What is your why for teaching early?

[queriquita]

There are a lot of reasons out there for teaching early, but I am curious to read how others articulate their WHY. Feel free to make your reply really long, but what has me especially intrigued is to know what your reply would be to someone genuinely curious if all you had were the length of an elevator ride to explain your why.

Mine? Because with all the unlimited potential that exists within us, within the human mind and body, I hope to equip my children with the ability to seek out their true purpose and find happiness fulfilling their path, regardless of how and/or if it changes throughout their life. I want my children to enjoy beauty around them on multiple levels, as well as see room for improvement and then improve their world. Knowing what I know about what young children CAN do, Can learn, can achieve, and how if nourished can create profound, exponentially vast and lifelong effects as they develop their being, what sort of disservice would I be doing to them and the lives of all who they may impact by holding them back, and for what reason? Is that reason truly worth NOT taking the steps to help them maximize their potential? Imagine all of the amazing problems that could be solved if more people were raised to not just see what is missing, but have the internal resources and spirit to take action and find solution. My mother is often heard stating that to reach the moon you have to aim past the stars, and who knows, you may just get that far! Can they accomplish happiness without learning to read or play an instrument or calculate formulas? Sure, but I would much rather give them the tools and teach them how to use them and leave the decision up to them as to if and how they use their gifts, rather than limit them by not gifting them.

[Mandabplus3]

Bright children are my gift the the future
It shuts up the harshest of critics and it's the truth from my heart.

[andreasro]

Their curious and hungry (of knowledge) eyes asked me that. They, my children, are the ones asking me to teach them early. The sparkles in their eyes, their joy, they way they are growing up are the biggest of WHY.
And the present counts the most: what makes them happy and joyful now is most important to me. What's more, early learning helps them in the future too.

[Tanikit]

When my first child was born it was natural to speak to her and point things out to her - its called human interaction and is more natural than not communicating with a child. As she grew our conversations grew and I realised there was a whole world out there I could show her - and also that I couldn't show her everything, but that I'd do my best to show her and tell her and let her experience as much as possible. Early learning is part of this - its a way of living, a necessity of life.

[MamaOfWill]

I don't think anyone can love my kid more than I do, therefore I don't think anyone can take care of him better than I can, so that's why I'm a full time mom.  So here we are, Wilhelm and me, what to do all day long (and days can sometimes be long! ) One of the biggest reasons I have teaching activities with Will is to give me something to do with him during the day.

Secondly, I had learning difficulties, it damages selfconfidence, and having to go to extra lessons and spending hours on homework meant I couldn't do other activities, like sports etc. so I was missarable in school and hated it - I would not want my child to go through that.

[mom2bee]

If I'm blessed to a) have healthy happy children and b) have the opportunity to stay home with my children in their early years, then I will definitely do early learning with them for the following reasons, not ordered exactly.

1) All people have genius potential and most just don't tap into it for a number of reasons. I just want to nurture whats already in my kids.
2) I want to homeschool my kids anyway so why wait till they're 5 or 6 years? Why not at 5 or 6 months?
3) I want to have a closer, happier, healthier relationship with my kids then I have with my parents and I'm hoping that if we bond over many engaging and stimulating activities that it will be a step in the right direction.
4) I want to make sure I don't fall into the habit of ignoring my kids, living alongside them like roommates, instead of actively participating in their life and having them participate in mine.
5) EL seems like a really great hobby and it something I've literally dreamt about since I was a kid of about 5 or 6.

[queriquita]

i'm loving the answers, thank you!

one of them reminded me of the argument that i made with daddy dearest when i told him i was teaching the baby ... his (and a lot of people's initial reaction was) i don't want him to be a nerd :-( i want him to be cool, play sports, have fun.

my reply: having him learn to read and excelling in the academics will allow him to finish his homework in half the time, not struggle in class, still ensure good grades and that he's actually learning, and yes, provide him EXTRA time compared to his peers to dedicate to sports, socialization, and being cool :-P without compromising his education or self-confidence because he's struggling and depending on only artistic or sports talent to hope for a decent future.

somehow, in the us, at least, there's this horrible stigma that smart equates to being an unhappy nerd.  i'm always reminded of the comparison between bill gates and jordan.  i don't know too many people who aren't impressed by all gates and his crew have accomplished.  i don't think 'unhappy nerd' is a fair stereotype and i don't think it's accurate, either.  in my experience, it has only been perpetuated by a social/learning structure that doesn't properly cater to 'gifted' children because it forces them into social alienation to keep up with their academic skills. case in point, sticking a 12 year old in a class with 16 year olds.  this isn't great, most of the time, as few 12 year olds are socially developed to 'fit in' with 16 year olds.  anyway, i'm running down a tangent that should be another topic.  thanks again for the replies!

[Frukc]

because I do not feel like a good enough mom. I'm pretty uncommunicative. I can not play very well. to compensate, I worked on early education.

[Mandabplus3]

Oh my Frukc! Oh no!  The fact that you even bothered to do something most parents never bother to even research let alone start to do makes you an awesome mummy        you cannot be a bad mummy if you do early learning. Early teaching shows that you love and care deeply for your children and their future and thus you must be an awesome mum      Maybe you need to practice playing and learn how to do that from your kiddies but that doesn't make you deficient in any way! My spelling is terrible, my daughters is awesome...it's OK if they are better than you at some things, it doesn't mean you are not special yourself. Sending you a virtual hug, you are great!

[fma001]

My reason is along the lines of what queriquita said. A child who learns earlier doesn't have to work as hard academically later on. A child who starts learning basic concepts in Chemistry starting at 4 or 5 and continues learning over the years will have a solid foundation in the subject by high school. They won't have the difficulty and frustration of a student who is new to the subject and is expected to master it in a semester or 2. It's better to learn a little over a long period of time than have to learn a lot in a short time. It's also far more effective. Considering that we are now in a knowledge economy, those with knowledge are going to have a better life than does who don't have it. A person with high knowledge will be in a better position to do what they want careerwise. Lower knowledge people will be forced into a career that they are capable or doing but maybe not what they want to do.

[mybabyian]

Because it is natural and easy for a baby to learn and it is natural and easy for me to want to teach my baby.  Most arguments against early learning say that babies are not ready and are being forced to learn.  On the contrary, a baby can learn to read, learn sign language, learn math, or learn multiple languages just as easily as they can learn their first spoken language.  It is wonderful for me to introduce my baby to the world.  I am blessed to have that priveledge.  And, if he learns nothing at least we have a wonderful time together.

[kmum]

My reply is probably going to be very different than many of the parents here.  When I first started teaching my daughter, my goal was for her to be able to read at a beginning level by grade one.  She has far exceeded my expectations & taught me so much more than I have ever taught her.

When K was born with Down syndrome 4.5 years ago, several well meaning doctors & nurses told me that she would probably be very happy & love music.  Their expectations were very low.  It wasn't until I got home & started researching on the internet that I learned about a very small minority of parents who were teaching their kids with DS to read.  I honestly found it difficult to believe & more than once I have admitted   that if, 5 years ago, you had told me that your child with DS was reading at almost a 4th grade level at 4.5 years, I would have politely said " Oh, that's wonderful." & probably walked away snickering. As I said, my daughter has taught me a lot!

I was intrigued enough though, that by the time K was 8 months old, I had built her a crawling track & to the doctor's surprise & disbelief (he had to see it before he would believe it), she was crawling! I was so excited by that success, that at abbout the same time, I started showing K the large, red, Doman style flashcards. Of course, ever the skeptic, I really had my doubts, so I was a "closet flash card Mom" for the longest time, but sure enough, just a few months after K's first birthday, she began showing me that she was learning some of the words!  She knew many sight words & had self taught herself all of the letters & sounds of the alphabet by age 2. She read her first commercial print book that we had not practiced at age 3.5.

Back to my goals - I had originally hoped K would read by grade 1.  I had 2 reasons for this:

1. I wanted the teachers to see a little girl who had potential to learn just like the other students in her class & I wanted them to have very high expectations because the higher the expectations, the more success a child will have.

2.  I wanted K to be able to pick up her books & read the directions, so that if she didn't understand or hear the teacher properly, then at least she could read & try to figure it out for herself.  She is already doing this by the way - she reads her math workbook instructions all the time.

Now, at age 4.5, my concerns have changed.  We have always planned to hold K back in school (as we did her older sister who was born in December), to allow her to have one more year of maturing as well as physical growth because she is quite tiny.  Rather than worrying about her keeping up, at least in the early years of school, I am worried about her being bored - it is a funny dilemma & one that I look forward to working on.  

My reasons for teaching her are still the same though.  I want her teachers to see that she has just as much potential as any other student & therefore, they need to have very high expectations. Also, although K speaks well for her age, she is not speaking as well as most typical kids her age. When the other kids in kindergarten are learning that the letter A say aaa, & she is already reading novels, I anticipate that she can work on catching up on speech.

I hope it's a long elevator ride, because I wrote a bit of a novel!

[queriquita]

oh, i'm loving them all! :-) thanks so much everyone for sharing!

i'm a big picture thinker and need that to plan my next steps and understand my why better. so, along those lines, i have certain goals in mind for my kids (yes, they take into consideration that they are individuals who will have their own interests too).  in researching all of this, however, i have come across some quotes that i think would fit nicely here, so as i come across more, i'll just add them to this post :-).

here are two to start (please feel free to add your own!):

"We do not want simply to produce educated young people; we hope to nurture educated activists and future leaders who can identify and help to resolve the challenges within their own societies and contribute to stability, peace, and justice in the wider world."
—HRH Queen Noor of Jordan, President of the UWC movement  (found here: http://www.uwc-usa.org/core - very neat school, btw)

"We are all prisoners of our childhood, whether we know it, suspect it, deny it, or have never even heard about the possibility."
 -- Alice Miller (found here: http://www.tagfam.org/whoisgifted.html - another wonderful little source about toddler giftedness, and yes, i will be reading her book soon)

[Scruff]

I was fortunate to learn to read as a young child.  I was able to read flash cards at 2 and parts of the newspaper by 4 years old. (Not quite as young as a lot of babies here but still at an advantage) I am very grateful to my Mom who introduced me to learning and reading so young that I have had a love for learning all my life.
I definitely found it beneficial in my schooling career and feel that it is the least that I can do for my child.  Somehow my Mom helped instill an actual love for learning which a lot of my friends didn't have.
My opinion with regards to nerds: nerds are people who study hard but if you are advanced and don't have to put as much work in because you were taught something previously and are still successul, you aren't a nerd ;-)
I don't find the time to read as much as I would like to but my biggest form of relaxation or holiday that I would desire, is to just put my feet up and read a book. So, reading is something that I enjoy.
I would love to give my little girl the gift of a love for learning and if she is capable to take in so much as a baby, then why not!?

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