Will teaching kids early will make them bored in class?

Sniipe

In school a child is taught how to read and write. But what if I was to teach my child these before school? Would my child then become bored when they are being taught during school? Is there any point in teaching my kids stuff when they are going to learn it in school? Am I better off teaching them different things that they won't learn in school. I'm sure there is probably a proven best approach?

mordeith

To be honest it depends on the child. There's no guarantee your child will have a full grasp of reading before they start school, even if you do teach them. I'd say go for it though. Our eldest had basic reading down when he started (just turned 5) so school wasn't a big deal for him. He wasn't stressed in the classroom and homeworka a relatively stress free time. He's now going into 2nd. There are kids who couldn't read starting with him who are now at a similar level. He does get a bit borded a ttimes but it's more to do with a child's natural ability imo.

zeffabelli

Sniipe wrote: »

In school a child is taught how to read and write. But what if I was to teach my child these before school? Would my child then become bored when they are being taught during school? Is there any point in teaching my kids stuff when they are going to learn it in school? Am I better off teaching them different things that they won't learn in school. I'm sure there is probably a proven best approach?

There is no guarantee against boredom in school, its designed to be boring.

Moonbeam

Some kids will teach themselves to read before school but will be challenged in other areas.
We made a concious effort not to "Teach reading or writing" to the kids before school but to answer any questions that they have and explain the answers to them.
They love music,science,learning about the solar system,and playing.There is alot more to education then reading and writing.

mordeith

Moonbeam wrote: »

They love music,science,learning about the solar system,and playing.There is alot more to education then reading and writing.

True, but reading opens up further learning in everything

Flippyfloppy

Just be careful teaching alphabet and sounds, kids learn the phonetic alphabet in school to assist with sounding out. For example instead of saying F, it will be taught fffffff

Moonbeam

mordeith wrote: »

True, but reading opens up further learning in everything

It does,I thought myself to read before school and was extremely bored by school books.

They will probably do letters and phonics in pre-school.
Look up Jolly Phonics on you tube,the songs are catchy:)

Sniipe

I have the jolly phonics books... I'm just wondering will I read them to my kids... I truly want them to have a balanced education and I don't want to teach them stuff in case they do it in school and are bored.

heldel00

Can sometimes do more harm than good as I still have a child in first class who writes using all capital letters as this is the way that he was shown before starting school and it just comes naturally to him.
A lot of children will also give the impression of knowing how to read but comprehend very little content of the text. This can cause problems down the line.
Reading to your child, instilling an interest in books and developing them into an independent little individual will be of even more use. (By this I mean zipping up own coat, opening their own lunchbox/banana/yoghurt/frube/drink ... Tidying up after themselves, sharing, taking turns, being a gracious winner/loser ...)
But to be honest you sound like a dream parent. Your child is very lucky.

Sniipe

heldel00 wrote: »

... being a gracious winner/loser ...)
But to be honest you sound like a dream parent. Your child is very lucky.

I don't know about the dream parent. I will instill "Win at all costs" into them - but I like your thinking. Instil an interest.

I find this fascinating.

Home schooler's must excel academically but are bound fall short socially (IMO). I'm looking for the right mix.

Mardy Bum

Sniipe wrote: »

Home schooler's must excel academically but are bound fall short socially (IMO). I'm looking for the right mix.

Definitely not. Very few parents are aware of pedagogical approaches to teaching young kids. Home schoolers are generally behind when they enter secondary school.

iamafoodie

You can not convince me that teaching a child to read is a bad thing. Bored in school means they are doing well and have the opportunity to read sooner. I do agree with the phonics thing though, but at the same time a child does have to learn that there is more than one way to skin a cat.

The state will only teach our children certain things we should pick up the pieces. Ie sex ed, finance, health & nutrition...


I honestly think we should all consider ourselves the main educator and the state the secondary one. Yes they will teach to read and write. But there is so much more than the school is capable of doing. Teaching your children to think for themselves it vital. Don't always give them the answer get them to come up with solutions, even if they are useless they well get better. Do debating over the dinner table, teach them to save, teach them about tax, interest. Talk about the family finances in front of them. Any other ideas are gratefully received. Tell them about your day and how you dealt with a tricky situation or solved a problem.

I often hear people giving out about what is not thought in schools but we as parents have responsibilities too!!

A little off topic but it's close to my heart.

lazygal

If a child is bored in school that says more about the teachers and the school than anything else. I was always ahead with reading and the teachers encouraged this by providing more advanced materials. Same with those who were good at maths or whatever else. And I was in a large class, of at least 36, all the way through primary school. From what I know of my old school the same happens now, all special needs, including those involving being advanced, are recognised and accommodated.

Das Kitty

We waited and let the school teach the reading. We were going to give it a go, but after seeing our friend's child go from not being able to recognise more than a couple of words, to reading absolutely everything in the space of around 6 months in junior infants, we knew we were in safe hands.

So our guy has finished junior infants now and he can read pretty much anything. He has a huge love of reading, he'll often sit down with a book rather than play with toys.

We did move ahead with numbers and counting, though. He's mad interested in maths. He often poses maths problems for himself and works out the answer. I think he's going to be bored with the curriculum in that sense.

The biggest problem he's had at school is with sensitivity. He boils over very easily and cries. That's the biggest challenge for us, helping him with that. We still haven't got there.

I agree with the above poster, that dealing with stuff like opening lunch, minding their stuff, taking on and off coats and going to the loo solo are the things that will make their lives easier at school.

LegacyUser

Look, some parents hand over all control of their kids' education to the system.
They think once the kids start school that's it, no need to do any extra at home.
And yeah it works for some.

I taught my son how to read before he started school. We also learned a bit of Spanish, the solar system, how plants grow etc.

He's 7 now, flying it in school and we still do extras with him at home.
Why hold a child back to fit the "average" if they're not average?

LegacyUser

Even if you do teach a child to read before school, you will still be expected to practice their letters and words with them in the evenings in the junior classes anyway.

Teachers and schools are not 100% responsible for a child's education, parents have to take responsibility too. I'd take the approach of "teaching" - in that, I'd read books, count out my fingers etc - but I wouldn't be doing it with the aim of making sure that they know 20 particular words, and can count from 1 to 10 before entering junior infants. "Teach" as you interact with them, no more than that. Read stories etc. They will be taught everything from scratch anyway in school. And if they're bored at reading times, that's ok, there'll be other parts of school that they might find trickier.

Any Junior Infant teacher will thank you more for teaching them how to open/close their coat, open/close their lunch box, open their yoghurt, peel their banana, tie their shoes, pick up their rubbish and how to use the toilet properly, than for teaching them to recognise their alphabet before they show up on the first day. I'm deadly serious about that....having 20 junior infants queueing in front of you to have their coats buttoned when the bell rings for lunch, and the remaining 10 wanting you to tie their laces or open their orange....that's stress!! The ones who can do it themselves are the ones you're thanking all your lucky stars for! The other stuff will follow later.

byhookorbycrook

If they show desire to learn, yes. Be careful re letter formation, you'd be amazed how many people teach it incorrectly and break the poor junior infant teacher's heart as she/he has to try to break a bad habit.

mirrorwall14

Anyone know of any good resources for phonics? I don't want to go teaching him wrong but we were all members of the local library at 3 and had a good grasp of reading by school age. I'd like to try something similar with my lad (though only if he shows interest) but as a teacher myself I definitely don't want to teach him wrong!! I hate when kids come in having learnt algebra all wrong...

2xj3hplqgsbkym

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

If they show desire to learn, yes. Be careful re letter formation, you'd be amazed how many people teach it incorrectly and break the poor junior infant teacher's heart as she/he has to try to break a bad habit.

Our son's naoinra teacher said they used to do writing letters with pre schoolers, but the junior infants teacher wasn't happy as it was being taught a different way in each pre school, all differently to the primary school curriculum way. It made it more difficult for her to teach and for them to learn the "correct " way.

Now they just try to teach each child to hold the pencil correctly and focus more on "independent learning" and " creative thinking", for example, they aren't given a picture of a teddy bear to colour in, instead they discuss teddy bears and draw their own picture based on this. My son's is usually an incomprehensive scribble to me , but as the teacher explained, that scribble is a story, so now I know to ask him to explain it to me, and it is usually something like, "well here is where the teddy bear hid his treasure before the giant panda came and......"

Shadow1983

heldel00 wrote:

Can sometimes do more harm than good as I still have a child in first class who writes using all capital letters as this is the way that he was shown before starting school and it just comes naturally to him. A lot of children will also give the impression of knowing how to read but comprehend very little content of the text. This can cause problems down the line. Reading to your child, instilling an interest in books and developing them into an independent little individual will be of even more use. (By this I mean zipping up own coat, opening their own lunchbox/banana/yoghurt/frube/drink ... Tidying up after themselves, sharing, taking turns, being a gracious winner/loser ...) But to be honest you sound like a dream parent. Your child is very lucky.

Completely agree with heldel100. Schools have a specific way of teaching writing and phonics and it can be more of a hindrance if the child has already been "taught" by a parent / preschool practitioner. There are some fantastic websites though that you can download worksheets from that help a child gain pencil control, i.e tracing lines, basic shapes, curves etc. rather than specific letters.

mirrorwall14

Anyone know of any good videos of how to hold pencils? I know my own grip is wrong, I used to get killed for it...

byhookorbycrook

Put the pencil on the table ,nib facing you. "Pinch" the nib between thumb, index and middle finger. Then "flip" the pencil up and you have the perfect tripod grip.
http://missmernagh.com/2014/08/21/starting-school-series-developing-a-good-pencil-grip/