Educating Kiddo

[Ensign Steve]

(Not being a parent or a teacher, it's super easy for me to say...)

I wouldn't think twice about it. Sing songs, read poems, make up songs and poems, play with the words and have fun. I do think it's cool that you got that report card with that particular arbitrary benchmark on it, though, if you needed an excuse to add more music and poetry to your curriculum. Gee, maybe if there were more arts in schools ...

Even if it were a real biological or cognitive thing, who cares? What are you going to do about it? How is it any more debilitating than color-blindness or some other crap? So he doesn't perceive everything exactly the same as everyone else. Big whoop. Nobody does.

random: Do you know there is ASL poetry? Things can "rhyme" depending on whether the hands are shaped the same way, or there's tons of other variables you can play with which make for really fascinating and beautiful poems on the hands and face. We composed poems that I would compare to a written acrostic, but you use the fingerspelling alphabet and incorporate it into the poem. It was great for practice and I felt like I was in elementary school all over again doing poems about the sun and the rain and basic elementary vocabulary to practice a new language.

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

He's right. Assonance is rhyming. It's just not an end rhyme. Skip him into middle school English.

Or MIDDLE ENGLISH SCHOOL!

Get it? Heeey!

Oh god, everybody hates me.

Anyways, yeah, it's not something I'd worry about unless it bothers him.

[LadyShea]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

Even if it were a real biological or cognitive thing, who cares? What are you going to do about it? How is it any more debilitating than color-blindness or some other crap? So he doesn't perceive everything exactly the same as everyone else. Big whoop. Nobody does.

Well I'd play with rhyming more, I guess. I don't give a shit because I don't write much. But if it's some important developmental deal, I'll add it some

[Qingdai]

I think knowing that things can rhyme and that lots of young child books use rhyming to build vocabulary might be what they're checking for there.

If you know the word "boom" "broom" might make sense to you. So rhyming is a part of reading skills, but by no means the only or the most important. Continual reading and having books around the house seems to be the biggest factor.

[BrotherMan]

You should let him learn from this guy.

[LadyShea]

That kid is cool...he's funny and understands the rhymes

[Ensign Steve]

I like how he rhymes syllables with flows. It works the way he says it.

[LadyShea]

He is reading very well, I am quite happy with his progress. I am pretty sure that being a reading family with a house full of books is a contributing factor, as you mentioned, Q.

His writing and coloring and cutting have improved...though they'll probably never be, you know, excellent or anything.

Which is funny, his motor skills and coordination are fine for Lego building and video game controllers, but holding a writing implement or scissors, and even eating utensils is difficult and/or awkward. I wonder if that's partly due to building and video game controlling being two handed, while writing and cutting is only one? If he's mixed dominance as I suspect*, then tasks that allow both sides to be involved would be more easily mastered, don't you think?

*He seems to prefer his right hand for writing, utensil holding, but his left side for everything else like kicking, cartwheeling, throwing, golfing, and batting. He holds his Wii controller in his left and the nunchuck in his right, like a lefty

[ceptimus]

Rhyming is overrated.

Originally Posted by America Lyrics, Paul Simon

"Let us be lovers we'll marry our fortunes together"
"I've got some real estate here in my bag"
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies
And we walked off to look for America

"Kathy," I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
"Michigan seems like a dream to me now"
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
I've gone to look for America

Laughing on the bus
Playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said "Be careful his bowtie is really a camera"

"Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat"
"We smoked the last one an hour ago"
So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field

"Kathy, I'm lost," I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I'm empty and aching and I don't know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all gone to look for America
All gone to look for America
All gone to look for America

[livius drusus]

Another comic book to add to the edumacational collection: Darwin: A Graphic Biography.

The graphic medium is ideal for recreating a very specific time frame, succeeding in placing the reader right next to a young Darwin on a "beetling" expedition. With specimens in both hands, and anxious to get another, Darwin ends up stuffing the third beetle into his mouth. Darwin's life presented in this form is an inspirational tale for kids of all ages. They'll be sure to identify with a curious young Darwin finding his way on youthful adventures in the fields near his house. The ups, downs, and near-misses of Darwin's youth are portrayed honestly and without foreshadowing of his later fame. This is a key point for younger readers: that Darwin wasn't somehow predestined to greatness. He was curious, patient, and meticulous. He persevered--a great lesson about what science is all about.

[Jerome]

Indoctrination into any view-point is a bad idea if one means to teach thinking.

[LadyShea]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

Woohoo for dumpster diving in laws! My father and brother in law went to an auction this weekend, and bought a bunch of "surprise" boxes for $5.00 each. In one was 6 British books called Horrible Histories, which are wacky, wonderful, and gross historical facts, mixed with cartoons and such. So fun!

I loved these books and Kiddo is showing an interest in history and guess fucking what? BAM! I love you Brits so much right now

[Qingdai]

My kid as developed a fondness for Science Friday, which is currently his bedtime choice of drifting off noise. Tomorrow we're going to discuss amyloid precursor protein and brain chemistry. We'll see who teaches who.

[LadyShea]

Oh man Q, he's advanced. We're still on the states of matter.

[Qingdai]

LOL. Did I mention all the things he doesn't know?
Also 8, so we did plasma, solid, gas liquid last year (They Might Be Giants has a couple of songs about the sun), at 7. He's got some kids in his special education class that are pretty smart and creative.

[Qingdai]

Actually today, as I was taking my son around the woods at my dad's house with his extremely large 7 month old puppy, the dog found a kill site. An enormous liver, intestines and colon in an area smeared with blood and feces. I'm speculating that some coyotes killed an adult deer.
Now I'm in the position of trying to explain the circle of life, again, to my kid who hates the death of animals. As an adult it was pretty freaky, like coming upon a crime scene, trying to be all matter of fact about it and using it as a learning tool is proving to be a challenge.

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

I loved these books and Kiddo is showing an interest in history and guess fucking what? BAM! I love you Brits so much right now

They had a bunch of those in the gift shop when I went to Tower of London. That is such a morbid tourist trap, everything is all about all the killings and beheadings and wars and stuff, over a thousand years. That, and the crown jewels are there.

[LadyShea]

I loved the Ravens best. The Crown Jewels are probably awesome but I hated not being able to get a proper look. The display is terrible.

[Ensign Steve]

Yeah, I kind of held back and stood on my toes to look at it over the shoulders of all the pigs that were leaning in rubbing their snouts all over the glass.

Here's how low-rent I am. I thought the crown was literally a single crown that got passed down from head to head. I was mind-blown when I saw that each monarch has their own custom crown on display. Also there was this giant, ornate gold vessel that I was like "that must have been for baptizing princes or something similarly significant" and the little card said "punchbowl."

Fuck me I cultivated a lot of hatred and resentment for the ruling class on that trip.

[LadyShea]

When I saw the Koh-i-Noor was there, I totally assumed it must be a display of replicas from start to finish because all these goobers are there looking at them all the time. I don't think I found out until well afterwards that those were the real thing. So how low rent am I?

[Beth]

I have enjoyed reading the initial comments in this thread and I intend to read through all of the pages. I am especially excited at the linked resources.

I do have questions concerning preschool education, since this thread began with your child being home preschooled. My son knows his alphabet by sight and memory, and he can write his letters. He can count to fifty, and he knows larger numbers by sight, up to 100. I have begun to teach him addition and subtraction by using Duplos, and I am trying to teach him units of money. I was teaching him to read. He knows about fifty sight words, and he has a good understanding of phonics.

Now, I have done this using resources like PBS, Phonics Farm, various books from teacher's stores, apps, and just by play. So, learning is fun, and he thirsts to learn new things. I have stopped trying to teach him to read because two elementary educators in the family, one being my MIL from my current marriage, have expressed concern that my son would enter into the school system too advanced for his curriculum, and that it may cause distress if he excels over his peers.

I understand this thinking, and I remember my oldest son, who is now attending university, acting out because he was bored. But, I do think that him learning young contributed to his honors grades, and helped him to have a strong desire to learn. Would you suggest that I start up with the reading courses again, or should I taper down on teaching him. As stated, it is all fun, and I put absolutely no pressure on him to learn.

[LadyShea]

Me, personally? I think holding kids back from what they are ready, willing (or eager), and able to learn- with the sole purpose of ensuring they fit the institutionalized learning mold as an "average"- is a ridiculous idea. Prevent him from excelling? Does that even sound reasonable to the person who stated it?

If he needs extra enrichment when he gets into school, then provide it. You are not going to stop being his primary teacher just because he walks through the school doors.

[naturalist.atheist]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

Me, personally? I think holding kids back from what they are ready, willing (or eager), and able to learn- with the sole purpose of ensuring they fit the institutionalized learning mold as an "average"- is a ridiculous idea. Prevent him from excelling? Does that even sound reasonable to the person who stated it?

If he needs extra enrichment when he gets into school, then provide it. You are not going to stop being his primary teacher just because he walks through the school doors.

Who needs teachers? This guy (Sugata Mitra) put a computer in the middle of a desert town in india with an english operating system. He claims that in nine months the kids taught themselves how to operate the computer at the level of US computer clerical workers. When he went back and asked them how they did it, the children told him it wouldn't have been that hard if they didn't have to teach themselves english first.

How Much Can Children Teach Themselves? : NPR

[Qingdai]

Welcome to the wild world of unschooling.

The Beginner’s Guide to Unschooling : zenhabits

[Beth]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

Me, personally? I think holding kids back from what they are ready, willing (or eager), and able to learn- with the sole purpose of ensuring they fit the institutionalized learning mold as an "average"- is a ridiculous idea. Prevent him from excelling? Does that even sound reasonable to the person who stated it?

If he needs extra enrichment when he gets into school, then provide it. You are not going to stop being his primary teacher just because he walks through the school doors.

Thanks. I don't know many parents with younger children. Most of the people my age have children who are either in high school, or in college, so I really have no one to discuss things with. It is amazing that I am often unsure if I am doing things right this time around. They don't see him much, so maybe they think that he is being pushed too hard. They also educate in another county that has an absolutely horrible school system. I think that they are concerned that my son already knows much of what an entry level first grader knows.