do you attempt to teach stuff to your dcs? and how can i get dd more interested in learning things?

[rhetorician]

dd is 3 and a bit and seems to me to be averagely bright (inasfar as I know anything about this, which is not very far). But I read accounts of people who teach their children all sorts of things with numbers and letters - my niece is 6 months older than dd and is being taught to read by her mother. I rarely actively or formally teach dd anything - partly because she seems so utterly resistant to being taught anything at all. If you show her how to count things by using her finger and then saying each number in turn she will either refuse to do it, or deliberately keep starting randomly from one. Letters the same - she knows quite a few of them, but just shuts down if you say, oh, there's 'k' for 'key' - I should say that I am not remotely pushy about this. If she makes it clear she doesn't want to, I just back off. How can I get her to be more interested? She does imaginary play happily, drawing, messing about with water/pots/soil/mud/food, but just will not engage in anything remotely structured or ordered or conceptual. I assume I should just leave her to it and not worry about it - she is interested in learning the time (but doesn't know her numbers), in reading (but doesn't know her letters) - so it's as if she doesn't want to do any of the key groundwork.

I just wittered at my two all the time. They have both done well, gone to uni, etc. If you waffle on the whole time they will either learn from you or learn how to tune you out. Learning either way!

at wittering.

working on my wittering thinking out loud

The most challenging part, for me, was listening to their wittering. Especially about Pokemon.

yes indeed - I have just had the rules of an imaginary game for big girls explained to me. My ears hurt. It's too early

We are being pushed at the moment to write name, DD has a long name. She used to love nursery but now hates going even though they only ask her to write her name for a few mins, out of a whole day playing, at home I come at it in diff ways and manage to get it out of her, why teacher cant do this!

We are slowly making headway with letters, she asks me things that begin with certian letters and I try to make her understand how to work it out ie...m ummy....etc

HOWEVER, I have sort of decided that I am not going to worry about her development, she is inquisitve, adores books and has a great imagination.

I feel writing her name and all the rest will come when she is ready.

I was asking a piano teacher about a good age to start her, she said " unless gifted, what she learns now will take a month, if you wait until she is older it will take a week. "

I feel that applies to the other stuff too, so I am going to relax about it and not let it worry me, and say same to teacher who is putting her off school and yet teacher is wonderful lady !

I agree with the others that say follow your child's lead. I disagree though that it necessarily takes longer with younger children - I think it depends on the child.

With both my children, I got the jolly phonics books and left them on the bookshelves.

One of my daughters, loved reading and regularly brought me books, and she just learnt it.... That was at the age of 3. By the time she started school, she was put on the purple book band - so quite a proficient reader. she was also really interested in clocks, and learnt to tell the time to the nearest half hour by when she was 3 1/2. But she was interested, and she wanted to do it.

My other daughter though was just Not interested and started school just about able to write her name and read the most basic of books like "I am top cat". For her, learning to read has been a much more painful longer process because she's not as keen / interested in reading. She's getting there now, but is way behind her sister. She is making good progress though and is getting there. I think perhaps she is less academically able compared to my other daughter, as she doesn't find any of it so natural.

But the point I'm trying to make, is that one of my daughters was ready at 3, the other not... But it wouldn't have been fair to have forced one to read early or to have hold the other one back (I'm very much a vygotskian in my educational theory)... They all get there in their own time. Respond to their needs - if they want to do, if they don't, don't. Then I don't think you'll go far wrong.

Good luck.

DC hate me teaching them anything. Hymph.

My DS was asking me what letters an dwords were, and picked up numbers, at a remarkably young age, so I went wth it and taught him how to read and played lots of maths games with him.

DD is 3.5 yrs and has no interest in that type of thing. She is bright and verbal, but prefers playing imaginary games, so I will leave it until she starts school. i think.

yes, I think my dd doesn't have a great deal of interest in letters and numbers, so I'll go with the imaginary play and messing about for now

I think it is important to realise that letters and numbers, though obviously central, are a very tiny part of all the learning that a child needs to do- and that a child who has a good general idea of the world will find it much easier to develop those skills.

I grew up in Scandinavia where 7 was the normal age for learning the alphabet (though I taught myself at 5). By the time I got to the alphabet, I had a good idea of how to use tools such as a hammer or needle, I could make a cake unsupervised, I knew endless rhymes and stories, I knew a lot about my local environment and a fair bit about other parts of the world, I had a good supply of information about history, I was used to serious conversations with grown-ups who were interested in my point of view- reading was easy because I could make sense of it.

My friend who taught children from deprived families in a poor part of London used to complain bitterly of how difficult it was to get them to read and write when they had nothing to hang their reading and writing on.

Am in agreement with poster who said talk to them continuously about whatever you/they are doing and whatever else pops into your head! ONly thing I did and I do is important is either reading or telling a story at bed time