Re: Daily Routine


"Sarah Vaughan" <nannyogg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:f5qj3m$nbp$1$8300dec7@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Beliavsky wrote:

In addition to the activities others have suggested, you can try
instructing your 4yo in reading and math. Even in an hour per day you
can accomplish a lot. My wife have been doing so with our son, who is
almost four, and I'd estimate he is at the 1st grade level. Math and
reading workbooks are not too expensive.

The risk here (and I am not saying this is what's happening with the OP's
son, because I have no doubt that there are children who really do enjoy
this kind of thing) is that setting out to do this as part of the day can
make it into a chore rather than playtime. There's a real risk that this
can end up in a situation where the child sees reading as a job that has
to be done rather than as something to do for pleasure. Sure, they learn
to decipher words sooner - but they might also pick up an attitude to
reading that might ultimately hinder the amount of reading they want to
do.



Reading andothe rliteracy and math activities arent solely the domain of
workbooks. Literacy activities include things like fingerplays, letter
recognition bingo, sequencing cards. Many children like these games. Science
activities abound at the 4yo level.

http://www.mothergooseprograms.org/

Mother Goose Programs has some great stuff, but mostly at a cost. But it
gives you a wealth of ideas on what play based learning is for the preschool
set. "The Busy Book" has a ton of great activities for the preschool set,
and I *think* they have a toddler version too. The library is likely to have
a ton of play based activity ideas for literacy, math and science. I have
"Mudpies to Magnets" which we love.

Rather than getting workbooks, I'd get books. Story books that your
children are likely to enjoy. Make time to read these together so that
your child learns that reading is something fun. But, as far as actually
learning to read is concerned, I would follow your child's lead and see
whether this is something that interests him or not. My son is fascinated
with letters and what they say, and can read all his letters, and because
he's always pointing out the words in books or other places it's quite
easy for me to be always telling him "That says..." in a way that's
responding to his interests rather than sitting him down and teaching him.



And while you are busy learning that STOP means stop while looking at a
street sign on the road, you are distracting from the grumpies as you go
about errands or whatever. Speaking about things in the natural course of
events is wonderful.


I think he'll almost certainly be reading early - but that's the way he
wants it. If he wasn't interested in knowing what all those words said, I
would stick to reading to him and not push the issue
at all. With math, as well, rather than sitting down with a workbook I'd
work with real-life situations that come up - two socks and two shoes to
go on two feet, three cookies so each of you gets one and we have one put
aside, little things like that. It stays fun and relevant and doesn't
turn into a job to be done.



And remember that math is not just about counting and adding. There are a
lot of subjects in math at this age that have to do with ordering, sorting,
categorizing, sequencing that are around forming the neural pathways to
facilitate mathematical problem solving. Again the library will have quiet a
few books on activities to support these skills while the kids have no idea
that they are not just playing.

In my bookshelf some of the books I use are "folder games" which is a book
of make your own games out of file folders, "600 Manipulatives and
Activities for Early Math" .


All the best,

Sarah



Thanks Sarah. Great post.


--
http://www.goodenoughmummy.typepad.com

"That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be" - P. C. Hodgell



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