Educating nonKiddos
 

I keep trying to make this thread like every month or so, and either I think through what I'm going to do or my posting times out or something dumb. So. I have made this thread. It is for my thoughts. Don't read if you don't like dumb threads or me.

I will put some thoughts here later and you can add yours to mine. Later. But now I have broken the surface tension of thread starting.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

YAY I LOVE DUM THRADS.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

:hyper:
I have read the OP and am now trapped in the meniscus.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

Oh what tangled threads we weave, when first we practice.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

You're in the right spot!

Here's a thought. Are my kids going to learn Russian from watching Masha and the Bear on youtube? Should I make them watch their shows in Spanish on tv?

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

Нет.
What is problem? Masha only wish to liberate Russian speaking forest animals from tyranny of west.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

I not know pandas speak Russian. May be not Western tyranny she liberates from. My Russian English not so good.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

WinAce learned English from American television shows like Married... With Children, and he could out-English me. Everything in Soviet Russia is reverse, so it should work. Just need to find Russian Al Bundy for your children.

Also, I saw on NPR there is a new children's book on evolution that is available as a free pdf. Just throwing that out there in case biologist dad forgets to bring up the subject.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

That book is very interesting! I will see if RA has heard of it yet.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

Well, we're up to a stuffed bat that speaks limited spanish. I was all stop making that sound (being pelted with a small bat screeching OLAH-OLAH-OLAH) and was informed it wasn't a sound but a word. "Like Hi."

Go Diego Go is about to be banned in our house. Also screeching WHIPIT WHIPIT. What are you saying??? I'M A RED EYED TREE FROG. HELP ME! Me, too, kid! Me, too.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

What do kids learn in preschool? What is the point of it? We are some weird ones out who aren't doing preschool, but aren't homeschoolers. We are doing some science class through the rec department because I don't want to make bigger messes at my own house, but what are they supposed to be learning in preschool that they can't get otherwise?

Ugh. I am constantly fighting the feeling of "preschool is unnecessary" and "what if he's missing out?"

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

Preschool, it's where you see soo much playdough! Then some jackass steals the color of playdough you are were about to use, which distresses you because you're too young to realize there's a whole crate in the store room as what's marketed to your parents as high priced squeezable building material is cheap and sells at a nice discount in bulk. Leading to your first existential crisis, would I have been as mad if I hadn't already chosen it?
Also there's a tricycle race track.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

Ha! I never went to preschool, so I have no experience to draw on.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

I think it's mostly supposed to get kids used to the idea of school. Going to a classroom, socializing, taking direction from the teacher, sitting still, things like that.

And ideally, to get their first playdough-related trauma out of the way.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

My kids go to Sunday school and take swim lessons, so they learn classroom stuff. We have regular playdates, so they have to deal with socializing with the same kids and new ones. They are used to taking directions from other mothers in our playgroup. They go to regular events that have rules for behavior (church, storytime, lego club, hiking group).

They = mostly the 4 year old. The 2 year old is 2 and just does what he does.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

Yeah, it's basically socialization as well as learning movement, a lot of preschools do have an outdoor track and lots of physical games.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

So what you're all saying is that I'm stressing myself out because my 4 year old can't write.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

Yeah, I think so. If I'm remembering correctly, they don't really teach academics in preschool, and I don't think kindergarten kids are expected to be reading and/or writing yet.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

That was the case in olden times. They are now expected to do calculus.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

I went to a farm school for preschool. Growing up in the city, that was pretty damn neat, what little I remember of it.

I do remember getting to kindergarten and some of the kids couldn't read yet and I was thinking, damn, how do you get this far without learning that? Yes, I was that fucking precocious. The point is, I don't think there's anything you're supposed to have already learned by the time you leave preschool. At least not back then.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

There are some expectations for kids entering kindergarten now that are higher than they used to be (at least, in TX when Li'l Puppet was entering). But it's not reading and writing -- more like recognizing colors, counting to ten, that sort of thing. The requirements should be searchable for your state/district.

They do teach reading/writing in kinder now, whereas when I was a kid they didn't get to that until 1st grade. Like ES, I already knew how to read before kinder, but I was a precocious little snot too. I even remember getting irritated at the kids who didn't immediately grasp that 2+3 would have the same answer as 3+2.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

The froguar can already read very well and do some basic math (counting by 10s and addition/subtraction). He is good at puzzles and building, creates stories for his toys to act out, plays well with other children, can ride a balance bike and scooter, etc. He knows his colors and shapes and a fair amount about outer space, dinosaurs, sea life, weather, the human body, and the mechanics of a steam engine. He knows the city and state that we live in and can find them on a map or globe. He reads maps (of the zoo and the park) well and can use them to find his way or direct us.

He doesn't like to write, use scissors, or color. Some of that is because it requires sitting still, but he also doesn't like that he writes/cuts/colors like a 4 year old.

My priorities are: giving them lots of opportunities for child-directed free play, a rich literacy and sensory environment, and at least an hour outside every day (weather permitting). If he's interested in something, then we do stuff that goes along with that. (For example, he was interested in the human body. So I got him a book about the human body, we checked out other books from the library, we went to the science center that has an exhibit about the human body, he got a model of the human body that you can take the organs out, etc.) We don't do home preschool, we just don't do any preschool. We do what we want! :cartman:

I think my kids are pretty great and they learn a lot just growing up. There's just such a great push for universal preschool and so many of our group (who still have one parent at home with their kids) are putting their kids in preschool that it makes me wonder what the benefits are that it is seen as a Must Do for 2 years before a kid goes to school. The froguar has a year and a half before he starts kindergarten. I would rather us be able to do what we want over that time than pay for him to go somewhere and play.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

IMO, preschool is only important if you look at your kid and have misgivings about whether he/she will have trouble adapting to the classroom environment when kindergarten age comes around. I don't think it has much more application than that.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

I think that individual parents can have great reasons for choosing preschool. I don't have any reasons, but I am clearly outside the norm around here--no preschool, but don't plan on homeschooling.

Re: Educating nonKiddos
 

Which is amusing considering how new schooling is.
Frankly I think it's partly related to previous brain plasticity studies which wrongly assumed the brain 'setup' after childhood so you should cram as much stuff into their heads before that.
But many forget what being a child is like, give them new stuff to explore and they will.