Educational materials for preschooler

Lenok · Post by **Lenok** » Wed May 12, 2010 5:46 am

Hello everyone,
I've been reading that Finland is #1 when it comes to educaton. My son just turned 4 years old and I would like to get him on a right track and start building solid blocks before he enters school. Can anyone provide me with links to websites that have educational material for the little ones. The best option would be printable worksheets, printouts, or curriculums... My son loves numbers and I would like to learn about how fins aproach math and sience studies. The only problem I have is that I don't know finish, so if there are websites in eglish that would be great!
Thank you very much,
Lena

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karen · Post by **karen** » Wed May 12, 2010 9:57 am

The most important thing you should keep in mind is that kids don't start school until the year they turn 7. It has nothing at all to do with getting an early start, it's all about letting them be kids before they have to grow up.

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Wed May 12, 2010 10:10 am

...and the other thing is that there are no "methods" or "approaches". The core national curriculum (which you can purchase on-line from http://www.minedu.fi) outlines which subject areas need to be covered each year in school but it does not stipulate which methods have to be used. The teachers are responsible for what goes on in the classroom.

...and the other other thing is that Finland does not produce the most high-achievers (countries like the UK with their highly selective schooling system do that); Finland merely produces the highest average of achievement.

There are some on-line teaching resources (aimed at kids living in remote areas such as northern Lapland or the archipelago, but they are mostly in Finnish, Swedish, or even Sami.

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Wed May 12, 2010 10:31 am

Lenok wrote:Hello everyone,
I've been reading that Finland is #1 when it comes to educaton. My son just turned 4 years old and I would like to get him on a right track and start building solid blocks before he enters school. Can anyone provide me with links to websites that have educational material for the little ones. The best option would be printable worksheets, printouts, or curriculums... My son loves numbers and I would like to learn about how fins aproach math and sience studies. The only problem I have is that I don't know finish, so if there are websites in eglish that would be great!
Thank you very much,
Lena

When I was 4... I ate crayons, played war, made tree houses, fell from the tree with house, went to Sunday school (hmm, that might been few years later too.. 'cause I went just so I would get my puukko... bribes ftw), melted play-doh with light bulb, played with legos, laughed to a boy from kindergarten as he had Rhotacism... as did I, got brother, hoped that he died as he stole attention... as for education... I probably ate ABC-book and got sooooo bored at sunday school.

Xochiquetzal · Post by **Xochiquetzal** » Wed May 12, 2010 10:32 am

My daughter enjoyed this site:
http://www.starfall.com/

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Wed May 12, 2010 10:41 am

Upphew wrote: When I was 4... I ate crayons, played war, made tree houses, fell from the tree with house, went to Sunday school (hmm, that might been few years later too.. 'cause I went just so I would get my puukko... bribes ftw), melted play-doh with light bulb, played with legos, laughed to a boy from kindergarten as he had Rhotacism... as did I, got brother, hoped that he died as he stole attention... as for education... I probably ate ABC-book and got sooooo bored at sunday school.

... so you never raced frogs, ate worms or collected spiders?

As a mum (of boys) I can cope with the Lego and broken limbs and even the heavy artillery but the creepy-crawly phase freaked me out somewhat.

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Wed May 12, 2010 10:52 am

penelope wrote:... so you never raced frogs, ate worms or collected spiders? As a mum (of boys) I can cope with the Lego and broken limbs and even the heavy artillery but the creepy-crawly phase freaked me out somewhat.

Hmm, no, frogs were scary and I still won't eat anything that has such slimy texture... but I did like to put everything from nose to mouth... spiders were scary too, but I could handle daddy long legs, until their legs came off...

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Wed May 12, 2010 1:18 pm

Upphew wrote:laughed to a boy from kindergarten as he had Rhotacism... as did I,

Why the hell do they always use the letter you can't say so you can't say what you have...

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Wed May 12, 2010 1:20 pm

Upphew wrote: frogs were scary

Oooh, those summer days with a net trying to catch them from the well....

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Wed May 12, 2010 1:27 pm

Pursuivant wrote:
Upphew wrote:laughed to a boy from kindergarten as he had Rhotacism... as did I,
Why the hell do they always use the letter you can't say so you can't say what you have...

"Äiti! Äiti! Telolla on ällävika!"

EP · Post by EP » Wed May 12, 2010 1:39 pm

the teacher needs to prepare the kids for scoring on the (nationalised?) tests.

There are no such tests except "ylioppilastutkinto" (matriculation exam) and that is when you are finishing secondary school (around 18). That is just your child´s teacher´s personal approach. That is a basic diffrence between Finland and some other countries, children´s performance at a younger age is tested at a personal level, not on a larger scale. Less stress.

I have had an inquisitive child and a I-could-not-care-less one. For the "I want to learn learn learn" one I bought every single pre-school practise book I could find and he spent hours with them just by himself, for the other one I didn´t even bother to try. Both learned to read all by themselves, and managed just fine at school.

The practise books for pre-schoolers were nothing special, they were just something like "colour every area with a dot red, every area with a cross blue, and see what comes out of it". Or ""draw a line from number 1 to number ten".

EP · Post by EP » Wed May 12, 2010 1:51 pm

curriculums

Please, no. They will get enough curriculums later in life. Bake with him, something that he can roll dough with his hands. Forget the dishwasher and let him do the dishes. Take him to a forest and teach about animals and plants. Teach him how to swim. Biking is great. Show him how to climb a rope. Jump a rope. Those kinds of things rather than curriculums.

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Wed May 12, 2010 2:05 pm

EP wrote:The practise books for pre-schoolers were nothing special, they were just something like "colour every area with a dot red, every area with a cross blue, and see what comes out of it". Or ""draw a line from number 1 to number ten".

Oi! I did those too! Nobody told me that it was some kind of practice! I feel betrayed, I thought it was just funny play... it wasn't until teens that I started to diss homework and school...

EP · Post by EP » Wed May 12, 2010 3:14 pm

I forgot one thing: Read to him A LOT. I think that is why my kids learned to read by themselves, nobody taught them letters. We read to them every single evening, no exceptions to that. Take a good fairy tale book, jump into the kid´s bed and place the kid between your legs or under your arm so that he can see the pages (preferably with pictures) while you read. Enjoy. We did that for years, everything from half an hour to hour. We continued even after they knew how to read because it felt nice to hold them near and also because there are some terrific fairy tales and children´s books.

And we never censored, we served them even with the most horrible one from brothers Grimm.

EP · Post by EP » Wed May 12, 2010 10:56 pm

It makes it easy to "standarise" the scores and compare one class in Lahti, for example, with another in Turku, both of which use the same texts and the same tests.

Yes, it would be. But do they do that? I mean, what would be a reason to compare? It would just be extra work and no reward.

I am guessing that your son is an ambitious one, he wants to get good scores, that is why he is concentrating in the actual texts. Just guessing but I was like that at that age, anything under 9 (scores went from 10 to 4) felt like a failure. Not for my parents or teacher but ME.

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