Too Early to Start?

[Carpe]

My son is not yet 4. He's still a baby in my eyes, but he's already accomplished all the 'learning outcomes' except writing for kindergarten in my area. He draws and colours, but I haven't taught him letters yet. I imagine it wouldn't take long if I tried. He does not speak well however, he's in speech therapy and likely will be for a few more years.

 

My plan (there's my problem!) was to wait until the fall before he turns 6 (December birthday) to start formal lessons with him. My DH thought that we should start when he's ready. Now that he's 'ready' by DH's standards there's some wavering.

 

There would be no discussion at all (of starting) if not for the fact our son is a giant bundle of energy :willy_nilly: who gets into trouble when he isn't challenged. He recently dismantled every toy he could take apart and after prompting reassembled most of them, though some are not repairable.

 

DS goes with me on my morning run (2-3 km... 1.2-1.9 miles) everyday. He has chores around the house that are only limited by how tall he is. He is in 5 different sports (all once per week), and does 5 minute 'toddler yoga' breaks multiple times per day. One would think that this is enough physical activity to quell the urge to destroy things, but it seems unrelated to what he does physically at all.

 

The days we go to the library he's great, he sits and 'reads' (no way to know if he's actually reading except for the relatively few words he can say or sign) for an hour or more at a time and is well-behaved and amicable the rest of the day. Unfortunately I can't take him to the library every day, nor can I take out enough books that this effect lasts more than the one day. He can and will 'read' 99 kid's books in one day. And 99 is the limit that the library imposes. I've tried rationing his books but then I don't get a happy child either day. And he appears to have no interest in reading the same thing twice which also makes me think he is reading.

 

I just don't know what to do with him anymore. Any ideas or advice? Is he too young to do formal lessons? Could I regardless of age if he cannot speak well?

[Dmmetler]

I'd say that you do what you have to do to stay sane! If doing Right Start or Miquon or AAS or whatever helps feed your son's brain and let him use some of that power mentally, it may just make the difference. In 20/20 hindsight, I wish I'd started formal instruction at my DD's level earlier. I was so worried about not hot-housing and putting pressure on her before she was "school aged" that I totally missed that this was what she wanted and needed. The difference between DD on a day when we have school in the morning, and she gets challenging material at her level, and one where we don't is dramatic, even at age 6. As far as speech goes, if you use a manipulative based program, like Miquon math or maybe a montessori-type movable alphabet I'd think that it should be possible to make it work.

 

 

One possibility-would your son be interested in music lessons? It's not only a mental outlet, but an emotional and communicative one as well. As a kid with a speech impediment, music was one of my ways I could vent emotion, and it was very, very helpful to me. I also know that at age 3-4, my DD would compose her own songs on piano, often very angry, loud, frenetic pieces that sounded like noise to me-but then walk away calm and collected. It was like she was letting the piano have a tantrum for her-and "piano tantrums" were MUCH more pleasant than screaming for hours tantrums. She still plays piano when she's upset, although now she's more likely to take favorite pieces, turn them into minor keys, and play them really, really fast.

[catz]

One possibility-would your son be interested in music lessons? It's not only a mental outlet, but an emotional and communicative one as well. As a kid with a speech impediment, music was one of my ways I could vent emotion, and it was very, very helpful to me. I also know that at age 3-4, my DD would compose her own songs on piano, often very angry, loud, frenetic pieces that sounded like noise to me-but then walk away calm and collected. It was like she was letting the piano have a tantrum for her-and "piano tantrums" were MUCH more pleasant than screaming for hours tantrums. She still plays piano when she's upset, although now she's more likely to take favorite pieces, turn them into minor keys, and play them really, really fast.

 

I was going to say this! Music lessons were a great outlet for my active, precocious preschoolers. My kids wouldn't have taken kindly to doing sit down school at that age (although we did plenty of reading, question answering, museum visiting, social, and active things). If your child is willing to sit down and do math and writing, carry on. I just don't think you should push it if it'll be a miserable struggle every day. My son especially would have pushed back hard at that age and at 10 he's great with school and wildly accelerated. Every kid is different though. The music was great. We do Suzuki and Suzuki teachers are trained to deal with young kids and their energy levels. Just look for teachers that are used to dealing with precocious kids and don't put every kid into a pigeon hole. (We had to do multiple teacher switches to find a good fit and that did slow down momentum and early progress)

[junepep]

A few ideas that I've used with my girls who are both young as well -- you may find that you already do all of it already:

 

At the Learning Express Store they sell scissors that will only cut paper (not hair, not plastic, not cushions on couches. If your child's hands are damp or the paper is crumpled they might have trouble, but I found that buying thicker weight paper was helpful. He might happily cut things up with impunity and if given stick-paste and crayons could probably happily construct and deconstruct to his heart's content for some time every day.

 

Building Blocks (both the huge ones to make life sized buildings and the smaller ones), C-rods, Lacing Beads, Pattern Blocks, Tangrams, Geometric Solids, Duplos and Keva Planks are all relatively indestructible and incredible fun. Most of them can also be used to build math and physics skills. MEP has a free math program called Reception for Pre-Kindergarten that you could try to use if you feel that he's ready for formal math, there's very little writing and he could sign the answers to you quite easily as long as he knows the signs or has the words for his colors, numbers and positional words - such as above, beneath etc - which I assume that he does since you mentioned that he had already met all K standards. Kitty also plays a game called Castle Logic which she loves.

 

Workbooks such as Kumon or the Total series can be a lot of fun and can build up writing skills. You'll see right away whether he enjoys them.

 

Mother nature is varied and incessantly fascinating to the young, anything relating to science and nature are huge hits here. In particular my oldest is obsessed with the workings of the human body. There are litterally a ton of games and activities on the human system for pre-kers - but if you're interested I can dump the doc file on my rarely-updated-not-really-maintained-because-I'm-a-slacker-about-it "Blog" LOL

 

Also, even though you couldn't do any formal reading with him because of his speech problem, you could play starfall.com together, sing the alphabet song with the phonetic sounds rather than letter names. Read to him running your finger along under your words, go back in each paragraph and explain new vocabulary or usages, various phonetic rules, point to each picture and ask him about what he sees offering him opportunities to use the words that he has accumulated in both sign and verbally. We put in a solid hour often 2 of reading a day which seems to have been really good for both girls...

 

Unfortunately because he cannot communicate well I would personally work on non-verbal things as much as you can - I'm not sure how hard it would be to adapt a formal K curriculum to his needs, and whether it would even be worth it for you to do so rather than simply looking up free materials online to make your own.

 

Best of luck!

[Tracy]

Keep in mind that academic readiness does not always equate to curriculum readiness. Sometimes you need a program of some kind just so that you have information to "feed" him. But you may want to avoid anything with writing or a lot of structure.

 

My ds3 also has a speech delay. Something that worked well for him was to learn sign language. It was more important when he was younger and couldn't say anything, but he still enjoys it. We used the Signing Time videos through our library.

 

He is also really eager to learn the SWR phonograms that we are doing with dd6. He almost knows all of the sounds for all of the single letters, and he is actually faster than dd6. I like that he is practicing sounds that are very difficult for him in terms of articulation. And it gives him great confidence. He is not quite ready to read, but when he is, he will have the tools to get up and running very quickly.

 

We have also worked on rhyming words--not very formally, but just as we are doing other things. (Hey, the "pot" is "hot!" That rhymes!)

 

Some things that worked well for us at that age: FIAR, BFSU

[jennynd]

I will not "formally" teaching a 4 yrs old. However, I did and do play abacus, unfix and count and show them what add and sub means with both my kids. ) I do sit with my kid playing through reading games and starfalls.com.

 

So, my suggestion is don't make it formal, just teach when u see the chance and have fun.

[Crimson Wife]

I would start phonics at that age if he's showing signs of readiness. Other than that, I'd keep it informal for pre-k.

[rootsnwings]

Oh we have SO much fun with preschool stuff!!! :) We love doing the worksheets from ‎http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/ Her pre-k curriculum is wonderful!!! :) We do alot with my littles but ONLY because they have been wanting to "do school" since they could talk, since big brother does school everyday. I've had to like, explain that it's saturday or sunday, and we needed a break! :D

 

For DS(3.5--turns 4 in August), he uses ETC (just started B last week) and plays around with Miquon and the C-rods. He also LOVES Singapore Essentials K Math. Other than that we have lots of learning board activities and he loves online programs like http://www.starfall.com (LOVES the MORE Starfall subscription!) & http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/

 

Hope this gives you somewhere to start if you want to do something with him. My ds also loved the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD for early phonics--and now he likes the LF Word Factory DVD.

 

My middle guy is also slow with speech development but he is making huge strides. He also hasn't napped since he was 11months old so I totally hear ya on the highstrung! He sometimes will wake at 8 and stay up till 11pm--NON-STOP. I've just learned I HAVE to keep him busy or otherwise occupied, or he gets frustrated and will act out. He's relatively a mellow fellow though, so long as he has something to do. :)

[rootsnwings]

I created an album with some of the pre-k activities we enjoy. I think it will be helpful!!! :D

Edited April 23, 2011 by rootsnwings

[Rosie_0801]

My kiddo has speech issues also and we've started working on nursery rhymes, with her repeating what I've said, word by word. She's only willing to do it about twice per day, but even on the second day there was an increase in fluency. I was able to have her repeat some of the words two at a time, depending where they are in the rhyme. Each time we do this, she spends ages afterward pouring over our little book and I'm obliged to sing the way through it all at least three times. :) We've only been doing this for a few days, and she wasn't any more fluent today, so we "worked" on a new rhyme too, since she seemed willing and had developed another favourite from looking through the book. It introduced a few sounds the other rhyme didn't have, so I guess it is doing her good. It's one of only two ways I can convince her to bother speaking.

 

I don't know that this is any help to you, but it seems to be helping around here...

 

She also does a lot of jigsaw puzzles. They use her little brain in a non-verbal way. Does your fella like them?

 

:)

Rosie

Edited April 23, 2011 by Rosie_0801

[The Governess]

My kiddo has speech issues also and we've started working on nursery rhymes, with her repeating what I've said, word by word. She's only willing to do it about twice per day, but even on the second day there was an increase in fluency. I was able to have her repeat some of the words two at a time, depending where they are in the rhyme. Each time we do this, she spends ages afterward pouring over our little book and I'm obliged to sing the way through it all at least three times. :) We've only been doing this for a few days, and she wasn't any more fluent today, so we "worked" on a new rhyme too, since she seemed willing and had developed another favourite from looking through the book. It introduced a few sounds the other rhyme didn't have, so I guess it is doing her good.

 

I don't know that this is any help to you, but it seems to be helping around here...

 

:)

Rosie

 

I think there is something to this. My dd4 also has speech issues (articulation, mixing up letters in words, takes a while to get her words out). She's been in speech therapy since she was two. I have noticed a huge difference over the last year as we started covering phonics. She knows all of her letter sounds and is starting to learn how to read, and she has improved so much that she probably won't qualify for therapy next year.

 

So, OP, I vote for trying out a gentle phonics program and seeing how it goes. :001_smile:

[rootsnwings]

This website has some cute felt board characters that you could use on a feltboard, or what we did is magnetize the characters and they work well on our magnetic white board. You an also put them on Popsicle sticks and make puppets out of them! :D

[teachmejoy]

This is why I developed my preschool curriculum! My dd3 wanted to do school so bad! I work with her about 3 days a week and she love it. It's nothing too hard, just a fun and hands-on way to learn the alphabet. If you want to look, you can check on my signature for the link.

[acurtis75]

You might check in to MUS primer program. I didn't discover MUS until we were already in K math but several friends are using it informally with 3 and 4 year olds and the blocks seem to provide hours of entertainment after the 5 min. of formal lesson is over. We started MUS on the alpha level when my daughter was 5 and she spent hours playing with the blocks on her own.

[Carpe]

Wow! Thank you ladies (and gents?) There are a lot of great ideas here.

 

His speech problem is from an 'oral malformation' as the doctors like to call it. He's had multiple surgeries and is due for another one (which is hopefully the last) in September. After that he should be able to learn to speak properly. Right now he cannot make any sound that requires tongue movement, which is a fair number of consonants.

 

I've been trying to get him into music lessons for over a year. There do not seem to be any teachers in my area willing to take a non/pre-verbal student. I could get him into a mommy-and-me style class, but most the other children would be under 2.

 

I think I will start with trying to teach him to write. DH and I were arguing over scripts or we may have introduced it sooner. I wanted Getty-Dubay Italic because I think it's lovely, he wanted Zaner-Bloser because it's what they use in the local school. Which is silly because my DH's writing is so bad he can barely read it himself, and he learned Zaner-Bloser.

 

Anyway, DS has very good fine motor skills and draws well for his age, so there's no reason he couldn't write if he knew how, IMO. And if he doesn't take to it, I'll try again later.

 

We're going to see if DS will sit still for puzzles and more lego projects, maybe more scissors and glue as well. There's lots to try.

[Tranquility7]

Your comment about his "reading 99 books" a day struck me... what kind of books are these? Did he browse and just pick them out himself, or are they specific books that you looked for? Does he just flip through them himself mostly, or do you read them to him?

 

The reason I ask is that whenever we go to the library, DS picks out lots of books and flips through them, but most of them are just story picture books and they REALLY vary in quality. Honestly, some (many, frankly) of the books we have gotten just browsing at the library have been just *bad*. In fact, I've practically given up random browsing, and instead I am all over Amazon looking for good books, and when I find them, I see if I can get them at the library and just request them on hold (or I just go ahead and buy them, if I'm fairly certain we will like them).

 

If your DS is "reading" 99 library books in a day, that makes me think the books either aren't very good books, or they just aren't particularly interesting to him. My DS loves books, but he often has a pretty strong preference against simple story books, and always has. He likes having those read to him sometimes, but on his own, he really LOVES to look at books that have tons of intricate pictures with lots of detail and interesting things going on and bits of text all over the place. He doesn't really read much yet himself, but we read them to him and he remembers later all about it, and pores over the pictures by himself quite a lot.

 

So, my suggestion is to get him some really good books of his own - books that have lots of interesting things to look at, and some things for you to read to him (though the pictures should also be able to entertain him without you reading the text).

 

Here are a bunch of our favorites:

 

- Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go (young and just fun, but with lots of busy pics and plenty of opportunity for practical discussion about daily living and such)

- Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day

- Usborne’s Big Book of Things to Spot (fun drawings in different settings with lots of opportunity for counting various things throughout)

- Usborne Time Traveler (compilation of four history books for kids (Egypt, Rome, Vikings, Knights), WELL worth the $15 price, although you could also find it used - might be beyond him now, but he will learn from it if you read it to him and he will surely enjoy the pictures)

- Usborne First Book of Nature

- Kingfisher First Animal Encyclopedia

- Kingfisher's I Wonder Why series (loads of different topics, so you can pick a volume that interests him).

- Rand McNally Picture Atlas of the World (out of print, but you can buy it cheaply used - it is my fave kiddie atlas! Obviously you would have to explain to him the basics of maps so he would understand what he is looking at!)

- Where's Waldo

- I Spy (can be pretty hard for little ones, but my DS likes them)

 

I also like the idea of jigsaw puzzles.

 

And also, a crazy idea, but how about word searches? I know it sounds bizarre, but my DS LOVED doing word searches once he knew his letters, even though he totally could not read a single word! He just looked at the word list and the puzzle and found the right combinations of letters in the puzzle, and I told him what the word was as he circled it (though diagonals were a real challenge for a while). Sounds crazy, but he loved it, and I think it helped him learn to hold the pencil correctly and control it fairly well, and also helped him understand that written words are combinations of letters, etc. Anyway, just thought I'd throw it out there. I bought DS easy word search books at the dollar store, but you can also create your own word searches online for free (just google it).

[Tranquility7]

Oh, and I was also going to say that though DH and I are very "better late than early" in philosophy (especially for boys!), I find myself doing a lot of stuff with DS already (he will be 5 in June), mainly because he has a MUCH better day when we add some structure to it. I don't push the academics, but he really does enjoy sitting down and doing some math or spelling or whatever (he often initiates doing it, in fact), and doing so seems to make the rest of the day smoother for us. So we just go with it and toss our "better late than early" philosophy aside!

[SnegurochkaL]

Hi, I have 4 years old who has troubles pronouncing some phonograms such as "CH" , "TH" and few others. He also can not roll his RRRRRRR properly. My husband had problems with CH phonogram when he was a young child too.

I am trying to use some tongue twisters and nursery rhymes to correct DS pronunciation.

Does your child like science? You can do some science projects with him or make a lapbook for a particular topic of his interest. Puzzles, mazes, logic games, lego are the things my son is crazy about. We had been doing math formally for a year and start 1 st grade math curriculum this fall. RS math level A will be a good start for a young kid. I used it with my 3,5 years daughter and will be using it with my son over the summer. Hands-on-primary from Critical Thinking Company was a great hit with my daughter. We used attribute and pattern blocks, linking cubes. My daughter wasn't ready to write until she was 6 years old. We used Cursive First which was great fit for us. She writes in cursive much better than print.

My son likes books too. He is mostly looking at pictures, but can read few really simple baby books. Formally nobody was teaching him how to read.

We also used Galloping the Globe curriculum.

Edited April 27, 2011 by SneguochkaL

[Spy Car]

I would check out Miquon math.

 

Bill

[Tracy]

Hi, I have 4 years old who has troubles pronouncing some phonograms such as "CH" , "TH" and few others. He also can not roll his RRRRRRR properly. My husband had problems with CH phonogram when he was a young child too.

I am trying to use some tongue twisters and nursery rhymes to correct DS pronunciation.

 

I just wanted to mention that difficulty with CH is not considered delayed until 7.5yo, and TH not until 8.5yo. Of course, there is nothing wrong with working on it at 4yo. But I just thought I would mention it. The following site was shared with me when I was researching speech issues with my oldest dd. http://www.wayland.k12.ma.us/speech/dev_artic_norms.html It details at what age children should be able to produce each phonetic sound in speech.

[Carpe]

I started with a library strategy, but the time it takes to pick out a book was longer than he would spend with it. So I take them alphabetically. They're just the floppy picture books with one sentence per page and I'm sure most are pretty junky.

 

When I read them to him he gets annoyed if there is too much discussion about the pictures ("Mooooooooooommmmm, ee ah were pea!" [read the words please]). A few weeks ago he threw a tantrum because one book didn't have words at all (very beautiful pictures though). Typically I'll read 15 or 20 of them to him and he goes through the rest.

 

I have tried books with more words and less pictures and they slow him down but only because he wants me to read them to him. Occasionally I'll get out books in other languages and he'll spend a long time with those and then will want me to read them to him, then wants DH to read it and then both of his grandmothers (who only speak English :lol:) We don't do it often because my MIL complains (including such gems as "is he ever going to speak English" :glare:)

 

He owns quite a few quality books that he'll pull out if prompted, but he has many memorized. I'll see if I can find that list though, they aren't ones we have.

 

Is MUS or Miquon suitable to start with if he cannot write (but can add to 6 + 6)?

[Spy Car]

Is MUS or Miquon suitable to start with if he cannot write (but can add to 6 + 6)?

 

There is an amazing amount of math exploration a young child could engage in using Miquon without writing. He would simply solve and prove things using manipulatives like Cuisenaire Rods. It is a very effective way of learning an teaching children at this age.

 

Bill

[RanchGirl]

Yamaha Children's Music School has a great program that starts at age 4 if you have one in your area. Speech difficulties wouldn't be a problem in that class IMO.

[acurtis75]

You can also use MUS curriculum without writing. The primer has a lot of coloring and minimal writing. I started it with my daughter after already completing K Horizon Math so we originally started with Beta. Because MUS emphasizes being able to do the math in your head and I really liked the teaching methods I ended up going on ebay and buying an old Intro to Math VCR tape so we could review the Alpha lessons (without shelling out $65 for the new materials) and have a better foundation. I love that MUS gently introduces algebra and solving for the unknown even in Alpha & Beta. I think it's great for all children.

[GypsieFamily]

Peter was similar at that age. He is 2e as he has dyspraxia as well as gifted. With the benefit of hindsight I can tell you what worked well and what didn't:

 

What did work was feeding his interests. He has always loved animals and history. We went to the zoo once a week and they have 'meet the keeper' talks. He would listen, enthralled, ask questions, go home and give puppet shows of 'meet the keeper'. They got progressively more and more detailed. He remembers most of it.

 

Listening to the Story of the World CDs and doing the more active projects was always a plus. Having to do colouring in was a fail in his eyes, but using clay to model a pyramid etc or making traditional food was always popular. Again, he has remembered most of it and continues to do well.

 

I think if I'd known of it, FIAR would have been a good one. He is still advanced in maths and English, and I don't think he would have progressed further for starting earlier. In fact, we are just coming off a huge break from maths because he had advanced faster than he could follow concepts. I'd vote with starting 'school' but going with structured play and activities which can feed knowledge without going in to written work/maths/English. You know your dc better than anyone else, but rather than suggesting delaying academics or commencing academics, I'd do a play-based structure.