Honey, Come See This!
E caught R doing amazing things the other day & hollered "Honey, come see this!" There was just recently turned 3 yr. old R neatly lining up pictures of US presidents. I looked at E wondering 'what's the big deal?' He does stuff like that all the time. I told E how R had done several pages of matching exercises in a workbook the previous day. E, watching R carefully aligning the pictures, kept expressing his amazement at R's abilities. He looked at me and said, "Uh. Honey..." I asked, "Are you saying it's time to start schooling him?" "Yes," he said nodding emphatically. "OK, how do I do that," I asked. Looking shocked that I would ask such a lame question he replied, "the same as you've been doing," as he jerked his head toward K & T.
I thought for a while about what E said. Yes, I agree R is ready to start some formal schooling. He's learning to draw pictures and could (with a good deal of effort on my part)learn to write his ABCs and numbers this year. He's able to sort and classify objects and can count to 10. His phonics skills already match those of a kindergartener. He's started pointing to individual words in books and asking what they say. He recognizes a few words. But...his speech still needs improvement. He still has tantrums sometimes. His attention span is 45 minutes on a good day (usually it's 20-30 min.) He's not even potty-trained yet. Of course there's my fear of pushing him too hard and really screwing him up. If I were completely honest with myself I'd admit that it's really the only reason I'm hesitating.
He's been using the computer for a while visiting www.starfall.com and playing learning games on CD that I picked up at Target. He sometimes picks up one of the workbooks that came with the CD's and works for 30 minutes or so alongside K & T at the kitchen table. I haven't made him do any of these things. But, most days he's more interested in donning his power ranger shirt and perfecting his monster slaying skills. Will he cooperate if I try formal lessons? I think I need to do some research and planning. Perhaps waiting until after Christmas before starting lessons would be a good idea also.
I thought for a while about what E said. Yes, I agree R is ready to start some formal schooling. He's learning to draw pictures and could (with a good deal of effort on my part)learn to write his ABCs and numbers this year. He's able to sort and classify objects and can count to 10. His phonics skills already match those of a kindergartener. He's started pointing to individual words in books and asking what they say. He recognizes a few words. But...his speech still needs improvement. He still has tantrums sometimes. His attention span is 45 minutes on a good day (usually it's 20-30 min.) He's not even potty-trained yet. Of course there's my fear of pushing him too hard and really screwing him up. If I were completely honest with myself I'd admit that it's really the only reason I'm hesitating.
He's been using the computer for a while visiting www.starfall.com and playing learning games on CD that I picked up at Target. He sometimes picks up one of the workbooks that came with the CD's and works for 30 minutes or so alongside K & T at the kitchen table. I haven't made him do any of these things. But, most days he's more interested in donning his power ranger shirt and perfecting his monster slaying skills. Will he cooperate if I try formal lessons? I think I need to do some research and planning. Perhaps waiting until after Christmas before starting lessons would be a good idea also.
posted by Cindy at 8:18 AM
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