teaching your toddler-preschool kid

[hunny_ally]

^thanks marose for the assurance! I was just weirded out with the examiner's comment. Siguro it's really with the style of teaching. I'm having 2nd thoughts tuloy if I should move S to a traditional school next year.

[iceebaby]

I agree with sis Marose... I think that penmanship is somehow "mana". Hehe... My son had trouble with Penmanship too and the school told me in nursery that he had a poor grip, might be left-handed.

I was bothered. What do you expect nga naman from a 4 year old who grew up with a yaya who did all the things for him. Then my husband who writes like a 7 year old (at his age now!) haha...

Though, it was also readiness skill.  Nakaka worry, I bought Handwriting without tears and did a lot of tripod grip exercise (drop the pencil and pick it up several times).

Well, I dunno... just suddenly when he turned 5.5... gosh! He was surrounded with paper, writing tools, "sticky tape", my post-its from my home office. ayun... he just made lots of free drawings w/o my assistance.

Happy to know that they really just learn it at their own pace.  He writes in calligraphy now at Prep (kailangan sa school). May pag ka OC pa nga.

So, each child is really unique and in time they will all normalize with the rest of their peers.  Especially kids with moms who are tutok with our chikitings.

On a side note, sis Hunny_Ally... I hope you reconsider the school.  Minsan nakaka add ng worry natin is when teachers communicate with us parents like ang laking problem ng anak natin.  It got me worried so much before when my son's teacher told me in a parang "emergency case" na ang reading and writing ng anak ko.  Whereas, when I moved him in a Montessori based school... I told them my concern and his adviser told me... "at their age we cannot expect them to be perfect.  We will teach them and there are kids who cope fast and meron talaga na ganun ang pacing nila. Ok lang po yun."

I didn't look back and placed him in that school.  Happily, my son loves school and even hates it when Friday na kasi no school na daw the next day.

[DV]

hunny_ally, ganyan yata talaga ang exclusive girls' school, they pay a lot of attention to handwriting (I came from a coed school, but I heard and I know someone from Assumption na meron silang 'standard' handwriting style).

---

I'm now teaching my daughter about weight/mass. Bought a diet scale and I let her measure the weight of different objects and food items. We also play rice-store; I pretend to buy rice (eg, 100g) and she needs to give me the right amount.

[hunny_ally]

^^iceebaby, the school is just a back up school in case she doesn't pass our first choice. its just too far from where we live. i'm just surprised with the teacher's comments. sabi nga ng husband ko, comparing our daughter with my niece who goes to nursery in the same school, my daughter seems more advanced than her. my niece is only starting to write now and cannot even count beyond 20. plus, i dont hear anything from daughter's current teacher aside from positive feedbacks [o ayan im being defensive again!]. and like in your son's montessori school, my daughter's teacher keeps reassuring me she's doing well for her age and you cannot really expect perfect handwriting at age 4.

re mana-mana, i guess my daughter got it from my brother (and my husband too). my brother has really bad writing and laging siyang needs improvement when he was in preschool in lsgh. but kung sa pagka-bibo, eh sobra-sobra ang brother ko. same way with my daughter. para siyang mini-me ng kapatid ko. i guess kanya-kanyang strengths and weaknesses yan. i just dont like to force my daughter to overcome the weaknesses asap. i mean i want her to do it in her own pace. kasi i notice with her the more i force her to do something, its a source of irritant for her and that makes her really crabby. and i dont want all that drama just because of handwriting!

[team_charlie]

Your kid did well naman pala, even moving to the next level of the application process. And aminado ka naman that her handwriting's not that well yet. Take it as a constructive criticism na lang. Wag ma-stress drilon. 

My kid is 4 yrs old, her handwriting is improving daw according to her teacher. They have a white board with blue red blue lines in school where each kid has to write his/her name every morning. During the start of the school year, lagpas lagpas daw yung sulat ng kid ko sa blue line and dikit dikit yung letters. A few months after, within the lines na siya and may spaces na in between.

[hunny_ally]

^more than siguro than being defensive about the whole thing, im just getting confused with the feedbacks of the teachers. my daughter's current teacher says her handwriting is ok and all, then there comes this teacher who says it needs improvement (thats just after less than an hour of assessment). that is why im having 2nd thoughts with our decision to move our daughter to a traditional school next year. just like what iceebaby said with his son being pictured by his teacher as an 'emergency case'. i  guess i just want my daughter to learn on her own pace and not forced learning.

[lalei]

I might already be adapting the educational environment of Aussies because I'm not really forcing my son to learn to write even if he is already turning 4 in Feb. We focus more on his love for reading, independence, social, emotional, and speaking skills, which is what Kindergarten is all about in Aus. Their learning is all play-based. They have show and share and each child gets a turn every week. Noong una medyo hysterical ako kasi ang mahal ng binabayad ko sa childcare nya pero ndi man lang nila formally turuan ang mga bata ng pagsusulat at pagbabasa. Literally naglalaro lang talaga sya. On second thought, okay na rin ang structure nila kasi mas nagiging well rounded ang development ng mga bata at mas confident sila to air their views and feelings.

Hunny_ally, don't stress about your daughter's writing. She will learn it in time.

[iceebaby]

I feel that there should be a seminar for teachers on how to speak creatively and effectively(?). They should be able to understand and relay to parents in a manner na hindi naman parang "end of the world" na ang bata. Since, some kids have different readiness stage and they should not assess based on majority.  Most kids normalize eventually, and preschool is not a basis of good grades in the future.

Nakaka stress kaya that after a PTC when a teacher tells the parent their kid is having a hard time with this or that... then wala naman siyang course of action but to say -  tutor lang.  Then after that, we (I find myself guilty with this)... throw on every research on the net and start bombarding my child's "inability" daw.

Then, pagtapos ng ilang months... walang ka ano-ano... the child started to understand things on his/her own w/o any too much intervention. 

Kaya, toddlers/preschoolers learn differently talaga.  Nakakaloka lang talaga pag may narinig ka sa ibang teachers something about your child kaya super defensive din ako, like sis hunny_ally. I can so relate.

[tiggerlily]

same with attitude na lang e. ang hilig hilig kasi mag-compare ng mga tao. bakit daw pukol ng pukol ng toys. bakit daw hindi ko bawalin. of course binabawal ko naman pero hindi sa harap nila kasi syempre napapahiya ang bata. after some time marunong na sya mag-ayos ng toys nya. usually it's just a phase na hindi sila marunong. after some time matututunan na rin nila yun. maghubad at magbihis kasama rin. tinitrain ko ang anak ko to do things on his own kaya hanggat makakaya ko wala kami yaya. bukod sa sakit ng ulo, para kang nag-anak ng isa pa.

[iceebaby]

Yes, tiggerlily, i agree... dream ko nga ngayon na walang maid in the house kasi iba sila nowadays. hay... maybe, dream lang talaga.  Tsaka true, they will learn it eventually... depende sa phase nila yun.

Although, I've read an article in the US that there is a decline in camp attendees.  Alam niyo naman diba sa US they have these camp thing during summer - so kids can somehow rough it out.

The article apparently said that the decline was caused because of overparenting.  Meaning, most parents are not too keen leaving their kids away from them.

Here's the article: Welcome to the age of Overparenting - http://www.bostonmagazine.com/scripts/print/article.php?asset_idx=329920

What are your thoughts on this? Ako din napapaisip...

[hunny_ally]

^i'll read the article later...but yes i do agree. i read in an article somewhere that "helicopter" parents/moms are on the rise in the US. not really good for the kids. Which reminds me of a quote before that equates parenting to learning how to bike. at first, you will have hold and guide your kid while he's learning how to balance and pedal his bike. Eventually you'll have to let go of the bike and let him pedal it by himself. But this does not mean you wont be there...You'll be there behind him looking after him. You'll help him in case he falls. Help him to get back on his bike and then let him play again.  Sa Bill Cosby show ata 'to.

[tiggerlily]

^^ di mo naman masisi ang parents kung mag-overparenting. di ba recently rin lang yung sa france na pinagbabaril yung mga campers? and also sa mga colleges sa US, may mga bigla na lang papasok na may dalang baril at mambabaril. sa dami ng bad elements sa environment natin, magpapanic ka kapag lumabas ng pinto anak mo e.

pero sa totoo lang gusto ko yan mga camping for kids kahit matuloy pa akong maghomeschool next year. yun yung mga gusto ko matutunan before na hindi ko nagawa when i was still studying. strict ang parents ko e. hehe!

reading the articles now...

[delisyus]

Moms... sa Waldorf schools, they don't teach kids to read and write till the child is 7 years old. Meanwhile, they let these kids have fun with art, daily chores and nature.

A child who knows how to write at age 4 isn't necessarily a smarter child than someone who doesn't write... he just knows how to write. A good skill to have but not really a matter of life and death for a 4 year old.



Tigger...that's one thing I haven't researched,  if may Boy/Girl Scouts sa homeschooling   That's the closest to camping we have here eh.

[stormy]

@inkslinger, dv and iceebaby thanks sa mga input nyo sis

I have heard the teacher host a school program, maayos naman magsalita. Ginagamit nya rin sa sentence yung word. Anak ko lang nalilito kasi sa examples ko at yun actual na ginagamit nila sa school.

Halimbawa, lump. Ako, ginamit ko as bukol sa school ginamit as "buo-buo" tipong lump sa mixture hindi pa naman ganun kalawak isip ng anak ko.

Another area saan nahihirapan anak ko ay yun pag may pictures tapos may arrow kasi yun area na yun yung tinutukoy. Example pix ng fish pero yun arrow nakaturo sa fins lalo na pag maliit yun pix.

Nitong nagreview kami, lahat ok naman. Dahil sanay sya sa letter sound mabilis sya natuto sa spelling nun wala pa syang 4yo. Mas una syang natuto magspell kaysa magbasa.

Sana maging ok resulta ng 2nd term tests nya

[aceofhearts]

I'm just so happy that my 3 year-old son knows how to read already. I just heard it last night after coming from a busy day at the office. I can't explain the feeling when he read the word "eyes" "nose" "legs" and a lot more. His school is really good plus my Yaya right now is also a graduate student. That's why I am confident that my son will continuously learn even if he stay in our house all day long. 

Our daily routine is that I make sure every night we read books together, play educational apps in our ipod touch, recall shapes, colors, numbers, etc. Weekend for us is a mommy and baby bonding/learning day. We clean the house together, play, cook, read books, do art works, etc.

Well, I admit that my time for him is very limited but i make sure that I give him my 101% after a long day/week at work. 

I'm just so proud of my son! In fact, when my mom also heard the words last night, she can't believe that at 3 years old, kids nowadays can read na. 

[beatrize zuri]

^ wow sis, galing naman ng kid mo. yung dau ko she's 2, pero she already know abc's, numbers 1-20, shapes, colors, parts of the body, animals, and she knows na how to hold a pencil nakakatuwa lang kasi she loves books talaga, me and hubby were planning to send her na sa school by june she's 3 by then, were so proud of her.
 
like you sis, im very grateful sa yaya niya kasi tinuturuan din siya super helpful yung grolier books niya the funthinkers and magic english ang dami niyang natutunan., what i like about my dau is that studying or learning new things for her is playtime 

[aceofhearts]

^ Wow sis! Good for your daughter too! Iba na talaga mga babies ngayon. They're all smart. hehe! My son loves to read books too. Kaya encourage pa natin sila. 

My son also started reading around 2. At the age of 1, dami na rin niyang alam, may pag ka bulol nga lang.  I enrolled him sa mga summer play class as early as 1 and when he turned 3 nasa toddler class na siya.

I was told by his teacher yesterday na he is ahead of his classmates. He is like the kuya daw and leader sa class. Very independent, active in listening and a good follower Nakaka tuwa lang kasi hindi ako ganun! lol! Right now, what I like him to learn naman is how to write his name.

I'm not forcing him to learn all in one seating, I just want him to enjoy while studying. 

[beatrize zuri]

^oo nga sis, encourage natin sila for them to develop their hidden talent and skills pa. nakakatuwa mga kids natin, kahit pareho tayong working mom we see to it na may enough time tayo sa kanila which is very important.
 
gusto ko na nga rin siya ipasok sa mga summer class kaya lang bulol pa siya magsalita kaya sabi ko wait muna kami hanggang june  , toddler class na lang siya by then.
 
goodluck sa mga kids natin 

[lilsaintsm0m]

I'm teaching my son basic math through abacus. So ancient ways pa yan haha he likes it very much. It's so sad lang when we were looking for one di alam ng mga tao kung ano yun . Modern na kasi ngayon lahat.

[marose17]

^ My sons have an abacus by Plan Toys. I also saw an abacus by Melissa & Doug.