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kristinannie
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While we were on vacation, I read The 3 R's by Ruth Beechick. I found this passage interesting:
It is true that some children can learn to read remarkably early. But the fact that they can does not necessarily mean they should. Should is another question. One schoold district set up an experiment to help decide this question. Some kindergarteners in the district received extensive instruction in reading. Others spent the same amount of time learning science. They melted ice. They observed thermometers in hot and cold places. They played with magnets, grew plants, learned about animal life, and so on. Books and pictures were available for these children if they wanted them, but no formal lessons in reading were held.
And what did the school district learn? By third grade the "science" children were far ahead of the "reading" children in their reading scores. The reason? Their vocabularies and thinking skills were more advanced. They could read on more topics and understand higher level materials. The "reading" children, by starting earlier, used up a lot of learning time on the skills of reading, while the "science" children spent the time learning real stuff. And when they did begin reading, they were older and knew more and learned in a fraction of the time that the others took.
The research and others like it are compelling. They drive home the fact that each child has only a limited amount of time in his early years. That time can be squandered in trying to teach reading before the "optimum" time for it. Or it can be used wisely in teaching "real stuff" that the child is ready for. If you are the teacher, the choice is yours.
The real stuff your child learns does not have to be only science. Science is a natural because children are curious about the world around them, and you can capitalize on that curiousity. But you can teach also about music, art, literature, money, work, safety, God, people, and everything else you and your child are interested in. p 6-7
I found this really interesting. Honestly, it is something I have been struggling with in my home school. I have found that we gravitate more towards spending a lot of time on our unit studies and read alouds and less time on the 3 R's. We do math and handwriting daily. We have reading lessons almost daily. However, none of the 3R's really takes up that much time from our day. We spend the bulk of our day doing our unit studies (geography, history and science combined as we take a trip around the world), music, art and nature study. This argument really helped me to relax and enjoy the ride more instead of stressing that we weren't spending enough time on the 3R's.
I would love to hear what YOU consider the most important aspect of K. I have gotten a lot of advice to focus on the 3 R's. That just isn't how it happened day to day for us. I have found that the days where we spend the least amount of time on the 3 R's (less than 30 minutes) have been our best days of homeschooling.
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JodieLyn
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For K... definately focus on the real stuff.. we do some pre-reading skills.. starting to formalize (somewhat) learning letters and sounds and learning to write the letters.. learning to write their names (mostly because they LOVE to learn that).
But beyond that.. there are no studies that show that children that are taught to read or do any formal school work early stay ahead.. I believe it was by 4th grade there was no dicernable difference.
Where the push for early formal learning comes from is that they did find that disadvantaged children, from homes that didn't read any books or anything like that, did benefit from using the headstart programs. Not by being "ahead" but by NOT being behind.
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MaryM
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| Posted: Aug 17 2011 at 12:35pm | IP Logged
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kristinannie wrote:
| I would love to hear what YOU consider the most important aspect of K. |
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Play.
That may sound simple and not academic at all. But what I'm thinking of it hands-on activities like what they describe in the RB quote/study you sited. I think "play" like that is a kindergartner's work. What you sound like you are doing fits that model well. I am sad that kindergarten has become so formally academic. I'm definitely not of that model.
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Aug 17 2011 at 12:50pm | IP Logged
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kristinannie wrote:
| I would love to hear what YOU consider the most important aspect of K. |
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I am definitely NOT of the academic/structured mindset for Kindergarten...and to a large extent, not for 1st grade either. Around 2nd grade, we begin doing a little more formal work.
This is Kindergarten here, and what a time of delight it is for us!
Picture books read aloud
Lots of UNstructured time to explore and wonder (inside and outside)
Lots of time for UNstructured, UNplanned PLAY
Time to learn good habits and good manners
Working on purposeful jobs (usually at Mom's side)
I would say that overall, the most important aspect of K for me is to allow a child to grow and develop their natural sense of wonder!
Very organic and gentle as it simply springs from the natural order of the day.
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JodieLyn
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oh yeah.. I should say.. that we do the work on letters because they WANT school work to do at the table with their older siblings. And a page with a letter and picture to color and half a page for writing the letter is usually just enough for them to feel like they got to do school. 
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Betsy
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Mackfam wrote:
kristinannie wrote:
| I would love to hear what YOU consider the most important aspect of K. |
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I am definitely NOT of the academic/structured mindset for Kindergarten...and to a large extent, not for 1st grade either. Around 2nd grade, we begin doing a little more formal work.
This is Kindergarten here, and what a time of delight it is for us!
Picture books read aloud
Lots of UNstructured time to explore and wonder (inside and outside)
Lots of time for UNstructured, UNplanned PLAY
Time to learn good habits and good manners
Working on purposeful jobs (usually at Mom's side)
I would say that overall, the most important aspect of K for me is to allow a child to grow and develop their natural sense of wonder!
Very organic and gentle as it simply springs from the natural order of the day. |
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DITTO!!!!!!!!! 
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violingirl
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DS1 had an official kindergarten year last year where we did about 30-40 minutes of math, handwriting and phonics, but mostly we read a lot of books on a variety of topics and spent a lot of time building things and exploring outside. We did have a little bit of structure to our reading (we spent about a month on each continent reading about the people, animals and habitats), but we also picked out whatever looked interesting at the library.
Otherwise our big focuses were on obedience, cheerful spirit and learning to help around the house at the side of a parent.
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DominaCaeli
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I will technically be starting K with my two oldest (ages 5 and almost-5) this fall, but I'm really trying to take CM's approach to heart, so we are looking at very little structured learning.
Our priorities are habit-training, time outdoors, and plenty of time to play.
We will be doing other activities as well as part of our current daily routine (prayers, feast-day readings, calendar, poetry, stories, etc.). My two K'ers already know how to read as well, so they have some reading time each day on their own or with me. But these are all short, optional, and we can skip them if we like! (My kids love our Morning Basket part of the day, so I doubt they'll like playing hooky, but with a baby on the way any day now, I'll definitely be taking advantage of the flexibility of these early years of education! )
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mariB
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-Real stuff like cooking, helping to clean, watching daddy and mommy build things.
- learn about the world around them through books, videos, nature walks.(We joined Vermont Institute of Natural sciences which met once a week and our instructor was a amazing. He took us on nature walks, played games and had arts and crafts to go with what he was teaching.)
-Spend time learning about the faith and the Bible. (This is a great place to encorporate arts and crafts.)
- Play is work for little ones. Our children "played" legos, Lincoln Logs, play mobil, homemade play dough and silly puddy, beeswax. AND DEFINITELY DRESS-UPS. Our costume box was always in use!
- make-believe with their toys - I would put out theme boxes with toys that had something to do with what they were learning like Vikings, vocanoes, dinosaurs
The biggest advice- Really embrace this time with your young children. I really, really miss it! Play with them!
Reading and math? It will come. A little dab will do ya each day!
Blessings,
Marianne
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Angie Mc
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MaryM wrote:
kristinannie wrote:
| I would love to hear what YOU consider the most important aspect of K. |
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Play.
That may sound simple and not academic at all. But what I'm thinking of it hands-on activities like what they describe in the RB quote/study you sited. I think "play" like that is a kindergartner's work. What you sound like you are doing fits that model well. I am sad that kindergarten has become so formally academic. I'm definitely not of that model. |
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Yes .
My blink response is:
I want to mother my little child. I want to engage him in my work, in family life, in character formation. He needs plenty of rest, good food, companionship, and alone time. I want to give him an environment rich in our faith and all the things we love...books, music, sports, games, food!
Play...engagement...love...security...spaciousness, THAT'S what I want for my little one.
We do no formal academics for K.
Love,
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Angie Mc
Maimeo to Henry! Dave's wife, mom to Mrs. Devin+Michael Pope, Aiden 20,Ian 17,John Paul 11,Catherine (heaven 6/07)
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: What is your focus for K?
