Newbie help

[CourtneyMI]

now that I have gotten past the "what are you thinking?" mentality from my dh and family, I could use some help. My kids are still very young - 3, 2, and 1. Well actually, my little ones are almost 2 and almost 1. Anyway, I am already starting letter of the week with my oldest which he loves and we are doing more reading then we used to. Is there anything else that I should be doing or that you veterans would recommend? I don't really want to push them too hard as they are so young and we all need to ease into this but I am looking for a little guidance. No one in my family or in dh's family homeschools and neither dh or I were home schooled as kids. I am joining a local homeschool group for the social aspect of things here in town but I am really excited about the WTM and giving my kids a classical education. Advice? Help? Anything...? :bigear:

[boscopup]

Welcome! At that age, just read a LOT, and let him help you out with everything - baking, cleaning, etc. Talk about everything you do, talk about the world around you, go for nature walks, etc.

 

Oh, and Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD for learning letters when the time comes. It's a fun movie, and most kids pick up their letters and sounds pretty quickly and easily from watching it over and over again for a few days. ;)

 

I assume you have the WTM book? If not, make sure you get it and read and re-read the sections on preschool and K.

 

And do NOT buy any curriculum until you get close to needing it, even though it is so shiny and pretty and is calling you. :D If you're dying to start "something", I do like the Rod & Staff PreK workbooks (the ABC series), and started my middle son on those at 3.5, just leisurely - on an "as he asks for it" basis. They're fun and very gentle, as well as very cheap. I think a set of 6 or 7 books was around $12?

[sewpeaceful]

As everyone reminded and convinced me last week, Kumon My First Workbooks are great too. But reading and talking to your child about the world is more than enough.

 

Oh... though, we do love puzzles at this house. :)

[simka2]

READ, READ, READ to them! I am a mom who did not head this advice enough. Although, maybe that had to do with having 3 kids in 9months, I can't remember :D.

 

Reading to them provides so many skills that they will need in a classical education. The ability to focus using mainly their audio senses. If you have to buy anything, just start building up your literature library. Like the above poster said, curriculum is updated so quickly it's not worth buying it unless you find it for dirt cheap somewhere.

 

Now is your chance to educate yourself. Maybe get The Well-Educated Mind and work from there. :001_smile:

[TracyR]

Welcome. Read a lot.

Little ones are capable of great things. It depends on what you want for them but all three of them can learn to read. My favorites for this are Brillkids ( www.brillkids.com ) and Monkisee ( www.monkisee.com ) even Your Baby Can Read is good too. I like Brillkids a bit more because they have a forum of parents all over the world that teach their little ones. Get on there and read and ask questions too. I've learned about quite a bit of educational videos and learning material there for little ones.

 

If I knew many years ago that little ones are capable of that I would have done it as soon as I knew. It would have made my girls' educational life so much easier. LOL

 

 

Read any and all books that Glen Doman has wrote http://www.gentlerevolution.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=G&Category_Code=FEATURE

He shows how to teach babies and young children how to read, do math, encyclopedic knowledge.

 

Some may think that's to much but really babies really do like it and they can learn to read and do math. My youngest is living proof of that. She reads at almost 2nd grade level right now and is doing 1st grade math. I never thought that this sort of thing really worked. I was always with the belief that you didn't startteaching kids to read about 4 or 5 (school age) because by all means that's what the experts say they are capable of at that age and babies were meant to be cute and cuddly.

Of course they are cute and cuddly but are way more capable of things we never knew of.

[Tracy]

It sounds like you are doing a great job with your 3yo. Aside from all of the great ways to learn through play, I would recommend that you begin now doing some research (which you obviously are already doing). But some specific things to research, off the top of my head:

 

• Homeschool philosophies
  
• Learning styles--although young children may change learning styles, it is still good to understand the distinctions and begin identifying them in your children
  
• Your personal teaching style--Are you a hands-on person? Are you very organized? Are you a box-checker? Do you like to go off on tangents? Do you like a script?
  
• Handwriting: Will you teach manuscript or cursive first?
  
• Math: Master or spiral? Mental math? Manipulatives?
  
• What type of phonics program will you want? One that teaches all of the sounds and rules at the beginning or one that teaches them gradually?
  

When I started, I had no clue to even ask these questions. So I ordered my first curricula, and by the time the school year began, I was already wishing that I had bought other stuff.

 

The other thing that I recommend is that you begin to connect with other moms that have children the same age. I did this only because we moved when dd was 3yo, and I didn't know anyone. I originally was thinking that I was trying to connect just with other homeschoolers, but I found that at that age, most people just didn't know yet if they were going to homeschool. So we ended up with a group of about a dozen moms, and about half of us are homeschoolers. It took me a year to meet enough people and get their e-mail addresses, and then I invited everyone to meet at the park every week over the summer. I thought it would be just a summer thing, but everyone wanted to continue meeting. This has been such a great thing for all of us, and I am so glad that I did this in spite of my own difficulties in meeting new people.

[MusicMama]

Find out your teaching style and goals first! Seems like you are on your way as you are on this forum. :)

 

My 3yo loves Starfall.com, Singapore Essential K, and Phonics Pathways. We do a few pages a day, or no pages. It just depends. Read to them, and don't burn yourself out, they aren't even in grade school yet! It's hard for me to hold back sometimes, because I am so excited and eager. Oh, and I am doing a lot of Spanish with them. I use GPB's Salsa series. You can find links to the episodes here: http://littlehomeschoolblessings.blogspot.com/2010/11/spanish-series-salsa.html

[Heidi]

With my 3 year old I read to her every day. The only school she does is when we occasionally learn a phonogram or play games with the phonograms she already knows. She likes to "do school" like her older sisters, which usually involves coloring her own coloring book.

 

I was thinking that maybe in the fall, if she's ready, we would start on Essential Math A by Singapore, or wait until she turns 4. With my olders, I have started regular reading instruction at age 5, and only casually before then if they ask to be taught. My two oldest starting writing letters on their own around 4, so I started them on the Handwriting Without Tears books too.

[CourtneyMI]

Wow, thank you for the help. I know I am more inclined to do phonics with the kids than doing the whole word reading just because I am more comfortable with that type of approach but my mom did buy my kids your baby can read DVDs for Christmas.

 

I do have the WTM book and LOVED it. I was hooked after reading it the first time. I am checking out some of the curriculums you all suggested and my 3 yr old caught me looking at star fall.com. He wants to do school right now and it's 10pm. LOL. :001_smile:

 

I went to a homeschool conference in town and watched carol barnier speak. Has anyone read her learning styles book? I am thinking about buying the book to get some insight into learning styles, but I am worried that it is going to focus on teaching a child with ADHD. At this point, I am hesitant to label my boys as ADHD because they are so young.

 

If anyone has anymore ideas, I am all ears. Like I said, I am really new to this and slightly overwhelmed at this point. I am trying to be cautious at this point and to take it slow so we don't get burned out.

[Five More Minutes]

It sounds like you've got great plans and you've had lots of great ideas already.

 

Reading together and playing together and working together are all so important.

 

On top of this, my daughters really wanted to "do school" at that age, so I used some ideas from Hubbard's Cupboard. Each week we talked about a letter, a number, a shape, some words (related to the letter). Our "crafts" revolved around those to a degree. It was very, very low-key and fun but it fed their school appetite.

[cholderby]

My 3yo loves the alphabet activities at http://http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2010/05/z-review.html

She has a free one that involves cutting out pictures of words that begin with a certain letter and glueing them on the letter page. Can't find the link right now but she LOVES it.

[CourtneyMI]

Bump!

[Little Nyssa]

Well, my advice is a bit different, that's for sure!

I would make sure that you have your housekeeping under control in terms of clutter/cleanliness/organization at whatever level you feel happy & functional with. Also can you cook well and easily?

Then, make sure you are working on kids' behavior, so that you will set good patterns for limits, manners, how you will rein them in when they don't behave, etc. (I'm not recommending any particular style of parenting, just whatever works for your own family.)

And, know your own limits: how much sleep you need :lol:, how much time "off" you need.

And, make sure you have regular time for DH so he gets some attention too.

 

Having these things in place will make whatever kind of homeschooling you want to do, easier & more fun.

[CourtneyMI]

Thank for the home organization tips too! I hadn't even thought of that sort of thing yet. Fortunately, we have a wonderful support system here in town with my family and DHs family is only about 90 minutes away which is extremely helpful. Between the 2 of us, we get the house cleaned and dinner cooked. DH and I are a really good team (not to toot our own horns or anything) so as soon as we can get on a schedule of some kind, we will be golden. The question is whether we will ever get to the organized, scheduled part! Maybe its better to fly by the seat of our pants? Who knows? I'm just excited to get started! :001_smile: