Monsters Are Eating My Brain

Last Wednesday, (our anniversary, of course) was parent orientation for the preschool that Lidia will be starting in 2 weeks!! Our neighbor, Kristin, came to entertain the kiddos for us, as it was a sans kids kind of orientation. (Thank you again, Kristin! Lidia had a great time and the first thing she wanted to do when she woke up next morning is go visit Jax at his house :D )

Anyway, it went well and now we, the parents, are informed on how to do this preschool thing.

I have had some people say, “Why do preschool? You are the preschool!”

This prompted me to think about my own reasons for sending her and to think about my early childhood educational philosophy. First and foremost, she is attending a preschool 2 days a week (Tuesday and Thursday afternoons) for 3 hours each day. I am definitely not sending her to learn reading, writing and arithmetic. The biggest reason for sending her is to socialize her with other children her age. Of the children she plays with here and there during the week, only 1 is close to her age–and Lidia is the eldest of them all. While there is nothing wrong with this, I feel she can benefit from socializing with more kids her age. She needs to learn more about sharing and general social interaction. I also want her to have a little bit of time away from me–to prep her for the big day she goes to kindergarten and will be away from me most days.

No, we will not be homeschooling. That is not the right method for us.

I am frustrated (though I do keep it to myself, because to each his own method) when I see parents throwing so much effort into teaching their young pre-k children reading, writing, arithmetic…all of the things they really don’t even need to start learning until Kindergarten. In my experience, the children who did not know these things pre-kindergarten are caught up to their peers within the first year or 2 of school. What is the point of taking away their play time with rote learning when they are going to spend the next 13+ years of their life in school? Not for us. Teachable moments are the best in my book. Lids will learn what she is interested in when she is home. Despite a complete lack of effort on our part in teaching her letters and numbers (aside from singing the Alphabet as one of our songs and telling her the names of the letters or numbers if she inquired), I recently realized that Lidia knows pretty much every letter and numbers 1-9 (zero throws her often–confuses it with O). Proof to me that the lessons will come in time, as she is interested in them.

I learned one more thing on Sunday. As we were preparing to go to a friend’s birthday party, I asked Lidia if she’d like to “sign” the card. She agreed eagerly and I gave her the pen. I asked her if she wants to try to write her name and she said yes. So I helped her with the letter order by spelling it out for her. To my surprise, she wrote the L and I’s quite well and even made great attempts at the d and a! wow…

I’m proud and impressed that she has absorbed this knowledge just by asking questions/listening.

In reading back on my words, I almost feel as though I sound like we don’t try to teach the girl anything. This isn’t really what I’m trying to say. Our focus is on life lessons right now. Learning to be a person who can function in life is our priority. We read, daily, of course and I believe that is where most of her letter knowledge has been absorbed. We always try to answer her questions, expose her to new activities and teach her how to properly interact with people. Of course I want her to do well in school, but most of all, I want her to be happy and adjusted. I don’t base my parenting assessment and the smarts of my child on what she can recite back to me when I drill her with questions.

In the end, I think the preschool thing is a good decision for her. These days, my time can often be sucked into the void that is infant twins, thus leaving her bored. Winter is coming and the days that I will be able to push a double stroller around the block are numbered–cold and snow are just around the bend. (Yikes!) She will have fun and is already quite excited. I am excited for her.

One funny thing, though.

As I was looking at the name tags on the cubbies in her class, I realized something. Of the 12 kids in the class, 11 of them are girls. Poor little man in her class… No way he’s going to be able to avoid all those cooties. (Oh wait, girls don’t have cooties until at least Kindergarten, right?)

Posted: Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 @ 8:50 pm
Categories: Incoherant Rambling, Princess Lidia.
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