Quote from Forum Archives on August 2, 2007, 10:13 am

Posted by: hopechestnews <hopechestnews@...>

Hello Hope Chest friends!

 

It seems like just yesterday that we were announcing the birth of our little Melody Lynn, but it's already been two years!  Mel'y is such a cuddly cutie pie, but full of mischief, too.  A couple of weeks ago, she snuck into Joanna's bedroom and dumped a container of itty bitty beeds all over the place.  To add insult to injury, after Joanna finished cleaning up the mess, she went back to the dining room to finish her lunch and discovered that Melody was happily munching on her sandwich!  (If you would like to see my daughter Rachel's photo montage of Melody in April, click here:  www.homeschoolblogger.com/pictureperfect/family

 

Most of our family drove down to south Florida last weekend to celebrate the 1st birthday of Thad's niece Lauren.  I noticed that his sister Sarah had bought a really neat baby gate to span the wide entrance from the foyer to the living room.  It is a Configure gate made by Kidco, they are about $120, and you can get them at most of the on-line baby stores.  It has three sections, so it doesn't have to be in a straight line, which makes it very versatile.  The ends bolt to the wall. The walk-through part was pretty easy for me to open, and the gate swings in both directions. I'm really tempted to buy one to keep Melody out of trouble, especially since we start school next week.  I know she's likely to be our last child (I'm turning 44 next month, and this old body is getting creaky!), but as my kids remind me, we'll probably have at least a couple dozen grandkids eventually, so it wouldn't be a waste.  We'll see.

 

Well, since we're on the subject of preschoolers, I thought you might enjoy short excerpts from my books:

 

Here is one from the chapter "Little People in the Home School" in The Real Life Home School Mom (which also includes lots of practical tips on how to handle preschoolers without going quite as crazy):

 

Enjoy Your Little Ones While You Can!

 

            I occasionally write notes about my children in one of my notebooks.  It is fun to see how they have changed, and they get a big kick out of me reading their "histories" to them.  Here is one of their favorite stories.  When Mary and Julia were three and almost two, I lay sick in bed nursing newborn Rachel.  As I read a Christian parenting magazine, I marveled at my sweet little girls who weren't bothering Mommy.  Then hysterical giggling tipped me off to trouble.  Little did I know that they had been downstairs in the kitchen, dumping a gallon of milk all over the chairs and floor, and tossing cereal, crayon wrappers, and toys into the flood.  As they grew up, when I was sick, these same daughters would entertain the little ones, fix lunch, make get well cards, and tidy the house.  Praise be to God!  They do grow up! 

            Here's another tale: I rushed around getting ready for a baby shower, and then when I went to put on some clean non-Mommy clothes, I discovered that my bedroom was wall-papered with a whole bag of sanitary pads.  I knew I couldn't be the only mom in this boat, so as an icebreaker at the shower, I asked each mom to describe some silly antic committed by their children.  Soon we were all roaring in laughter! What mother hasn't found a child with scissors behind his back and a hunk of hair on the floor?   How about toothbrushes in the toilet or melted crayon all over the clothes in the dryer?  Little ones can be a constant source of humor.  One time I snapped, "You drive me bananas!" at one of my preschoolers.  With perfect aplomb, she retorted, "Well, you drive me strawberries!"

      Our family often takes a walk around the block.  Our preschooler trots along behind his sisters, giggling all the way, but he also stops several times, fascinated by sand, rocks, and scolding blue jays.  The look of wonder on his face is a priceless memory.  Children enable us to see God's creation freshly.

            Fresh?  Well, sometimes our children are anything but!  At times the sights, sounds and smells of little ones turn even a devoted Mommy off.  Stick him in the tub to get him squeaky clean.  Put on his cutest clothes.  Then sit down to cuddle and play, sing a sweet song and nuzzle in his soft hair.  Your little one needs it and so do you.

            Fall in love with your small children all over again.  It is their birthright.  Children are a blessing, whether we have many or few.  Love, nurture, protect, and train them to the best of your ability as a faithful steward over the most precious of all God's creation.

 

 

And another one from the chapter "Teaching Through the Years" in Common Sense Excellence: Faith-Filled Home Education for Preschool to 5th Grade:

 

 

Key #3: Respect the Ages and Stages of Childhood Learning

 

God has designed human beings to grow into their responsibilities.  We don't birth miniature adults!  Children progress through natural stages of learning as they mature; much of our frustration can be avoided if we learn what we can reasonably expect. Then we can avoid the temptation to pressure our children to do things better or faster than they are ready to do them.  Parents often ask, "When should I start?"  You already started educating your child at birth, and you've been doing it ever since.  The question really should be, "When should I introduce this or that skill?" or "When should we start more formal academics?" or "What methods should I use at this stage of development?"  Here are some tips:  [Virginia's note to Hope Chest readers: I am only including a few of these tips from the book right now.  There are many more, but these are the ones most applicable to the preschool years.]

 

Establish good habits early on.  Work on basic reverence, respect, kindness, diligence, or orderliness from a very young age.  This investment of time and energy will pay hundredfold dividends in the future.  Imagine teaching a child who is cooperative, willing to work hard, and cleans up after himself!  Work on it every day!

 

Use concrete methods, rather than abstract methods, for a young child.  Hands-on learning is so important in a child's developmental progression.  Young children can't automatically understand abstract concepts. They must start with concrete learning experiences using things they can see, hear, touch, move, smell and taste.  Just watch a toddler explore the house -- opening and shutting drawers, banging a spoon on the table, pouring juice from one cup to another, dumping out a bucket of blocks, and hopefully putting them back again.  Math is another great example of the principle of concrete learning.  You could show a four year old a piece of paper that has "2+3=5" written on it.  The squiggles on the paper, and even the spoken words "two plus three equals five" are abstract symbols for something.  Unless he can decode the symbols and translate it into real life experience, it means nothing to him.  He will get frustrated if you expect him to make sense out of it.  But if you put a pile M & M candies on the table, you've got his instant attention. He counts out two groups, shoves them together, and counts the total.   That's concrete learning.  That's common sense learning.

 

Start with the simple and move toward the complex.   In nature studies, a preschooler may be able to tell the difference between a zebra and a giraffe in a picture book, but the older student will learn about how they live, what they eat, why they have their unique markings, etc.  In story telling, a picture book usually has very simplified plot, setting, characters and ending; a more advanced story adds details, throws in some sub-plots, and develops the personalities of the characters.  In math, the young child counts and adds small numbers, while the fifth grader will encounter mathematical terminology, symbols and processes (dividend, divisor, quotient, various formats for division problems, how to do long division, etc.)  Looking back to the preschool years, it's hard to believe that a child has learned so much, because it has come in lots of little baby steps, with an occasional quantum leap forward. 

 

When giving instructions, use the KISS formula: "Keep It Simple, Sweetie!"   You can say, "Give me the book!" to a toddler who has it right in her hand, while a kindergartner could understand, "Go get the red book on your bed."  A 2nd grader could handle a two step command such as, "Look on the bottom shelf for the book called Polar Bears and read it before you eat your lunch."  A fifth grader can follow an even more complicated sequence, like "Go ask Susie where her polar bear book is, then finish reading it to her, starting at chapter five.  Be sure to write it down in her record book!"  If you need to give a sequence of instructions to a child who has trouble with multiple steps, either write them down, have her repeat them back to you, or give one instruction at a time and then have her come back for the next one. 

 

Work on "readiness skills" with young children.  Read stories, recite rhymes, and sing songs.  Introduce them to the foundations of early education: letters, numbers, shapes, colors, sizes, sequences, etc.   Let them draw, string beads, stack blocks, and do puzzles.  This seems like play, and it is!  But it also gets them ready, in a gentle and pleasant way, for the more serious stuff down the road.

 

Use the Three-Period Lesson. Dr. Maria Montessori developed this three-step approach to teaching young children about names of objects, as well as characteristics of size, color, shape, texture, etc.  Most parents do this naturally, without knowing what to call it, but here is a summary of the three steps:

·        Period 1 -- Recognition of Identity: The parent tells the child what the object is.  This may take several times, perhaps by looking at the same pictures in a book each day.  For example, the parent might point to a picture and say, "This is a daisy," perhaps adding a little description to help the child recognize it in the future.  Nothing is required of the child but to look and listen. 

·        Period 2 -- Recognition of Contrasts:  The parent tells the child to select a particular object from several which are similar: "Which one of these flowers is the daisy?"

·        Period 3 -- Discrimination Between Similar Objects: The parent asks the child, "Which one is this?" and the child must give the correct name -- "Daisy!"

 

Many workbooks use this Three-Period Lesson concept when teaching letters, numbers and shapes.  In a Period 1 lesson, a book may show groups of objects with corresponding numerals, such as  five apples with the numeral 5. In Period 2 lesson, the child might be told to match groups of objects with their corresponding numerals, perhaps by drawing lines.  In Period 3 lesson, the child might be shown a group of objects and told to write the number, or shown a number and told to draw that many objects.   You can also do this concretely by playing with hands-on objects or flash cards.  As your child gets older, he will be able to make more subtle distinctions, such as identifying a bird he has just seen, or classifying his rock collection.  He will know what characteristics make each specimen unique from the others. 

 

 

~*~*~

 

I hope you have enjoyed these little excerpts! 

 

For more information on the books, you can click here: www.VirginiaKnowles.com/booksbyvirginia.  I did order a few extra of each title from the printer, so if you're interested, let me know!

 

 

Blessings,

Virginia

 

 

 

 

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