Question for Homeschoolers/Parents/Teachers

[tgr68]

DD is 2.5 yrs old. For the last few weeks, she's been moping around that she can't read by herself, and she wants to. I told DH we needed to start school with her when she turns 3 (in June). In the meantime, we've been working extra on letter recognition and sounds, along with sight words. I've also been looking at cirriculum online since our plan is to homeschool through grade school for sure and possibly middle school.

The two main companies I'm looking at is Saxon and A Beka Book. I have used both cirriculums as a classroom teacher, and both are fantastic! For Phonics, Math, and a Bible cirriculum there is only $10 in difference in price, so that's not an issue in deciding which to use.

A Beka Book has a 3-yr-old preschool cirriculum and 4-yr-old kindergarten cirriculum. Saxon starts right in with kindergarten. A Beka Book focuses primarily on letter and number recognition in their preschool cirriculum and letter/number recognition and basic reading in the kindergarten cirriculum. Saxon covers the same as ABB's kindergarten program, but also has grammar rules, art, puncuation, etc. interweaved through the lessons.

I gave DD the Saxon placement test just to see how'd she do. Anything 0-7 points has the student starting with the kindergarten cirriculum. She scored 5. (Seeing as how they don't have a preschool cirriculum, this makes sense, but I thought with her scoring in the upper half of the range could mean she is really ready for the kindergarten level stuff.)

So my question is...what grade level do I start her at? My training as a classroom teacher tells me one thing, but my intuition as a parent tells me something else.

[tgr68]

Anybody????

[emschwar]

No idea about that, but the most helpful thing I've found in teaching Noah to read (he learned a few weeks before he turned 3.5) were the leapfrog DVDs - Letter Factory, then Word Factory, then the Code Word Caper.

[Sevilla]

Well, I would stay far away from Abeka b/c I don't think it is the best curriculum option out there (speaking both as a student who had to use it in elementary and middle school, and as a teacher). Saxon is alright for math, I did not realize they had other offerings out there.

For her age I would look into something like Sing, Spell, Read, and Write (http://www.pearsonlearning.com/index.cfm?a=65) - that was a pretty cool program and very holistic in appealing to many ways of learning - used music, phonics, games, small reader books, etc... I learned to read using it via homeschool (i was a very early reader - by 4 i believe). To this day I can still sing some of the phonics and reading songs I learned.

There are a lot of other really good reading and math curriculum options out there besides Abeka and Saxon, those two are just promoted heavily and have a long history.

[Sevilla]

Gah, I hate the 'no edit' button!

Anyway, I really strongly dislike Abeka's approach and wouldn't choose to use it.

[Sarah]

I like Explode the Code and Get Ready for the Code, as well as those plain olf phonics workbooks you can buy anywhere, if you want a real reading program. Otherwise, I think doing a letter of the week is great- you just go through the letters, point them out in environmental print, make them out of different materials, cut things out that start with it, etc.

[jeepgirl]

What does your intuition as a parent tell you? Just curious.

I worked for an educational research foundation that employed certified teachers to help homeschooling families with curriculums for almost five years. I am more familiar with Abeka than Saxon. I am not familiar with Abeka for such a young child, but am familiar with their program for about 7th grade and up. Its not for everyone, but for those kids that like it, I think the educational level/value is excellent. But again, I can't comment on their kindergarten program, etc. in particular.

Good luck in your search!

p.s. have you ever read the book Better Late than Early? Its excellent. I wonder if it might help you answer some of the questions you're dealing with. You can read the amazon reviews about it here (http://www.amazon.com/Better-Late-Than-Early-Education/dp/0883490498/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199764324&sr=8-1).

[nancy drew]

i taught the saxon reading curriculum for 3 years, and im guessing that my experience with it helped my dd learn to read. i didnt specifically teach her saxon, but i used their letter sounds (very different from what most people use, which usually confuses kids and delays the ability to go from making sounds to making words) and sounding out words (Again, very different). if you use saxon, make sure you get an audio of how to do the sounds properly and how to sound out words properly.

i didnt really do too much saxon with her, i just taught her sounds before letter names, and demonstrated how to sound out words, and she copied me. lots and lots of practice, and she "got it". if you use the saxon curriculum it will work very quickly, if you have the materials available and if your child has the interest to sit through lessons. my dd was more of a hot and cold reader, and i felt it was important to go at *her* pace, not mine. so we took long breaks in between practicing (like, weeks would go by where i didnt really talk to her about sounding out words or anything).

i also found that she responded *much* better to a whole language approach than a phonics approach, so i went with that.

[tgr68]

Thanks for your replies. I think many though misunderstood my actual question (not your fault, as I tend to ramble on). I was not necessarily looking for specific cirriculum recommendations, although a couple of posts here have definately given me something to think about, but rather would you start a 3-yr-old in kindergarten if they seemed ready for it? As I said, I am planning on homeschooling her throughout grade school for sure and possibly middle school/junior high.

emschwar~We tend to shy away from the TV, especially for educational purposes, so I most likely would not use DVDs at this age with her. Honestly, DD rarely sits through a 30 minute show when we do allow her to watch. She really prefers books to the TV.

Sevilla~I've never heard of that company before. I will definately be taking a peek at the website. I was an early reader, too, but I don't know how my parents did it. I've just always learned to read. I really like Saxon math and have from the moment I used it and actually incorporated a lot of the techniques I learned in the 4th grade program into my kindergarten class. The private school I taught kindergarten in used A Beka for everything but math, and I had a fourth of my class reading chapter books by the end of the year. Anyway, as I said I'll take a closer look at the link you posted. I may end up liking it better than either of these two programs!

Sarah~We are already doing many of the things you listed there and will continue to do so before we start a "formal" cirriculum. She does have a few of those phonics workbooks that you can pick up in about any store, but we haven't broken them out yet.

jeepgirl~Thanks for the link! I will be checking it out after I post here. My intuition tells me to start her right into the kindergarten material. If she's not quite ready for it, we can always back off to the preschool, but something tells me she is really ready for it.

nancydrew~Thanks for the tip on Saxon. Do you know if the audio tapes come with the kit or do I have to order them separately?

[jmvan74]

Okay, since you asked... IMHO, I would most likely, Not start with kindergarten curriculum. That said, I have no clue what the above curriculum programs look like.

I, personally, don't feel it's developmentally appropriate. Even if a child is "academically" ready for the information, I haven't seen many 3 year olds that are emotionally/socially prepared to deal with stress and vigor or a formalized kindergarten curriculum. I would hate to see regression from being pushed too far, too fast, ya know? I think there are more hands on ways of learning that are more beneficial to a younger child. So that's my 2 cents on that.

However, you know DD and what she's ready for, so you are really going to be the best judge for that question.;)

As for using the TV.... again, just anectdotal here... we did use the "Leap Frog, Letter Factory videos when Collin was using his nebulizer a few weeks ago and he now recognizes all of his upper case letters and can tell me at least half their sounds and even some words that start with some of the letter. I think TV can be a great supplement to learning when used appropriately.

[jmvan74]

Damn no edit button!! My mind goes faster than my fingers!

[nancy drew]

ok since i cant edit my post, i have to totally take back what i said about saxon. i was thinking saxon math, which is what we used. not saxon reading. we used distar reading. soooo sorry about that!!!!!!! total mommy brain or something. :o

[tgr68]

LOL! That's okay nancy drew. I've looking at the Saxon Phonics, and as far as lesson structure, it's set up very similar to the math.

Thanks everyone!! Between here and my friends over on LJ, you've given me a lot to think about and consider! I've still got some research and more reading to do, but I do have some time before I need to order materials. ;)

[Renrel]

I am not a teacher so take what I say with that in mind. I also have a child who academicly is probably ahead of most if not all of his preschool class and he is the youngest one in the class, so this apparently unusually ablity to learn fast and early affects my opinion of what is OK at a young age. I might answer differently if my child learned differently. I also don't know anything about any of the formal curriculums. Bu in regard to starting Kindergarden level curriculum early, as opposed to kindergarden itself, my view is it is OK to offer it so long as it is offered in manner appropriate to a preschooler and the child is showing interest and a readiness for the material.

By that I mean any teaching is done as a game of some sort. The child must be interested and having fun. There is no pressure to do assignments or lessons he or she is not interested in anymore than you would pressure the child to play with a non-educational toy. I might try to make a preschool child sit still and listen to me for a few short minutes (no more than 5) to learn how a new toy or game is supposed to be played, even if they just want to play differently, so they are aware of the other possiblities within the toy or game, but after that introduction I would let the child do what they want with the toy or information. \

I remember my son wanting to just play with magnetic letters on their own when he was maybe 2.5. I made him play my way (making three letter words like cat) for 3-5 minutes so that he knew what the letters could do for 3-5 minutes.) Then I stepped back and let him play however he wanted. I don't think he played "my game" right after I showed it to him, but he did internalize the lesson and start making and/or reading easy words on his own shortly there after. That is about as far as I would go with formal teaching at this young age, and even that made me a little uncomfortable that I was projecting expectations on him that would externalize his motivation for learning.

[tgr68]

Bumping this up.

I decided this week to start DD on a more structured pre-school level format (after a second meltdown about "just wanting to learn".) We keep things relatively short and simple since she is not yet 3 and should get through the entire set of books in a couple of months (pre-writing and pre-math) doing 2 parent-lead worksheets per day.

After we complete her worksheets (5-10 minutes max), she gets to choose a coloring page from her insanely huge stack of activity books to color. We've also continued to read to her on a daily basis as we have pretty much since birth.

She also independently plays with magnetic letters and draws on her chalkboard throughout the day. She tells me that she's writing her letters and spelling words with them. If she wants help on these activities, I step in. Otherwise, it's completely independent.

This may seem like a lot, but DD refers to it as "playing school" and almost everyday begs to do more. At this point, I feel like I have to cut her off on the structured activities as not to overwhelm her.