Thanks very much!  Lots of food for thought!   

Looking forward to giving it all a go though.

Cheers for all the replies everyone.  I'm really glad I stumbled across this forum in my searching and I'm sure that I'll be asking lots more questions as time progresses!
 
One now though...when is the right time to start?  I'm thinking the responses might be along the lines of "it's never too early!" but wondered if there was any general consensus?

Mandaplus3, you're absolutely right...I guess my parents didn't know that education could be fun at the time...but what I do know is that I'll never try and force my boy to do something he doesn't want to.  Like I said, I know they meant well but it certainly left an impression on me (hence the fact that it's still fresh in my mind some 22 years later).

Ok great, thanks for the pointer!  Loads of really useful and interesting stuff on here   

Hey,

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my pondering!   

I am always coming up with things to stretch my more able students...for instance, some 12 year olds had finished the work early the other day so I had them learning binary.  Not on the syllabus.  Not on the curriculum.  No need for them to know it as far as the school are concerned.  But hey, they loved doing something that was taxing them for a change.  One of them came to see me the next day to say that he'd taught his parents basic 8-bit binary when he got home! 

As time goes by, my memories of school life are becoming more and more distant...but I shall never forget my French teacher, Mr Smith.  Oh my word.  EVERY lesson spent copying vocab off the board and then learning the words.  And I mean EVERY lesson!  I think that was one of the reasons I went into teaching...to make sure that at least the students in my charge had half a chance of learning something and having fun at the same time!    I was always in trouble at school...just silly things to make the others laugh.  I loved maths, physics, biology and art though...I couldn't stand English...I liked things to be black or white, right or wrong...none of this "opinion" related stuff!  Art was a release where I could just do what I wanted, as long as I could justify it...then I got bored eventually when I got fed up of people saying how good my stuff was...I thought they were patronising me.  Weird how the teenage mind works, huh?! 

All I know is that every child is different...might sound obvious but then you hear teachers complaining because the ADHD kid in their class won't sit still and listen to them drone on for 25 minutes.  Well...der...

I'm excited by the prospects of teaching kids as early as possible but at the same time wary of not wanting to turn them off education completely.  I remember rebelling at 11 because my dad forced me to cram for the entrance exam to our local selective school every night...I hated it.  Of course, he only had my best interests at heart but I really resented doing something I didn't want to do.

I love the idea of getting my child started early with his education and this looks like a fantastic website (only signed up today). 

I was a high ability student at school who got easily bored and instead resorted to messing about to get attention...I WAS the class clown/idiot.  Being a high school teacher myself, I see this happening a lot...having been in their position, I am able to come up with challenging exercises just for them and my classes are never disrupted...but I hear of these kids getting in trouble around the school...once you have a label as a "trouble-maker", it is hard to shift the idea that that is how you should behave in ALL your lessons.

Are there any concerns that starting kids off so early will put them at SUCH an advantage when they start school at 4 years old that they might actually find it difficult to engage with some of the lesson material?

Phil

Hi,

Can I just say what a great site this is...I stumbled across it while looking for ideas and inspiration for teaching my baby son.  I'm a high school teacher here in the UK and am used to working with hormonal teenagers but teaching the younger ones seems much harder! 

My wife is a Child Psychologist and she would certainly agree that most of the criticisms you've addressed on your site are nonsense.  My problem is knowing what to teach my boy.  I'd love him to have another language, for example.  I can speak Portuguese but I'm unsure of how I should deliver this and so on. 

I think this site focuses on reading and maths...but I'd like a wider range of activities to expose my son to in a structured way.  Being a teacher myself means I get a fair amount of time off during the year and I'd like to make the most of that.  I was thinking of things like nature walks and pointing out different animals/plants....painting and drawing....etc etc.  Obviously, good parents will do that sort of stuff all the time (and we do, when it's not sub zero outside!) but I almost feel that I need the security of a set curriculum...sounds crazy saying that for a 5 month old!!!

Anyway, keep up the excellent work and I look forward to my membership here.