What is your focus for K?

[kristinannie]

While we were on vacation, I read The 3 R's by Ruth Beechick. I found this passage interesting:

 

It is true that some children can learn to read remarkably early. But the fact that they can does not necessarily mean they should. Should is another question. One schoold district set up an experiment to help decide this question. Some kindergarteners in the district received extensive instruction in reading. Others spent the same amount of time learning science. They melted ice. They observed thermometers in hot and cold places. They played with magnets, grew plants, learned about animal life, and so on. Books and pictures were available for these children if they wanted them, but no formal lessons in reading were held.

 

And what did the school district learn? By third grade the "science" children were far ahead of the "reading" children in their reading scores. The reason? Their vocabularies and thinking skills were more advanced. They could read on more topics and understand higher level materials. The "reading" children, by starting earlier, used up a lot of learning time on the skills of reading, while the "science" children spent the time learning real stuff. And when they did begin reading, they were older and knew more and learned in a fraction of the time that the others took.

 

The research and others like it are compelling. They drive home the fact that each child has only a limited amount of time in his early years. That time can be squandered in trying to teach reading before the "optimum" time for it. Or it can be used wisely in teaching "real stuff" that the child is ready for. If you are the teacher, the choice is yours.

 

The real stuff your child learns does not have to be only science. Science is a natural because children are curious about the world around them, and you can capitalize on that curiousity. But you can teach also about music, art, literature, money, work, safety, God, people, and everything else you and your child are interested in. p 6-7

 

 

I found this really interesting. Honestly, it is something I have been struggling with in my home school. I have found that we gravitate more towards spending a lot of time on our unit studies and read alouds and less time on the 3 R's. We do math and handwriting daily. We have reading lessons almost daily. However, none of the 3R's really takes up that much time from our day. We spend the bulk of our day doing our unit studies (geography, history and science combined as we take a trip around the world), music, art and nature study. This argument really helped me to relax and enjoy the ride more instead of stressing that we weren't spending enough time on the 3R's.

 

I would love to hear what YOU consider the most important aspect of K. I have gotten a lot of advice to focus on the 3 R's. That just isn't how it happened day to day for us.

[SilverMoon]

Other. Phonics is the only subject we put an academic focus on in their kindy year. :) Otherwise we play, explore, count toes, sing, read books, visit the library, dig in the dirt, and such.

[NanceXToo]

I put mostly other subjects with some of the 3 R's. I guess that would be most relevant. I am starting Kindergarten next month with my son using the Oak Meadow curriculum, which is pretty gentle and non-academic in the earliest years. It is Waldorf-inspired (not true Waldorf). Here's a description:

 

"A rich tradition of oral language and classic stories provides the backdrop for your child’s first exploration into the world of literacy. Each week students are immersed in a language-rich environment as they listen to stories, recite poetry, and learn new songs. Familiarity with individual letters is achieved through activities that engage the student artistically, physically, and musically. Emphasis is placed on integrating the sounds and shapes of each letter in preparation for First Grade.

 

In Math, students are gently introduced to the world of numbers through play-based activities, crafts, and storytelling. Math skills are fostered through working with patterns, grouping and sorting, and learning to draw geometric shapes.

 

 

Science, Arts & Crafts, Music & Movement, and Health round out the Kindergarten experience. Each week students participate in nature walks, watercolor painting, puppetry, storytelling, circle songs and games, cooking, gardening, movement activities, and imitative games. A healthy, nurturing rhythm of learning is established that will serve you and your child for years to come."

 

 

Much of the OM philosophy is that a child is more than just an intellect, that there's nothing to be gained by rushing through childhood and so on. However, I may also do some Funnix beginning reading lessons with my son if he's willing (he likes computer based stuff). It's just not a priority for me though that he must learn to read and write in K. 1st grade was time enough for that when I was a kid and I certainly didn't suffer for it in my reading and writing skills!

[chepyl]

I voted the three Rs, because for kindergarten that is the only structured material I kept. We did science with experiments, we did an intense study of geography, we did history and lit. But his phonics and math work was the only thing I made sure we did everyday. Generally, the reading was on a science, history, or geography topic. After 100EL and the Bob Books, I did not use readers. We used topical books from the beginning readers section of the library. Even now, for first grade, we do math and reading everyday; but on a good day it is not the bulk of the material. BUT, I do think reading is the most important skill I can teach my children, as far as education goes.

[Caterpiller]

Phonics is my focus. We will be doing couting and skip counting, sign language, bible stories and memory work, singing, weekly science projects and a weekly craft. My daughter, more then anything loves to draw and color. So she will be doing a ton of that as well.

[Kertie]

Here's how I look at it: if my kindergarten child is asking to learn to read, I'm not going to say no, sorry, let's go on a nature walk. If my child asks to go on a nature walk, I'm not going to say, no, let's stay home and beat phonics to death. So far, I live in a household of early readers that had nothing to do with me emphasizing the 3 R's. I'm of the mind that reading activities leave LOTS of time for play, science, read-alouds, etc. It's entirely possible to have our cake and eat it, too, in this scenario.:D

 

It is important to me that my kids learn to read when they are ready and willing, and I haven't (so far) seen a reason to put an age label on that. I do think that all the read-alouds and experiments and nature walks and asking questions add up to a child who has a great vocabulary and reasoning skills whether they ALSO formally worked on reading or not. No studies, just my opinion. :D I seriously doubt that my early reader who sponges in more scientific and historical information than I can shake a stick at is going to suddenly be behind in 3rd grade just because he taught himself to read at a ridiculously early age. But, he's young and I obviously can't say for sure;).

 

It's all about fostering a love of learning AND getting the 3R's in over here:).

[beaners]

We're working through kindergarten right now, so I don't have any idea how things are going to turn out. My plans, and what usually gets accomplished, is that I focus on doing a little bit of work on the three Rs because so much of the rest of our life is the other material. We have a ton of animals and a garden. We read about the solar system in our spare time. (Favorite planet is currently Jupiter.) We look at trains and name dinosaurs. We find countries on the globe. All of those things just kind of happen, with or without planning. Getting in what I'd like to accomplish in the three Rs is more intentional.

 

I hate to say that we get the three Rs done quickly, because it seems like some parents will always see it as a negative reflection on families where it takes more time. It is the way it is for us though. I spend 10 minutes on writing, 20 minutes on reading and vocabulary (looking up unknown words in the children's dictionary), and 10 minutes on math lessons about 4 or 5 days a week. I also make a point of sucking it up and laying down newspaper and handing over paint and scissors at least a few times a week too, because that also wouldn't happen without an effort on my part.

 

I have no idea what things would look like if I had different children. I was an early reader, my oldest is an early reader, and my middle daughter looks to be a very early reader. We aren't spending hours drilling phonics or sight words instead of playing and asking questions. I could definitely see potential negative results from that kind of environment. In my experience with my own children, I think early reading is an advantage. My daughter is sitting inside reading about animal habitats while I'm making lunch. I read a lot of books out loud to my children, but I can't read to them all the time. She is absorbing a lot just by what she reads to herself. Again though, we didn't spend time learning to read to the exclusion of other subjects. I could see completely putting off exposure to other material until a child can read as harmful. I don't think too many people actually do that though.

[SorrelZG]

The 3 Rs is all I am sure to do each day. The vast majority of the day is open for interest driven learning. I don't think of that as a K focus though. It's just .. I don't know .. life? Being 5? I guess I only think of "K" as being what I schedule and do formally but I guess it's one of the smaller portions of the total of his learning. My point being, I answered "The 3 Rs" but that doesn't remotely exclude most of the day being spent on everything but. :)

[kristinannie]

I think even people who chose the 3R's are similar in thought to me. I am not avoiding teaching reading. My son is definitely ready. We do a reading lesson most days. We definitely do the 3 R's. I can see advantages to early readers as well. I guess I got permission from that article not to push reading and focus solely on that skill. It is moving along and improving, but it doesn't take up a huge chunk of our day. It is so great to be homeschooling because we really can have our cake and eat it too (like PP said). We don't have to spend precious time on busywork, lining kids up, getting the kids quiet, etc. We just do school and play and do school and play and read aloud and play. :D

[boscopup]

While my focus is the 3Rs (meaning those are the subjects we would do everyday), it doesn't take up much time. We don't need to do more than 45 minutes or so of the 3Rs (total), and then the rest of the day the children can play, explore, build Lego structures, discuss things they're seeing outside, etc.

 

I don't think you can compare a study of schooled children to homeschooled children. In the homeschool setting, we can focus on the 3Rs and be done quickly, leaving the rest of the day for discovery and play (what the non-3Rs schooled children were doing), while in school the children are stuck spending an hour on each of the 3Rs and left with little time to explore. That's a big difference!

[fruitofthewomb]

While my focus is the 3Rs (meaning those are the subjects we would do everyday), it doesn't take up much time. We don't need to do more than 45 minutes or so of the 3Rs (total), and then the rest of the day the children can play, explore, build Lego structures, discuss things they're seeing outside, etc.

 

I don't think you can compare a study of schooled children to homeschooled children. In the homeschool setting, we can focus on the 3Rs and be done quickly, leaving the rest of the day for discovery and play (what the non-3Rs schooled children were doing), while in school the children are stuck spending an hour on each of the 3Rs and left with little time to explore. That's a big difference!

 

:iagree:I am a newbie but I agree with this. We are spending less than an hour on 3 R's and the rest of our time is spent on life-exploring, playing, reading non school stuff, etc. My MIL asked how long school was taking and when I told her that it just doesn't take very long she gave me a long list of ways to making "reading" lessons last longer-talking about parts of a book, what an author is, etc. I told her that is what I have been doing for a long time with DD and that I don't consider that school, its common sense. Why do I have to sit and have "formal reading" lessons about that? Its part of what we do when we read.

 

I haven't read that book (I would like to) but I am wondering from comments if it is more of a book to get us away from the mindset that we have to recreate school at home? That is what my MIL thinks I should do but she works at a public school. I think it bugs her that we do school at dining table instead of kid tables :001_smile:

[kristinannie]

 

I haven't read that book (I would like to) but I am wondering from comments if it is more of a book to get us away from the mindset that we have to recreate school at home? That is what my MIL thinks I should do but she works at a public school. I think it bugs her that we do school at dining table instead of kid tables :001_smile:

 

 

The book definitely does try to convince you not to do regular school at home, but I think we are all on the same page there!!! There are lots of really great practical ways to teach reading, writing and math without pages and pages of workbooks. I still do use some workbooks, but there are great ideas for supplementing as well!

 

I had to laugh when I read that about the dining table! I don't know why people think kids learn better sitting at their own desk! We did school today on a picnic table in our yard because it was beautiful outside! I am pretty sure they still learned. Although it was ironic that we are learning about Canada this week and studied the frozen tundra! :lol:

[TheAutumnOak]

I picked other because I would only focus on phonics for K...I am in the camp that believes you can wait until 1st grade to start academic work...

[Food4Thought]

It was difficult for me to answer the question! I know we are doing school, but to be honest, it is a very flexible version. The 3Rs are all I really *expect* but I teach those via life interests - lots of books, playing with toys, drawing pictures, reading science encyclopedias, LEGOs, math balances, etc. I don't push any sort of curriculum for anything in K, except for handwriting copy work. The extent of our phonics is talking about sounds and putting magnetic letters together on the fridge. So... while I know she *is* learning the 3Rs, I'm not certain that we are focusing on the 3Rs. Oy! I'm so confused now. :confused: :D

[ScoutTN]

I chose the second answer because while we did Bible, math, phonics and some handwriting as "school" (with very short lessons 4x a week) I found that life with a 5 yo and a 3y yo included lots of history, science, art and music.

 

We just played and found that we learned about a lot of things as we went along. Gardening, playing outside, reading zillions of library books, experiencing live music, cooking, puppet shows, taking care of our dog, celebrating holidays, helping others with meals or babysitting or housekeeping, being with grandparents often, taking a longish car trip - all of these were great learning for all of us!

 

So we actually spent way more time on other things than on the 3 R's. But our year felt balanced and fun and not at all like school, which was lovely and just as I had wanted it to be. :)

[Flux]

I voted 3 R's with some gravy.

 

In actuality, we just mostly did reading, though. In hindsight, I do wish I had paid attention to her pencil grip, because now she is struggling with changing a bad habit.

 

I guess you could call our fourth R Rabbit trails. She learned so much by us fostering her interest (Not plural yet!). She was compelled to read...about bugs. She kept a ruler by her fave bug book so she could see how big all the different bugs were and compare their length to other objects in the house. She wants to learn latin...so that when she discovers a new bug, she names it properly.

 

It's just so easy in Kindy to teach through whatever they are showing an interest in at the moment. I love pre-school & Kindy!:001_wub:

Edited August 17, 2011 by Flux

[RoundAbout]

We plan to focus on math and phonics because they are the only subjects I feel necessary to directly teach in K. My son's natural curiosity along with the assortment of usual family activities (zoo and museum trips, science projects, nature hikes, etc.) are enough to carry us through K.

[KrissiK]

Math and Phonics. I want DD to learn to read and read well. We'll start focusing on the other stuff later, though she does tag along in the content areas with her brothers.

[newlifemom]

I am focusing on math and phonics. Dd is already reading, but I would like to make sure there are no gaps. She loves math and has a head for #s so I am going to play with them this year while cementing some basic operations. Add to that CC memory work [which I do not stress at her age] and lots of books just laying around ;) and there is my year for her.

[Angel]

I voted "other." My focus for my younger dd in K was reading. I used Teach Your Child to Read in 100EZ Lessons and that was my main focus. Whenever she felt like it (which was fairly often) we would do workbooks, like the Rod and Staff Preschool Books. She also usually liked to listen in on her older sister's science and history. We made lots of trips to the library and tried to follow any interests she might have. She has always had a great imagination so I allowed a lot of time for free and imaginative play. That's it.

[kristinannie]

I voted 3 R's with some gravy.

 

In actuality, we just mostly did reading, though. In hindsight, I do wish I had paid attention to her pencil grip, because now she is struggling with changing a bad habit.

 

I guess you could call our fourth R Rabbit trails. She learned so much by us fostering her interest (Not plural yet!). She was compelled to read...about bugs. She kept a ruler by her fave bug book so she could see how big all the different bugs were and compare their length to other objects in the house. She wants to learn latin...so that when she discovers a new bug, she names it properly.

 

It's just so easy in Kindy to teach through whatever they are showing an interest in at the moment. I love pre-school & Kindy!:001_wub:

 

 

I love it! My kids are obsessed with bugs. I have learned so much about bugs in the past few months, it is unbelievable. It was helpful though because we identified a moth that would have killed our apple tree!

[happyhomemaker25]

I picked the 3 Rs and the rest is gravy. With my third daughter I delayed her reading instruction and spent more time on Read Alouds and Unit Studies, thinking she could pick it up later. She will be 10 in September and is reading at a 1st grade level. I can't help but blame myself. With my oldest son he picked up reading almost by himself with little instruction from me. He's reading at a 4th grade level. My 5 year old is getting a lot of Phonics instruction this year along with some solid math prep. Handwriting I am not going to sweat because he is not ready for it.

I'm sure it's just a delay with my daughter as her oldest sister was about 9 or 10 before she started reading well (in public school), but I still feel guilty. I vowed with my next two that I will not put off reading instruction for any reason. Her being behind on her reading has pushed her back in everything. She can't even complete her 3rd grade math sheet without me reading a lot of the instructions to her.

I do History and Science with my two olders pretty regularly and all the youngers are along for the ride. :)

I love the idea behind what the OP mentioned though. It makes sense. Maybe if we'd focused on something that would build her thinking and reasoning skills I'd be at a different place. Still not something I want to risk again.

[island-mama]

I will be doing the 3R's with my K son in the fall. But he will also be doing science, art and French (and as much history as he can handle) along with his grade 2 sister. It seems almost effortless to just take him along for the ride. He will not be required to do the amount of memorization, reading and written work, obviously, but he will be doing the hands on and oral stuff with us as well as the read alouds. His sister got a LOT more for K than he will be (her being the first born and all), but I think he will get plenty. He is not as ready as she was to do all the work for K anyway.

[Tracy]

I said "other" because I think in K it is important to set the stage for future learning. You can lay the foundation for the 3 R's through lots of games, read alouds, and pretend play. Hide and go seek for counting; coloring for handwriting preparation, dressing up as historical figures, etc.

[lea1]

While my focus is the 3Rs (meaning those are the subjects we would do everyday), it doesn't take up much time. We don't need to do more than 45 minutes or so of the 3Rs (total), and then the rest of the day the children can play, explore, build Lego structures, discuss things they're seeing outside, etc.

 

I don't think you can compare a study of schooled children to homeschooled children. In the homeschool setting, we can focus on the 3Rs and be done quickly, leaving the rest of the day for discovery and play (what the non-3Rs schooled children were doing), while in school the children are stuck spending an hour on each of the 3Rs and left with little time to explore. That's a big difference!

 

:iagree: My two sons were both ready to start learning to read when they were 4 YO. We only spent maybe 15 or 20 minutes a day tops for a few months and did not even do it every day and then we had to stop because of building a house and moving. With just that amount of time, they are reading at somewhere in the first grade level, possibly even a beginning 2nd grader. I don't think they missed out on anything. As homeschoolers, our kids can have both, learning to read at an early age, if they are ready, and also spend lots of time doing other things that grow their vocabulary and expand their horizons.

 

They are almost 6 now and we just started K this week. We are focusing on the three R's, some spelling and our Bible devotion time but that only takes maybe an hour and a half a day. There is plenty of time left over to do lots of other things.

[skueppers]

We focused on reading, handwriting, math, and German.

 

We certainly did a lot of other things (and have a generally educational lifestyle -- our family spends a lot of time playing board games, visiting museums, going on nature hikes, gardening, discussing current events, etc.), but we made it a point to spend time on these core subjects every school day.

[SnegurochkaL]

My oldest daughter spent her K year learning her math, geography, history, science, logic/critical thinking,art, French. She wasn't ready to write yet. First grade we concentrated on reading/writing using SWR. It took less than 2 months for my child to start reading independently. She skipped readers. My son who is turning 5 later this year and officially would be in k next year, going to do math, learning to read some Russian, studying some logic, science, history and foreign languages. I am not sure if I would be formally teaching him writing this year, but his little motor skills are more advanced than his older sister ever had at his age.

[frogger]

Obedience, attitude, contributing (as in chores) and exploring the world (discussing things throughout the day and reading stories) and lots of play time.

[jubilation]

We are making a point to spend some time on the 3 R's most days, but like others have already stated, this takes up only a very tiny portion of our day. Most of our time is spent exploring and coloring and playing, and we spend maybe half an hour, tops, on reading, writing, and math (and much of that is self-directed at this point, such as DD spontaneously deciding to make a card for someone she knows, and asking me how to spell the words).

[Tawlas]

I voted a good mix for my son, although I suppose he's technically preK as he's 4. But I wanted to add that I don't push it, I follow his lead. We've called school "Games" for quite some time now, having fun with letters and their sounds, colours, shapes, patterns, and fine motor skills. But this is the first year I've done worksheets, and they're more like one or two pages a week.

 

For math last week, for example, I printed a cube with monster trucks on it with an accompanying graph. We graphed the results from throwing the cube across the room. It gave us an opportunity to talk about more, less, most, least, etc and DS LOVED it! He's been asking to do it almost every day since lol. At this age, I love finding creative ways to learn! (I found the monster truck cube at 1+1+1=1 btw)

[Ritsumei]

And what did the school district learn? By third grade the "science" children were far ahead of the "reading" children in their reading scores. The reason? Their vocabularies and thinking skills were more advanced. They could read on more topics and understand higher level materials. The "reading" children, by starting earlier, used up a lot of learning time on the skills of reading, while the "science" children spent the time learning real stuff. And when they did begin reading, they were older and knew more and learned in a fraction of the time that the others took.

 

 

This strikes me as a false dichotomy. It just doesn't need to be one or the other. Especially not at home.

 

We did some reading instruction, some math instruction, skipped writing, because his fine motor wasn't there yet, fooled around in Mudpies to Magnets, went on nature walks, played legos, cooked, helped Daddy build, and all sorts of things.

 

Monkey knew all his letters & their sounds at 2, through no effort of my own, so I started slowly giving him more. We started some easy-going phonics instruction a little before his 4th birthday, with Happy Phonics. We started doing some with a K math curriculum around the same time. But "school"/2-Rs totaled maybe 30 minutes 2-3 times a week there for a long while, with messy projects whenever we felt like it. When he was older we increase the intensity a little, which meant doing the same thing more days a week. That leaves a lot of time for doing all the stuff the "science" group was doing, and plenty of time for unstructured play, playground trips, playdates, and so forth.

[coffeegal]

I voted 3 R's, but I like to keep the lessons short. We spend no more than 20-30 minutes on formal seatwork. The rest of the day is spent digging in the dirt, doing artwork, crafts, and good old fashion play. :D

[Lyrical]

I think the most important thing in K is to foster love of learning and curiosity. If a child is interested in reading, then great ... go for it. If for whatever reason they're not ready, then waiting is a good idea.

 

Actually, what drew me to WTM and this site, is the position of SWB that the emphasis should be on surrounding young children with rich language sources, and not push them into writing too early. This makes so much sense to me. Many kids, my K-er included, lack the fine motor skills for this at such a young age. Ten years ago, I was volunteering a lot in my son's K classroom, and the push was really on getting kids to write. I felt uncomfortable with this at the time for various reasons. Sure a few may be able to do this well, but more often, kids clearly felt uncomfortable with the task, or learned to race through, giving a cursory attempt.

 

I will be doing Phonics Pathways with my child to the extent that she is interested, backing off immediately if I meet resistance. We will be doing Rightstart Math, which just looks so fun, I can't imagine her resisting. We'll do art, French, etc., but our emphasis will be firmly on the love of learning and fun.