Introduction, and Request For Help!

[Impish]

Hello!
For those not familiar with me from my general board postings, I'm Imp, wife to Wolf, homeschooling mother to Diva (10), Tazzie (3) and Princess (almost 3). We live in Alberta, Canada, and long to get out of the city and purchase our first home on an acreage.

Diva whose starting grade 6 in Sept was removed from ps mid grade 3, where she was a C student, and her teacher told us she had no reading comprehension, and predicted a future as a meth addict, since she refused to follow rules :glare: In Sept, Diva will be working on her grade 9 science credit, and I'll be discussing other grade 9 credits with her t/a as well, since her language arts surpass the grade 9 level by far.

My request for help comes with the younger two, whom I refer to as The Littles.

I try to do activities with them daily. They love shaving cream, but somehow the idea of tracing letters in it just doesn't seem to be as much fun as making a glorious mess, lol! They both know their abcs to sing, Tazzie knows how to read, but is completely uninterested in proving so unless its to throw us off guard. Forget doing it on command! :lol: I have no idea how much he can read. He can count at least to 20, and I've been working on addition and subtraction with him, but he has a typical attention span for working on 'Mom arranged activities' of about five minutes. So we hit it here and there. Princess is more interested, but Tazzie becomes very jealous and interrupts any one on one time with her.

Both of them have shown signs since infancy of being extremely intelligent...a sort of, "Oh crap, what am I in for" kind of intelligence. Homeschooling is our only option, my dh and I feel. Otherwise, we know we'll be getting phone calls about Tazzie needing to be medicated for his energy levels, and then potential lawsuits for emotional distress from kindergarten teachers, especially when Princess follows Tazzie the next year :lol: And that's not even getting into the KIDS needs!

How the heck do we meet their needs? Diva came home 'prefabricated' as I put it. She was already reading, had the basics of math, etc. It was just building from there. I'm worried about meeting the needs of very very bright, very very active children in a way that works for them and doesn't turn them off learning, but excites them. I also shy away from 'letting them lead' simply because Tazzie, if left to his preferences, would spend 24/7 playing Lego Star Wars on xbox 360 :glare:

[Terabith]

No matter how intelligent they are, they are still three. They don't want to perform, so don't make them. Give them shaving cream. Encourage them to "wash" the dishes. (play in a sink with warm soapy water) Do fun experiments from Mudpies to Magnets. Read out loud to them. Let them play on Reading Eggs or headsprout or some sort of educational computer program. Sing songs. Take em to the park. Bake. Really concentrate on physical, gross motor skills. Get out some Montessori practical life works to build fine motor skills and concentration. (sweeping, polishing, hammering - use a comb to hold the nail; screwdriver, use tongs and tweezers to transfer marbles, pouring, scrubbing and such). Build with blocks and legos. Pattern blocks and wedgits. If they want, play Right Start math games. Or Candyland. If they don't, don't.

I really encourage as much physical activity as possible. Gymnastics, dance, yoga dvds, races, frog jumping, wheelbarrow walks, running, spinning, rolling down hills, monkey bars, jumping rope, hopscotch, throwing/ catching/ kicking/ bouncing balls. Physical skills and outdoor play, imaginative dramatic play, listening to books read aloud, sensory experiences (shaving cream, sand, water, rice, beans, etc), and developing concentration through practical life skills are the rightful curriculum of a three year old, no matter how academically precocious. If the child WANTS reading or math or spelling, then of course, that is different. It is arising from the child. But if not, then don't push it. Give em a couple years to grow.

[Impish]

Ah yes. Encourage to wash dishes. As you can see, that didn't go terribly well :lol: We do a lot of what you've mentioned already, but the things that aren't already on are list I'll definitely be adding, so thank you for the suggestions! Both Tazzie and Princess use the puter, and go on starfall, fisherprice, and several other educational sites. Their physical dexterity is also somewhat frightening...to me, anyways. Their father takes enormous satisfaction in it, while I, otoh, am hyperventilating into a paper bag as they scramble up the sides of jungle gyms and whatnot! Princess, for example can dribble a soccer ball better than Diva :001_huh: Tazzie was playing catch with friend's of ours and had their teen son comment on his arm when playing football, lol! They are definately well rounded in terms of what they are exposed to and are encouraged to participate in.

[specialmama]

:001_wub: I love this picture!

[Karin]

Even hg (highly gifted) and pg (profoundly gifted) dc need to play even if it's different than others. Or even if it's the same as other dc. None of mine would perform on command at 3, or at 2, or before that. My eldest is the one who was learning things at very early ages. Before she was 2 she was identifying shapes in her environment, knew at least a dozen colours, counted fairly high (can't remember) and many other skills that, honestly, I don't even remember anymore because I didn't write it all down and it no longer seems as important. My others are as gifted as she is, although not exactly the same way, but didn't do all the same things as early.

So much is learned by play, especially with great toys such as legos, sticks, dirt (yes, sticks and dirt are great toys!). I never bothered with shaving cream because that would have just been a big mess here. I didn't teach my dc things like letters, etc, at 3 unless they were interested. But they played and got exercise. A great book (and this is for highly intelligent kids, too) is called Smart Moves: Why Learning is not All in Your Head by Carla Hannaford.

My dc were exhausting enough, especially with all their questions. I spent enough time with my 4 yo ds looking up how fire makes light (down to the the atomic level) and other physics and religious questions that we didn't really spend any time on learning letters. But he was interested in big deep questions, not in reading at that point. I had two other older dc I was also teaching. fwiw, that ds is "only" about 3 grades ahead in reading now, but he still likes to ask big questions and, what's even better, is that he's really good at getting big concepts which are harder to get than the math to handle them later (according to my bil who is an engineer, etc). He doesn't struggle with math, with the exception of long division and the rules, but he's just in the process of doing what I always knew he'd do; going from being nearly a grade behind to catching up and then zooming ahead because he's mature enough.

At three I let my dc lead the way with academics. They'll do a rapid catching up or getting ahead later; just look at your eldest.

[Impish]

Oh I so know what you mean by exhausting! We haven't gotten into physics, I'll count myself lucky on that! But busy all hours until they finally pass out for the night, yup. I call them my super ball pin balls! One thing after another all day long. Its not hyper active, its really not. Its a constant quest for activity and knowledge all day long. As soon as they've gotten the answer to one thing, or completed one thing, its what's next? Lets see what this does...:lol:

Its one of my fave pics too ;)

[Mommy22alyns]

Oh I so know what you mean by exhausting! We haven't gotten into physics, I'll count myself lucky on that! But busy all hours until they finally pass out for the night, yup. I call them my super ball pin balls! One thing after another all day long. Its not hyper active, its really not. Its a constant quest for activity and knowledge all day long. As soon as they've gotten the answer to one thing, or completed one thing, its what's next? Lets see what this does...:lol:




Yes, this is absolutely my two! I am engaged in a constant battle with Becca because she's convinced that we can build a shrinker and shrink things down to tiny fairy size. No amount of explanation has been able to sway her from her mission. :001_huh: This morning, halfway through my very necessary cup of coffee, Becca hit me with "Who made me?" "Who made my heart, my lungs, my digestive system, my butt?" I'm thinking, "Let me finish my coffee at least!"

And Sylvia, well... I had to work on explaining the Earth's rotation to her the other day because she wanted to know why it was dark and she couldn't see the houses anymore.

By the end of the day, it's just at that level of mental exhaustion.

And the kids might just be "over" anything on command. Bright kids do this; you get that LOOK like, "Yes I can read, what's it to you?" Sylvia's gone through that.

Ugh, I called you over here and now I'm no help at all!

[Impish]

Oh my. That being 'over'. Yes. That. Give you an example of what I mean.

Tazzie informed Wolf that he wanted the cheese dip, not the dip he had. :001_huh: Wolf had the Ceasar salad dressing, and went back and got the ranch, which Tazzie happily accepted. I was puzzled, since they were both white, and there was nothing on the label that was different, other than the lettering, and why is he calling it cheese anyways, its ranch...and he couldn't read...Right?!

So I took both bottles over to him, held them both the same in one hand, and asked him which was the 'cheese' one. He pointed correctly to the ranch. I asked him how he knew. He looked at me like I was stupid :glare: and pointed and spelled, "C-h-e-e-s-e. Cheese, Mom, k?" gave me a heavy sigh, rolled his eyes, and went back to eating his baby carrots and dip. It was three cheese ranch dressing. *sigh*

Prayers are welcome. So are cash donations. Either for his future curriculum, or my wine. I figure I'll need lots. :lol:

[Terabith]

Yeah, I think most kids at that age are far more interested in big questions and content subjects (science, history, other countries) than they are in the mechanics of reading or math. Tho lots of math exceptions. They just don't want to perform or do anything that isn't THEIR idea! My daughter likes to say, "Mommy, I want to do what *I* want to do!" :glare: So we're trying to work on compliance in areas where it's really needed, behavior, character, etc. (I"m pretty AP, but I like to have structure and be in control. Otherwise things are a mess.) Reading or math on command just not that interesting to them or important (at this point) to me.

[matrips]

I don't have an older one to deal with, but I let the little ones lead. I keep tons of books (I have well over 500 at this time and I keep buying) around for them, and lots of basic toys (puzzles, blocks, legos, board games, pattern blocks, dollhouses, trucks, kitchen etc) for them to use their imaginations. they don't have any electronic toys, and we don't watch tv, aside from a 10 minute dvd at night. they love to do crafts so when they were 2 and 3 I did The Learning Box Preschool with them. it only took about an hour a day, when we did it, but they really enjoyed it. I loved the fact that everything needed for the crafts was already there! they still get quiet time/naptime each day and they get to bring a few books with them. they're allowed to bring books in the car too when we go for errands.

they always loved to sit on the couch, cuddle and have me read to them. so we read alot. sometimes I'd let them help me finish the sentence, and somewhere along the line between 2.5 and 4, they taught themselves to read. very well. so I keep buying lots of books- especially non-fiction- and they just learn. I've learned to listen at what interests them for that week/month and follow through more in depth for them. Their interests are all over the place, but they are having fun and learning, and that is all that matters to me at this age. I figure there is plenty of time for structure later. this is the time for play. (I think they think that reading is just another form of play!).

so instead of teaching Tazzie math, just play some math type games with him. let it all seem more like play than school! he is still a Little!

good luck!

[Impish]

Thanks everyone! We do have tons of books, and continue to buy and buy and buy. I'm a book junkie. :D My dh is fully aware that if we ever win lotto, my first shopping spree would be to Chapters, my second would be to buy bookshelves :lol: