Encouraging academic development before school?

Sleepy

My daughter, who just turned 3 at the start of the month has started to demonstrate a capacity for reading. She can read her alphabet magnets and on two occasions recently when trying to encourage her older brother to read a word, she's piped in with the answer before him.

I'm delighted to see how quickly she picks things up and that she seems to take after me in one way at least (I'd be more academic whilst her mother would be more rebellious and artistic - Rory's been showing the rebelliousness since she could communicate!). I'm in two minds as what to do with this development though. My initial instinct was to spend more time with her reading, focusing on teaching her to read rather than just reading her stories (which she loves). Were I to spend a couple of hours a week with her and her older brother's 'teach your child to read' supplemental readers we got him last year with her, I think she'd be reading at (or above) a senior infants level before the summer.

I'm a little worried at potentially putting her too far ahead of her future class though. I know being towards the top of the class did me no favours in school from a social development point of view and I'd also worry about her being bored and getting herself into trouble all the time which might impinge on her enjoyment of learning (right now, like most 3 year olds, she's an absolute sponge for information and full of questions).

Any thoughts on this? Anyone have experience of their child being significantly ahead of the class in junior infants or even of being that child?

Ayla

As someone who's home educating, I would encourage you to take the child's lead & welcome any enthusiasm she has at the moment. She's obviously prime for this learning at the moment, and if you don't do anything with it, the moment can (and often does!) pass.

Of course, if you're planning on sending her into school in the next 1-2 years she may be ahead of her peers for a bit, but if you continue to stimulate her sense of learning (as a fun thing!) she won't become bored.

LegacyUser

My son is 3 and is also reading at probably senior infants level, takes after me avid reader pre school. We always read to him and help him identify words, play phonetics (spelling is my issue)etc and basically ensure it is an enjoyable game. A lot of children go to school able to read, probably due to to pre school and exposure to older children. Encouragement can never be a bad thing and opening a child to the joy of books has to be positive, perhaps when she starts school ask her teacher what they would advise to ensure ye are all on the same page (no pun intended). Enjoy your talented daughter!

Morag

I would suggest working on the development of her fine motor skills.
Lego, playdough, drawing, threading beads on string, cutting with safety siccors.
All of this prepare them for holding a pencil and makes writing a lot easier to them to grasp.

Ayla

Sharrow wrote: »

All of this prepare them for holding a pencil and makes writing a lot easier to them to grasp.

But that's not what the OP's daughter is showing an interest in right now... reading is. And those are completely different skill sets.

Morag

And there's nothing wrong with that but all early start programs focus on the development of motor skills to the point that on enrolment, art packs are sent home to work on those skills.

Ayla

I appreciate that, however if someone is keenly interested in one thing why push something else at them? If the OP's daughter was broadly interested in the range of learning then I would also encourage fine motor skills, etc, however (in the OP anyway) this was not expressed. The query was about reading only, so I don't see a point in encouraging needle threading, etc right now.

OP, I would really encourage that you continue what you're doing. Read to your daughter if it makes you both happy - that has been widely shown to be one of the best teaching methods anyway, as well as providing you both with wonderful quality time together. Then, if she expresses an interest in learning the finer points of reading (ie: sounds, word composition, etc) then run with it. But if the interest starts/stops or wains altogether it's ok, just let her lead the way & you'll be amazed at how quickly she "gets it".

Sleepy

Ayla, for social development reasons I really don't think I'd go with anything other than a school for her. No offence to your decision but I've never met anyone who was home-schooled who didn't end up at least a little socially awkward. Suffering from being a bit that way inclined myself is exactly what makes me reluctant to have her getting ahead of the class.

Sharrow: Lego, baking with Mammy (carpet floors so playdough's a nightmare for us) and drawing are already day-to-day activities for her. Will look into bead sets alright, think she'd love that as she's already showing a little girl's love for jewellery.

Are there any positives to being ahead of the class in school beyond good report cards? Without skipping grades (again something that would worry me for social development), a child isn't going to learn any more in a system that's geared towards the average ability of the group, are they?

Morag

Because if you have a bright child who finds the 'learning' easy when they start but the physical basics of drawing circles and triangles to be too challenging then you are setting them up to be very frustrated in school and you want to limit that as much as possible to make school a place which they feel they are achieving.

I personally don't think skipping grades is a good idea and there are plenty of ways to stimulate a bright kid outside of school and by supplementing their education at a home.

coffee_cake

Sleepy wrote: »

I'm delighted to see how quickly she picks things up

Sleepy, the thing is, if she's picking things up quickly she's going to pick them up quickly when she gets to school anyway. She will possibly be at the top of the class and bored out of her skull anyway whether she keeps reading now or not.
If she has an appetite for learning, do your best to nurture it now instead of keeping her back. It should always be encouraged. What Sharrow says is an idea as well, alongside the reading.

(Skipping a class later on is also a possibility without having any major effect as there were usually a wide range of ages in any class, in my experience anyway.)
If she does become bored at school, there are options such as music lessons or later on, stuff like chess, all sorts of extra curricular activities to keep her stimulated.

Sleepy

Ayla wrote: »

I appreciate that, however if someone is keenly interested in one thing why push something else at them? If the OP's daughter was broadly interested in the range of learning then I would also encourage fine motor skills, etc, however (in the OP anyway) this was not expressed. The query was about reading only, so I don't see a point in encouraging needle threading, etc right now.

The query was prompted by the discovery that she's showing the basics of an ability to read letters and the word "the". That said, she does exhibit an intelligence beyond what I'd expected in a number of areas (I know I sound like a bragging prat saying that but it's what I'm seeing... not saying she's "gifted" or big her up, in some other ways she'd be behind where her brother was at her age: much shyer etc.).

OP, I would really encourage that you continue what you're doing. Read to your daughter if it makes you both happy - that has been widely shown to be one of the best teaching methods anyway, as well as providing you both with wonderful quality time together. Then, if she expresses an interest in learning the finer points of reading (ie: sounds, word composition, etc) then run with it. But if the interest starts/stops or wains altogether it's ok, just let her lead the way & you'll be amazed at how quickly she "gets it".

That's pretty much what I've been doing, letting her take things in and ask questions. I guess what I'm wondering is whether it's better to encourage her reading beyond just praising it when she does it. We have the Oxford Learning Tree series of books at home which we bought to help her brother with his reading and whilst I'm pretty certain I could have her reading very quickly with them and think she'd enjoy it, I'm wondering if it's a good idea to put any focus on it... i.e. will I be doing her any favours in the long run...

egan2020

OP perhaps you could check with the school where you intend sending your child. I know some schools prefer that parents don't try to teach much reading or writing as the school/teacher have a certain method of teaching which might lead to confuse your child when she has to start learning the same thing another way. It might also be frustrating for her when she does start school, having to re-learn stuff that's you've already taught her. Maybe her junior infants teacher might give her a little extra to do when she's at school?d

Edited to add: It might be worthwhile posing this question in the Primary and Preschool forum. Personally, I'd be interested to hear the view of a teacher on this subject.

Ayla

Sleepy wrote: »

I'm wondering if it's a good idea to put any focus on it... i.e. will I be doing her any favours in the long run...

Of course you will! You'll be showing her that it can be exciting (and fun!) to learn, and she will gain in confidence by having such an advanced "grown up" ability.

Your daughter will learn whether or not you encourage it. She obviously wants to do this now, so why not show her your support & enthusiasm for it?

FYI, as a side note, I know home ed isn't for everyone. It may not turn out to be what works for us as a family either. But I am in touch with over 80 families nationwide who home ed, and can certify that those kids aren't any more socially awkward than any other child of their respective ages. It doesn't work for everyone, but neither does school

cynder

My young lady was advanced at 3 so i sent her to school at 3 (she turned 4, 2 weeks later) she did really well in J.Infants and S.Inants but in first class she struggled. She was kept back a year.

I thought putting her into school would be in her best intrest as she was bored at preschool. She did really well in both infant classes but as i said first class was a whole new ball game and she struggled. If i had of waited the year she would have been better off.

She is now in 6th and is doing mighty, gets great results (high average) scores of 7 and 8 in her sat's. So no complaints.... She was talking in sentences before her 2nd birthday and 2 of her her 5 words (before the age of 18 months) were money and important.....

Don't rush into sending her into school but do encourage reading and fine motor skills.

My nephew is now 10 and he is home schooled and very socially awkward, as are 2 friends of mine who were home schooled (their own kids now attend school)


My sons school teach the letters by saying: a says a as in apple, b says b as in ben, g says g as in goat and so on, my daughters school used letterland eddie elephant and all those, so you really want to be doing what the school will be doing....

Sleepy

grindelwald wrote: »

My sons school teach the letters by saying: a says a as in apple, b says b as in ben, g says g as in goat and so on, my daughters school used letterland eddie elephant and all those, so you really want to be doing what the school will be doing....

She'll be going to the same school as her older brother so we're lucky in that we've just been through the junior infants curriculum. She already has the 'A ah apple' bit down (albeit her diction is what you'd expect from a 3 year old).

egan2020

Sleepy wrote: »

She'll be going to the same school as her older brother so we're lucky in that we've just been through the junior infants curriculum. She already has the 'A ah apple' bit down (albeit her diction is what you'd expect from a 3 year old).

Well in that case, I'd keep going with it. I was thinking that if you were teaching her that A is A (like most of us were taught) as opposed to the way the alphabet is taught now with sounds etc that she might find it a bit confusing when she starts school but since you've already been through it with her brother, you know what you're doing. Best of luck with it

Have you considered teaching her things of an academic nature that might not be covered in school? I'm not a parent but I was always an awfully bored child in primary school, and when my mum would teach me ahead the teachers didn't like it (eg. it took me a particularly long time to get the hang of using remainders in division because she had already taught me decimals, but they were no good to me until a far later stage).

There are many academic subjects that are greatly under-represented in primary school. Things like science or music.

If she wants to read then let her of course, but there's no rush and she might as well learn with the other kids as otherwise she's just sitting around in school. If she's in a soaking-up-information mood though, you're not constrained to a primary school syllabus. Why not use it as an opportunity to widen her knowledge base at an early age?

silverharp

Aside from reading we have gone with the approach of encouraging other activities like music and languages. As far as strictly school related stuff is concerned I pushed ahead with mathematics and use an on line site for material and exercises, gets me involved as well and reminds me how to explain better why things are the way they are.

Moonbeam

My daughter is a few month younger and again a very intelligent child and very eager to learn.
She could sing her abc and count out 20 things to you in english or irish when she was 18 months,She was talking really well by 2.
I don't want her to be too bored in school so try to teach her different things.
She goes to Naionrá and loves it and then at home we learn about music,animals,baby sisters and pretend play.
If I wanted her reading it would be no effort to her but I am consciously trying not to put her too far ahead.
They have nearly 2 years before school starts!!

silverharp

I'd treat reading differently as it gives them so much freedom. My son can bring his own books into school to read and they have a good school and class library so although he has to read what the other kids are reading once he's done with the class stuff he does his own thing then. Its great for their confidence