Is it ever too early to start teaching your children? Well, I guess it depends on what it is that you are trying to teach them.
Scripture: Never. Jack already has a few verses under his Belt of Truth. I am glad to continue to work on this and he even asks me sometimes, "Mama, what's our verse?" I gladly tell him.
Manners: Never. Good manners are always appreciated by others and should be expected (in my opinion) no matter what. Does Jack always comply? No! But, we never stop working on it.
Letters: Well, this one is questionable!
We started working on letter recognition with Jack. I figured he would respond well for a few reasons. First, his verbal communication and vocabulary are pretty good for a 27 month old. Second, he has managed to learn the letters W and O during the past school year. So, I thought, well, maybe he would do well learning the letters in his name at least.
As I mentioned in a post just a few below this one, I sent him the letters in his name and we began working on learning them a week at a time. Well, at the end of week three here is where we are at:
NOWHERE!!
He is so funny! When asked, "Jack, what letter does airplane start with?" He confidently replies, "Zebra!" Then he laughs and laughs. The other day he grabbed his letters and crumpled them all up. He then proceeded to tell me, with the sweetest smile on his face, that these belong in the trash can. And he followed through. :)
At this point, he enjoys getting a laugh out of mommy more than he is interested in letter recognition. And that is just fine with me. A good friend of mine and I were chatting about whether or not it was too early for him to begin to recognize letters. Perhaps. I really am not too concerned that he thinks that airplane starts with zebra or that the letters are now crumpled in the trash. I appreciate the fun and structure having a letter each week gives to our summer. I also like knowing that I am slowly giving him instruction to help him on his way to begin reading. One day it will click. No rush. Just fun.
Here is what he has learned in the middle of zebras and crumpled letters:
-He knows what letters are in general and even points them out on different things. (O and W specifically)
-He loves to take apart any and all art projects we do - a little deconstruction. I found the googley eye of the ant we made on the living room floor the other day. Poor ant!!
-Some wonderful verses. They have been a part of my list of ideas of things we can do for the week and he has taken to them well.
I would much rather have Jack know scripture than letters!
2 comments:
Love the update! I esp love the boy stories. :)
Before you know it, Jack will be reading encylopedias (do they still make those!?!?!). I love that the first letter of the alaphabet in his world is a word that is the last letter of the alaphabet, it made me giggle.
By the way, a friend let me know that recognition does not consist of knowing what letter airplane starts with - that is spelling. She is obviously correct. But what I forgot to mention in this post is that when he is asked this we are looking at our art project with airplanes on it and the work airplane is right there - so we are looking at the letter and trying to recognize it. However, my questioning is incorrect!! I should just point to it and say, "What letter is this?" Good reminder!!
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