FUN 3Rs for K for stubborn child

[caedmyn]

Looking for suggestions for fun, quick curriculum for teaching the 3 Rs to a very stubborn little boy who balks at anything he doesn't feel like doing. This is NOT a readiness issue...he's like this with everything, and he actually wants to read and write, he just doesn't want to be taught how. He expects to just write letters and read books without any instruction.

[Ellie]

I would probably do something like KONOS with all of the dc, and let the 3Rs happen accidentally with some stealth phonics and stealth arithmetic.

[Um_2_4]

For reading: The Reading Lesson (I cut up the phrases and play games with them) and lots of reading games, magnet letters on a big board to spell words. Reading eggs if you allow some computer time.

 

For math: check pinterest for free math games. I just  got Math Thinking Mats by carson-dellosa  from amazon to use for 1st grade. Think centers, there are tons of free printable ones. Or you can buy books of ready to use ones. Just look at what is typically covered in Kg and make sure to work on those skills (counting to 100, greater/less, ordinal numbers to 10, count by 10s, 5s, 2s, match quantities to numbers, 2d shapes, patterns, pictographs, etc).

[Kiara.I]

What about just reading to him a ton?  Many children do learn to read by osmosis (about 1/3, apparently) so it might be worth that approach for a while.

 

If HE desperately wants to learn but doesn't want to be taught, in K I might farm it out to starfall or reading eggs, if you allow any screen time in your family.

[eternallytired]

My kids picked up their letter sounds somewhat by accident through exposure to various ABC books (mostly the Seuss one, though) and Starfall and LeapFrog products (letter magnets, Letter Factory and Talking Words Factory DVDs).  All three of them spontaneously began sounding things out on their own.  If he's interested, letter sounds might be enough to get him going if you can work them in by stealth.

 

With the older two I moved on to playing games.  I was going to try listing a bunch, but I realized that it would take a ton of space and I once listed them all in a blog post.  I plan to get my act together and have some designated game time for the little guy this fall to help him progress.

 

As for math, I managed to get through all of Right Start A without the kids having a clue we were following a curriculum.  I would read a few lessons and then simply find ways to work the concepts into their play.  So I'd take out the bag of colored tiles and start making designs and pictures, and then I'd introduce the idea of patterns.  Or I'd take the dot cards and start looking at them and pointing out that some of them have pairs and some have an extra (even vs. odd).  The kids would be excited to show me more examples of each type, and we'd sort them.  Then I'd challenge them to match each one to its number, and finally I'd ask if they could put the numbers in order and point out that that odd-even is a pattern.

 

Handwriting was the area I started formally.  Since my oldest refused my gentle/informal correction/instruction, I started talking up the fact that he was nearly old enough for daily work.  I bought a handwriting book and made a big deal about the fact that on a certain day we'd start and he'd do X amount per day.  When the day came it seemed exciting and was short enough for him to survive.  After the novelty wore off it had already become habit, so we kept on.

[Guest]

I wouldn't try to make it fun.

 

Fun==  work for mom.

 

Work for mom is fine. Except when Mom does more work than she needs to, and the child still can't do any of it because he's just dead-set on following his own bliss. Then Mom gets angrier than she needs to be, because she invested more time, money, love and forethought into making it fun for the little bugger.

 

GET-IT-DONE is where it's at

 

I speak from experience!!

 

For that kid for K, we did Rod and Staff 1st grade math--just used the workbooks, I didn't consult the teacher's manual once. 2 page spread per day

One game or puzzle with me, or alone, each day.

First Start Reading--two page spread a day.

Nature Journal (kept at his leisure but I did make him bring it along to day hikes and remind him about it)

Color one picture per day...these were in those great history and science dover coloring books. I'd read the blurb while he colored. He likes coloring. If he didn't, I wouldn't have made him do this.

And he had to be present and listening during family read-aloud time.

 

Edited June 21, 2016 by OKBud