My baby is barely out of babyhood, and already he's into Preschool. Asher already can identify an "I" and an "M" and an "A" fairly consistantly. He is always pointing to letters on labels and books and calling out names of letters he knows. Of course he's rarely right at this point, but the mere fact that he's interested in identifying letters is very exciting to me.
I'm always amazed at how early academics starts. It baffles and saddens me when I hear that some children are not even prepared for Kindergarten today, knowing very little of the Alphabet or numbers or colours or shapes. I was discussing this with a guest in my house the other day. She had been quiried about whether she ever let her daughter play or not - because her 4 year old daughter knows letters, numbers, shapes and colours. The other mother assumed that this mother spent all her time in sit down lessons with her daughter. Not so. At this stage, any child learns just through life experience, just through exposure, all a mother has to do is add things like labels - names of the letters, names of the numbers, names of the shapes etc.. and through the play time, the child will learn to use these labels.
Asher is certainly not advanced. When you hear some children at 2 are able to play Mozart on the piano, or ramble off the names of the Presidents or all the States.. those children are advanced! But to accuse a mother of PUSHING that on their child is not fair either. Children won't learn what they're not ready to, even if it's a bunch of facts.
So I guess, I should also not be hard on the mother who's child arrives at Kindergarten without a firm or even a loose grasp on letters, numbers and shapes and colours. Some children are also equally disinterested!! And that's OK too. I've got some from both ends of the spectrum right here in my family!
Header Banner photo - My ornamental crab apple tree in fresh bloom, in the middle of my circular driveway.~~~~
I am Sombra, and these are the stories from our house. We're a Messianic family where academics often take a back seat to the work and adventure of life.
