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I don't usually post things without permission from other lists, but in my
horror I'm going to make an exception. This is from a statewide homeschooling
list I'm on.

>>I know this isnt much help with your 5 year old, but
maybe with the other two. Start earlier.
I found that kids are most responisve to learning
phonics between 1 and 2 years old. They can be taught
the same time you are teaching the other sounds of the
world. For example...at that age they can "moo" when
you point to a picture of a cow and "oink" when you
point to a picture of a pig. At this time you can
also easily teach them to make the appropriate noises
as you point to the letters. This gives them a good
base for phonics and what better time to teach them
but when they are so hungry for input and love hearing
themselves make noise.<<

All I can say is -- ARGH!

The baby probably won't feel pressured or whatever with this, but the
implication of starting structured learning so early, along with the idea
that it's already too late for the 5 year old... ARGH!

Kathryn, whose List ethics seem to have slipped, but is somehow not concerned
that the writer is on this list




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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People can be on more than one list without agreeing equally with what's on
all of them. Really! <g>


Just because a toddler says "moo" to a photo of a cow or a little plastic cow
doesn't mean he's ready for phonics.

And to say "Toddlers are eager to learn" is true. They're not eager to learn
calculus, though, or the history of Uzbekestan.

Playing is playing, and sometimes playing is like phonics and sometimes
playing is like tumbling. Kirby could name the names of letters
(refrigerator magnets, or big print on cardboard boxes) before he knew how
old he was, but while it was one bitty aspect of "reading readiness" so is
everything else including being able to sit up and point at things and to
turn a page without tearing it out of the book.

When somenoe recommends turning a curiosity or interest into a course of
study, it's a departure from unschooling. Toddlers learn by naming and
sorting and touching and doing their version of "what's that?" which adds to
naming and sorting.

Saying "m" when one sees an "M" or saying "moo" when one sees a cow is not an
invitation for the parents to discuss phonemes or morphemes or any other
phonetic theory or linguistic terminology.

Just wake up from that nightmare and turn your face back toward unschooling!

Sandra
whose foot hurts
and who is going back to lie down



Sandra