Help me with my preschooler- teacher input wanted

amother

Tue, Nov 11 2014, 2:49 pm

I usually have a hard time dealing with my preschooler.

I get very bored playing with him and reading the stupid books out there for 4 year old kids.

I also dislike housework so him doing that with me is not an option.

I decided that because he is so smart, why not interact with him in a fun way and teach him things?

He is ready for learning the ABC's and numbers. I also would rather read him interesting things about science and history than curious george or cat in the hat.

can you recommend good books and websites for me to enrich him. it will be good for both of us and provide a fun learning experience with mommy.

also ideas for project supplies would be good. I can make abc and number projects with him to make it more exciting.

Dolly Welsh

Tue, Nov 11 2014, 2:58 pm

Alibris dot com website has a million children's books of all kinds; just do some searching and looking around there. I like the "Eyewitness " series; it has nice color pictures.

http://www.alibris.com/Shell-A.....s=156

I liked Zoobooks.

http://shop.zoobooks.com/Landi.....VYA5A

National Geographic has interesting pictures, perhaps. Some may end up on the wall.

Google "teacher supplies" and you will find websites full of stuff that might interest you.

I fully support that YOU have to be interested. I never liked Seuss anyway, or Sesame Street, or Disney, or Toys R Us, myself, either.

I did like Edmund Scientific website.

Always have stuff around that is too advanced for the kid (unless there is a safety issue). That way when the kid is ready for it, it is right there. They don't tell you when they are ready for things, but they will be, they will be.

Yes, some things are never of interest and "go to waste", but that's absolutely ok.

Put pictures on his wall at his eye level, which is low down.

Google and google "children's books" and "children's learning" and all that.

The Judaica stores and websites have good things.

The homeschooling people know lots of sources; there are threads here about that.

Last edited by Dolly Welsh on Tue, Nov 11 2014, 3:24 pm; edited 2 times in total

Shopmiami49

Tue, Nov 11 2014, 3:00 pm

What I have done that my kids and I have really enjoyed is:

1) Pick a theme to learn about; planets, butterflies, fish, etc., and jump with it. One summer, we chose fish and we looked up things on the web about fish, found interesting pictures, took out books from the library about fish, made edible fish projects (fish sticks, fish crackers on a blue plate with a red pepper boat stuffed with tuna(fish), all sorts of arts and crafts that were fish themed, played Go Fish, played the fishing game with rods, you could even go fishing, etc. With butterflies, you can do the same types of ideas and even end off with buying the butterfly kit that you can raise real caterpillars and send them off when they grow big enough.

2) Work your way through a science experiments book for kids - even simple things like what happens when you ice in hot water, butter in the freezer, then butter in hot water, plant seeds, etc.

3) Buy some science kits for kids, like growing crystals, etc.

amother

Wed, Nov 12 2014, 12:01 pm

2gether wrote:

I would skip the abc unless you want him to be bored in school.

-a teacher

well he is learning abc now in school but I get the feeling that they do it as an afterthought. their focus is alef bais right now. I am avoiding teaching alef bais for this reason.

maybe I'll focus on history, science, geography since boys schools are not big on those subjects anyway. I'll leave the reading and math for school.

2gether

Wed, Nov 12 2014, 12:13 pm

amother wrote:

they are doing it as a "afterthought",as not to burden and confuse the kids. Once the're done alef bais, the'll do the abc.
History, science, geography is a great idea, you can also do pre math( not numbers,+ and - , but logic ,look for kindergarten level math books)

MaBelleVie

Wed, Nov 12 2014, 2:16 pm

Shopmiami had some great ideas. I'm a big fan of enrichment in other areas, not specifically letters/reading. See what your child's interest are and learn about that: astronomy, animals, plants, electricity, construction, cooking- the possibilities are really endless.