Where Should I Start?

[AMDG]

This is my FIRST post on TWTM! After spending hours in past months stalking the site pouring over all of this wonderful information, I need to ask a question specific to my situation.

 

My 3.5 old boy is ALL boy. He's bright, but busy. Super busy. He can read handfuls of words, knows all letter sounds, etc. and watches Leap Frog Talking Words Factory.

 

My dilemma is that if I let him get bored he gets naughty, so I try to teach him, and we've so far done no curriculum other than picture books and the magna doodle. The problem is that with the attention span of a fruit fly, after three minutes of learning he's off again, uninterested. He likes being read to, and I make sure to sit down with him and read, but I have other children to care for (and teach!!) so I can't drop everything and read to him just because he's the most demanding. :glare:

 

I'm really tempted to start a reading curriculum with him that is 1. Engaging 2. Has Quick Lessons 3. Has a minimal writing component. He shows all the signs of reading readiness, and yet, he's soooo developmentally three, so it needs to be interesting, colorful and quick.

 

Thank you!!

[Ritsumei]

I'm using Happy Phonics with my 3 year old, and also Math Expressions K and Nature Study.

 

Happy Phonics is entirely games. It comes with a short instruction manual that explains the rules of each game and what the child is learning. Monkey likes them most of the time, and he's very close to reading. The Bob Books will be his first books that he reads by himself, and if I can get our family healthy again, he may just do the first one before Christmas. I have asked for no writing whatsoever; he just doesn't have the small motor control yet.

 

Math Expressions is designed for public school classrooms, but I'm finding that it's easily adapted to doing at home with a flannel board. Monkey doesn't write, so I'm having to make up some things as I go along, but the flannel board is working beautifully so far. I've posted on my blog about quite a bit of what math we're doing in the past few weeks because I just got the ME book and I'm getting going and it's fun. Monkey's favorite thing to do is jump in a circle and make animal noises while he counts. This is, amazingly, pretty close to actual examples of what the book suggests. They suggest the gross motor/animal noises. Monkey decided on the jumping in a circle. Makes me dizzy to watch. I have got to get it on video and put it on my blog; it's hilarious!

 

For Nature Study, I take him outside, and make sure that he has time away from the playground. We are fortunate to have plenty of big parks with generous "natural" areas in them, and we have a collection of them that we visit regularly. I don't think that Monkey actually knows that we do "nature study," we just go outside and look at things. Whatever is handy. I look for interesting things as we walk the trails, and point them out to him. He's too little for notebooking, so I take pictures of things. Sometimes things I like, sometimes things he asks for (recently, that's been a lot of rocks) and we put them in his Nature Book - a photo album with the little pockets you slip the picture into. I write down where we were and when it was and usually name the tree or bird or whatever. Today, when we were out, I said, "Monkey, what do you hear?" He wasn't paying any attention, so he had to stop (literally: he stopped moving) and listen. We've done enough outside that he knows that I tend to point out worthwhile stuff. After a minute he smiled and said, "Geese." He likes the Canadian Geese. I look at Barb's Outdoor Hour stuff for a lot of inspiration, but it's very informal and laid-back when we're outside. "What do you hear?" is about as formal as it gets for us at this point. Yet, I'm seeing results. He can identify Canadian Geese, Mallards, and Cardinals, and he's still talking about that garter snake I almost stepped on last week. It's really fun to watch the awareness blossom, and at a first it was downright exciting!

 

For the short lessons, I keep the Charlotte Mason ideas in mind: short lessons, ask for the best work they can do. In practice, this means that when Monkey stops paying attention to whatever it is, I put it away. He's too little to get uptight about things just yet, so I just give him a warning then put them away when he's not focusing anymore. Oddly enough, this resulted in a full-on temper tantrum over the end of math time the other day. I was highly amused: who throws tantrums because math is done? (I ignore tantrums, so I took him to another room to holler by himself. I doubt that he was aware of my amusement.)

 

Good luck! It's challenging to need to do stuff early, so they can both meet the academic ideas and concepts they are ready for, and still be munchkins. :)

 

Oh. We also do read-alouds. I do those at naptime mostly, sometimes at bedtime. Choosing the books is tricky; Little House on the Prairie is our current, and it's a winner. I'm pondering Charlotte's Web for the next one.

Edited November 8, 2009 by Ritsumei

[Sophia]

I have a 3.5 y.o. that sounds like yours, and who also has a partner for all his mischief in my 4 y.o., so I understand keeping them busy or suffering the consequences of whatever disaster they have created.

However, a reading curriculum is the last thing I will attempt with either one of them right now. They are just too loosey-goosey and I would end up frustrated really fast.

Lately they have both taken a big interest in puzzles though, and my 3 y.o. especially will sit and try to figure them out for 20 minutes at a time. If you knew how active that boy is, you would be amazed. He also likes to cut and paste so I keep a stack of Kumon books for that purpose; he will do 3 sheets before running to his next adventure.

I also make sure to have storytime with them, but honestly, those boys just need to be outside as much as possible.

Even when it's raining, they're pulling on their boots and raincoats telling me they're gonna ride their bikes in the driveway.

I've taken to scheduling an older sibling to sit on the porch and do their reading so they can watch the little boys outside if I can't be out there with them.

This is a difficult stage-trying to school older dc when there are busy little tornado's going through your house. I think outside time will help more than a reading curriculum will.

[ahancock]

In my house, I have what I like to call "busy boxes". I went to Office Depot and bought a bunch of clear, plastic boxes. In each one, I have a different activity(Tinkertoys, Magnetics, magnet letters, lacing cards, plastic shapes with shape cards, etc.) My very active 5 year old gets 10 minutes of handwriting, 15 minutes of phonics (Hooked on Phonics), 15-30 minutes of math (McRuffy), and when it is time to work with big sister, he can go pick out a box. When he is finished, he can clean up and pick out another. It really works. I have been doing the box thing ever since he was 3.

[staceyobu]

starfall.com :001_smile:

[LittleIzumi]

Dd is 2 and loves the white board. I will go back and forth between her and her 4-yr-old sister, doing lesson bits with the older while the younger colors (well, she says she's writing letters ;)--scribble until you can sort of see a letter in the scribble--voila! It's a p!), and then I'll write what the younger wants while the older is writing her own stuff. And she loves Starfall, and anything in video format. I am thinking about Math U See and Happy Phonics. She also loves to play with blocks/Cuisinaire rods, and go outside and look at bugs (she tried to eat one once :lol:) and plants, color on worksheets so she feels like it's big girl work and she gets exposed to the letters/words, she loves to watch Bill Nye and Signing Time (I don't really like using DVDs :glare: but dd has sensory issues and will not pay attention if things are not moving or she is not moving. She learned her numbers by counting as we walked up and down steps, and learned her alphabet from Signing Time. Not from the two years of me trying to teach her normally like I did her big sis. Two weeks of moving stuff and she got it instead), etc. Sometimes we have to take a do-something-physical break, like swinging or stomping around or playing in the water or running around outside, when she's not getting enough sensory input and starts to go bonkers. I also try to find books that are extremely engaging to read, or sound very funny, so she will sit still long enough to hear the words. Favorites are Sandra Boynton books, the Superhero ABCs, A Wocket In My Pocket, and the Oh David family of books.

[Amber in AUS]

You can see what we are up to in my signature. My DS is almost 4 and has been working up to this workload for most of the year. We keep things VERY short because he is all boy too. We discuss 'virtues' as a family right before we start school time so we will talk about focus and doing your best. I really like the habit training CM places as high priority in the young years.

 

We do not sit at the table for any of out work. He will stand at the table while we do Miquon. He will bounce on the couch or bed while we do 100EZ, we don't do a whole lesson just a couple of parts each time. He will write on the white board when we do handwriting or AAS.

 

I try to keep it light, fun but engaging. If he isn't focused, not interested or just having a bad day then we just pop it all away. There is no pressure.

[Caribbean Queen]

The problem is that with the attention span of a fruit fly, after three minutes of learning he's off again, uninterested. /QUOTE]

 

It doesn't sound like he is ready for 'school."

 

I teach my children how to get out toys, art supplies, books etc. use them, and put them away. When my children are two years old they can use paint independantly whenever they want to. Teaching them is a lot of work at first, but it pays off in the long run - big time.

 

We also go on outings, play outside, and do chores. That is how we stay busy.

[....]

Yeah...I have a 4.5 yro girl and she STILL can't sit still long enough to do ANYTHING (not even eat). :D

[Mom-ninja.]

Just continue to read to him, and give him lots of hands on. Playdoh, puzzles, blocks, letter magnets, and lots of dirt. Drawing letters in sand, rice, or flour is great.

 

I would not try any type of book/school work at 3. Fruit fly attention span needs dirt to play in. ;)

[tofuscramble]

My just turned 4 year old has a short attention span too. We work in 5 and 10 minute increments, 3 or 4 times a day. Basically whenever he comes to me with one of his books. I always try to accommodate his requests, but if I'm busy working with another child, I'll ask the one I'm not working with to take 5 mins to sit and read/work with him.

 

Like one of the pp's, if his attention drifts, I stop what we are doing and tell him we will do more later.

 

So far he has learned to read and at the moment he is learning to write. I think at this age they just need lots and lots of patience and for someone to be there when they are ready to learn.

[Dinsfamily]

I have a 3.5 yo who is similar. I don't do any formal curriculum with him. He wouldn't enjoy it. My oldest was asking for workbooks at that age, but this little guy just wants to play. He will occasionally get down his school workbook (Hooked on PreK book from Costco) and work in it because big brother is doing school. He doesn't really have patience for the real instructions, so he just does whatever he wants on the page.

 

Despite the lack of formal curriculum, he's taught himself to read (almost up to big brother's level) and can count to 70 (not always correctly) and understand simple addition using his fingers. We read a lot of books and our house is filled with learning and building toys. My favorites are Leapfrog videos, science books with lots of pictures, Bob books, puzzles, wooden blocks, Tinker Toys, and Kid K'Nex.

 

Those types of toys keep him out of trouble. It helps us to have them easily accessible in the playroom so that he can flit between activities without thinking about it. I do let him color with markers and cut paper, but these have to be supervised since he doesn't quite have the impulse control not to be destructive with them yet. He's good with crayons these days, so he's allowed to have those at will.

[Spy Car]

My 3.5 old boy is ALL boy. He's bright, but busy. Super busy. He can read handfuls of words, knows all letter sounds, etc. and watches Leap Frog Talking Words Factory.

 

 

Sounds like my boy (now 5) at that age.

 

The things that worked with him were adding the other two Leap Frog DVDs (Talking Letter Factory I and II) and also the less essential "Math Circus".

 

The three ETC (Explode the Code) primers, which we did having him use his finger rather than "writing" (which was a skill he had not yet acquired) and that worked out well. Then on to ETC 1.

 

And Bob books. The "satisfaction" of reading a "whole" book on his own was very motivating. And they are short and good for kids who are hard to pin down.

 

The "by far" best discovery was using Cuisenaire rods at this age to introduce my son to math. He just loved this. He's very much a "boy-boy" and, while obviously bright, could other-wise get easily distracted. Instead he really focused on the playtime/math lessons and took great delight in this.

 

Much of our early Math Lab was based around Miquon math (although many of our games were self-invented) and the three Miquon math teacher's books profoundly affected the way I've approached teaching math to my son ever since. Using Miquon, or not.

 

Starting my son out at this age with developmentally appropriate ways to ponder and play with math stands as a discovery I'm deeply grateful to have made. This was head-and-shoulders above anything else, our best move.

 

Bill

[Stacy in NJ]

occupy himself for short periods of time without being naughty.

 

Reading instruction isn't really going to address naughtiness.

 

This maybe an unpopular opinion, or even not possible for you, but I would consider preschool.

[Lovedtodeath]

Well, your question was already answered, but I had to welcome you!

 

:grouphug:Welcome to the boards!