To kick off the New Year, I want to introduce you to resources that will give you the confidence to help your little ones learn at home.
I believe play and natural curiosity are the driving forces and foundation for how young children learn best. If you just follow your child’s lead and share the bounty that life has to offer, they will develop the foundational skills they need for life-long learning success whether you eventually decide to un/homeschool or enroll them in public or private schools.
I believe “academic curriculum” such as forced drilling in reading and math can be very harmful to young children. I do not recommend it. If you want to know why, simply read the research and commentary at the Alliance for Childhood.
Many parents request a “curriculum” to follow, because they want to be sure they are exposing their child to all of the things they need for their best physical, intellectual, emotional, and social development.
With that in mind, we, at UniversalPreschool.com, created a free “Home Preschool Curriculum.” It’s not about drill-and-practice academic work. Nor is it about “scheduling learning time” each day.
Rather, it explains how to engage your child in playful activities that encourage and nurture their natural genius.
It covers all of the basics that are typically included in a preschool course of study (so you can relax). More importantly, it provides ideas and resources to use to engage your child in learning activities in a natural and developmentally appropriate way.
This year, on this blog, we have set ourselves the monumental task of sharing a resource-a-day for learning with your little ones at home. If you read this blog, you should wind up with 365 fun ideas and learning activities by December 31st, 2010.
To kick things off we need to lay a foundation of understanding. What is it that early childhood specialists say 2-5 year olds “should” know? We’re going to reveal that, but we want to encourage you to question the “shoulds” and the manner in which they are typically taught in preschool settings versus naturally learned at home.
We want to make this easy on you, and at the same time, get those brain synapses firing so that you rethink the standardized preschool version of how real learning takes place for children ages 2-5.
The content for DAY ONE of 2010 can be found here:
Cognitive Development &
A Typical Course of Study for Preschool
More tomorrow!