Re: challenging an intelligent child



Rosalie B. wrote:
Chookie <ehrebeniuk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


In article <1191012180.236989.24600@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Beliavsky <beliavsky@xxxxxxx> wrote:


I think a
motivated and educated mother at home could prepare a child for 1st
grade just as well as a kindergarten could.

Actually my dd#2 didn't go to pre-school, and at that time and where
we lived kindergarten was not only not mandatory but not provided. I
had to put her in a private school to get kindergarten.


How could she prepare the child for:

(a) public speaking (assuming she didn't have septuplets)


You've mentioned public speaking before. Is this something that
Australian schools do? I have not heard of it before.



I haven't heard of it as a subject, but my 11-year-old has been expected to do some sort of public speaking ever since kindergarten. Then, it was reciting poetry. Now, it's more likely to be a public presentation of some sort of project. (I don't know it that's what Chookie had in mind - perhaps something more formal is part of the curriculum in Australia.)

Clisby



(b) bells


I don't remember having bells in kindy or elementary. The teachers
had clocks and/or watches, and they just had their students walk out
to the buses at the appropriate time. There were bells, but they were
for the higher grades.


(c) raising one's hand to speak
(d) taking turns
(e) not interrupting


I think a mom could do not interrupting.


(f) moving around the school
(g) morning assembly and associated etiquette


We didn't have morning assembly or at least no more than once in a
blue moon, and I don't think my children or grandchildren do either.


(h) talking to the ladies in the office
(i) fixed lunch/break times


This would be pretty easy for a mom.


(j) electing classmates to the Student Council


We never had any student council before HS (and in some places not
even then)

And that's just a few things off the top of my head!

DS1 was certainly ahead of K intellectually, but that gave him more space to understand the school as a system and to socialise -- and his teacher gave him appropriate work anyway.


Universal preschool has become a favored political cause among
Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, who would "invest $10 Billion in
Universal Preschool: Hillary has a detailed plan to provide universal
access to high quality pre-school for all four-year olds through a
federal-state partnership." http://www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/youthopportunity/

Excellent idea! 4yos are given priority in pre-schools here, and there are plans to make preschools more widely available here, particularly to disadvantaged families. (Imagine what a shock school is if you've never seen a book before! There are plenty of families where the parents are neither "motivated" nor "educated".)


. I have sent my oldest son to preschool because our babysitter does
not mentally stimulate our children, but if my wife stayed at home, I
think she would do a better job teaching and socializing our kids than
a preschool.

Depends on what you think your wife would do differently from your babysitter.
.

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