Littletree is really starting to read now; she gets simple readers out from the library and practices on them, and a friend of ours was throwing away a primary school resource kit, which is like a whole bunch of progressive worksheets designed for substitute teachers in school.
I was a bit sceptical, but Littletree pounced on it and gets the folder out to work on regularly. I’m amazed at how much her reading and writing is advancing, without any external teaching at all. I answer her questions if she has any, but mostly she just plugs away at whatever she’s interested in. She spends a lot of time writing lists, mostly related to the planning of her birthday (which isn’t for another 2 months).
Her favourite books at the moment are some of my medical dictionaries and biology textbooks.
She sits for hours pouring over them, reading bits, asking questions…
Today Littletree called me over to point out that in one book (Taber’s medical dictionary), all the words on every page started with the same letter, and all the letters were in the order of the alphabet.
That led to a discussion about alphabetizing – she caught on to the concept straight away and was so excited about it. She immediately went and checked a few other dictionaries for alphabetical order, and shouted “This is SO cool!”
It’s all very strange, because I was assured many times by well-educated people that my child wouldn’t be able to learn anything if she wasn’t in school. I guess the boredom of being cooped up at home and not learning anything and not having any friends will kick in any day now… :p
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I've never left a comment on your blog before, although I'm a long time follower! :-) I just <3 your blog!!!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, we're planning to homeschool our 2.5 year old daughter and more and more I'm leaning toward an unschooling approach(would that be a lack of an approach?)Your blog gives me renewed faith that it CAN work.
I'm continually inspired by the way Littletree has mastered something simply because of her own interest.
Not only that but she's a DOLL!
:) thanks Rhiann
ReplyDeleteI did a course once about how children learn to read. It was really interesting. A room full of adults who could read already were handed books that were pretty much written in gobbledy gook! Half the class myself included, studied it for while and noticed patterns and were able to decipher the book. Others could not fathom what it said. It really opened up my mind as to how different children need different opportunities to learn. Its so nice to see little ones learning all by themselves. Little tree always amazing me with her inquisitive nature and thirst for knowledge.
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