What do/did you do with your young child?

[cmarango]

I am just wondering if you would mind sharing what you have done with your young (age 3-5) children since most of us do not put our children's age in our siggy.

 

For us: My dd is almost 4 and she loves AAS 1 more than her phonics. She is super excited about beginning dissections in our science time and is fairly happy with Singapore EM (more than MEP). Wordly Wise has also been a favorite as well as art appreciation.

 

She is not a big fan of copywork and I haven't figured out how to make it more fun. We also do some mind benders every now and then and geography stuff.

 

Traditional disclaimer: we "do school" for maybe 40 minutes each day spread throughout the day and she plays the rest of the hours. :001_smile:

[LittleIzumi]

Mine are in that range. We are VERY relaxed (because I can't schedule for the life of me & I have a wee baby), so this gets done only sporadically, but we use:

ETC (the younger finished the primers & is starting 1, the older is finishing 2)

AAS 1 (almost never but I wish I used it more--it's great. Younger knows most of the phonograms--used to know them all but we took a long break--and is segmenting, older is further in)

MEP (younger in Reception, older in year 1)

Singapore (older loves this best)

BFSU (for older--younger tags along)

Reasoning Activities for K (both)

ASL through Signing Time

We also have exposure to other languages, read-alouds, beginning readers for the older, various workbooks for math/science/geography/phonics, , Schoolhouse Rock, Bill Nye, PMK, science experiment guides/kits, microscope, art supplies, Snap Circuits, and a lot of unschooly things like a garden, a sheep fleece to process, etc. Younger will be starting MFW K in the fall. I'm also looking at Lollipop Logic and Family Math. I think the term is "eclectic" :lol:

[2smartones]

Both of mine started 1st grade at age 3 (skipped K ... or unschooled K ... or whatever). The handwriting was age-appropriate, but everything else was right on target or above, and we did everything... LA, math, social studies, science, etc. I usually don't speak of such things to anyone unless they actually know my family well enough to know that sort of thing is normal, or unless I'm in a somewhat anonymus environment where I can be free to encourage others in the same situation. Actually, I still have a hard time talking to strangers about school matters, I guess. I haven't grown into my 3 heads, I suppose. :tongue_smilie:

[EthiopianFood]

Traditional disclaimer: we "do school" for maybe 40 minutes each day spread throughout the day and she plays the rest of the hours. :001_smile:

 

It's not anybody else's business! We shouldn't have to apologize for what we do, or try to explain why it's "not that bad." Nobody else on the board has to make these kind of disclaimers other than those with young children who are schooling, and I find it completely unfair, ridiculous, and insulting. :glare:

 

Dd is a little over three, and we aren't doing much yet. :) We've been doing OPGTR since she turned 3 in January, along with Nora Gaydos/Bob Books/Dick and Jane (phonetically) for variety. I just ordered SM Essentials, and am hoping that goes well. We also just started KinderBach, which she just LOVES. Physical coordination isn't her strength, but if she likes it, whatever. :) I'm sure she would like more projects or something (she's currently really interested in ancient Egypt, after seeing the King Tut exhibit), but I'm not very good at getting stuff like that done. :glare: If anyone has any suggestions on kits, I'm all ears! Oh, we also do Signing Time for ASL, although I'm trying to summon up the motivation to become fluent MYSELF, as that seems like the best way for dd to become fluent, which is my goal.

[2smartones]

Traditional disclaimer: we "do school" for maybe 40 minutes each day spread throughout the day and she plays the rest of the hours. :001_smile:

 

I understand why you feel the need to post something like that. I'm sad to say it actually IS necessary on many forums. I've had people tell me they were going to find my IP, hunt me down, and call CPS because I was abusing my kids by not letting them play. :lol: There are some real whackos out there! (To which, I usually reply, they're welcome to spend a day with us to see who's pushing who. That usually shuts people up. ;) )

[EKS]

Just do what she likes and don't worry about it!

 

I taught my son (the younger one) to read when he was 2 and did math with him when he was 3+. He loved it. He didn't like having to write anything though. I've found that a little whiteboard, rather than paper and pencil, works well with kids who are resistant to writing.

[Crimson Wife]

I'm a big believer in keeping pre-k informal and "hands-on". The only formal curriculum I use is phonics whenever the child shows readiness for it (3 1/2 for my oldest, 4 1/2 for my 2nd).

 

Materials I like for pre-k:

 

Family Math for Young Children

Math Play! by Diane McGowan

Mudpies to Magnets series

Janice VanCleave's Play and Find Out series

Kumon Write & Wipe Cards

Tangos Jr.

LeapFrog Word Whammer

Boggle Jr.

Scrabble Jr.

Sesame St. Letter-of-the-Day Bingo

Chutes & Ladders

[EthiopianFood]

Janice VanCleave's Play and Find Out series

 

How much effort is this to prepare? I feel like I would do science if it wasn't so much work. :glare:

[Donna]

I think it is sad that we often feel the need to qualify how much we do with our very young children and that people are always ready to jump to the conclusion that a parent is pushing a child. It is the same if a child excels at something like music or sports...it must be the parent pushing them. No one knows what goes on in your house or whether or not your child is asking to learn. Some kids just want to learn and instead of pushing, as parents we end up just trying to keep a step ahead of them or being dragged behind as they gobble up information.

 

Between 3-5yo, with my dd I didn't do much "formal" school until closer to 5.5yo but she had her brothers homeschooling at the time so she sat in on lots of their stuff when she wanted and had her own workbooks (Kumon books, Handwriting Without Tears, Singapore, kinds of things) because she wanted to "do school" like them. I kept everything in reach and we did school whenever she asked or brought me something to help her with but it wasn't like there was a set time every day for school. Some days she'd "do school" for hours and others she didn't do it at all.

 

She sat in on history read alouds and did the projects whether they were coloring, art related, or cooking historical feasts.

 

She did science with her brothers as well. She loved doing dissection and recently we did some with just her and I. She remembered a lot and that background allowed me make things more advanced this time. She did all their physics and chemistry experiments as well. She wasn't doing the write ups or expected to remember the explanations but she does have a good background knowledge of lots of information just from participating.

 

We read a lot. She learned to read without instruction so I read to her and she read to me. We'd talk about what we read and what might happen next or what we wished had happened. I used Spelling Power with her beginning at 5.5yo though she is a natural speller as well. I used Five in a Row with her when she was 3 or 4yo which was really fun.

 

For math, we played with math manipulatives...made up stories and games to learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions. Around 5yo she gave up the manipulatives and asked to do "real" math so we started Saxon 1 after trying Singapore (which she labeled too babyish because of the pictures) and Miquon (which she didn't like because of needing to use manipulatives which she then thought were babyish) and she blew through Saxon 1-3 in a year. All that math play had her well-prepared.

 

She made messes and works of art with various supplies we kept handy. I also played with her a lot. Her brothers tended to play together so she and I would sit and play.

 

She also started Suzuki violin at 3yo and that was probably the best thing I did for her at that age. Homeschooling set up a great environment for her to learn to play. We could practice whenever she brought me her fiddle.

[....]

It's not anybody else's business! We shouldn't have to apologize for what we do, or try to explain why it's "not that bad." Nobody else on the board has to make these kind of disclaimers other than those with young children who are schooling, and I find it completely unfair, ridiculous, and insulting.

 

:lol: You have to admit, there's a comical irony to this...on a homeschooling forum! And, no, you shouldn't have to explain what you teach to your kids.

 

We don't start formal schoolwork until K, but my kids seemed to be late bloomers. Also, my 6 yro has SPD and now (after talking to the dr), I realize that the 9 yro probably has SPD also. So, this had a huge effect on when we start sit-down schoolwork. Our academics kick into overdrive in 2nd-3rd grade. My daughter finished 3rd grade ready for logic stage writing, so we're definitely not light in academics.

 

 

And here's my disclaimer: I realize this is the accelerated board. My 9 yro tests in the gifted range and I suspect my 6 yro would also - if she were ever tested. So, my kids are late bloomers and test in gifted range...does that make ANY sense? :001_huh: :svengo:

[MissKNG]

My big girl is in that age range and she works on everything in my signature and has completed a multitude of other curricula and workbooks. She also learns on her own and works on her own projects/computer/etc. Mainly, I have a ton of things available for when she wants to do something especially materials that interest her (math and science). Lots of books, lots of hands on thing (microscope, telescope), lots of crafty items, lots of paper and writing utensils (though her writing is age appropriate).

 

As for the OP's disclaimer, I fully agree that people's underwear gets knotted up when you mention a 3-5 year old working on "school". This is probably why a lot of us do not include our dc's ages. If people knew how long our day is, then they would know that working on "school" (and I don't include her own unschooling time) is only a small fraction of our day.

[Greenmama2]

 

As for the OP's disclaimer, I fully agree that people's underwear gets knotted up when you mention a 3-5 year old working on "school". This is probably why a lot of us do not include our dc's ages. If people knew how long our day is, then they would know that working on "school" (and I don't include her own unschooling time) is only a small fraction of our day.

Oh so true about the loooooooooong day! My DD turned 5 a week ago. We identify as unschoolers and for her that has led to quite a bit of formal academic stuff. I have never ever required her to do any of it and it's only ever taken more than 10 minutes at a time when she wants it to. Like when she wakes up in the morning, grabs her Singapore Math workbook and announces "I want to do some activity book!" then proceeds to do 8 pages in one hit. OK, that only happened once but similar if less extreme versions are quite frequent. We currently have sitting around for her to use when she wants:

* SM 1B

* Miquon Orange

* ETC 2.5

* Song School Latin

and subscriptions to Reading Eggs and Mathletics. She finished the first grade syllabus of Mathletics a week before she turned 5 (and a month after we purchased it). Some days she will do some of all those things plus violin and piano practice, shopping erands with me, hang out in a park with friends for a few hours, watch her favourite scenes from all three Tinkerbell movies and still have time to drive me insane by terrorising her younger brother. Long days indeed!

My DS is not quite 2 so outside of that range but his latest thing is begging to do Reading Eggs, luckily he is happy to sit next to her and watch while she does is about 70% of the time. He doesn't have the mouse skills to do it himself yet...

[cmarango]

I started this thread as a way to get ideas for things to do with my own dd. I find that I still struggle with the idea of starting things earlier than is stated in catalogs, on boxes, whatever. This just leads to frustration for both my dd and I.

 

I put in the disclaimer mainly for the "others" that feel a need to question how much time we spend on school stuff. I have always assumed that if you do not have an accelerated child then it may be difficult to understand how little time is needed for a young child to grasp concepts that are traditionally left for later years.

 

I forgot to add that we are also doing Kinderbach piano lessons and we are a bilingual household (English/Spanish). Snap circuits have been a huge hit as well.

 

For those that have bought microscopes, did you start with dissecting scopes, compound scopes, or both?

[Crimson Wife]

How much effort is this to prepare? I feel like I would do science if it wasn't so much work. :glare:

 

They aren't too bad. Most of the stuff Ms. VanCleave calls for are things we have in the house already, so it's mostly a matter of gathering it all together. I'd say 15 minutes tops.

[LittleIzumi]

I started this thread as a way to get ideas for things to do with my own dd. I find that I still struggle with the idea of starting things earlier than is stated in catalogs, on boxes, whatever. This just leads to frustration for both my dd and I.

 

I put in the disclaimer mainly for the "others" that feel a need to question how much time we spend on school stuff. I have always assumed that if you do not have an accelerated child then it may be difficult to understand how little time is needed for a young child to grasp concepts that are traditionally left for later years.

 

I forgot to add that we are also doing Kinderbach piano lessons and we are a bilingual household (English/Spanish). Snap circuits have been a huge hit as well.

 

For those that have bought microscopes, did you start with dissecting scopes, compound scopes, or both?

 

Started with a cheap $10 RR scope, and now we have a Brock Magiscope.

[Embassy]

So far I've done slightly different things with all my kids.

 

With my oldest I unschooled him until he was 5.5. I just exposed him to things like educational games and he loved surfing science websites and shows. He had taught himself how to read and when I started some formal phonics with him at 5.5 he zoomed ahead. I pretty much ended up unschooling for the second half of Kindergarten too. I had to stop the full-time unschooling with him because he grew quite hungry. Although he was able to feed his hunger to a degree, he was much more satisfied when I could spend lots of time filling him up with knowledge. Still I don't regret the unschooling years. It fit him then.

 

For my second child I started a little phonics and math when he was 4.5. It was easier because I was doing some formal work with my older son at the same time. Prior to 4.5 he was unschooled. He wasn't reading, but he had taught himself how to write at age 3. I was pretty relaxed with him until age 5.

 

My third child is 3 right now. I plan to unschool her until she is 5 and spend the time focusing on expanding her play skills and increasing the complexity of her play sequences. She sits on what interests her from her brother's studies which are mostly projects and foreign language.

 

I have also done exposure to foreign languages from a young age in the form of watching DVDs in the target language.

 

I realize there is often a play/formal work debate. I realize every family is different and each child has different needs. I did want to clarify my position on play. For me play doesn't have to be about letting the child go off and do whatever. Play can focus on deliberate skills. In my former life I used to work with young children teaching them through play and building up their play skills. So play is important to me. Developing more complex play sequences during the preschool years will do more to develop future cognitive skills than starting formal academics at a young age. True some do both, but I think many have more of a passive approach to play. IOW, the parent may do some formal academics and then let the child go off to play for most of the day. I say this to express the idea that there aren't only 2 options: early formal academics and free play. Play can be a powerful tool to learn new things if the parent uses it as a vehicle to teach.

[LittleIzumi]

So far I've done slightly different things with all my kids.

 

With my oldest I unschooled him until he was 5.5. I just exposed him to things like educational games and he loved surfing science websites and shows. He had taught himself how to read and when I started some formal phonics with him at 5.5 he zoomed ahead. I pretty much ended up unschooling for the second half of Kindergarten too. I had to stop the full-time unschooling with him because he grew quite hungry. Although he was able to feed his hunger to a degree, he was much more satisfied when I could spend lots of time filling him up with knowledge. Still I don't regret the unschooling years. It fit him then.

 

For my second child I started a little phonics and math when he was 4.5. It was easier because I was doing some formal work with my older son at the same time. Prior to 4.5 he was unschooled. He wasn't reading, but he had taught himself how to write at age 3. I was pretty relaxed with him until age 5.

 

My third child is 3 right now. I plan to unschool her until she is 5 and spend the time focusing on expanding her play skills and increasing the complexity of her play sequences. She sits on what interests her from her brother's studies which are mostly projects and foreign language.

 

I have also done exposure to foreign languages from a young age in the form of watching DVDs in the target language.

 

I realize there is often a play/formal work debate. I realize every family is different and each child has different needs. I did want to clarify my position on play. For me play doesn't have to be about letting the child go off and do whatever. Play can focus on deliberate skills. In my former life I used to work with young children teaching them through play and building up their play skills. So play is important to me. Developing more complex play sequences during the preschool years will do more to develop future cognitive skills than starting formal academics at a young age. True some do both, but I think many have more of a passive approach to play. IOW, the parent may do some formal academics and then let the child go off to play for most of the day. I say this to express the idea that there aren't only 2 options: early formal academics and free play. Play can be a powerful tool to learn new things if the parent uses it as a vehicle to teach.

 

Can you give an example of a guided complex play sequence? :lurk5:

[Embassy]

This is probably why a lot of us do not include our dc's ages. If people knew how long our day is, then they would know that working on "school" (and I don't include her own unschooling time) is only a small fraction of our day.

 

I found it easier to leave off my children's ages as well and I don't do formal academics at a young age. That way when I get recommendations for certain programs respondents don't answer according to my child's age or grade.

[Embassy]

Can you give an example of a guided complex play sequence? :lurk5:

 

A child starts out with simple pretend play skills like pretending to drink from a cup. That expands over time to things like pretending to pour a drink and then drink it or pretending to make lemonade, pouring a drink, serving it, and drinking it. To expand a play sequence I would add something to the sequence that will keep it going (i.e. spilling my drink, telling my child how my drink is too cold or too hot, needing more drink, asking for a different kind of lemonade or drink, "dirt" falling into my drink, etc) that will teach my child to add more steps and the ability to go into a different direction the next time the child does that activity. These types of skills build connections in the brain.

 

Here is real life example:

 

My little girl prepared me a plate of goodies and brought it to me into the other room. When she handed it to me I spilled it causing the "drink" and "food" to get the floor messy. That caused us to pretend to clean up the mess before she proceeded to make me another plate of goodies. The next time she played that activity she initiated the spilling and cleaning up.

 

Expansion can happen at any level whether your child is just starting to develop pretend skills or already showing a great deal of complexity.

Edited May 15, 2011 by Wehomeschool

[Jen in PA]

My DS is still (barely) in that age range, and you can see what we are doing in my signature. He spends maybe 30 minutes doing seatwork 4 days a week, plus has a full day of co-op classes (math, science, and art). He takes additional science classes on weekends. He absorbs a ton tagging along with his sister for history and science, and spends at least 2 hours a day reading and being read to. When DD was in that age range we spent more time doing out of the house activities -- storytime at the library, more time at the science center and museums, etc. For both kids, the bulk of the day involves outdoor play, crafts, blocks, snap circuits -- tons of hands-on activities that they choose on their own.

[StartingOver]

We do everything in my signature below. Both of my little ones fit into this age group. My daughter requests things that her big brother is doing, so we have started with her. She is doing well. She is happy. We will continue on.

[boscopup]

My first two kids have been very different. My oldest was mentally capable of doing things much earlier, BUT... he wasn't ready for "formal school" type stuff until 5 and would greatly resist me trying to teach him anything. So we basically unschooled the preK years, and when he started K (at a private school), he knew going in how to read and do math that was above what they'd be learning in K that year. He was quite bored, especially that first semester when they were learning letters and sounds. :glare: If he had been homeschooled, we could have easily started first grade curriculum at that point and just followed his lead. Oh well. We started halfway through first grade, and things are going fine.

 

My next kid LIKES formal school, though he has the attention span of a 4 year old still (he's 4.5, so this year has been his "preK3" year). We do about 10 minutes of math and 10 minutes of reading on days he asks for it. He is doing Singapore EM K and a mixture of Webster's Speller and OPGTR. I'll add in FLL1 probably his K year (fall 2012), or might do so earlier. I'm not sure. He could actually use the grammar instruction, as his speech delay has him using funky word order. Though he may have corrected it by then. His speech therapist gave me some tips on working on the word order in his questions, and after one week, she noticed a huge difference.

 

I'll probably start DS2 on GDI book A for handwriting in the fall. He currently copies my letters when I write his "reading lesson" on the white board, but we need to work on some pre-writing strokes (he can't do the V-shaped repeated sequence with points yet).

 

I'm not worrying about other subjects at a young age for DS2, since I have plenty to do with DS1 in those areas. DS2 can tag along on some things, but for some, I prefer to just wait (like history - I'm not comfortable with him learning about Greek myths quite yet, until he has a firm grasp of real vs. myth, which is just starting to appear in him). My main goal at this age is to get him reading well, because first grade is soooooooo easy when the child already reads!

[zaichiki]

I am just wondering if you would mind sharing what you have done with your young (age 3-5) children since most of us do not put our children's age in our siggy.

 

When my oldest was 3 I had a newborn. I read to him a lot. He started loving books as a baby and so we spent our time reading. Hours every day. And he'd sit. He loved listening to chapter books and soon started reading them on his own.

 

When he was 4 I did a lot of YMCA classes. And library story time. And a homeschool open gym time. (It was really social time for ME.)

 

The year he was 4 he made huge jumps in all kinds of things: reading, riding without training wheels, swimming without a float...

 

When he was 5 I started using curriculum more seriously: Sonlight Core 1, Phonics, Singapore Math. He started Suzuki cello.

 

When dd was 3 she started Suzuki viola. She had always tagged along with her big brother, so she was sitting and listening to his history, beginning Latin, math, and reading. She insisted on being included in any science experiments or art activities. She got herself paper and crayons and started sounding out sentences (and writing them herself). She did all of this b/c she wanted to be just like her big brother. Heck, she already thought she WAS just like him. She didn't see any age difference. (That's always been her personality.)

 

When my younger ds was 3 he was just dragged around to *everything* but hardly any of it was for HIM. He had to sit still and wait a LOT. He fell in love with books. He loved playing with his siblings. He just naturally overheard everything. It wasn't until this year (4.5 - 5.5), though, that he really jumped into reading and started parrotting back everything he has heard (like his brother's logic curriculum and his sister's history). He asked to play the cello. He begged for Singapore Math and his own science text book. Aren't little sibs funny?!

Edited May 17, 2011 by zaichiki

[Ritsumei]

For a long time, our "school" consisted of read-alouds, where I'd snuggle him up and read chapter books to him before naptime, and free reading where he'd choose whatever picture books made him happy at the time. We'd go to the park and do nature study: where we'd wander around the wildest parts of the parks I could find and look for "cool stuff." He likes to use the binoculars. Not that I think he knows how, but he likes to use them nonetheless. I'd like to get a good hand lens, but I still haven't figured out where to get one worth having.

 

We started phonics at about 3.5 using Happy Phonics, which I now pair with OPGTR. They are a great combination: HP makes OPGTR age-appropriate for the little ones. OPGTR helps this me know how to teach phonics, since I was taught with a much more whole language approach, and I began this thing pretty clueless about phonics.

 

We use Math Expressions, and would have done more, earlier, but I really struggled to figure out how to accommodate some very ordinary fine motor skills. When I realized that we can do the same sort of progression SWB recommends for writing narrations - Mom writes, he writes a bit Mom finishes, he writes it all, then things really took off. Between that and our flannel board, we're flying through the K level now. And it's his favorite thing to do.

 

The Mudpies to Magnets projects are another favorite. He regularly asks for "messy projects."

 

In March, we started adding 1st grade work (he's 4.5), and by July/August we'll be at full load, doing everything at or near 1st grade level. Within that structure I do as much delight-directed work as possible. For instance, he loves birds, so the animal studies we're doing are predominantly birds. We've got some cool stuff for some other animals, so we'll hit those, but mostly we're learning about birds at his request. Especially raptors. We'll start history last, but expect that it'll be well-received, since I plan to do some of the "messy projects" that are in the SOTWAG. And more snuggly reading.