On the weekend or at night? Like how to draw letters and phoentics. My friends do. And they also always think of things like when is a good time to start music lessons and soccer and if the pre-k program has enough of a different curriculum than the preschool program does and when should we start looking at private school options and all kinds of things that never occur to me. And they all bring them up to me all casual like just getting my input and I'm freaking out because clearly I'm a crap parent and I am never going to think of this stuff and I'm super lazy and don't want to do letter writing drills. And it's not like these people are independently wealthy slackers with nothing else to do. They have jobs. Aren't they tired too?
Only in the summer. We do some letters and number tracing and practice writing his name. Honestly, the only reason why I've been doing this is because it seems like he's been forgetting some of his letter/numbers lately so I just want to brush up. But, I mean, it's no big deal. lol. He's 4 FFS, ya know.
I did put him in soccer. He's an only child of a SAHM and really needs to be around other kids as much as possible.
Post by gretchenindisguise on Aug 17, 2013 22:28:36 GMT -5
I mean I guess a bit but not structured.
Like tonight I was trying to keep L awake in the car ride home, so I asked her how many legs different animals had. And then she wanted to guess what letter started different words.
We don't do activity books. We read books every night. We play games with counting like chutes and ladders, we do imagination games. I make her jump on her trampoline a certain number of times.
She's in a preschool program via daycare 5 days a week, year round! Legit accredited and everything. I thought it was plenty! And no, I hadn't yet thought about the long term benefits of a lifelong music educational program! Or how it can enhance math skills! I am having a stroke. Because the people talking to me about this stuff are my friends and clearly think I am thinking about this too. I'm thinking about what witchcraft Kody pulled to get 4 women to marry him. I am not qualified to have another.
She's in a preschool program via daycare 5 days a week, year round! Legit accredited and everything. I thought it was plenty! And no, I hadn't yet thought about the long term benefits of a lifelong music educational program! Or how it can enhance math skills! I am having a stroke. Because the people talking to me about this stuff are my friends and clearly think I am thinking about this too. I'm thinking about what witchcraft Kody pulled to get 4 women to marry him. I am not qualified to have another.
She's fine. Don't get sucked into the parenting olympics machine!
Like tonight I was trying to keep L awake in the car ride home, so I asked her how many legs different animals had. And then she wanted to guess what letter started different words.
We don't do activity books. We read books every night. We play games with counting like chutes and ladders, we do imagination games. I make her jump on her trampoline a certain number of times.
Nope, that's what we send him to preschool for! We read books, and his favorite toys right now are puzzles and blocks, which are educational in their own ways, but we're not pushing anything.
We will do some sort of lessons - leaning toward gymnastics right now - this fall, and he's done swimming lessons, but that's it. Home time really is play time right now, and I like it that way.
I don't think these were the answers cville is looking for, people.
I should've known better than to ask. I'm going to go cry now while I develop my 3 year old's long range educational plan with macro and micro goals and schedules.
Also by not being structured at home you are encouraging her to be creative and imaginative. These are important skills for a little one to master. They will serve her well academically more than working on letters.
Post by adhdfashion on Aug 17, 2013 22:48:33 GMT -5
Music lessons, flash cards, lots of reading time. She has taken to math like a fish to water. So she plays pc math games. And loads of crazy play time, which is probably more important than the rest.
Not unless he wants to practice, which he does sometimes. Mostly I try to make sure he gets plenty of creative/play time at home since goodness knows he gets a ton of pre-reading and math exercises at preschool. Your kid will be FINE!
I have. I have a FBer who is homeschooling her son that is the same age as D. She is all-around awesome. She puts any parenting I do to shame. I would love to make a habit of it, but parenting the three and trying to keep up with housework it doesn't happen enough.
I don't think these were the answers cville is looking for, people.
I should've known better than to ask. I'm going to go cry now while I develop my 3 year old's long range educational plan with macro and micro goals and schedules.
Eta: I'm not joking about the crying part.
Cville, you are a wonderful mom and your kid is THREE. I agree, let her be a kid. Three is really young to be even worrying about this stuff. I definitely wasn't worried about writing, reading and extracurriculars at 3. David's almost five and is just now really grasping this stuff. If he were in preschool year round, it wouldn't be an issue.
Also by not being structured at home you are encouraging her to be creative and imaginative. These are important skills for a little one to master. They will serve her well academically more than working on letters.
Please follow me everywhere. This is my instinct too, but when like 4 normal people ask me about this stuff in a 2 day span I doubt my resolve and correctness. Plus I get all flipped because I don't stay home with her and she's at a very schoolish daycare, so I want our time together to be her opportunity to lead with what she wants. And I want to lay on the couchand enjoy her. So then I wonder how much of my alleged philosophy is just laziness.
Didn't you see the article the other day where even the advantage of preschool dissipates by 3rd grade?
I am too lazy to go look for it right now but it was discussed on cep. let your kid play and have fun. My friends get sucked into this crap too. We have play dates and their kids aren't any smarter than mine.
Don't worry, I'm a crap parent too. I rarely worked with Z at that age. Heck, I rarely work with him now and he's about to enter Kindergarten. He's in daycare and they do a good job of teaching him the basics so I'm not too worried. Most of what he will learn in Kinder, he's already learned at daycare.
As far as sports, I did put him in soccer and teeball when he was 3. I think it was a bit too early though. We actually stopped going to teeball because he would throw a fit everytime he had a game. Now he enjoys going to soccer and baseball (most of the time).
I wouldn't worry too much about keeping up with what your friends are doing. I'm sure your little one will do just fine without music lessons and writing drills.
Also, I've done quite a bit class-wise with D and I wouldn't recommend it. Save your money and start classes later imo, except maybe swimming which would do at four. Just my personal opinions here, so take them with a grain of salt.
We did Spanish this past year. He absorbed more Spanish from TV than his actual class.
ETA: Although we are doing dance for the girls this fall, so I guess disregard anything I've just said, lol.
Has anyone heard of abcmouse.com? I was thinking of signing ds up for that since he likes to play on the computer
Yes. Z loves abcmouse. They actually use it at his daycare so we signed up for it at home. Now, if only I could get him to play on abcmouse more than he plays on minecraft, sigh...
Well, I am a slacker, so I have nothing better to do :-P
Having said that, I don't do drills or flash cards with my kid. However, I am the main person responsible for her education. Preschool was an hour and a half a week in the spring and will be 6 hours a week in the fall. I do try create a variety of environments, present opportunities to learn in different ways (socialization, physical activity, visual stimulation, manipulating things / physics experimentation, language /book time, imaginary play, numeracy, etc.) but it is all simple stuff. Your preschool / day care environment will naturally be providing most of that at a more intense level than I am (unless it's an at home day care run by someone who sits her in front of soaps all day). We do a few mommy and me classes but it is more for my sanity than her enrichment.
But - type A types are type A types. They'll be networking for private schools early and signing up for soccer camps after an 80 hour work week. That is just the way they see the world.
ETA: "socialization" = meet up with a friend at the park or any other activity where she sees another kid "visual stimulation" = here: crayons!, or art museum free day, or a book with good illustrations at bedtime, or "let's look at the clouds/leaves" during park time "Manipulation/physics" = bath toys, or sand play, or poking in the dirt, or tossing a ball "language/book" = story time, or singing rhymes in the car to keep her from fussing "imaginary play" = whatever little game she wants to play "numeracy" = "Please get us two plates. One for you and one for mommy." or "I'll sing three songs before bed."
Logan gets really excited about learning how to read and write so, many times he takes his play towards practicing these things. And DH encourages this a lot.....I .....just sit and enjoy the few times in his life he'll be this easy and perfect.