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Homeschooling – quick tip:

malinikrish

It can be very conflicting to be in a place where young kids are thrown into competitive mix and made to read and practice writing with pencils and practice calligraphy even before reaching kindergarten, while your instinct bothers you since you know your child may not be physically or emotionally ready for that.

Here are some of quick tips, if you know you are not ready for this writing activity:

For young kids, the learning is more about exposure than mastery. It will be great if the exposure is enjoyable for both you and the kid.

  • Jumping on answers or pointing to answers – Kids love to move around and love action. Hence instead of forcing them to write on paper, put the paper on floor and ask them to jump on a specific answer.
    • or simply ask them to point to the answer, make it fun by extra twirls and hidden hands and tickly spiders 🕷️to enjoy the activity
  • Using stamping tools – e.g. if the material calls for circling or connecting or crossing the answers, use a stamping tool to mark the correct answer.
  • Use any of the manipulatives already available in the house. Ask the child to put the manipulative instead of writing down the answer. Couple of examples:
    • E.g. magnetic alphabet or number – you can ask child to put the magnet number or character instead of writing the answer
    • e.g. 2 – wooden blocks
    • e.g. 3 – tamarind seeds (warning – not suitable for young kids) or beads, or legos etc.
  • Kids love sensory activities like stamping or painting or poking or cutting or pasting activities. Spend more of your homeschooling on these activities. Remember it is more about exposure than mastering at an young age.
    • Example: instead of asking kiddo to trace an alphabet,
      • e.g. ask kid to cut up paper into small bits – which they would love. and paste the pieces into an alphabet shape on another paper -where the trace of alphabet is already there
      • E.g.2 kiddo can stamp along the lines or within the block alphabet
      • E.g. 3 kiddo can put stickers along the block alphabet
      • e.g. 4 kiddo can paint on the alphabet
      • e.g. 5 kiddo can poke along the edge of the shape.
    • Note, what works one day may not work the next day. So watch out for that and don’t be disappointed if kiddo does not show interest in same activity the next day.

PS

  • Limit the homeschooling hours for young kids – e.g. prior to KG, the schedule can be as simple as 10 mins for 3 days a week. Again focus on exposure instead of mastery.
  • You can expand the time based on how well your kid adapts to the activities.

Note: I am not a teacher and do not know any of teaching methods like montesorri completely. Hence this is more a list of options that can be leveraged instead of writing. Kindly do your research based on your child’s age and capabilities to adopt your own teaching style.