Where do I start?

[lonegirl]

My son is 3y3m. This fall he could enter into Junior Kindergarten....we plan to homeschool both JK and SK.
I am just going to spell out the skills he has already (just want you to know where he is at right now)
He is reading and spelling many small words and he loves when I help him spell words by sounding them out for him. He knows what sound all the letters make, can fairly clearly print all of them (a mix of both lower and uppercase) and can print many small words or words we spell for him. He can do a few basic math problems (1+1, 1+2 1+3 up to 1+5 and sometimes higher) Knows what comes next in number sequences and knows what numbers are missing etc....can count consistantly to 20 and recognizes higher numbers....can count back from 10. Knows all primary and secondary colours. Knows many shapes including hexagon (as well as basics). He is quite adept with using a computer for typing and finding his games and language programs. He speaks quite eloquently and uses many large words (ex: "Tyr, you don't need to compete over the beads" "but mom it is a competition and I won!!"

Well anyways thanks for making it this far
I just don't know where to start with more formal homeschooling. I know he is ahead in many ways than his cousin who is in JK...but my family is so into the "he has to go to school" camp in order to learn Hubby and I travel a lot (with DS of course) so it makes more sense to us to just homeschool for a while....but I don't know how to go about it.

I am in Ontario by the way, and I know school isn't required until grade 1.

[Lillian J]

Your family members who speak of school being the only way to learn are totally ignoring reality - he already IS learning without school. And he's learning without formal homeschooling. He's way, way, way ahead of the game. You don't need to do anything to begin formal homeschooling - you can just continue facilitating his learning the way you already are, and he'll do well. By the time he's school age, it will be clear how to help him move along in various skills and learning about other things. But right now and in the coming few years, you really don't need to be doing anything differently - he's already learning plenty.

You can read to him, provide fun and interesting materials, engage in conversations the way you already do, have lovely picture books of all kinds around that he can explore on his own - probably the things you're already doing! Have good audio recording for your travels - threads on that:
favorite free audio resources
free audio books for kids
audio books for trip
audio stories online
audio books on the elementary school level

You can play games of all kinds.
board games for families
favorite "educational" games
favorite math games and manipulatives

Here are some books you can find ideas and inspiration from (and the ones by Linda Dobson are compilations of input from lots of families):
Homeschooling, the Early Years: Your Complete Guide to Successfully Homeschooling the 3- to 8- Year-Old Child, by Linda Dobson
Learning All the Time, by John Holt
The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child: Your Complete Guide to Getting Off to the Right Start, by Linda Dobson

Have fun! Lillian

[lonegirl]

Thanks so much for all the info and links!!

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by lonegirl

Thanks so much for all the info and links!!

Enjoy!

[tankgirl73]

Hi there! We used to live in Ontario, it's a great province for homeschooling, NO RULES! DS was about 18mo when we moved to Ontario, never went to school, never filed a notice of intent (since we were never withdrawing him), moved away a couple years ago when he was 10.

My daughter now sounds similar to your son, though she's not QUITE as precocious. I won't detail all the similarities and differences, just that she's a little less advanced in some areas but about the same in others.

In her toddlerhood, we focussed on Montessori Practical Life activities. That might be something to pursue -- if he's very intellectually-minded, he might benefit from ensuring that his physical and practical skills aren't being neglected. DD loved pouring water activities, sorting with tongs, spooning stuff from one container to the other, folding things... Now she's a great helper around the house, I let her help at the stove (carefully supervised of course), I can trust her to cut cheese and soft-ish veggies (like cucumber) with a not-too-sharp knife, she can serve her own dinner from the pot and carry her plate over to the table, and get herself a glass of water, she can dress and undress herself completely... I could go on, but I'll just sum up that the Practical Life activities and the overall Montessori approach of letting her DO stuff rather than "oh no, sweetie, let mommy do that for you" has made her a REMARKABLY able and competent young lady!

As for the academic side of things... it's HARD to find a preschool curriculum for kids like this, because all of them seem to be based on "a letter a week", or learning their colours, or practicing the concept of "two"... but she's already GOT all that. But stuff that's more at her level intellectually, is WAY beyond her in other ways (attention span expected, amount of writing expected, degree of complexity, etc).

So what we're doing is mostly just unschooling, letting her pick things up along the way as they come up. Continuing with some Montessori-inspired math activities, and we've also started RightStart level A (her older brother just finished level E and is now doing their intermediate math geometry level). We only do one lesson every few days, there's no rush, but so far she is LOVING it.

Last night she dragged daddy into her room and gave HIM a math lesson. She dug out the lesson book, found the right page, showed him how to use the tally sticks, had him sort things, turned the page to the next lesson, said "oh yes, this one" and had him do the activities... And of course before they started the actual lesson part they had to sing "one two buckle my shoe" with the appropriate clapping and whispering...

Otherwise, we're just reading to her a LOT (which she demands), and trying to get more of an emphasis on 'good' stories (a la Charlotte Mason), especially things like myths and fables from other cultures, historical stories, etc.

Her older brother is doing some Waldorf Form Drawing, and she tries to go along with that so we do some drawing stuff too. LOTS of drawing, lots of painting, lots of play time with clay, lots of gluing and cutting and crumpling balls of paper... this is all just as important as reading and math!!! I downloaded some preschool activity books from currclick for these things, but they're also quite easily done on your own. That, and books that practice things like matching, sequencing, etc... they don't rely on "today we're practicing letter A" so they're still appropriate for her.

And she does some computer games... I don't think these are at all necessary, or the best way to do things, but she enjoys them and does seem to learn a bit from them. She's currently using JumpStart Kindergarten, and loves poissonrouge.com (what a GREAT website!!!)

She also loves dancing, so she takes dance classes and watches dancing videos. Well, watches isn't the right term. She's either scrupulously studying them, or else wildly dancing along with them.

Oh -- music might be another thing to look into. I started some basic piano stuff with DD ages ago (loud and soft, high and low, 2-black-keys and 3-black-keys, etc). She's almost but not quite ready to do some stuff with the recorder. If I could find a violin teacher around her who does preschool suzuki, I'd sign her up.

Anyway, I think my point is... don't worry too much about the traditional academic stuff, if your kid is gifted like that it will develop mostly on its own without too much assistance, and can be mostly helped along just with lots of reading anyway. Ensure that he's getting a healthy diet of non-academic development, with music, art, movement, and practical skills.

[lonegirl]

Originally Posted by tankgirl73

My daughter now sounds similar to your son, though she's not QUITE as precocious. I won't detail all the similarities and differences, just that she's a little less advanced in some areas but about the same in others.

In her toddlerhood, we focussed on Montessori Practical Life activities. That might be something to pursue -- if he's very intellectually-minded, he might benefit from ensuring that his physical and practical skills aren't being neglected. DD loved pouring water activities, sorting with tongs, spooning stuff from one container to the other, folding things... Now she's a great helper around the house, I let her help at the stove (carefully supervised of course), I can trust her to cut cheese and soft-ish veggies (like cucumber) with a not-too-sharp knife, she can serve her own dinner from the pot and carry her plate over to the table, and get herself a glass of water, she can dress and undress herself completely... I could go on, but I'll just sum up that the Practical Life activities and the overall Montessori approach of letting her DO stuff rather than "oh no, sweetie, let mommy do that for you" has made her a REMARKABLY able and competent young lady!
Thanks, I will keep this in mind...he loves to "help" and that is something I want to continue to enourage

As for the academic side of things... it's HARD to find a preschool curriculum for kids like this, because all of them seem to be based on "a letter a week", or learning their colours, or practicing the concept of "two"... but she's already GOT all that. But stuff that's more at her level intellectually, is WAY beyond her in other ways (attention span expected, amount of writing expected, degree of complexity, etc).

So what we're doing is mostly just unschooling, letting her pick things up along the way as they come up. Continuing with some Montessori-inspired math activities, and we've also started RightStart level A (her older brother just finished level E and is now doing their intermediate math geometry level). We only do one lesson every few days, there's no rush, but so far she is LOVING it.
Again, thanks. Yes...this is my worry, whenever I look at JK and SK stuff he is already doing all that and more. I will look into some of the Montessori type things.

Last night she dragged daddy into her room and gave HIM a math lesson. She dug out the lesson book, found the right page, showed him how to use the tally sticks, had him sort things, turned the page to the next lesson, said "oh yes, this one" and had him do the activities... And of course before they started the actual lesson part they had to sing "one two buckle my shoe" with the appropriate clapping and whispering...
LOL good for her! My son likes to teach exercise to us.

Otherwise, we're just reading to her a LOT (which she demands), and trying to get more of an emphasis on 'good' stories (a la Charlotte Mason), especially things like myths and fables from other cultures, historical stories, etc.

Her older brother is doing some Waldorf Form Drawing, and she tries to go along with that so we do some drawing stuff too. LOTS of drawing, lots of painting, lots of play time with clay, lots of gluing and cutting and crumpling balls of paper... this is all just as important as reading and math!!! I downloaded some preschool activity books from currclick for these things, but they're also quite easily done on your own. That, and books that practice things like matching, sequencing, etc... they don't rely on "today we're practicing letter A" so they're still appropriate for her.
Yes, we have stacks of maze, printing, dot to dots, etc. He loves drawing (chalkboard, paper and markers, pens). We also do Gymboree Art once weekly which is a fave of his

And she does some computer games... I don't think these are at all necessary, or the best way to do things, but she enjoys them and does seem to learn a bit from them. She's currently using JumpStart Kindergarten, and loves poissonrouge.com (what a GREAT website!!!) We have a couple of the Jumpstart cds and I just joined him up at the site yesterday.

She also loves dancing, so she takes dance classes and watches dancing videos. Well, watches isn't the right term. She's either scrupulously studying them, or else wildly dancing along with them.
LOL Tyr loves music and dancing...I am seriously considering signing him up for classes. He also loves and is amazing at Dance Dance Revolution.

Oh -- music might be another thing to look into. I started some basic piano stuff with DD ages ago (loud and soft, high and low, 2-black-keys and 3-black-keys, etc). She's almost but not quite ready to do some stuff with the recorder. If I could find a violin teacher around her who does preschool suzuki, I'd sign her up. He has a drumset, guitar and keyboard. We haven't done any formal training but let him have fun.

Anyway, I think my point is... don't worry too much about the traditional academic stuff, if your kid is gifted like that it will develop mostly on its own without too much assistance, and can be mostly helped along just with lots of reading anyway. Ensure that he's getting a healthy diet of non-academic development, with music, art, movement, and practical skills.

Thanks for all the encouragement and information!! It truly is appreciated as 99% of everyone we know does traditional schooling and completely discredit homeschooling.

[tankgirl73]

Haha... sounds like we should get our LO's together, they'd get along really well and they're very close in age (DD is Dec 14, 2006). How do you feel about arranged marriages?

[tankgirl73]

Originally Posted by lonegirl

Thanks for all the encouragement and information!! It truly is appreciated as 99% of everyone we know does traditional schooling and completely discredit homeschooling.

Oh, and if you haven't already, do look up the homeschooling groups in your area. We were in Hamilton, but also did some things with the Burlington groups, and even did some field trips to Toronto (CN Tower wheeee!) I know for sure that there are some massive groups within Toronto as well, both religious and secular (depending on which is your preferred cup of tea). It can be SUCH a booster having like-minded people around, even just to chat with. I'm glad that we got our start homeschooling there, where I had a great group to be part of... Here in NB it's much less common and it's a smaller population base to start with, so I only know a handful of other families. I'm okay with that now, we feel like veterans and we're well-entrenched and confident and comfortable, I even started a local group with my SIL... But if I'd just started out here, without a support group of experienced homeschoolers to get inspiration from, I think it would have been a lot harder.

The internet helps a lot too...

[Stacey B]

I'll start out by saying that we are primarily an unschooling family so anything we do is led by ds's interests. Most of our days are spent playing and wandering.

Arts and Sciences are big around here right now. We keep boxes of supplies for art projects easily available (and easy to put away as well). For science (my ds idea) I've taken a few books out of the library with simple experiments. One, 365 Simple Science Experiments was so good that we finally bought a copy for ourselves. Usually I do the main experiment with him and then let him use the supplies to do his own experimenting.

The other thing we do is lots of walks and observing. Some days we choose themes, (the 5 senses are great you can go for listening walks or smelling walks). Ds asks lots of questions about what we are seeing and doing and we take those are far as we can. For example today we were walking down by the river and we saw some ducks he wanted to know why the two sorts of ducks looked different, so we talked about male and femal covering and why Mama's might do better to be camouflaged, etc...

On his request we got a "school book" a few weeks ago and every few days he asks to take it out and do some pages in it, he has a real interest in learning what all the letters are. Still I never push him to do it since I don't think there is any real benefit in a 3.5 doing seat work.

Just my thoughts on this age group.

[philia]

I can understand what you are going through

I think that it would be impossible to find any place that would be as good as what you are doing now. My in laws ask the same questions. I get so annoyed and offended. Home schooling is just not what they are used to. I just say we are looking but then we keep them home. I figure it is also good to have a place to know that you might like if for some odd reason you had to send him to school. I would only feel comfortable sending my kids to a place that could offer more than I could . I have not found a place that could do this. I have PreK and JK kids. You should look at the gifted children forum under parenting on this site. It talks a lot about how when kids are very ahead that they regress when put into a program. My husband is a family law attorney and sees this a lot with gifted kids. They dumb themselves down and act out to fit in. You are doing better than any teacher could. Hooray for you and your efforts and your son's accomplishments.
Philia

[lonegirl]

Again...I wanted to say thanks so much to everyone! It is nice to find this area here! I think I will be a regular here!! I look forward to learning from all the moms who have BTDT!!