I have been printing off and organizing alphabet binders for me and Janna so we can start 'teaching' our tots the alphabet. This would be a year long activity of course, and I like the way other bloggers/moms do 1-letter-a-week. I have found amazing resources all over blog-land and have been madly keeping up to date with my printing/organizing. I am up to letter H. We have not started at home yet though ha ha ha.
I told Baba last night that in July we will start with letter "A". She said, why? She can learn that in school. Baba has been a teacher for *gasp* almost 40 years. She has said before that Missy will be bored when she does get to kindergarten, then will misbehave, then will fall to the side.
So why does everyone get started so early?
Wait, I'll change that because I don't think its too early; Missy points at letters, and every single one of them, whether a M or Z, is an "eeeeeeeee". So I think she is starting to get interested and would be interested if we sat and did a structured "unit" every week.
What will happen to her when she gets to kindergarten? Will she be bored and misbehave and have to go to a special school for bad smart kids?
Help me out here!
3 comments:
I think listening to your daughter and following her interests is the best plan. If she is showing an interest in learning letters, there is no harm in engaging her in activities that will teach her. If her interest wanes, have the flexibility to give up on the alphabet plan and move on to something else. And teaching letters is different than teaching to read (which if attempted too early can have some detrimental effects).
If you are concerned about her meeting all the kindergarten objectives before she gets there, you may want to consider alternative ideas that stick with her expressed interests. For example, if she is into identifying letters, perhaps you could try teaching her sign language which will help to stimulate her linguistic growth without "spoiling" what kindergarten will bring.
It is true that some kids are bored because their parents taught them everything and this can lead to behaviour problems, but it is not inevitable. It is true that some kids enter kindergarten without knowing their alphabet, but many do and turn out just fine. You can't stop all learning and wait for school. Kids learn through play and there is nothing wrong with planning ahead based on a theme to add some structure and focus the play.
But that's just my two cents!
She is a smart little cookie which is partially due to all that you expose her to, including letters. When she is old enough for school you could always enroll her in french emmersion and that will keep her challenged.
c
Well this is just too long of answer for me to get started here. I'll email ya, but not until next week. Shhh...we're going to Philadelphia for the weekend but my Mom is all freaked out about me writing that on my blog because that's announcing the world we're not at home. LOL!
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