I'm stepping over the line I think...

Hillbilly Housewife wrote: I'm MAKING this kid learn his letters. He's 4 1/2... he doesn't even know his full alphabet. I'm making him learn his alphabet, making him learn how to write the letters, as well as writing the numbers



(his mom's ok with it, just btw...in fact, she's encouraging me to do so)

luvbug00 replied: Good for you. you should assign him homework so his mom can help.

A&A'smommy replied: GOOD for you!!!

Boo&BugsMom replied: Good for you! Doesn't mom do anything with him at home and take the responsiblity to teach her own child? He and mom should be lucky he has you to teach him!

ediep replied: I think thats great!

C&K*s Mommie replied: I say kudos to you, too! Go for it--

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
His mom IS a teacher.

No she does... the kid just isn't interested. She's brought me his workbooks etc... he's more apt to do stuff in them when Zach does it too, so she's leaving it up to me, since he just plain won't do it at home. He dawdles and scribbles instead. I personally think he's got an extremely short attention span, and he's just bored about it. He seems to be really ok with the Leapfrog stuff though... at least he sits through that.

Boo&BugsMom replied:
I wonder if he's a hands-on physical learner. Some kids just aren't workbook type kids, ya know? They like hands-on learning...like the Leapfrog stuff you're talking about. If mom is a teacher, she should know that. Unless she's use to older kids?

CantWait replied: IMHO it's what a dayhome provider does is to provide learning capabilities for the children. Not a responsibility, but an option besides free play and just a watchful eye.

Good for you.

Boo&BugsMom replied:
I agree. I think it's a combination between home and school that is important. But sometimes people (parents) can use it as an excuse to not teach their own children when they are this young.

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
I don't think he's more of a hands on learner than the others... he's just easily bored, or doesn't have enough motivation to do stuff on his own. He'll do the workbooks no problem, and well, IF Zach does them too. But if I do them in the afternoon during quiet time while Zach is still in school, he won't do them.

The leapfrog stuff I'm talking about is a dvd that sings a song while telling a story, making the kids learn the letters of the alphabet as well as the sound they make.

It's definitely a thing we do in the agency - we have learning activities, and certain ways to learn while having fun - the kids don't even "know" they're learning. For instance, we had star day the other day. We traced some stars, colored them, cut them out, made a mobile with them, drew more star pictures, had star stickers, star chaped cookies, star shaped cheese... we learned a lot about stars, shapes, colors, counting, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, instructions...

it's the little things that count...

I believe she teaches 3rd grade, although I could be mistaken.

Boo&BugsMom replied:
Is it the Letter Factory one? We have that one, Math Circus and the Talking Words Factory. All are awesome! I have yet to get the Code Word Caper, which I want to get soon.

We do preschool in the morning here. We do our art/sensory, math, reading readiness/letters, science and social science, small motor, etc. We do our circle time in the morning before. Not everything I do is required by the state, but I do it anyways because I want my kiddos to be prepared to go to K.

I have a little girl that is somewhat like your guy. She is very unmotivated. However, she will still do them, but she'll take a deep breath like it's such a chore. Grr. I don't know how to MAKE a child motivated. I guess maybe a sticker chart or reward system or something? Maybe he'll change once he goes to big kid school.

Hillbilly Housewife replied: That's the one. We have the others too...but I can't find the Math Circus one. I put it away a while ago (like 6 months ago... lol) to be safe until his birthday...and I thought I knew exactly where it was... but his birthday came aounrd, and I couldn't find it. So it's somewehere... lol

I give them stickers on pages they do well with... it doesn't do anything...

I hate the *sigh*...mine says "okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-yyyyyyyyuh" in this really annoying voice too. Ugh.

Boo&BugsMom replied:
There is always one is every group hey?