Suggestions on where to go next

[Kballent]

DS is 27 months.  We are currently doing LR, reading a ton of books and going through the alphabet by theme to work on phonics and fine motor activities (http://memorizingthemoments.blogspot.com/search/label/Mommy%20and%20Me%20ABCs).  He is reading pretty well.  He can count to about 15 and knows his shapes, colors, and numbers.  I know it is a little premature, as we are only on J, but I am starting to worry about where to go next when we finish the alphabet units.  I don't think he will have the fine motor skills to write, which seems to limit my options.  Obviously we will work on the motor skills, but most of the pre-school workbooks I see in stores are pretty far beneath his cognitive level.  On the other hand, it is really early to start kindergarten home school curriculum.  I was thinking of maybe buying the first level of Math U See or Right Start Math (LM did nothing for him  ).  Has anyone else used either these this young?  I was also thinking we could do science units.  For example, we could do a unit on the human body, where he reads and learns about muscles, bones, etc. for a period of time.  That would give me a rough framework into which I could work a lot of different types of activities.  I am open to other suggestions also!  What have you done with your 2-4 year olds?

[Korrale4kq]

I would look into science units!
I used Basic Foundations for Scientific Understanding for James as our spine. I love the layout.... However I will warn you, there is a lot more reading and planning for the parent. We go through it slowly. We don't do any of the writing. We just read a lot of supplemental books.
The first units covered states of matter. So we got all the books about matter that we could find at the library. We also did things like melts ice, boil water. And watched a few YouTube videos. We lived breathed and talked matter for a month.
Then we moved onto gravity.  And now we are on energy... But ready to move on.

How about doing geography units? Start by covering the continents... I can't remember if you did this on your blog? I know you have lots of animals, cards and that landmark toob (I HAD to buy it!). You could teach him a little about different cultures on the continents. Teach him about the oceans too.

Have you been to IXL? They have a list of all the core requirements for all the grades. Have you covered all the topics for Pre-k? Money? Measurement? Comparisons? Etc?
I would cover all those topics first then move onto Kindergarten level math at his own pace.

Have you checked out Montessori Fine motor skills. These will strengthen Xander's for writing. Also do lots of coloring and scribbling.

[Wolfwind]

Big Girl A is 28 months and we ran into a similar situation.  I started a thread about how we're learning reading, spelling, and phonics using fridge magnets: http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-to-read/spaulding-method-for-toddlers-teach-reading-with-fridge-magnets/.  Since she can't write yet and she *refuses* to sound out words, this works well for us.  My first choice would have been DadDude's Fleschcards; you can find a link to them by searching the forum, along with implementation instructions.  But refrigerator magnets are working for us now.

We are using RightStart and it goes pretty well.  My daughter prefers reading and fights math, so we've been going very slowly, but Level A is not too difficult for a kid this age.  Have you checked out the toddler math threads?  http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-math/math-curriculum-for-toddlers/ and http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-math/pick-just-1-program-to-teach-toddler-math/.  There are lots of others in the last year, but these are huge.  The best part is all the recommendations for making math part of everyday life.  I have struggled with that, but Kerileanne99 has pretty convincing reasons to do it.  We do lessons from Right Start once a day, but my current goal is to keep track of how many books I read to her, and then talk about math that many times.  Get the book Marshmallow Math or just search the forum for ideas.  The end goal would be to spend equal amounts of time doing math and reading; we're not there yet, but I'm working on it.

This is based on some discussion in the Moshe Kai/Robert Levy thread about the importance of reading and math.  If my kids master reading and math hard-core, and later writing, everything else (science, history, world cultures, etc) will fall into place later.  Education is based on reading, writing, and math.  Because of that realization, I'm focusing this year on reading and math.  If at the end of this year Big Girl A can read books independently and do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of number on the 100 chart, I will add time for science and history and other things.  But those are my main foci right now.

I do try to get a book from the library every week on a science and one on a history or geography topic and read it several times, as well as one MathStart book for living math.  I love the idea of making the books correspond BFSU and talking about that topic for an extended period, and the same with a world culture unit.  But I have limited time and energy for EL, so I focus on reading and math.

[Korrale4kq]

The reason we do other things is because we plateau with math. We do informal math all day. Cutting things into quarters, talking about more or less, doing simple arithmetic with manipulatives or fingers. And then we do a dedicated 30 minutes a day of math time. But... we really don't have enough to do in that period of time, except work on money. Right now we are at a point where James needs to master addition and subtraction and it is the only thing holding him back from progressing. He can do addition and subtraction with a numberline and manipulatives. But it is just going to take him time to master facts. I honestly thought that he would get it by now. But I just think he just needs time. And not time like 30 minutes a day drilling him time. He needs growing time. Mental maturity.
We have come across this problem before. It took James ages to master same and different. Also top and bottom. No matter how many examples I gave him, or how many work sheets or cards I set up. Or how much I talked about it all day.  He just didn't get it and those were things that were holding him back for a bit before moving forth.
Eventually I just moved away from concepts completely for a bit. And we started doing science and geography more. A month later we come back to concepts and those things he was stuck on were no problem.

We had a similar plateau with reading. He was a good sight word reader of basic sentences. He refused to do phonics no matter what I tried... And I am very creative. All James needed was time to focus on something else. Then he flew past all the things I had been trying to teach him.

[Wolfwind]

That makes sense, Korrale4kq.  It all depends on how much time and energy I have.  I don't do 30 minutes of dedicated math time a day, let alone that plus informal math PLUS science!  So when I say I focus on math and reading, it's because I spend less time and energy total than you do, and that's all I really can do.  Those two are the most important to keep up.  But if those are already part of the day and there's time for science and geography, that's great!  Or if it's a plateau and math is only informal math and reading is just reading aloud, that's still enough to keep those two going.  I wish I could do more, but it's not in the cards right now.  My daughter would love it, I'm sure, if I could do science and geography and all that.  Maybe next year...

[Korrale4kq]

I can certainly understand time restraints and prioritizing.
If we didn't do something I don't know what I would do. I stay home and only have one kid. So being able to have the luxury to do things with James is great. But doing EL  is probably more for my sanity than his.

[Tanikit]

At 2.5 I did a reading curriculum with my DD where I read aloud to her loads of good quality books - she needed time to increase her experience of the world as well as her vocabulary. At the same time we worked on number recognition and started basic addition and subtraction using manipulatives and "story sums" I made up based on what she liked.  Her reading we continued with sight words and started blending - she could not blend by herself until I had sounded out words orally for her continuously for 2-3 months and then it clicked - I never expected her to be able to do it and just did it for her until she gave me the word when I said the letters. She started reading books shortly before turning 3 and then we moved to reading aloud from a book daily starting with her reading one sentence and then I read a sentence which also taught her full stops and breaks in reading. From 3-4 we did unit studies on very broad topics so I could asjust depending on how she did - so we would cover water and do the water cycle, evaporation and condensation - nothing was written, it was all just reading and experiments. History was mostly covered through story read alouds. I got a world map and taught continents and oceans and then pointed out countries we read about in stories, but didn't do any specific country study.  From 3.5 I did a proper phonics programme with her using OPGTR (Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading) to teach all the long vowels, r controlled vowels and so on - I just used the word lists in there to teach the rule and then followed up by pointing out words with that rule in books I was reading her and if they came up in her own reading I also pointed them out. At 4 I started teaching handwriting but still could not use kindergarten workbooks as they used lines and her fine motor was not ready for lines so I just taught letter formation with her writing the letters very big and then gradually increasing. Now at 5 I am using lines and her fine motor is able to cope with it. She is writing a lot independently without lines however. We started teaching spelling late last year around the time she turned 5.

[Tamsyn]

I would say the bits of intelligence/ encyclopedic knowledge is a great next-step.  I agree with the importance of the 3 R's, but I also recognize that this is a special time that we can wire our kids brains for all of the other stuff.  While my oldest wasn't an early, early reader (3.5, late by this forum's standards ) I have seen a lot of benefits from what I DID do when he was little, and that was a lot of bit cards.  I made quite a few and then I discovered all of the power-point presentations on http://www.childandme.com/ and primarily used those. I've gone through all of them and they are mostly very well done.  Where you have Little Reader, don't forget all of the great uploads members have made.  I can't emphasize enough how valuable the encyclopedic knowledge program has been for my kids, especially my oldest.  A lot of people were amazed at how he knew so much about things when he was a toddler.  He didn't call every four-legged beast a dog, he pointed out dalmatians and black labs.  He learned that everything has a specific name, and now that he is reading well, he makes an effort to find out what that name is.  He is very curious about the world and Bit cards were his firs introduction to it.  I have not been doing encyclopedic knowledge as well with my younger kids so I bought Tweedlewink videos- I need a "done for you" format at this stage in my life.  4 kids are more than 1 or 2!  But there is plenty of freebies out there to do it for less.  Just do it! 

I'm also going to give Little Musician a nod, as well as Your Child Can Discover.  They are great products if you can swing it.  I know I'm biased, and I don't recommend this for everyone, but I put music right up there with the 3 R's in my home.  I want our home to be a rich musical home and so I'm planting those seeds.  My whole life I've dreamed of being like Maria (Sound of Music version), but with my biological children.  Hey, why not?  I guess I need to learn how to play the guitar. 

[Jenene]

I can't seem to find any powerpoint presentation on the childandme website.  Where should I be looking?

[Tamsyn]

Here's an example of what to look for:  http://www.childandme.com/encyclopedic-knowledge-general-culture/.  Also check out http://www.childandme.com/news-and-updates/

Her site has changed quite a bit in the last few years, now that I look at it.  You have to dig a little to find them.  A few years ago there were a lot of new ones being shared.  We also had a thriving yahoo group a few years ago that has mostly died down but still gets new people with questions now and again.  We have all mostly moved to this forum, and I think a lot of new people find their way here now instead of there.  Moms are making LR files instead of PPT, but childandme used to be the go-to place to share your resources and to get them, and it still is a great place to get them.  I'm sure Alenka would welcome new files still too.  She has a great site.

[lois1]

Have you thought about a foreign language(s) & getting a grounding in that before advancing further in reading & maths? Or advancing slower in those areas while incorporating a language?

You likely have but just  a reminder... I agree with the other suggestions too; music definitely. Just learning about the world even if you aren't following a specific plan. I have a couple of the Usbourne encyclopaedias of our world/ science/ human body. They dedicate a page or 2 to a different topic & they are just great for starting of a little discussion/ experiment/ exploration. They are practically a readymade curriculum for a 2 year old. (My little boy is 28 mths.)

[dr_megan]

Roger Priddy - Pen Control. Buy it. This book shows you all the letters and numbers in dotted lines, and the pages are really thick and wipe clean. My child adores using a water-based marker (which comes with the book) to basically write the letters over the dotted lines. For about 3-4 months I had to put the pen in his hand correctly, and guided his hand over the numbers "hand over hand". Now he can pretty much trace the alphabet and simple shapes and lines himself unaided. Ie: this book gave him pen control. He is 2.5 and holds his pen like an adult and can trace the letters. Plus then there are a lot of other similar books by Roger Priddy, but this is the easiest, so start there.

[dr_megan]

Also, GeoPuzzle. My child loves putting together these 50 or so piece jigsaw puzzles of all the continents. Europe is the best one. He knows lots of capital cities because of it, and recently told a taxi driver "India is in Asia" because of it. He is 2.5. You'll have to hand him the pieces at first but once he does it over and over he'll do a lot of it himself.

[linzy]

Around age 2 we start Kumon books: the writing numbers, upper case letters, mazes, coloring. My sons would do a page of each and as we finished each one we'd move on to the next. We try to do a lesson of Right start A daily, but that does not always happen, and my elder son ended up moving straight into math facts at age 4 and the Saxon 5/4 right when he turned 6. My younger we are still trying to use the right start. We also would do a lesson from "The Ordinary Parents guide to teaching reading", reading eggs, readingbear and some reading to me out of either a Peter and Jane book or an early reader.

[dr_megan]

Oooh. Kumon. Good idea. I'm going to try it.

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