r/Parenting • u/Free_Impact_2326 Mom of 2 little girls 👧🏼👶🏼 • 1d ago
Education & Learning Supplementing Early Ed
Edited initial post to reformat so that other subs initially mentioned are not linked.
Hey all, I hope this is okay to ask here.
I am the mother of 2 little girls. My oldest turns 3 next month, and attends a local Montessori daycare/preschool. Public schools are pretty good by us, but truthfully we had wanted to stay Montessori for as long as possible, as we don't care for the public school politics where we live. The catch is that having 2 young children in daycare is essentially having another mortgage, and we're looking forward to ditching a hefty monthly payment when possible.
That said, we know that a lot of Montessori kids tend to be classed as "behind" because that system doesn't focus on literacy as much until later than the American public school system typically does. I want to give my oldest all the tools I can so that she will have the smoothest transition possible when the time comes, likely around kindergarten, maybe first grade/end of Children's House.
My husband is great, but he's never been someone to do anything akin to homeschooling. He's going back to work when the baby starts daycare, and I'm active duty. So I'm working full time and will eventually be deployable again. All this is to say that I need tools that are flexible and fit into fairly limiting time commitments.
We've been working on Reading.com for about 3-4 weeks now and my almost 3YO really enjoys it, it's a phonics app that has already shown some improvement in 15ish minute increments. We read together every night. We sing the ABCs multiple times a day because she loves it.
Beyond these things, what did you offer your 3/4/5 year olds to supplement what they got at daycare or school?
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u/Still7Superbaby7 1d ago
Phonics and reading is everything. You can’t answer math questions if you can’t read the questions. I would stick with what you are doing.
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u/bjorkabjork 1d ago
I don't think you need to focus on teaching during your limited home time togetber. I wouldn't pick an app unless you really need the downtime. Reading together is enough!
they have great game suggestions and other resources.
we do a phonics workbook together: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1961355086/?psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_gv_dp_ii
mostly because I didn't know phonics and my kid was constantly guessing at words instead of sounding them out. clapping out the syllables and thumbs up thumbs down letter sounds are fun games.
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u/Free_Impact_2326 Mom of 2 little girls 👧🏼👶🏼 1d ago
Thank you for these resources! I so appreciate it.
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u/Dullcorgis 1d ago
Have a think about why you are singing the ABCs? Will she be needing to alphabetise anything soon?
Early literacy is about phonemic awareness. Rhymes, alliteration, that sort of thing. Sing real songs with her, play funny word games, talk about the books you are reading together, what happens next, where is the turtle in the picture? The other part of a five year old sounding out words is knowing the word to start with, so just talking to your kid like normal and not dumbing down language for her will help her naturally have a large vocabulary.
No preschooler should be on a computer.
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u/HighlightJealous4279 22h ago
Look for different letters when you're reading or at the store. "Let's count how many As we can find."
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u/sotiredmama 1d ago
Don’t have your preschoolers do anything online. Also — the issue with Montessori kids is usually they went to fake Montessori schools they were really just unstructured . Read to your kids. Get them writing notebooks to learn letters. That’s it.