Overall Evaluation

We really didn’t do any real school work here this week. We really just played. I took this week to go over the Evaluation Forms, that came with Selena’s curriculum.

Age 3 yrs 4 mos

Our first week of school!

We started our preschool in August 2009. Selena was thrilled and called it “Follow Direction Time” I suppose that will probably end up being the name of our little school, if I choose to give our school a name. We started out trying unit studies which Selena did enjoy very much, but it wasn’t long before these unit studies seemed to go by the way side as Selena began to want more and more in her studies, so much more I couldn’t really fit it all into a unit study anymore or not with the curriculum we have.

First a little background of what Selena knew and didn’t know when we first started preschool: Would you believe before we started preschool Selena could not pronounce her name? That is right but within the first week of seeing it on the felt board and pronouncing it out letter by letter everyday she for the first time could say her first name correctly. We didn’t know at the time that Selena was going to want to go by Ingold rather then her real last name, but she made that very apparent by the third week of school. Selena was always a clear speaker, and could pronounce most any new word we introduced her too. We haven’t had too many funny pronunciations. She knew both upper and lower case letters and the sounds they make. She also knew how to count to 15 and could identify the numbers 1-10. She knew basic colors like Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Green. She could identify the shapes, circle, square, triangle, and heart.

By the end of the first 4 months Selena had mastered 26 of the 46 check points on her Preschool Progress Report.

Now 8 months from the time we started our preschool Selena has mastered all but 2 of the areas on this progress report. Both of these areas have to do with writing which she is just now showing an interest in learning.

 

I could ramble on but I am sure I have bored all my readers to death by now. I do see where we have some areas to concentrate on one being more calendar time, to learn the days of the week, and the months of the year. I will work harder at incorporating these areas into our school time for the rest of this year.

Picture of Selena now.

Selena, you have come a long way. Grandma and Grandpa are very proud of all that you have accomplished. You have excelled in every area academically, developmentally, and we love you very much!

I want to add just a little disclaimer here. I have read much and heard a lot about research about not doing formal schooling at such a young age. No, not every child is ready at this age to do all that we have done in our home. I had good reasons, and Selena wanted more then she was getting just from play, reading, and informal learning. If this would not have been the case we would not have purchased a curriculum and proceeded to teach what we have. It is very important to look at your child as an individual, where he/she is at, and determine what is best for him/her and your family. Please don’t think your child should know or be doing what Selena is doing, or that something is wrong because they are not at this level. Every child learns at their own pace, allow them to guide the way, they will tell you what they are ready for and what they are not ready for, so just listen to your child. Don’t push due to what you see other families doing, let your child be themselves, that is the BEST gift you as a parent can give them.