bright 2-year-old?

[MedicMom]

My two year old has been begging to do "school" like his homeschooled aunts. I put together a preschool curriculum with lots of reading, puzzles, letters and numbers, just fun stuff. He did everything I had set out for a week in an hour and begged for more. I also discovered he can: count to 30, count objects up to 22, knows all of his colors and shapes including things like sphere, cylinder and octagon, recognizes all of his letters and associates most ofthem("A" is for Amy, "G" is for Grandma, etc), and has a basic grasp of fractions(If you cut a sandwich in 1/2 and cut it in 1/2 again, you have four sandwiches. He explained this to me at lunch).

 

Basically everything I had planned for preschool isn't going to work. I asked him what he wanted to learn about, and he told me: pharaohs, the solar system, and how tomatoes grow in the garden.

 

Curriculum suggestions? Again, this is a two year old who is BEGGING to do school, otherwise I would be waiting. I looked at Before Five In A Row, but I really think he needs something more.

[Kathy G]

Welcome to the craziness of a gifted child! My advice would be to let him "homeschool" as he wishes. Mine younger ones wanted to be like their big brother and so they think they homeschooled too. Follow his lead. Try to grow tomatoes in Sept :D There are great resources about Egypt and the solar system. Your library probably has what you need. If he seems interested you could even read Story of the World to him. My youngest sat through that at age 2 when her older brother was using it for homeschool. She loved every minute and learned a ton.

 

Oh and on a busy day pop in a magic schoolbus you tube video- I will admit it- I did that when I needed a few free minutes and didn't want to plan a true lesson!

[TranquilMind]

My two year old has been begging to do "school" like his homeschooled aunts. I put together a preschool curriculum with lots of reading, puzzles, letters and numbers, just fun stuff. He did everything I had set out for a week in an hour and begged for more. I also discovered he can: count to 30, count objects up to 22, knows all of his colors and shapes including things like sphere, cylinder and octagon, recognizes all of his letters and associates most ofthem("A" is for Amy, "G" is for Grandma, etc), and has a basic grasp of fractions(If you cut a sandwich in 1/2 and cut it in 1/2 again, you have four sandwiches. He explained this to me at lunch).

 

Basically everything I had planned for preschool isn't going to work. I asked him what he wanted to learn about, and he told me: pharaohs, the solar system, and how tomatoes grow in the garden.

 

Curriculum suggestions? Again, this is a two year old who is BEGGING to do school, otherwise I would be waiting. I looked at Before Five In A Row, but I really think he needs something more.

 

So...keep going? You don't need a "preschool curriculum". Just teach him things every day. I taught my daughter a huge list of foreign cities in the newspaper on the weather page. She quickly memorized it and would recite it to us in her high chair. Read loads of books to him. Pretty soon, he will be "reading" them to you, if he isn't already (having memorized every page).

 

Read a magazine to him. Talk to him about what you are reading. If he wants to learn letters or how to read, I really liked Alpha Phonics. Kid is reading on day 1 or 2 (can't recall...long time ago). Teach him how to take things apart and put them back together.

[MedicMom]

He has a certain picture in his mind of "school" and that is what he wants to do. However, it is coming from what his high school age aunts are doing, which is mostly bookwork and writing. Sitting down and reading "Goodnight Moon" is NOT school in his two year old mind. I lean towards playschooling especially at this age, but he has a certain picture in his mind, which isn't playschool.

 

As far as the pharoahs, my sisters are on their high school history rotation through story of the World, and apparently he has been listening in, at least enough to describe in detail how the brains were sucked out during mummification.

[2smartones]

I can relate. We started formal homeschooling (1st grade) with both of my kids when they were 3. Both were reading very well by then and had a good grasp of basic math.

 

Make it look like school! No harm in that. For some kids, school time IS play time. You can do writing with larger objects (fat pencils, triangular shaped crayons, etc., holding his hand inside yours as he writes, if necessary) to aid motor skill development. You can do workbooks with him if you fill in the written answers. (A 2 year old can certainly scribble, X, or circle answers if that's what the book calls for.) Ask what he's interested in, and then check out books at the library from the junior non-fiction section. They'll have tons of facinating information, but they'll be on a child's level with lots of pictures as well. Don't panic. Just go with him where ever he wants to take you, and have fun with it. :)

[jenbrdsly]

Here are some math ideas for two and three year olds from my blog.

[serendipitous journey]

If the child wants to school:

 

MEP for math. Or Rightstart, if you prefer.

 

Teach him his letter sounds (if you get the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, it gives a little rhyme for the sounds; Button's Montessori preschool just taught two versions of the alphabet song: one with letter names ("A, B, C ...") and the other with the sounds of the letters: "{short-vowel a}, {b-sound}, {hard-c}, ..." to the same tune. The vowels are associated with short-vowel sounds, just do the consonant sound for y (unless that bugs you). But OPGTR didn't work for us once we were past the letter sounds.

 

Then Phonics Pathways, which I think is a great start for really little ones. I copied & colored & laminated some of the pages/games, and we would do a few then chase each other around before doing a few more: this worked quite well. You can look at the games book, too; and Reading Pathways once he's doing words.

 

Sandbox Scientist is hands-down the best science for 2-5 that I know of. It won't go into Egyptians, but I bet it'll distract him for quite a while.

 

Art for the Very Young is age-appropriate but also sophisticated: it enables you to pull in art from actual artists for your projects/teaching.

 

Child-Size Masterpieces could feel pretty school-y.

 

"Writing" is harder. I am liking the Great Books Academy nursery materials for 3-year-olds, but IMHO the books for learning letters & numbers (which are just black-and-white workbooks for practicing writing skills) are not a good fit for two-year-olds, unless his motor skills are quite advanced; and the literature is not what I'd pick for that age. You might like the tracing-letters-in-the-sand approach. I did like Wipe-Clean Numbers and Wipe-Clean Letters: good to combat perfectionism (being easy to wipe mistakes off) as well as for skill practice.

 

You could look at the earliest Sonlight literature package: it's for 3yos, and has been used successfully with some precocious 2yos.

 

Timberdoodle makes some nice pre-K kits that have a reasonable number of number-and-letter components.

 

For mummies &c, have you tried getting the lowest-level picture books you can on those topics?

 

Would he like the Magic School Bus videos?

 

Have you looked at maybe Oak Meadow-type materials for Pre-K as general enrichment?

 

... just thoughts off the top of my head. Button needed more-formal school at an early age, but he had some other issues that your son clearly doesn't have -- we started him in MathUSee at 3, for instance, because of the white space on the pages; I wouldn't recommend it unless you really need to do math and you really need a clean presentation (no pretty pictures). But he also refused to do art (or listen to stories!). So no Oak Meadow there.

 

good luck!

Edited September 11, 2012 by serendipitous journey

[The Governess]

Dd8 learned to read when she was just turned three using Hooked on Phonics (perfect for early, non-struggling readers). She learned all her letter sounds playing on Starfall when she was two.

 

We did Hooked on Phonics 3 days a week for 20-30 minutes. It was enough work to satisfy her, and once she was reading well on her own she had a new hobby. :)

 

We did no writing at that age.

[yellowbee]

I'd say go with the flow and at their pace. If they want to do something, then do it. :) I was very hesitant with my ODS as he begged for school from such a little age and I tried to hold him off. It felt weird buying him a kindergarten math book when he was three, but he would beg and to his credit he would do them!

 

Some of our favorites at that young age is a game called BambinoLuk and eventually MiniLuk, and then the Magic School Bus series (so many fun topics to jump from and do projects about). I also like the Mathematical Reasoning and Building Thinking Skills books from Critical Thinking Company. They make math books for three and four year olds, and up into the later ages. They are high in price but we reused them for our other kids (at that age we would just snuggle up on the couch and talk through the pages). There are lots of great products out there that get your little one learning and thinking in a fun way, so I say if your child is ready to go then encourage it. As I look back (and DS is only in kindergarten) I loved that we followed his lead and just wish that I wasn't so hung up on what other people thought when I was out shopping around with him for things above his age.

[MedicMom]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I truly feel like I am completely over my head with this child. I know he is bright, but every day I discover a little more about him that I didn't know before.

At this rate I really think he will outpace me before he is four.

[mumto2]

We did a "Building Thinking Skills" book. Also a series of math books called "funtastic frogs". Lots of coloring although she wanted to write. These seemed to satisfy the table work desire. We read a lot. Magic Tree House books and guides were the favorite. Stacks of other stuff too.

[Uff Da!]

nm

[LittleIzumi]

I'd be getting books with lots of pictures on pharaohs, the solar system, and how seeds grow, plus growing radish seeds to see it happen and maybe watching dome documentaries. You can come up with related art projects and maybe find some picture books, too.

[Guest cmunoz]

I agree with the MEP math and continuation of phonics/reading work. If you want to teach writing try Handwriting Without Tears. (you don't need to actually buy it - just cut similar shapes out of cardboard so you can demonstrate how the letters are formed). You can also use bananagram letters to practice spelling until hands are ready for writing.