you dealt with this? What's the best way to handle it? I'm worried she's going to avoid learning anything new, will just stick with the things she's already good at to avoid feeling like she's failing.

I got to check this out with my 3yo this morning. We love it so far! The reading comprehension piece is pretty basic, mostly for letter sounds and basic sight words which she already knows so we won't be spending much time with that, but I just love the stories and poems and nonfiction pieces, and the graphics are wonderful. What seems to make this so unique among other storybook apps is that all the pieces are connected, so for example they'll learn the letter A, see a mAd Alligator, and then be prompted to draw a picture of themselves with a mad alligator and then tell a story about why the alligator's mad. (The story is recorded.) I'm guessing the nonfiction piece will teach them about alligators, although we haven't gotten that far yet. So much fun! I limit iPad use to 30 minutes a day so we had to stop, but I'm sure my dd would have stuck with it much longer if I'd let her. Even though we won't buy the rest of the phonics section ($3.99) we'll almost definitely be paying $5.99 for the stories. Thanks for the recommendation, mindygz!

This is all very helpful. Thank you! I guess I just assumed that because she understands everything we say in conversation, she should also be able to understand stories using the same words. I'd been following the age recommendations for various books, and assuming that when a book is meant for 3 year olds my 3 year old should be able to fully understand it. I would love to be able to talk about the story in more detail while and after we read, but I guess we're just not there yet! (We do talk a lot about the pictures, which I'm sure helps with comprehension.)

This looks amazing! Has great reviews too, I'm surprised I'd never heard of it. Here's the product video: http://learnwithhomer.com/product/productVideo/ Looks like the initial setup is free to download, and then separate learning packs are available for purchase...I'll download it now to take a look.