My Daughters are going to be attending a private Montessori school. She is already very far ahead in her reading, and spelling and writing and a little in math but… I am concerned that when she goes into reception that she will be bored out of her brain so my question to all of you is this.
Instead of teaching her to write/spell/composisition and do math ( I will complete the JG kit I have and I will introduce the soroban because you can’t learn that in class here) Which she will learn in school I change the focus to languages (FRench and Chinese) Music (soft Mozart) and Right Brain Methods (Wink) and physical activity and art???
I really love teaching her all the school things but since I am not allowed to homeschool (and not sure if I want to) I am wondering if I shoul focus on other things and let the ‘school’ do its job (so to speak)
This is a tough call, since homeschooling is a legal and attractive option for me. (Even if I weren’t to do EL with my kids, I would homeschool.) however I love Montessori philosophy and I would like for my children to attend Montessori preschools if I could get them into one, provided that its got the great math program that I’ve seen.
I would place a greater emphasis on doing right brain and physical activity, but I wouldn’t exactly STOP reading and math at home. What I would probably do is begin actively teaching reading in French and Chinese.
I think completing JG could be a great idea and I would then switch to a stronger living math emphasis. Read books and play games about math and maybe you can do sustaining activities with your DD’s while they adjust to their new school, I don’t think they will be bored silly right out of the gate, because the new environment will provide a fresh take and approach to different things.
Play it by ear.
(You can’t homeschool, but must you put the kids in Preschool/ Kindergarten in your area? Is keeping them home for a while longer an option?)
@mom2bee Homeschooling is legal where i live it is my husband who is ‘not allowing it’ he is very against homeschooling. My DD absolutely loves her Montessori school She has made many friends and her behaviour at school is excellent (so I know she is not bored) although she is ‘not learning’ how to read and write at school yet I am concerned that when that startsts she will be disruptive and hard to control (which I am aware that this behaviour rears its ugly head when she is bored out of her mind) So to possibly combat this I thought if I focus heavily on the non-school stuff I can ward off the boredom plus do something fresh and exciting.
@Nadia I will let you know what I decide. I will finish someof the programs I have as I need to build the language resources.
I think you have the basics of a great idea. It’s pretty much what I do. I found out early on there is no point in advancing my kids beyond one year ahead if I want to send them to the school of my choice. The school just doesn’t see the need to cater well for these advanced kids while other kids who are struggling could use the time and resources. Frustrating as a parent but I find it acceptable as a teacher :rolleyes: I do get some advancement work for them but it’s always after they are finished the set easy work, which is I think the whole problem with their education! Anyway…
We work on extending their knowledge in a broad way rather than in height. So we do a lot of geography, some history, plenty of hands on science, and general knowledge. If they have a theme at school we delve in deeply and learn well beyond the surface they scratch at school. Honestly there is plenty to choose from to teach.
We havnt done any languages as yet but it is on the list for this year, the kids have too much on at the mement to add more. I am also struggling to find a resource that both begins and expands on language that is suitable for all three age groups, or even just the older two! We will add Japanese, my 6-8 year old will pick it up quickly from what they have shown me already. They have friends who are fluent in Japanese at school
Interestingly the children who can read, write and speak a second language at our school are the ones at the top of the class.
As to the reading. Well this one is tricky. How far ahead is she? If she can read, write and spell the top 200 sight words ( any list of them!) then perhaps you could stop teaching it actively. However if not I would suggest you keep going. Especially if she is keen. Strike while the iron is hot! It’s not worth the risk that she slips behind or misses the boat. Get her to the point where you are both confident she will fly through to her third year of school then relax. If she can write and spell also then the teachers will be able to give her extention work to do more easily.
Math is something you can decide to keep teaching. Beyond the basics it is nearly always taught from a textbook ( grrrr) so the school will be able to cater to her advanced level without too much trouble. The will just hand her a harder book or a computer program. But do be sure to cover all the basics thoroughly, it really is a topic that builds on previous knowledge, use lots of real life examples to illustrate concepts.
My final thoughts go something like this. How wrong is our education system that is forces us parents to rethink whether or not we should teach our children so they don’t become bored in class!
How wrong is our education system that is forces us parents to rethink whether or not we should teach our children so they don’t become bo
I know!! I have tried explaining that to my husband. If I keep going with the reading writing and math programs she will be ready to do yr 3 work in reception. I don’t have a problem advancing her reading she can then help the other kids in her class but I am concerned she will be bored out of her brain if I keep going with the reading and the writing. She can write all of the alphabet, and her name she can also spell majority of the CVC words and some sight words but not all 200. Wouldn’t it be great if we could send them to a school where the classes were based on ability rather than age.
I am doing the primaryarts of language course with S. she is doing really well except with reading comprehension but I thinkthat has moretodo with the questions im asking than it has to do with S not understanding what she is reading. It is quite a comprehensive course and I am really liking it. It is certainly aimed at a 5 year old so I have had to adjust a few things but not too much needs adjusting.
I will complete the programs that no point in wasting the money I have spent! Wish I had had this thought earlier
Oh I don’t think it would have changed much. I am a teacher and I still decided to teach mine loads of things earlier than they " should " be taught. I did slow down a little…started concepts a bit later than I could have but overall, I still want them to read early and better than their age peers and I still want them to be confident in basic math concepts up to about grade 2 before they start school. I do think the school system struggles to find time to teach general knowledge, language and music so that a great place to focus your efforts.
I am going to suggest you go a bit further with the writing before you stop…if you are worried she will be board teach her to spell the first 50 sight words. It is quite likely she will be held back in her reading at school if her writing is a long way behind. It’s sad and I totally disagree with the practice but it happens
All in all there is so much to teach you will have no trouble filling your days
Have you told the teachers where she is in reading and math? Montessori caters very well to differientiated education (or it should, though it could depend on the teacher/school). Depending on how old your daughter is and how the school is structured, she may not have done any reading yet because she hasn’t chosen to. At my son’s preschool the two first years (3/4-4/5) don’t have any requirements for choosing work other than they must receive a lesson on it first. The kindergarten year (5/6) has specific amounts of certain areas they need to complete over the course of the week.
The whole idea of being bored out if your mind disrupting the class while you are supposed to be learning something you already know shouldn’t happen in a well-structured Montessori class. Each child gets a completely individualized education.
It also could be that when she wanders into the language area, she’s so far been given something too easy–sandpaper letters or building words with the moveable alphabet. On so far, they just note that she can do these things. This happened to my so (who didn’t have early learning, but just got “afterschooled” after the age of 3. Once, his teachers showed me some work where he had correctly spelled a bunch of CVC words given a picture, and they were clearly impressed. But I wasn’t–just, I knew he was beyond that. So I told him what he could read at home and they started checking him out with different parts of their curriculum to see where he was. Within a month or so, he started bringing home books to read that we’re on his reading level.
Anyway, my point is tell the teachers where she is so they can guide her to appropriate work for her. Montessori is built around the philosophy of working at your own pace, so in theory, it should be great for early learners. The curriculum does start with letter sounds, so if your child is already reading tell the teachers do they can know how far to cast the net. It’s been my understanding that the regular montessori school can accommodate up to 3rd grade level (compared with US public schools)–as is. Not to say, that a willing teacher couldn’t accommodate above that, if a need arose.
Kimba you said “Wish I had had this thought earlier”. I was just wondering what would you change? Whould you not teach her how to read? Or math?
This worry about the boredom was in back of my mind as well . And as far as I know children who know more than others will be bored. They could skip a grade or go to a special shool for gifted children. My dd is not reading yet and I don’t push it. If it is going to happen I would by happy of course becouse my dd will have to learn two languages at school so at least one of them will be easy for her. We have a school here for gifted children but it goes only up to fourth grade and then they go to "normal"school - then is going to big boredom happen :ohmy: I hope things will change before she will go to school
I teach her read only in english - forein language in our case. I tried to teach her in native language as well, but I felt it isn’t the right time for another language yet.
I would love to see more opinions here from other parents but I think there were some discusions about it in the past.
@leslak and Maquenzie: I have alreay spoken to the school and they are giving her readers after much bugging and saying to the teacher ‘no I am not pushing her’ she wants to read yes she can read and reads well’ To be honest I almost felt as if i was portrayed as the pushy parent and demonised for my child being able to read. If she was excellent at sport say Tennis Oh my god she would be pushed by everybody to keep going?? But early reading No you have to be a pushy parent so now I am reluctant to point out anything else to them because I am afraid they wont push her at school because they think I am a pushy parent. So do I regret what I ahve done? No not at all but in hindsight since I knew she was going to school and not being homeschooled I think a grounding in reading and maths would have sufficed and I could have made a stronger focus on languages which still has many brain benefits. I would not be so worried as I am now about her being bored. The school would have taught them their stuff and I would have taught my stuff at home
Thinking about it I would have taught her to read in other languages and focused my money on resources in other languages so she was proficient in those languages as well, It is not about EL being good or bad I love and do not regret what I have taught her at all. it has been a wonderful experience.I just know that my Daughter’s persona;ity if she is bored she might be disruptive to the other kids but I could also be worrying about nothing as well.
I am just musing and thinking aloud. Trying to see if I was going down the right path. I will finish what I have with S. I love the primary arts of language course i think it is great at the same time when it is finshed I wont be continuing with other courses I will focus on her reading and writing and understanding other languages, soroban and music/sport.
I just think it is sad that even in a Montessori school I still have to hold her back because I have already had to fight just to get her readers that are at her level and even then they don’t really give her readers that are at her level. Just imaginve when it comes to Maths the fight im going to have!! Humpf.
My husband and paediatrician thinks she should be tested for ‘giftedness’ but that is only to have the piece of paper that says ‘seee she really is smart’ now you have to cater to her because I have a piece of paper that says so… end rant
I spoke to my professor about advanced or gifted children in “normal” school and she told me that the biggest problem with these children is (that becouse they know more than their peers and do everything easily) they don’t learn how to study. Then they go to high school and becouse they never needed to study they don’t know how to do it and start to fail. So as long as we let our children to do the studying ( or somehow teach them how to study) as well they should be fine later in school.
Well I hope it makes sense :wub:
But she also said if we have a “gifted” child we shouldn’t be trying to stop him as that might do more harm to him.
I think that montessori school would be great as I think you mentioned in some older post that children stay in same class with their peers but work with other children in advanced group.
I have heard this too. But I don’t think it matters whether the child is ahead or behind. Schools don’t tend to teach ANY child how to study properly in the early years. That’s why we decided to start doing some Classical Style education with my 6 year old (a former EL toddler and preschooler).
We spend our evening right now really focusing on phonic rules, and making sure they are engraved in his mind by heart.
We also work on math facts. I know he can add, but I want him to over practice so it becomes automatic, same with subtraction. When these become to the point he can say them in his sleep, we will add in the times tables. From what I have read older students struggle with more advance math because their foundation in the basic skills are not good enough.
I’m doing comprehension activities too. I pre-read a book and write out some questions on a piece of loose leaf. Then we read the story, talk about it, and then he does the questions. He’s allowed to have the book next to him to reference. I’m hoping this will help him strengthen his ability to answer and understand questions(which is a real struggle for him). I’m also hoping this will help him study and reference text when he is older. This is a fun time to add in non-fiction books, so we are learning studying skills, but about things in our world too.
We are also introducing grammar this summer. To be honest this is something that was lacking in my education growing up, so I’m looking forward to learning with him.
I find that since my son is at or above grade level they don’t try to continue helping him grow, so that is my job as his mom I’m not worried about him becoming too advanced for his class and being board, because he knows that when he is done his assignment, he hands it in and is allowed to go off and read or color, etc. When he is even older I’ll make sure that he has books to read, etc.
I want to make his foundation solid now while I can, so high school and college can be an experience for him to learn, not a struggle how to learn so he can pass.
Does any of this make sense LOL. Sorry I went on a rant.
Yep I understand
On the noTe of learning how to “put in the effort” well this is definitely a problem with advanced kids. I have watched my oldest have a meltdown when she was given something challenging for her at school…it just happened to be an area we hadn’t touched on at all in her life. This was in grade one. I learnt my lesson well and we have found multiple areas of activities that are not restricted by age so she has to actually learn how to “try”! This kids finds everything easy! Wins every race, can do anything she is shown, reads anything…
So we challenge her with piano ( music in general she finds very easy) and gymnastics. She is always the youngest in her group but the joy she gets from the challenge is wonderful to see.
She also does her math online through IXL which means she can do some at her grade level for practice and reinforcement and some above her level for a challenge.
Anyway it seems the challenge is important to her self esteem and education but it doesn’t need to be in academic areas. But I am not going to tell you not to advance your kids in those academic areas, I think just aim for all round excellence
Thank you for raising this topic Kimba - this is one of my big worries too as we will be sending my DD to a standard school and I am worried about how she will get on there.
I definitely want my DD (aged almost 3) to learn to try - currently she really struggles to keep trying at activities that she finds quite challenging - she gets frustrated and gives up. So I can’t decide if it is better to have given her this headstart so this is less of a problem. My gut feeling is that it is better to have the problem of motivation for children who have undergone early learning than for a child who feels unable to keep up with peers at school and loses self-esteem that way.
But I think we are kind of on the cusp of DD ‘getting’ reading - she is now able to blend words if I sound them out. Should I just stop?!! I sometimes wonder if I’ve got stuck on a treadmill of teaching and would be so disappointed if it actually ended up disadvantaging her after all the effort we have both put in.
Manda - I really agree with the idea of stretching in a variety of different areas, not all academic. I listened to a radio programme about gifted and talented children and this was one of the main learning points - not to get too focused on one area as the child can become a perfectionist and get quite stressed at the prospect of making even minor mistakes. It was also important to include activities that do not involve any kind of grading or testing (including self imposed by the child who may be comparing themselves to peers and setting high standards) but are purely for enjoyment and relaxation. I think gymnastics will be a good one for us too and hopefully she’ll come around to piano in the end lol lol
Out of interest, I was an early reader myself and I recall being given graded readers at school that I knew were way too easy for me. We had to progress through the whole scheme before being allowed to move on to reading ‘real’ books. It was a big of a drag but I remember reading them really quickly (my mum did not make me read them aloud to her which we were supposed to do!) and then getting back to reading something more interesting at home! It became a sort of game of jumping through hoops. I can still remember feeling really annoyed at myself because I mispronounced the word picturesque at age 7 or 8 when reading aloud to a teacher who then refused to let me progress more quickly through the books!! But we made up for it by having extra library books (I was allowed more than the standard 4 because I read so fast!).
Out of interest, what are people’s thoughts about teaching maths concepts? Do you also wish you had done less? My feeling is that maths is taught quite badly in many schools!
This is all food for thought. Perhaps important to focus on our writing skills soon to balance against the reading, plus perhaps we should move on more to reading in other languages (roll on the French and Spanish curriculae for LR please!!) and of course music.
I let my kids travel as they wish in math. It is much easier for a teacher to hand an advanced math whizz an extention book than to reconstruct the entire English corriculum for one kid.
They are not hugely ahead maybe a solid year and another year in some areas. They lack in some areas ( measurement, And they memory work of multiplication…they can skip count by whatever so never needed to memorize it). But they are all very confident with their answers.
in the early years (first 2) of school all kids will do basic math to ensure a solid understanding of concepts. If I was teaching I would probably do this too. If you miss one small thing it can really unbalance later learning. This is why I would advise go ahead with math but be sure to checkoff your countries syllabus to ensure you cover all areas.
I wish I had done more math with them not less
As to reading Lee, don’t stop yet! Not just before she grasps it. Go to at least the point where she can read through Dr zuess (ten apples up on top is a good basis) regardless of how fluent it is if she can get those sight words set in her brain all will be well, and basically sound out the rest of them. They tend not to make kids read through every book in a series now, but it still happens it is teachers choice often so fight hard if they try to make your daughter do that. Nag daily! All teachers will eventually cave to get a parent of their back lol
And definitely don’t leave the writing behind, it will be the one thing that the teachers use against you!
that is very nice!