A Guide to Homeschool Preschoolers
Realistic Goals and Suggestions for Teaching a Young Child at Home
May 23, 2008
Turning the pages of a news magazine or newspaper will often reveal an article on how schools are failing. The societal pressure to achieve academically has trickled down to affect our youngest of children. The result has been that parents mistakenly assume that a structured preschool curriculum with an academic focus will solve the problem. Perhaps the better solution is to focus on the child's stage of development, build on his interests, and provide rich experiences from which to learn.
What Early Childhood Experts Say about Academic Instruction and Toddlers
Accelerated learning is not the solution to producing well-educated children. Children who are academically pressed at too young an age demonstrate less enthusiasm for learning and creativity than their peers who were not (Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff, & Eyer 2003). The idea of side-stepping formal preschool curriculum in favor of providing rich, developmentally-appropriate life experiences is certainly not new. A long list of noted early childhood development gurus have stated that very idea. Froebel, Montessori, Steiner, Piaget, and Vygotsky are among the ranks of experts who believed that addressing a child's developmental needs and following his interests will yield the greatest strides in a overall growth.
Parents searching for the best way to instruct their toddler at home do not need to purchase expensive curriculum or fill their day planner with activities for their child. With a simple approach, fueled by stacks of research from the field of early childhood, parents can support their child's development.
Provide Full Language Experiences
Parents should seek to bathe their preschooler in rich, meaningful life experiences. This does not mean that parents need to get their toddler involved in numerous activities that leaves everyone haggard and spent from running about. Rather, parents should seek to shape simple, every day activities into a richer, more complete language experience.
Some practical application of this can be seen in the following methods. While going for a walk, children can be engaged in a discussion of what they see. They can be asked to talk about which tree is the biggest and which is the smallest. At the playground, children can count the rungs on the ladder, the texture of the sand, or the feelings inspired while on the swing.
When parents use authentic events to build vocabulary and language concepts, it has greater relevance and meaning to the child. Parents need to challenge themselves to make every day events, such as trips to the grocery store or washing laundry, occurrences that are steeped in language exchange.
Address Physical Development Needs
With the push for academics so prevalent in society, often neglected are ways to promote physical development of the preschooler. Parents should be sure that their child is exercising both gross and fine motor skills. Society's children are becoming more and more stagnant and lethargic. Parents need to inspire physical activity.
This can be done in simple ways as well. Hiking, trips to the playground, and daily walks can be the springboard to practicing skills of climbing, hopping, and running. Toddler bikes and balls of various sizes can enhance a child's motor skills while stimulating brain growth. Activities like playing with play dough, using lacing cards, and coloring utilize fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. For more information: Fine Motor Skill Educational Toys: Products that Help Improve Handwriting and Small Muscle Development.
Encouraging Play and Imagination
Children's toys and products are a huge market. Many toys boast of their academic benefits with false promises of academic achievement. However, what is needed is for parents to scrutinize the toys and items with which their child plays.
Many toys strip the child of his imagination and his autonomy. Electronic toys with all the bells and whistles may serve to cripple the child's imaginative development. The toddler age is a critical time for the child to use his own thoughts to create and explore his environment. For more information on how toys can inspire child development, please read Waldorf Toys and Learning Theory: How Natural Playthings Build Imagination and Creativity.
Socialization and the Young Child
A toddler tends to be social being, and he also needs interaction with his peers. Parents need to be cognizant of the amount of time their child has interacting with others his age. Play groups, organized religious instruction, and some community activities may be the basis of these social relationships. The only caution is that parents should not spread their child too thin. Young children need not be involved in an excessive number of activities.
Follow the Child's Natural Interests
Children have a wonderful natural curiosity. Parents need to capitalize on their child's interests to provide teachable moments. One could use a child's passion about cars to teach many concepts- from colors of paint to the number of wheels on the vehicle. Parents can "sneak" these academic concepts into the toddler's life without creating a stiff, controlled environment. Parents may find that the child becomes inwardly interested in learning about academic concepts without parental pressure.
Parents would better meet their child's developmental needs by keeping in mind the following quote from Einstein Never Used Flash Cards. " Childhood has its own way of seeing, thinking, and feeling, and nothing is more foolish than to try to substitute ours for theirs." What parents may discover through this gentle approach to preschool education is a child with a natural desire to learn academic concepts. This internal desire and motivation to learn is perhaps the most important gift parents can give their child.
Reference:
Einstein Never Used Flash Cards: How Children Learn and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Diane E. Eyer. 2003
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