Home Education for Toddlers

yehudis

Wed, Dec 29 2004, 11:26 pm

I am keeping my 3-year-old daughter home this year. We do lots of thing -- parsha, projects, books, field trips, play dates. And she is very philosophical and asks lots of questions. We talk about Hashem a lot. We talk to Hashem. We talk about mitzvos. Etc.

rydys

Fri, Dec 31 2004, 11:54 am

I feel that home IS the education for toddlers. I don't do anything extra. My kids learn by watching me prepare for shabbos, clean the house, read books, etc. Since I work my youngest is always at a babysitter for a few hours a day. Rather than having her at home, I send her to the home of a frum woman who is doing all these things. Before sukkos, she played in the sukka while it was being built. Before pesach she'll see pesach cleaning. I don't think we need to do "extra" things to teach our children at that age, just being in a frum home environment is enough.

Yael

Fri, Dec 31 2004, 12:32 pm

I dont do much extra, but since levi is not at school and when he starts I dont want him to be unfamiliar with some basics, I expose him to the types of activities he'll be doing next year. some things I do with him are arts n' crafts, simple things basically just coloring and I bought him a pair of kids scissors and he loves to practice cutting. this past week I did a new project with him. he would cut up peices of construction paper and then using a glue stick he pasted them onto another paper. another thing he loves is watercolors.he isnt so good at the whole thing and mixes up the colors but he loves it so we do it.

aside from that, I teach him colors and letters. he already knows half the aleph bais, and last night I started colors, we'll see how it goes. everything is in the context of everyday life, I dont sit down and say ok now we're going to learn. for example he was helping me take out the vegies for a salad, so I told him the tomatoe is red and the cucumber is green. then we looked for other things with those colors.

middy

Sun, Dec 11 2005, 12:12 am

I just want to say I was lucky enough to be able to keep my daughter home until kg when I took her for an interview the principal askked where she goes to school and I said nowhere yet the principal answered that's so nice I've never heard of that before!! By the way she's in first grade now and it has never been a problem- this "lack of education" so I say keep your kids home as long as you can . You don/t need any formal teaching just let them help you and tell them about what you 're doing show them things around you etc...

deedee

Sun, Dec 11 2005, 12:35 am

what skills did ur daughter have by the time she went to school? since most jewish schools start so young they are alreaay learing alef beis and starting to read hebrew in kindergarten. how did u make sure ur daughter was up to the rest of the class' level? I also want to keep my daughter out of school as long as possible (homeschool)so I am really curious about integration.

middy

Sun, Dec 11 2005, 9:36 am

deedee if you can keep your child home, go for it! I read lots of books with my daughter we went to story time at our library once a week. I gave her exposure to alef bais in puzzles and coloring books and tapes but I never sat and taught her each one. They started the year teaching alef bais and then I was very on top of it- reviewing every day- flashcards... but that was only once she had already started kg. The harder part is finding friends for your child to play with bec. everyone else is in school. I had a few friends who we made play dates with but most of the kids were younger than her

BinahYeteirah

Mon, Dec 12 2005, 5:50 pm

I seriously considered keeping my child at home. She is 3.5, but the issue Middy mentioned of finding other children for her to play with is the number one reason I'm not keeping her home. She will, iy"h, start school in January, but for now she goes to a Mommy & Me type playgroup once a week. She is already the oldest one there by 6 months! After school starts, the oldest child in the playgroup will be well under 2 years old. It seems that everyone sends to school here, and my daughter is already bored at home with me, despite all the activites I plan for her. It seems like the more fun things I have fo her to do, the less she can stand a moment with nothing to do (and believe me, it isn't that I've accustomed her to having Mommy always finding things for her to do-- she has had lots of playing alone time from a young age). Anyway, I just feel I can't keep her home when she loves to be with other children so much, and I can't find enough appropriate Jewish playmates for her.

If you can, that's great! It think it's best.

elisecohen

Mon, Dec 12 2005, 7:51 pm

There's a great book called, "Kindergarden at Home." It's not really kindergarden specific; what it really is is an explanation of how everyday activities with little or no planning on your part constitute a full early childhood curriculum. Around here it's available in libraries; I had a copy but gave it away and I'm afraid it's out of print. It's worth reading though, if only to see what you're already doing without even realizing it. It does have a lot of other activities you can arrange and do, too.

raizy

Mon, Dec 12 2005, 10:34 pm

I have the same problem with every child to keep home a extra yr or send out when they are turning 3 .

my baby will turn 3 next yr. but all my daycare kids will be a good 6 months or more younger then him. now it makes no difference but when he is 2.6 and everyone else is 2 and the rest is less then 18 months then it makes a big difference. so I have to decide what I am doing.

also my newborn will be here b"h and I dont know if they will click or not..