Am I doing "enough" with my pre-k?

[IceFairy]

DD(4.5) is enjoying CLP Preschool. The process with which it works on fine motor skills is slow and thorough, which is what she needs as she has fine motor delays. Every week it covers:

 

Memory work

Bible Story

A letter and number a week plus activities for that letter.

Read-alouds with good lessons built in them.

I have been adding in counting (she only counts to 20 now) and coloring pages to go with the bible story.

 

Why do I feel like something is missing? Her brother was whizzing through K work at the same age, so I compare often...and I should not. She is a bright kid with an amazing imagination and extended vocabulary but she is not quite ready to blend sounds into words.

 

Can you see anything else i should be doing? I feel like I am letting her down, but its probably my own insecurity or something.

[8filltheheart]

To give an alternative perspective, I do not do pre-school at all w/my kids. They don't live in a vacuum, so they are learning all the time (like my almost 3 yod can count quite high for her age) but I don't sit and do ANY academics at all until K.

 

I have taken this approach w/all of my children and the older children have all been academically advanced (some significantly so.) So, no preschool has not placed them at any academic disadvantage.

 

FWIW, I haven't taken this approach arbitrarily. It has been a cognizant decision based on child mental development and my belief that play and imagination develop higher levels of cognition than learning letter sounds and "academic" pre-school activities.

[Dory]

I don't do any sit work with my kids for preschool either and they all are advanced. We count when we do things and I talk as I work and play with them and I let them learn the way that kids learn best at that age.

[ErinE]

I think you're doing enough. I'd advise breaking it into small chunks of ti.me throughout the day. As for math, you may also want to introduce the following:

 

* pattern recognition: using c-rods or tanagrams to make patterns and have your child continue them

* comparison: recognizing what's different and the same, which group has more or less

* sorting: sort by size, color, shape, etc.

* time: morning, afternoon, evening

 

I found this pdf worksheet showing concepts to cover although I'd keep it very informal. A lot of this can be done through every day activities: sorting clothes by color and folding clothes by type. Talking about the time of day: this morning, we will brush our teeth. This afternoon, we will got to the park. Both of my kids enjoyed making patterns, the more elaborate the better.

 

I've also seen Kitchen Table Math recommended, although I haven't used it myself. You're doing the right thing letting your dd go at her own pace. My youngest child would rather dig in the dirt and run around; when my eldest was her age, he could sit and do school for large chunks of time. I don't see any difference in terms of intelligence between the two, just that one is more bookish.

[Walking-Iris]

I think you're fine. All I did with my 4 year old last year was read alouds, learning the letters (and sounds) and counting (just playing around with math manipulatives), some beginning handwriting. Lots of play: games, songs, board games, preschool "science" experiments for fun, arts and crafts (drawing, coloring, gluing, cutting...), outside nature exploring, building with blocks, legos, puzzles and so on.

 

Lots of talk and answering and asking questions. He tagged along and participated in whatever my oldest (3rd grade at that time) was doing if he wanted to.

 

If you're concerned about motor skills, look at The Out of Sync Child Has Fun or BrainGym books.

[Durriyyah]

Sounds fine to me. I would make sure there is plenty of time to be outside, explore, ask questions, and just nurture their natural tendency to wonder.

[Wabi Sabi]

I don't do anything formal with my almost 5 year old. She spends hours outdoors, builds with blocks and Legos, takes a dance class, we read lots of books together, we play games, go on outings and she plays on Starfall.com plus a few iPod apps that are age appropriate. I'm beginning to work with her on writing her letters since she's expressed an interest and she's reading BOB books to me, but those are still casual and interest-driven. Basically, at this age, I think that just living life is plenty assuming that your home is an educationally rich environment and that you're actually engaging with your child.

[IceFairy]

I don't do any sit work with my kids for preschool either and they all are advanced. We count when we do things and I talk as I work and play with them and I let them learn the way that kids learn best at that age.

 

The reason i do seat work is the fine motor delays. Since i fired her OT in September, she has gone from not holding a crayon to tracing shapes, coloring, and even writing a couple letters. She is making huge improvements :)

[boscopup]

I would focus on activities that help develop her fine motor skills, since you already know that that will be a problem. Everything looks fine. That's more than I have ever done with a preschool aged child. I don't require school work until age 5. Before that, they can do some for fun if they want to. My 8 year old "does school" with my 3.5 year old because he insists on school. They grab random workbooks (ranging from preschool to 1st grade) and work on counting and reading. It's cute. The 3 year old learns by osmosis from his brothers anyway, so I'm not concerned about spending time with real academics.

 

Counting to 20 is fine for age 4.5. The goal in K programs is usually to be able to count to 100. The teens are the hardest part. If you teach place value (tens and ones), counting to 100 will quickly be learned in K.

 

It is hard not to compare kids. My oldest was reading at grade level 2.5 at age 5. My middle son is very much reading at K level at just turned 6, and he works hard at it. He's not ready to read real books yet. Bob books are still challenging. They are different kids. My oldest was quite advanced. Middle son is more of a late bloomer, comparatively. He thinks in pictures (VSL), and it's not uncommon for such kids to learn to read a bit later. When he was 4, I had to teach him how to count to 10. I didn't have to teach the other two kids. Now he's happily going through 1st grade math and not getting stuck on the common boogeymen of Singapore (adding/subtracting across tens with the weird mental math tricks). I don't know if he'll be as advanced in math as DS1 is, but he has an amazing imagination and is really quite bright. He just learns in a different way, and sometimes things take a while to "turn on" in his brain, but when they do, he knows a lot! I've learned not to worry about DS2 being anything like DS1. They are two different kids with different strengths and weaknesses, different personalities, etc. I think DS2 will probably end up being better at problem solving than DS1, even though DS1 "gets" academics much easier than DS2. So I'm not concerned that DS2 isn't reading at a 2nd grade level yet. He's doing well for his age, and he's making progress. It's all good! He's a little slower to mature, so I"ve kept K easy, and I plan to keep 1st grade fairly low key as well. I highly doubt he'll be ready for the same workload my oldest had in first grade. But by high school, I doubt you'll be able to tell a difference between what they did in K/1st. ;)

[Spy Car]

I'm a contrarian (on this board anyway) in believing the mind's of young children are highly plastic and that appropriate cognitive stimulation early helps build mental pathways in the brain.

 

This sort of brain growth can (and should) come from creative play and enriching life experiences, but they are not the exclusive providence of "non-academic" activity. There are ways to build precursor skills in young children in ways that are hands-on and playful, and are at the same time intentional and focused on skill building. And this can include a lot of different sorts of activities, including appropriate measures of "seat work."

 

I think "counting" has to be among the most over-rated of benchmarks. If a child is simply memorizing the count as if it is the lyrics to a song, without understanding the value relationships of numbers or without developing an emerging sense of place value, counting can actually be counter-productive.

 

Better to play with C Rods and base-10 "flats" and get a hands on feeling of what 2-Hundreds 5-Tens and 6-Units looks like. And to play with different combinations that make a given value. Or finding out the difference between two values.

 

And to have activities that get children to think and reason. Things that require "creative problem solving." One hopes a child will get some of these opportunities naturally in a stimulating home environment, but creating additional opportunities for a child to grow his or her mind is time well invested IMO.

 

To the OP, you might want to look at the free printable puzzles and mazes at "Krazy Daddy" as you could kill two birds with one stone (working on fine motor skills and giving an appropriate cognitive challenge) at the same time.

 

Bill

[justLisa]

We taught our kids how to play poker and black jack at that age. There's a lot to be learned from gambling :leaving:

 

But really, we use chips, and taught them how to cash them in for money, and they got REALLY quick with addition. It is rather hilarious to watch old videos of dd at 4 saying "hit me, hit me." LOL

 

I don't remember where I got them, but I had a bunch of things like math mazes, and dot to dots using addition/subtraction and skip counting. We did art projects, science things (mostly gardening centered), and cooking. I started them cooking/baking with me very early. That is useful for measuring and getting a sense of weight/volume etc.

[Alice]

Just wanted to add that I’ve found that not only is it tough not to compare kids but not to compare what I have been able to do with each child. Every time I look back at the lists of things I did with my oldest when he was in preschool/K I feel terribly guilty about what I’m doing with my 2nd and 3rd kids. Sometimes that guilt can be a a little nudge that I need to spend some extra time reading with my 3 yr old or to pull out art supplies we haven’t used in awhile. But it’s also worth remembering that none of them will have the same experience, no matter what I do. Not only are they different but I am different, circumstances are different. So I don’t read quite as many books to my daughter as I did to my oldest. But she also has two brothers willing to play princessess with her (and two older brothers willing to read to her).

[mhaddon]

We are starting prek because my daughter was begging for her own "school work". I don't think anything is wrong with doing it with them if they are interested! We are doing Carrol's Affordable Curriuculum. We love the Jumping Kangaroo, so much fun. It covers letters and numbers. I add in some letter sheets from confessions of a homeschooler as well as my own math manipulatives. We do sorting, pattern blocks, bear pattern cards, etc. She's getting pretty good so we don't do as many. She has the Rod and Staff preschool books and does a few pages each day. She also listens in to her brother's lessons and completes history and science with them. I can not get out of printing off sheets for her to do.

 

Alice, I wouldn't feel bad. I know that I am doing way more with my 3rd child than I did with my two older boys. Lol. They weren't interested at all and I was always nursing or taking care of a baby :) They are doing fine because we still did stuff. I was blown away when my 2nd son started Kindergarten and already knew how to read colors, all his letters and sounds, shapes, and was already adding and subtracting on his own. Oops!! lol.

[ondreeuh]

I have a pre-k student as well (my son is almost 5) and I don't do much - not nearly as much as I thought I would. I spend the majority of my "school" time with him on phonics/reading. He is doing well with that, and we're cruising through a couple of reading programs. I recently added in Miquon Orange. I had been doing lots of games (like Sum Swamp), occasionally playing with the abacus, counting & ordering lego minifigs, and I had tried to do Singapore Earlybird but it seems like such busywork. I like Miquon because it is play-based, but introduces mathematical thinking. The thing I feel like we are lacking are fine motor stuff and handwriting. Ds really dislikes coloring but I can get him to do a little bit of coloring & cutting. I need to push that a little more.

 

What you are doing looks very good. I would just look at what you'd like to use for K, and see if you might need to "prepare." Like if your K program moves quickly with math, then maybe consider doing a little more of that.

 

An easy way to add some fun educational stuff is to join a website like more.starfall, abcmouse.com, Dreambox, or Reading Eggs.