Recommendations for a new parent?

[knstrick]

Hi everyone!

I just recently discovered Brillkids and Early Learning with my 3 month old. My husband and I are 80% sure we want to do homeschooling, so I was wondering as a first time parent where should I focus my research on curriculum and if there were any recommendations?  I was also curious to the typical schedule people use, especially with a three month old. I am fortunate to work part time and to have family baby sitting for us, so I'm fairly flexible. Also, we only have one child now but we want more eventually, how do you incorporate multiple children in different ages?

Basically I need a tutorial on home schooling, .

Thanks!

[Dr Miles R Jones]

Dear knstrick,

I do professional curricum development and instruction for homeschoolers.  Here is the fruit of decades of teaching.  If you do reading and math well it is practically impossible to fail at the education game.  If you do not do reading and mathematics well it is practically impossible to succeed at education.

 So what does that mean.  You have a pre-schooler, start teaching them reading and math right now.  Don't wait for the proscribed age of 5 or 6 years old.  This came about mainly because children could not distinguish small print at an early age and were deemed incapable of learning to read.  The key is to start with very large letters and numbers.  It is not too complex with the right materials because the concepts are pretty simple at that level. 

That does not mean it is easy just because it is simple.  That is why this forum is so useful.  You can get good advice and guidance from parents who have done it before you and avoid making time-consuming mistakes.  One common mistake to to have your child involved in a dozen different activities thereby minimizing priority skills like reading and math.  Not that you cannot do multiple subjects just prioritize reading and math by doubling the time you spend on those subjects.

Feel free to contact me if you wish ([email protected]).  I will be happy to consult with you by phone at no charge.  I run a non-profit educational institute for home schoolers. 

[Rivka]

I agree with the recommendation to start young. I started with my son basically when he was born and at two years of age (26 months) he reads children books out loud (in two languages - we are a bilingual family) and is doing KD-level math. And he loves it. A child psychologist gave an informal assessment of 'highly gifted' but I think that any child can learn these things early in the right environment, and there is no downside to it, except maybe to have him placed at the right level (academically and socially once he does start school, but if you home school, that won't come up for quite a while). He still has a lot of time to play and be a typical pre-schooler (he also swims)

[Dr Miles R Jones]

Rivka,

Good for you!  I agree that all children can do this early reading and math.  Not all parents can teach it however.  So my hat is off to you. 
One thing I find neglected is that having achieved early reading and math and a child way ahead of others his age some parents hit the cruise control and just coast.
Reading and math are only the first square on the game board.  Very few materials will effectively tend to the needs of a kid way ahead of the curve. 
They are all designed for much older learners.  Also you get so much flack from the traditional education crowd. 
Have you had any run ins with those folks yet issuing dire warnings to you about teaching your child so early?

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Between 3-6 months is the perfect age to begin LR & LM. Have you downloaded the free trials yet? Once you develop a consistent routine, start incorporating your foreign language(s) of choice and a music program. Little Musician is due to come out soon and it's fantastic.

Also, I really love Montessori philosophy and find the concrete activities to be a perfect complement to balance a moderate amount of screen based learning. One of the choices I made as a parent was to not show broadcast television and restrict viewing to educational DVDs. This single decision has made a massive difference in the amount of knowledge and information my children have taken in and they have no idea that they're missing mindless cartoon garbage that is typical viewing for children their age. Here's a bunch of Montessori blogs, but you'll probably want to focus on infant Montessori lessons/blogs. http://www.onlinedegreeprograms.com/blog/2010/50-must-read-montessori-blogs/ Also, after getting consistent with a routine, many parents like to incorporate memory training and other right brain learning activities.

Best of luck!

[mother of faith]

With my first son I started using flashcards with him at 3 months and he seems to have better reading comprehension then my middle son who I started at 6 months.

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