Homeschool Advice: Teaching Academics Before Pre-Kindergarten in Home School
By Mimi Rothschild
Today, there are many ways to stimulate a young child in a home school setting. Children as young as a year old are learning math, reading, and more. Parents seem inclined to give children a head start, as if a head start in a home school education will help them to succeed later on in life.
While it is true that home school children, or any child, may learn how to read and write at an early age, we tend to forget that children need to grow and explore the world around them on their own. A home school setting where everything is shown to a two year old never lets the child explore and learn on his own. He may be shown a beetle and be given instruction on what it is and what it does instead of discovering it on his own and asking questions.
Parents who wish their children to learn in a home school setting at a very young age are usually trying to help their child achieve more out of life. Parents may forget that children need to learn how to explore on their own. If everything is structured for them in home school right from the beginning, children may forget to be a child all too soon. There is plenty of time for home school academics later in a child's life.
This isn't to say that children couldn't be brought into a home school setting early, but for Pre-K children, short periods throughout the day are best. Ten minutes of learning a new alphabet letter in home school should be enough for a two year old to learn the concept and then move on to other activities.
There are other things in life aside from what a child may learn in home school. For example, learning how daily life works by observing your routines may be beneficial. Adults wash clothing, clean the kitchen and vacuum the living room. Children may create their own home school activity by mimicking you.
Give young home school children an area where they can discover things on their own, and you enhance their creativity. Creativity is something gained early on in life and is undoubtedly essential to their future. Help a child learn not by teaching everything through home school but by leaving objects around the house for him to explore. Be available to answer questions when he asks about them. A child will be all too happy to come to you with his questions.
________________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, children's rights activist, author, and Founder and C.E.O. of online education company Learning by Grace, Inc. Rothschild and her husband of twenty-eight years reside in suburban Philadelphia with their eight children.
Feeling that “our current system of education has broken its promise,” Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. to provide families with Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children all over the world.
In addition to her twenty years of experience as a homeschool mother, Rothschild has written a number of books dealing with education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Home Education Websites Blog consists of helpful online content and activities for Christian homeschooling families.
Electronic reproduction of this article is permitted if content is published unchanged, appropriate credit is given, and the article title links to corresponding article webpage.
