When to start actually school work?

Amber - posted on 10/01/2009

my mom and i homeschooled my youngest sister from the beginning. we started actual bookwork around age 4 i think. before we got to that, we had already taught her letters, numbers, the difference between capital and lowercase, writing her name and small words, and reading on a 1st grade level. (most of that was done throughout the day..."hey peyten, come here and show me your letters.") she loved being read to so that helped a lot!

Melissa - posted on 07/08/2009

My son will be 4 in August & my daughter just turned 1. I have been working on stuff with both kids since they were about 3 months old. It was all done thru play activities. As infants we do language development with songs & poems, small & large motor skills & social development. Starting at 1, we do a language development activity & an art activity each day. We reinforce these activities with games & playing with things like blocks & stuff like that. I did that for age 1 & 2. My son started some workbooks at age 3. They were cutting, coloring, letters & numbers. I am starting with the 4 year old Abeka curriculum in September. I think a lot of it depends on the child. If your child is interested in the actual work stuff then I say go for it. However, I wouldn't push it if they aren't interested that young. I think we need to keep learning as fun & interesting as possible so they want to learn more.

Randi - posted on 03/20/2009

Thanks, Brandy! That is a great idea! Talib and I made "cool pencils" for a craft project one day and I started a couple workbooks with him. He liked one activity but didn't really understand the others. And since they only give 3 problems with each activity, by the time he understood what we were suppose to do, the activity was over! We haven't gone back to them after that. My mom said that she used to copy the workbook pages for us when we were little. That way we could practice as many times as we needed to instead of just doing the 3 problems per activity. I'll probably try that but like you said, do hands on activities for the most part. Thanks again

Brandy - posted on 03/20/2009

i would suggest not to do to much out of a workbook to soon. you have aready been homeschooling your son for three years. and at three years old kids learn best with play. they want to touch and feel what they learn. dress up and roll play is a big learning tool. as well as getting messy with sand and dirt, or dough and flour and water. make letters with the dough or spell all your names and three letter words (like dog and cat) in sand that is a great way to learn.

Randi - posted on 02/08/2009

Thank you, Holly and Crystal! I was kind of hesitant to start too soon, but it really helps hearing from moms who are there too. I think I will go ahead and get some work books and see how he takes to them. Good luck to both of you and your children! Homeschooling sounds like it will be a fun adventure!

Holly - posted on 02/06/2009

My three year old is literally sad, crying on some occasions if I don't give her the sit down and learn approach every day. She begs. She goes and gets her little work books that I bought at target, or at our local Christian homeschool store, and she sits around me and looks at all the pages until I tell her to go get a pencil and pick two pages.



Great job on working through the games. I've been homeschooling for three years, and we've never stopped games. It's the best way to learn, the easiest way to learn, and it's how kids are "built". Fun Fun Fun! Make it fun! Kudos to you and your hubby! You two are off to an amazing start!

Crystal - posted on 02/05/2009

I'm doing it with my 4 year old right now. We use Abeka and I like it because we spend at the most 45 min on school work. He is starting to learn how to read now, and he's not overwhelmed by work which makes him want to do more. I refused to start any of it until the age of 4. Abeka has a 4 year old kindergarten and a 5 year old kindergarten to do.