Pre-homeschool chat - Page 13

[meetoo]

Originally Posted by bandgeek

Is anyone else frustrated with the attitude towards preschool homeschooling? I'm getting a lot of negativity (mostly online) from people because apparently since I work with my son a few days a week I'm pushing him too hard because he's "only" 5. Do people who send their kids to preschool or K get this attitude? That it's taking away from their childhood or something?

I'm one of those ANTI school with littles types . For me I would not send my child to an academic preschool so it would not be an issue. i think sometimes what you consider "work" and what someone else considers "work" might be much different. So, you saying you do "preschool work" with your child a few times a week isn't really all that clear. You might mean you work on cutting skills and Lego kit. Someone else might take it to mean, you are making your child do an endless supply of worksheets......Who knows....... What it comes down to is you need to feel confident with what you do regardless of what other people think. If someone is shaking your confidence take a good look at why they are able to get to you.
For me I don't believe preschoolers should have the same academic focus that older kids have. They really can learn everything they need to know through play. I would definitely encourage my preschooler to do things like cutting, singing songs, and listening to stories, but I don't sweat it at all if they have no interest in formal education. It is just not something they need to be working on if they are not interested in it. Preschoolers need to work on motor skills, social skills, emotional development, attention spans, creative play. All these areas will get a child much bigger "leg up" then learning the ABC's/1,2,3's. My son is actually a prime example of this. He does very well academically but, I think if I was to send him to school next yr, it would be a disaster. Early reading/academics does not mean children will be successful in school.
Anyway, I am anti academics for the preschool crowd but my son has other ideas. So we actually end up doing quite a bit of academic work. Just jump right in this thread it seems like there are several different approaches to preschool on here.

[greenmamapagan]

from me bandgeek. Here is Aus if he's already five he'd most likely be starting school (real school, not preschool) next week. The school year starts in Jan and most kids start the year they turn five although by law they have to be enrolled the year they turn 6 so that's when most hs'ers would register.

[LuxPerpetua]

Originally Posted by akichan

Question: at what age do you start letting them use the computer for learning? I'm hesitant to let my almost 4-yr old touch my computer, but simple mouse drills or starfall?? . . . and how much help do you give them while online?

Not until teens here for us. I'm actually strongly anti-computer, especially at preschool age.

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by justthinkn

BTW, it seems like this thread has a good amount of interest... Do you think we should make it into a monthly thing, so it doesn't get too long?

maybe quarterly??

LuxPerpetua I am very oppsed to computer based learning for younger children. I am concerned about what it does to brain structure and how it teaches them to learn. we DO watch PBSKids viedos once in a great while ... like one 30 muinutes session since Thanskgviging, or play PBSkids games -- but they do not touch the computer or mouse it is totally momma driven and 100% interavtive for us -- not them alone --

[St. Margaret]

Originally Posted by akichan

Question: at what age do you start letting them use the computer for learning? I'm hesitant to let my almost 4-yr old touch my computer, but simple mouse drills or starfall?? . . . and how much help do you give them while online?

Well, DH is a computer engineer, currently a WAHD, so DD sees a lot of computer use, and loves to "work on the computer" as well (typing on a box for instance ). But she figured out how to get onto Starfall by herself (it had been a thing for when we were sick), and she's always been excellent about self-regulating about all things, so we let her. She'll play with it regularly until she masters it, then come back to it months later to tackle it all on another level. DH knows how to get Mozilla to sort of lock, and DD just knows if she hits a key that brings up a control box or something, to just click on the starfall background. She figured it all out a couple months ago, about 2.5. We hop onto the computer all the time to look things up... like why the word umbrella means what it means (it's been POURING here the last couple months!) and so we see the computer as a learning tool, and allow her access to it. Also, she is super into languages and I'm hoping we can afford to get Rosetta Stone in Italian and Spanish before long, and I know she'll want to master that on her own, too... But screen time is still a VERY slim margin of any given day, and often we do none.

[nov05mama]

In RE: the computer...
I am fine with it. He rarely plays on it, but he knows his way around it, and has since he was 2.5 or so. I am not one who is SOOO against it, but I am not really for making it a daily thing either (or even weekly for that matter). I am VERY relaxed about most things, so it's only natural that I am about the computer as well.

In RE: the negativity of preschool homeschool
Yes, I have found that online message boards are more brutal than local or in person groups. I am all about play at this age, but I have a child who STRONGLY desires the academics...so I give it to him. He is never forced to sit down and do 'school' and most of our actual learning is through play anyway...but having a child who WANTS to learn to read and write and spell...I wasn't gonna tell him no I wanted to foster a love for learning in my child and I am pretty sure I succeeded...but not by forcing academics down his throat I say do what works for your family! No family is exactly the same. If my son had NO desire for academics, we wouldn't be doing ANY at all...I am an avid believer in child-led learning.

[eko_mom]

Jumping In

Hi there everyone. I started reading at the beginning of the thread, but have not yet gotten all the way through it. This sound like just the place for me. My dd is just 4 y. We have tried several preschool-like settings together--because "everyone" thinks she should go to preschool...she's highly verbal and very smart but also very attached and the preschool experiment has been a real pain. I am 100% pro homeschool but DH is not.

Right now we, and I mean WE are going to preschool a couple days a week. This is our 4th setting. We have tried over the last 2 yrs 3 others for 1-3 weeks. The teachers didn't want me to stay and dd didn't want me to leave. We treated it like we were just trying things out to find one we liked. #4 school is fine with me staying. And dd doesn't want to go alone here either, even after 4 mo. I get it--there are some mean kids and the teachers don't engage the kids as much as control traffic (but that's another post). But, she likes the crafts and toys, and some of the kids. We also have a 8 mo. old and so I haven't been able to play with her like she wants me to at home.

I'm interested to know how to move toward homeschooling both with dd and dh. I've left a book by John Taylor Gatto laying around for 2 years. DH has read some and I mention it now and then, but he doesn't take me seriously.

For dd, I think she'd be relieved and into it, but how do we leave preschool without it being a penalty or a result of failing to adjust? Because for me, it is neither of those things. DH is afraid it will show her that its o.k. to quit when things get hard, and how on Earth are we going to get her to go to high school when she doesn't want to go?

I have another year and a half til kindy--I read a pp say that they decided to try HS for the year before her child is eligible for public kindergarten to see how it goes and by then dh would so love the lifestyle...um, my dh is much more skeptical and stubborn than that, but I hope...

Well, that's where we are. I am into the idea of unschooling, some Waldorf, I don't want to hit the academics til later though dd is sounding out words and wanting to read already.

I'll be taking notes.

[greenmamapagan]

We have a love hate relationship with the computer here. DD is pretty much done with starfall, she's been navigating by herself for ages and she certainly got a lot out of it. She also got into watching (mostly ballet performances) on youtube for a while. We are tv-free though and somehow that computer use has morphed into her watching a selection of dvds she has somehow ended up with, which neither DH nor I are really happy about but we are working on finding a balance that we are all comfortable with
Re prehomeschool negativity, we haven't encountered a lot of it. Mostly the message boards I'm on are natural learning/unschooling ones so it doesn't really look any different I guess. We live in an area where homeschooling is really quite common but we are also really really close to a Montessori preschool with a great reputation. I've found a lot of people send their kids there even if they know they are planning to homeschool I've encountered one or two who either genuinely wonder what we've got against it that we don't send DD or assume we must be too poor to send her there Strange huh?

[earthmama369]

Regarding computer use, philosophically I fall on the side of "everything in moderation." I don't think rigorously training 3- and 4-year-old on computer use is developmentally appropriate or beneficial; I also don't see the need to ban a 3- or 4-year-old from using one at all. DH is a software developer, so the kids see him coding websites a lot at home. I use my computer for work, as well. Since we have a home office, that's a big part of our home culture.

DS (3.5) is only mildly interested in using a computer at this point. He likes to watch us play Plants Vs. Zombies and helps pick the plants to use on different levels. This happens maybe once or twice a month for 10-15 minutes. He'll ask me to play the game and sit on my lap while I do. DD (5) is just getting the hang of using a mouse and dh wrote a simple computer game for her and ds using logic and color boxes. She thinks it's amazing that her Dadoo made her a game on the computer and that he can change the parameters when she has an idea for something she wants to try. I think it's pretty cool, too. She plays with it for a few minutes a couple times a week, on and off. I don't have a problem with that. It's just another way to gain more fine motor control, color awareness, logic and reasoning skills, and connecting time with a parent. We have plenty of ways of doing all those things and we don't do any one of them exclusively.

[kgianforti]

So the lap booking wasn't the hit I thought it would be!! DD LOVES Peter Rabbit but the lap book isn't going over well. This will probably be our only lap book. We did a habitat posterboard with crafts and dd loved that so I think we will swing in that direction for future projects.

I'm going to start our next Moving Beyond the Page activities along with the lap book. We are going to do the Community Worker section right now...some good projects and role playing should come from that!

[thefragile7393]

We're definite computer users here....we like Time4Learning and Starfall and PBSKids.org but we work to make sure its in moderation. Books aren't is strength so we try to have him be around for stories, maybe practice a little writing or identifying letters or numbers. I really think a computer will be part of his learning but to how much extent remains to be seen. I definitely don't want it or the TV taking over and we're starting to really cut back on the TV in favor of other activities.

[Momma Aimee]

how i talked DH in to HS:

got the test scores of our local district -- case closed I wish. but they did help. our local district is pretty BAD.

I wrote out a list of reasons -- i turned that list into our mission statement. and made it objective and bullet pointed.

I have read a ton of books and while DH has not read them, it shows that i am doing my research.

I got a copy of the local state laws and our legal options -- and talked about the differnt realistic choices.

We are freinds with a HS family of many children and i think that really helped -- he has a relationship with them and see that they are "normal"

And Theo has an IEP and goes to ST at the school -- wish i think to DH shows i am being realistic and usein g all the resources we can.

I agreed to a traditional school by 3rd to 5th --

[LuxPerpetua]

I've been thinking through our overall goals for the preschool years to first grade, and I was wondering if anyone else wanted to share theirs for inspiration.

Here are ours so far (we are Waldorf inspired and devoutly Christian):

To work with dd in such a way that she develops a rich, imaginative inner world

To inspire reverence for God and His creation, with an emphasis upon compassion, stewardship, and beauty

To have basic understanding of the seasonal year and liturgical church year

To have a rich tradition of family festivals

To have an understanding of our relationship to God and understand the basic story of Jesus Christ

To encourage exploration, curiosity, and awe within all areas of life

To encourage a love of stories

To experience poetry and music

To learn as much as possible through hands-on encounters and 3-dimensional means

To respect childhood for the precious time that it is and not sweat the small (or academic) stuff


I'm pretty pleased with it. It really helps me to have it written out so that when I start veering off course, I can refocus to where we need to be.

I'd love to hear others' goals, too! Inspiration is always a great thing!

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by LuxPerpetua

I've been thinking through our overall goals for the preschool years to first grade, and I was wondering if anyone else wanted to share theirs for inspiration.

Here are ours so far (we are Waldorf inspired and devoutly Christian):

To work with dd in such a way that she develops a rich, imaginative inner world

To inspire reverence for God and His creation, with an emphasis upon compassion, stewardship, and beauty

To have basic understanding of the seasonal year and liturgical church year

To have a rich tradition of family festivals

To have an understanding of our relationship to God and understand the basic story of Jesus Christ

To encourage exploration, curiosity, and awe within all areas of life

To encourage a love of stories

To experience poetry and music

To learn as much as possible through hands-on encounters and 3-dimensional means

To respect childhood for the precious time that it is and not sweat the small (or academic) stuff


I'm pretty pleased with it. It really helps me to have it written out so that when I start veering off course, I can refocus to where we need to be.

I'd love to hear others' goals, too! Inspiration is always a great thing!

here is ours

not so much for Kindy and 1st as in general -- i want to make one more specifically for now to end of kindy ... but i haven't yet

We the parents have the moral and legal obligation to craft, mold, and guide our children into adulthood as functional, ethical, moral and productive people ready and willing to serve God’s Glory and to be productive members of their community and good men / fathers and husbands. Trustworthy, successful, and competent. We can, and should, use all resources available to us, such as the state school system, but the end result the responsibility is ours alone. The education of our children is our mandate from God who blessed us with the children, and to Him alone are we ultimately accountable, and to our grandchildren. This not a burden we can, or would choose to, hand off to any other individual or orgazation.

While we are teaching our children to study, research, and write, we need to remember that they are establishing and perfecting tools that they will one day use to God’s glory.


Socialization:
•Young children are impressionable; we the parents are morally obligated to ensure that the models the children are impressed upon by are worthy.
•Children should not be expected to exercise sound judgment regarding actions and associations independently until they are of an age to be able to make such moral decisions.
•The family must be the most important circle for children till they reach the age of accountability and can be a motivational force within their peer group.

Goals of Education:
•Generally:
To facilitate an education developing the ability to locate, understand and utilize needed information. To be a fully functional productive member of society that is able to think for ones self and make sound choices.
•Specifically
•To read well, critically, for comprehension and for joy. To be able to find and expertly use reading to gather needed information on any topic
•To learn to research and gather information and data confidently and quickly. While evaluate the gathered information for validity and relevance and “trustable”.
•To be a critical consumer of pop culture and the media. To evaluate bias and its effects data offered..
•Confidently express self well orally and in writing, present information clearly and persuasively when necessary
•Be able to successful use a variety of math skills in daily life and for complex reasoning.
•To be able to engage in complex reasoning and use advanced logic in life and professional / academic endeavors
•Enjoy Art and Music and Lit for its intrinsic beauty as well as understanding how it fits into history and expresses and reflects the time period of its creation, as well as how it makes God visible in our daily lives. To recognize and appreciate universal truths.
•Understand history and politics so as to be able to make critical choices and make sense of current events with the end of being a fully participatory member of the electorate and the body politic personally if necessary.
•To understand the scope of science to an extent that allows for an understanding of current event and the working of the world around us. Also to allow for recognition of and respect for God’s inherent design in all.
•To understand the human body, its form and functions and care. To make wise personal choices in lifestyle and personal behavior. To be an educated and wise consume of health care.
•To build a solid foundation in faith and the Word of God. Both as it speaks to our lives in matters of personal choice and faith, and also as Lit and History.
•To be aware of other world religions / schools of thought / faiths. To compare and contrast them with our faith, and with each other. With an eye towards being able to understand others, live tolerantly and to understand world history and politics and current events more completely.

Other:
•No fear of bullies on the playground or being disgraced in front of our social group (class) when you struggle with a subject
•No opportunity to fly under the radar and get by with out truly accomplishing a task or learning information or skill
•Expectations
Age / dev app – not sitting quiet all day at age 5
Achievement – higher personal goals, not dictated by the average of a class of 30 (or even 20)


One other things that helped -- we have two boys and I have done a lot of reading (liek rasing Cain) but the dis-advantages of boys in the lower grades compared to girls (less fine motor and so on) and add to that our older boy is behind the average boy as it is ...

[meetoo]

Mainly my goals for my son involve his social/emotional development. His behavior can be quite over the top and times. I'm really trying to help him through this. I think he is a little bit of a late bloomer in a few areas, because in all honesty, time seems to be the thing that is working best so far. He is not ready IMO for a school environment but he sure is ready to learn! I'm so glad he is able to learn at his pace and with out the pressure schools put on kids. Has far has academic goals I just want them pretty close to level of the PS in math and reading. I mainly care about this because we have no long term plans to homeschool. We are taking it yr by yr has it works for us. I doubt that will be a problem on either front for him though, he is very self motivated to learn and he seems to enjoy a bit of a challenge.

[Shahbazin]

Wow! - I just saw this thread, & this is exactly what I am interested in/we're currently doing. I have 2 DDs, ages 3.5 & 2.5, & we are doing unschooling style learning, plus we plan to continue homeschooling as they get older.

Our girls have always enjoyed being read to, & we do a lot of that; they are picking up a great deal of ecology & natural history from our back yard (they help with our vegetable garden & pen of hens), plus they are learning all sorts of things about weather, insects, & animal behavior; we collect fur from 1 of our dogs & spin it (we use more wool, but some chiengora), & grow plants to dye it, then crochet the yarn into useful items. We also have grown some natural colored green & tan cotton this year, but not enough to make anything from yet. We grew, carved & made into pies our own pumpkins. (The girls planted the seeds & helped water the vines.) They also have a wading pool, sand box, & lots of things to build with (they love to make things out of the board ends left over from building the chicken pen :P )

We do have some magnetic letters & numbers on the fridge, & do a lot of drawing, painting, & play dough, but I'm not really pushing anything; I figure the girls will do things when they're ready. They do some counting & spelling, but mostly things like talking about measurements when cooking, counting the chickens to be sure they're all back in their pen, counting seeds, & writing some of the letters as a part of drawing. We just got memberships to the zoo for Christmas, so will be going there often, & I'd like to start enrolling the girls in some outside lessons soon (music, dance & swimming are on the agenda).

[greenmamapagan]

Originally Posted by LuxPerpetua

I've been thinking through our overall goals for the preschool years to first grade, and I was wondering if anyone else wanted to share theirs for inspiration.

Here are ours so far (we are Waldorf inspired and devoutly Christian):

To work with dd in such a way that she develops a rich, imaginative inner world

To inspire reverence for God and His creation, with an emphasis upon compassion, stewardship, and beauty

To have basic understanding of the seasonal year and liturgical church year

To have a rich tradition of family festivals

To have an understanding of our relationship to God and understand the basic story of Jesus Christ

To encourage exploration, curiosity, and awe within all areas of life

To encourage a love of stories

To experience poetry and music

To learn as much as possible through hands-on encounters and 3-dimensional means

To respect childhood for the precious time that it is and not sweat the small (or academic) stuff


I'm pretty pleased with it. It really helps me to have it written out so that when I start veering off course, I can refocus to where we need to be.

I'd love to hear others' goals, too! Inspiration is always a great thing!

LuxP, I love your goals. So concise. Sounds like a perfect fit for your family. That's what I'm really looking forward to with homeschooling (and loving at the moment too I guess). I/we haven't written anything like that yet so you've inspired me to start thinking about it. What I do do though is write down once a month or so things I'd like to keep in mind for the next month. I find it helps me not to get to the end of the month and remember there was something DD was really interested in that I forgot to follow up. Some of my current ones are:
* to do my own flute practice everyday (this is homeschool related because it always means she comes into the studio and does her own piano "practice" and ends up playing musical games for an hour or so with no prompting from me)
* to get on the floor with them everyday
* to actively join in at least one of her fantasy plays everyday (instead of just saying "Really? That sounds lovely, say hello to the fairy for me" )
* to make more of an effort to read aloud despite the crazy baby. DD has always been a bibliophile and pre-DS it wasn't unusual for her to bring me 30 books to read during the course of a day. When DS started grabbing stuff it got too hard so it fell by the wayside and she was seeming really bored. Since I've made more of an effort to read more often she's been happier all round. I know they don't sound particularly academic, tbh I'd like to be more Waldorf inspired it's DD who drives the academic stuff.

[PGNPORTLAND]

Originally Posted by JoyMC

DD's almost four. we're not using curriculum and i'm not "teaching" anything.

we read. and we read. and then we read some more. all initiated by DD, whatever books she chooses, which range from classic chapter books to Berenstain Bears to Magic School Bus to whatever else we found in the library. she has tons of art supplies and uses them however and whenever she likes. she writes books and then reads them to me - just squiggly lines right now. we bake a lot, explore the outdoors, go to the zoo and the children's museum.

i see her learning and growing every day and i don't plan to change this approach anytime soon, if ever.

Hi!
I have a four year old too and this is pretty much my approach as well. We also do an enormous amount of reading and have recently moved into some chapter books - Mary Poppins, Charlotte's Web, etc... We travel around our city (Portland) on public transportation quite a bit going to museums, art galleries, zoo, etc... Thanks for starting this thread. I am enjoying everything we are doing but, as the children my daughter's age around us are all heading off to preschool, kindergarten, etc... starting to feel a bit nervous, isolated, unsure....

[justthinkn]

I borrowed/adapted this from Melissa Wiley's blog...

"Rule of 6" to ask myself daily

Today have we experienced:
- Beauty? (getting outside, music, doing arts and crafts together...)
- Meaningful work? (chores, cooking, helping in community...)
- Imaginative play?
- Ideas to ponder and discuss? (book-prompted, life-prompted)
- Expressions of gratitude and love?
- Prayer?

I try to review it each night... Eventually I want to do the review with DD.

We're starting a new routine here, with a babysitting swap with a friend taking 2-3 hrs/morning 3x/week. The other 2 weekday mornings, I have a standing playdate with another friend, and then one free morning I plan to go to the nearby children's museum... Weekends with DH home normally include an outing or two and church... I really enjoy having this time planned - it makes it easier for me to be intentional about doing my work and playing with DD the rest of the time

[skueppers]

I've allowed my children to use the computer as early as they wanted to. My husband works in the IT field, I used to work in the IT field, my part-time job is entirely on the computer, we have four computers in the house -- you get the idea.

We did give some thought to the question of whether computer use by small children is harmful, and decided that we thought it wasn't. Each child does have a time limit on the computer for the day, which is enforced by the parental controls in the operating system. They rarely use their entire allotment.

We also wouldn't be comfortable telling the children that computers are only for adults, and it would be impossible to restrict the use of computers only to times when the children are asleep.

Regarding preschool at home, I'm generally opposed to early academic work (explicit instruction in letters, numbers, colors, shapes, phonics, etc.) unless the child specifically asks for it. I think it's unnecessary to instruct children in these areas, because they'll either pick it up from day-to-day activities, or they'll learn it in no time when they're older and actually need to know it.

That said, my daughter developed an interest in learning to read at 4 1/2, and an interest in math at 5. So she now receives regular reading and math lessons from me. However, i do not require her to do this, and have nothing invested in whatever progress she does or doesn't make.

Outside of those two areas, we do lots of educational things here, but I don't consider their educational value when facilitating them. For example, over the weekend we went to an art gallery and looked at (among other things) Van Gogh paintings. I didn't plan this outing for the purpose of "picture study"; I planned it because I like to go to art museums and enjoy sharing my interests with the kids. This morning we read a book about being a hunter-gatherer and hunting mammoths, which my daughter had picked off a shelf at the library on Saturday. This led me to get out an atlas and show them where the land bridge between Alaska and Siberia used to be, and an extensive discussion followed, complete with exercises to help visualize the size of the Bering Strait. We didn't do this because I had a specific "lesson plan" in mind; it just flowed naturally from the discussion about the book. We're about to play some board games (Sequence for Kids and Zingo!) because the kids asked to play them. Of course they have educational value, but that's not the point.