Educational materials for preschooler

[karen]

I forgot one thing: Read to him A LOT.

Yes, definitely. I would always lie down with him and we would both look at the book while I read. We still read that way and he's almost 9.

[EP]

We still read that way and he's almost 9.

Same here, we stopped when they were 9 and 10. And they had learned to read when they were 4 and 5. And when we declared that from now on they just have read themselves they could not believe their ears. They made us feel that we sort of abandoned them.

[mvgrogan]

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.

OK, so, this is a BLATANT advert - but I can help if you need good quality kids books in english. I sell Usborne books here in Finland. My daughter is also 4 years old so I know what she's up to!! One thing that she loves that also fits your requirements is a great series of books called Very First Reading - they are stories that you read together - you read one page, they read the other... they start incredibly simple and work up over 15 books to competent reader. By the end, they can read not only their pages but also your pages in the early books - they are brand new (only published in March) and currently half price for the box set. I also have a parent's guide on teaching your child to read & write (if that's what you want to do).

Like someone else said, the finnish system doesn't expect children to be able to read & write before they are 7 and they soon catch up with (for example) UK kids who learn from age 4. Just reading to and with your children (in any language at any age) will improve all their learning skills - not just reading & writing!

PM me if you want more info on that or any other books I might be able to help with.

Mx

p.s. new edition of Grimm tales coming soon!!...

[Lenok]

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.

Hi Karen.... I like what you said It is true, to let kids to enjoy childhood. I don't want to be hard on my son, I just would like to learn about aducational aproach in Finland. Why are you guys successful, how do you make the difference... I want to learn about this myself first so I can pick up tricks and when my son is ready I want to teach him the right way. I know I cannot do it all by myself, the school would have to, but like I said I just want to learn from the BEST

Thank you Karen

[Lenok]

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.

Thanks for brightening my morning!! I gotta love my boys as I see so much of them in what you've written!

Thank you Cory for your funny story You are absolutely right. I let my kid to do all of it, because I think it is healthy physically and mentally

Lena

[Lenok]

I've been reading that Finland is #1 when it comes to educaton.

As Penelope wrote, it really is about the methods used by an individual teacher in an individual classroom. There are some really great teachers here and some really crappy ones, too. It's also about class size and the mix of kids in each classroom.

The thing that I'm noticing with my 10 year old, now in 4th class in Finland, is that he's gone from a kid who loved to learn and explore things to a kid who's mostly interested in taking the test and getting the highest score on it. His love of the process of learning has been wiped out because the teacher needs to prepare the kids for scoring on the (nationalised?) tests. There seems to be not very much time to let the kids ask questions as their minds wander to other perspectives and in fact a teacher can be quite critical about a child (boys?) asking questions that don't quite fit into the exact target of each lesson.

As a parent, I want his mind to wander to think about the broader picture so I've taken it as my responsibility to keep up with the science and ethics classes, for example, and ask him questions so he then asks questions outside the box.

Take your kid outside and teach her the world of numbers and science in a practical manner. As has been mentioned, kids start compulsory school at age 7. Up til that age, they've probably been in daycare for at least 3-4 years and while there they spend alot of time learning about the environment because the kids are outside for at least an hour twice per day even on a snowy day. Kids learn to count and how spiders make webs and the time of the year that baby birds are hatched by observing..not with the use of printables and web sites.

Finnish kids are healthy physically, too, because of the time they spend outdoors just playing.

Thank you Penelope I also belive in spending time outside, as I did this myself when I was little girl My son's preschool is teaching him a lot of exploration. They just call it preschool in reality it is a daycare with learning activities. He knows a lot of staff, so I am happy with the school. I want to learn some teaching methods of how to teach my son myself that's why I thougt may be Fins have some tricks in their sleaves to teach kids all of this... I will definitely take your advise. Thank you

[Lenok]

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".

Thank you EP those are very good tips I also find this connecting dots pictures clever in teaching number sequence.

[Lenok]

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.

Hi EP, yes, I try to do all of this with him.. trying to teach to live life from a practical point of view. From readin a lot of posts I see that you guys just enjoy your time with kids and let them learn on their own. That's great!!! Ok.. I am feeling better now about myself... I thought I might be doing something wrong and was trying to be a better Mom but looks like I am doing everything right.

Thank you

[Lenok]

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, I do exactly what you just said, placing my son between my legs, so he can comfortably rest on me and I read to him every evening. For now I do half an hour then he kind of falls a sleep on me...

[Lenok]

We still read that way and he's almost 9.

Same here, we stopped when they were 9 and 10. And they had learned to read when they were 4 and 5. And when we declared that from now on they just have read themselves they could not believe their ears. They made us feel that we sort of abandoned them.

... that's funny

[Lenok]

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.

OK, so, this is a BLATANT advert - but I can help if you need good quality kids books in english. I sell Usborne books here in Finland. My daughter is also 4 years old so I know what she's up to!! One thing that she loves that also fits your requirements is a great series of books called Very First Reading - they are stories that you read together - you read one page, they read the other... they start incredibly simple and work up over 15 books to competent reader. By the end, they can read not only their pages but also your pages in the early books - they are brand new (only published in March) and currently half price for the box set. I also have a parent's guide on teaching your child to read & write (if that's what you want to do).

Like someone else said, the finnish system doesn't expect children to be able to read & write before they are 7 and they soon catch up with (for example) UK kids who learn from age 4. Just reading to and with your children (in any language at any age) will improve all their learning skills - not just reading & writing!

PM me if you want more info on that or any other books I might be able to help with.

Mx

p.s. new edition of Grimm tales coming soon!!...

OK, I am PMing you... what is PM? Is there a site I can check?

By the way THANK YOU ALL for your posts, you are all very kind hearted people. This is my first tim on any kind of forum, and I am enjoying it

[Upphew]

OK, I am PMing you... what is PM? Is there a site I can check?

PM as in Private Message

[Kath Oldham]

Try the shop Ludus, Fleminginkatu 12a for a wide range of 'intelligent' games for all ages.
Open Fridays 14-17.00, saturdays 10-14.00.