Daughter not going to preschool but very strongly interested in some areas, what to do next?

[NiteNicole]

Worst. Thread title. EVER.

Sorry, I don't know where to put this.

My daughter is not going to preschool in the fall but will probably go to kinder the next year. She really REALLY wants to go to school and I don't honestly know anyone in real life who homeschools. The only groups around here are very religious. I wouldn't say never, but it looks unlikely.

HOWEVER, right now she is trying to teach herself to write letters and numbers and sound things out. She is also very VERY interested in world maps and would like some wooden world map puzzles with countries (not just the continents and oceans). She's also very very interested in anything at all to do with Africa. Or snakes. WHERE do I start? I don't know how to help her follow up on her interests!

[One_Girl]

I think you should start by providing a lot of paper, pencils, and writing things for her to use while she writes. Maybe encourage her to write a few things on your grocery list or write letters to grandparents with just her writing (ours love them even if they aren't truly readable). Talking about the different letter sounds may also be something she will like doing informally. Maybe go through the short vowel sounds then pick one or two consonants a day to talk about. I like the book An Acorn In Your Hand but it is very old and your library may not have it. The lady who wrote it had some really wonderful things to say about teaching and reading.

If you haven't been to the library then I think you should go there for books on the subjects that interest her. My dd loves to pick out non-fiction books on different subjects to have me read to her. She also likes to draw what she read about afterward. The librarians in the children's section are our biggest resource for finding books that follow dd's interest. They are very knowledgeable and happy to help. They may have some homeschooling resources that can help you teach your dd what she is interested in learning.

[jenfl]

Answer questions. Get books from the library. Watch videos on YouTube. Buy learning toys that match her interest (check montessorioutlet.com for puzzle maps).

Basically, have fun! Let her lead. There's no official preschool curriculum, so help her develop a love of learning by learning what she wants at her own pace.

[NiteNicole]

Thanks so much!

I want her to be curious and enjoy learning and I feel like I'm being given a little window here because here interests are so obvious right now and she's asking for more info and trying to write letters on her own. I want to be sure I'm feeding her interests and letting her know it's good to ask questions and follow your interests.

[elanorh]

We discovered "Handwriting without Tears" this year, if your dd is interested in workbooks, they have a preschool workbook on writing letters/numbers. I taught dd1 just by having her trace/follow letters, and discovered after the fact that for a kiddo who writes a LOT, it's good to establish a good efficient technique (like HWT).

I agree with everything everyone else says - talk about letters, identify them in signs, in books, etc. Basically "find" in every day life, the things she's interested in and talk about them.

Give her lots of different media to experiment with letters etc. My girls (6 and 3 now) love(d) to use finger paints, cut out letters, etc. in an art fashion.

Some good books about Africa for younger kiddos:
Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain (Verna Aardema)
A Story A Story (Gail Haley)
One Well: The Story of Water on Earth (Rochelle Strauss) - not entirely about Africa, but about the water cycle and certainly helps focus on access to safe drinking water (such a huge issue in much of Africa!). A good 'science' book very accessible to kiddos.

You don't have to have books or a curriculum to cover some of the things she's interested in - find a globe, and help her learn the continents and some things about each one. At the same time, it's an easy way to talk about planetary tilt and the seasons as the Earth orbits the sun, etc.

Enjoy! It's so wonderful when they're excited about learning! Build on it -- and, as someone in an area where most homeschoolers are uber-religious, don't rule homeschooling out. If you and your dd find that this is something you really enjoy, you can still homeschool. You may not end up as invested in the local homeschooling group(s) but you will find plenty of support on-line.

[NiteNicole]

Thank you SO MUCH.

She's really interested in writing and her letters look, I don't know, about right for a four year old teaching herself I guess, but she tends to just sort of start at a random place and assemble from there. So she writes her S bottom to top. For an H, she might draw a line in the middle then the line on the right from bottom to top, and the other top to bottom. She has figured out to write her name left to right which is cool because two weeks ago she was making all the right letters with not much regard to order (her name is kind of long with some double letters and repeats, and she'd have the right amount of everything and write them in order, but randomly in a space on the page). She really wants to do it "right" and I really DON'T want to correct her so much that she starts hating writing and reading, but I don't want her developing poor habits either. She saw an OT a few months ago who taught her how to hold a pencil correctly (she takes direction from other people WAY more happily than she does from me, btw) and the OT mentioned that it's really hard to get them to change their grip past a certain age.

I'm going to check into the books you recommended, too!

She's so BORED right now (she can't run due to health issues, she can walk but gets tired quickly but we're working on her stamina, she swims a lot because we have a pool but we are fast approaching the time of year when it's just too hot to be outside much so I need SOMETHING to keep her occupied) but she's hungry to learn so I want to feed that.

I have no idea what's developmentally appropriate for a four year old and her frustration threshold is REALLY REALLY low so I don't want to find things that are just overly-ambitious for four. At the same time, I know I was learning to write at four so I would guess that's about normal and now's a good time.

[BeanyMama]

I'd write down everything she's interested in and head to the library and the internet. You could search sites (and books) on projects and things to make together in those hot months. Some kids don't like workbooks, but mine loved them. She might like flipping through some preschool ones and picking out pages that seem fun to her. I don't know if you have a children's museum in your area, but they're so great at that age.

[PGTlatte]

She might enjoy watching the Leapfrog Letter Factory video, and the other videos in the series, and reading some phonics readers (like Bob Books). I was able to get both the DVDs and the books through our library system.

[NiteNicole]

Ia m so embarrassed to admit this but I haven't been to a library since I was in college. And I haven't been to a library not associated with a college since...well...I hate to think about it.

Our town library is smaller than my bedroom (true!) but I hear the main branch in the next town is really nice. We're planning to check it out. I honestly feel like I'm going to need a refresher course.