3 TO 4 YEARS: CREATING A SPACE FOR EFFECTIVE HOMESCHOOLING

If at all possible, I believe that it is important to have a separate space for schoolwork. Just like adults, children need to be able to have a space, relatively free of distractions, to focus, a space that communicates, without words, that a different kind of play is to take place 'there'. What does that look like for a young child? In my mind, it looks like a bright room that is colorful but in an age-appropriate manner (perhaps lots of contrasts for a baby and becomes more neutral as the child gets older). That's why I love this sunroom on the second floor of our home. It is separated by a soft retractable gate from my son's bedroom, below. This separation ensures that Joey does not touch any of the school stuff in his off hours because some of it is not appropriate to be used without supervision. This separation is also psychological because he too needs some downtime. 
In his bedroom, there is a little piano (which he can play when he wants), and lots of books that he is currently allowed to switch at will (so he is allowed to get out of bed to change books if he wants to, something he was not allowed to do when he turned three and we switched to a big boy bed). He can have up to five books in his bed or night table. We keep regular toys in a toy box in our living room downstairs and there are also some toys we keep in a closet in his bedroom, and which we only take out for quiet time (now replacing naps on the week-ends). The relative lack of distractions in his bedroom is really helpful, I think, because he ends up spending a lot of time reading or drawing/writing on a doodle pad if he doesn't want to sleep. Note that the bookshelf is secured to the wall. Regarding the rest of his bedroom/schoolroom set up, I believe several elements are conducive to achieving good results:

A desk area: this may seem obvious, but a good, age-appropriate desk is really important to host learning activities, particularly anything involving writing, drawing, or computer work. For other work, however, I believe it is important to be willing to keep switching locations (like the floor) for young children because they don't want to be sitting at a desk non-stop for hours. Note the clock, which helps reinforce reading the time, the handy roll of paper, and the posted schedule. Also, unless you are buying really good quality furniture, plan on a plexiglas protective cover for the desk because preschoolers put a lot of pressure on pens and ours needs to be replaced a year after we purchased it because it is full of scratches. 

A lot of easily accessible storage: again, this may seem obvious, but it is important to have good storage to keep teaching books and other learning material well organized and yet readily accessible. We opted for these open cubbies, but if you do the same, be sure they are super-stable or secured to the wall, if you have the kind of child who will try to climb on them. This is also why we keep a gate between the work area, where Joey is always supervised, and Joey's bedroom, where of course he spends his sleeping hours unsupervised. These cubbies are also great to keep a child laptop and DVD player out of little hands' reach. 

A reading corner: apart from the ability to read in bed, a comfortable chair in a little corner makes the perfect quiet place to read. Note the magnetic calendar to help reinforce calendaring skills. We use the Educational Insights Geosafari Talking Globe Jr. to teach geography. 

A music corner: this one has to be as free of distractions as possible, but clearly, for us, it is just a little corner of our mini-classroom. We have been doing Suzuki violin, and after a while, I felt it was important to get a stand and a music pointer. 

And finally, an award or achievement wall: as your child has been working hard to take classes early, get into Mensa, or participate in Continental Math Leagues, display his achievements on a special wall. It will be a good reminder (for you and him) that hard work pays off!

3 TO 4 YEARS: RAISING A CHILD AT THE CROSSROAD OF SEVERAL CULTURES

Raising children in any culture is hard. In other places in this blog (here and there), I talk about the fact that a lot of my parenting has to do with being a French and Jewish mother raising a child in the U.S. 

What is a French mother? Apart from the information you will find in 'Bringing up Bebe' and 'French Children Eat Everything', French parents tend to be a lot stricter when children are young and then relax considerably once the little ones reach their teenage years. In other words, it is the opposite of what the book series 'Baby Wise' describes as 'credit card parenting', which consists of looking the other way when children are young, but potentially dealing with bigger problems later: I would say that in France, issues, particularly when they relate to manners, are dealt with head on, early on, and with little compromise, which is why children in France tend to be better behaved in adult situations (restaurants, stores) than their American counterparts and why parental relationships with teenage children tend to be somewhat less fraught with conflict. For instance, Joey always knew that misbehaving in a restaurant was an absolute no-no, and he never doubted that a harsh punishment was coming if he did. Not taking him to fancy restaurants never crossed our mind because I don't like the idea of having him baby-sat during what I perceive is an important family and educational time: I wanted him to appreciate different foods (we never order from children's menus, even if they are available) and the whole experience of dining out. So nowadays, he needs relatively little in the way of distractions, although we do bring them along. Of course, there are many other considerable differences between the American and French culture when it comes to children and what good parenting is perceived to be, and I never fully grasped the magnitude of these differences until I had a child here. Behavior of parents in public is another example: In France, parents tend to be at their strictest in public, because this is what people around them define as good parenting. French people would disapprove if a misbehaving child were NOT tersely chastised. Actually, instead of looking the other way, they would probably take the matter into their own hands and while usually stopping short of physical punishment (although old ladies have been known to pull ears!), they would definitely correct the child verbally. This would be perceived as helpful to the parents. In the U.S. however, while unruly children do get stares, so do parents who try to correct them beyond redirection. Therefore, I had to alter my 'public' style here to fit in... 

Another example of U.S.-France cultural divide is my aversion to letting (and seeing) young toddlers eat non-finger food with their hands. This is something I will never get used to, and find otherwise cute children with food on their face, hands, and even on the table completely unappealing. So we worked hard to teach Joey to use silverware (except for knives!), and before he could do it well, he was fed by an adult. I actually think that our insistence on this contributed to his amazing fine motor skills (he writes very well for his age and is also making steady progress with the violin). Also, I really don't like the constant hovering when children are playing... at least as long as no one gets hurt. Joey, since he prefers hanging out with older children, is not usually the dominant child, but this obsession about 'sharing' is over the top in my opinion. Of course, when he is with younger children, I always make sure he is kind and careful, but otherwise, I don't like to play referee and I sense that this too is a cultural thing. What else? In France, kids learn to play on their own, even for extended periods of time, but here, I feel like parents are expected to provide non-stop entertainment, and I feel it is not a good thing for either parent or child. 

What about Jewish parenting? It is definitely a huge part of what I do, even though it stands is complete contradiction with the things I just talked about: there is an element of fear of separation in my parenting, which I cannot overcome. Perhaps it is because parents and children were so often separated during the Holocaust, but I have recurrent nightmares about Joey getting lost or being taken away. To this day, I have not gone on an overnight trip without my son, and I am not planning to for the foreseeable future. I also constantly plan, hover, worry about his food, education, health and safety but maybe so does every other mother, although I probably do it a smidgen more. While I am very strict with Joey (like a French mother would be), there is also a lot of physical and verbal expressions of affection, at home and in public, and I don't think that Joey ever doubts that he is the most important thing in my life. 

The bottom line is that I am not entirely sure which aspect of my parenting comes from one place or another, and I suspect that many multicultural parents feel the same. I guess if I had to describe the way Joey is raised, I would say that he is equally 'Ferberized' and 'Fockerized'!

3 TO 4 YEARS: YOUNG CHILDREN AND COMPUTERS

This is not going to be a very long post because at Joey's age, we have only scratched the surface of all the issues surrounding a child's handling of a computer and online presence. 

When Joey got accepted into the John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth at three years of age, that meant we had to get him or let him use a computer. We really did not have a good set-up in his play room to have him use a desktop (although this is actually a good solution because apart from the keyboard, which they can drop, there is relatively little a small child can do to a desktop computer, in terms of damaging it, as long as you keep liquids away). So we were in the market for a 'kid-rugged' notebook or a notebook specifically labeled for 'classroom use'.  Of course, Joey does not go anywhere with his laptop, but you know what 'any drop' will do to the average computer, so it seemed like an investment of a few extra $100s would be worth it (we could have gotten a cheap notebook for about half the price). I even looked into tablets but these do not have the functionality of computers, are still quite expensive, and are not damage- resistant either. Kid-rugged computers are spill-resistant and will also resist drops of a couple of feet. Other rugged notebooks are in the market and offer more resistance to all kinds of mishaps, but the price tag is typically well over $1,000 and usually over several $1,000s because they are designed for professional use. 

Our first try was the PeeWee PC, and here, I have to make an exception to the rule of 'not saying anything if you have nothing nice to say' because we have tried to purchase products from this company on two occasions, i.e. gave payment information, got a confirmation email etc. yet, our orders were basically ignored. The first time, after sending several follow-up emails, I finally heard from someone who said that they were changing their systems, and that was why I hadn't heard about my order in over a month. Fair enough, but since I was spending several $$$ on a computer that might need support, I took my business elsewhere. Recently, I tried again, for a smaller item (an optical drive). I did this because I had forgotten about my prior experience and their web site is so attractive...Same problem.. haven't heard in a month, so I am done. 

Instead, we bought a classroom laptop from M&A technology: the Companion PC 2600. It is small (but not too small), rugged, and functional. It does not come with special parental controls or programs. It runs on a Windows XP platform (it comes with a trial of Windows 7, but reverts to XP once the trial ends), so not exactly cutting edge or fast, but we don't need fast and a lot of bells and whistles. The staff at the company was responsive and efficient. When Joey first got the computer, we trained him to use the basic commands using a great (and free) resource at e-Learning for Kids. 

Regarding the lack of parental controls, this was my first attempt at trying to figure out what choices there were and understand what exactly parental control software does. The bad news is that all the softwares which are reviewed out there, even some of the most popular ones, have some pretty big gaps or flaws. And for us, it did not really make sense to monitor social media, since of course Joey does not have access to it at his age. Purchasing a special software at this stage seemed over the top, but if you know of one that you love and never lets you down, I would love to hear from you!

So our solution for the time being consisted of: 1. Locking Google SafeSearch on, since Joey does not have the password to his own google account and 2. Removing all shortcuts to programs on the start menu, except for the few we allow him to use. Clearly, this is a temporary solution which works because of his limited and always supervised access to the computer, even now (so it is never used as a source of entertainment, and he never really have a chance to 'explore' all the features); and his age... I am sure that we will have to resort to more sophisticated measures once he really becomes proficient. 

One tool I do find very useful is the "YouTube Sanitizer". It basically keeps the YouTube website from suggesting other videos, which might be either non-relevant or not appropriate for your child.  

3 TO 4 YEARS OLD: CAN YOU TEACH THE VIRTUES OF DELAYED GRATIFICATION AND WORK ETHICS (GRIT)?

The short answer is that 'I have no idea'. There is a very good article about teaching conscientiousness to children, and not just strive for 'happiness' at http://tinyurl.com/lu6vqp5. Not surprisingly, research shows that children who are industrious, orderly, and have good self-control are more likely than their careless or undisciplined peers to grow into happy adults. This has also been shown with the classic Stanford Marshmallow experiment.

So we have tried with Joey. First, we used Ferber when Joey was a baby and then Baby Wise. These two methods really worked for us and Joey basically got used to waiting a bit when he needed or wanted something. We almost never had any issues with sleeplessness (he slept through the night at six weeks of age) or getting out of bed once he was moved from the crib to a toddler bed. His behavior in nice restaurants is (usually) excellent, and we get regular compliments. We have never used a pacifier or food to insure good behavior. It is hard sometimes, but we see some kids who are always snacking when they are supposed to be on good behavior, and we just don't want to do that. Baby Wise in particular teaches the concept that you have to parent the child and not their emotions. 

Lately, we have instituted another rule: when Joey wants (yet) another car, he has to earn it, so he performs a very simple task (taking out a T-shirt he will wear that night and a pull-up) and laying them out very neatly on one of his night tables. He makes 10 cents a night for his job, and we have a special Save, Spend, Share Money Box , and he keeps a tally every night of how much he has left to earn to get the car (I tell him the cars are $1.00, so the goal does not take too long to achieve.. he has to save 1 cent and share 1 cent every time, so he accumulates 8 cents a night). I really wasn't planning to do the allowance thing for quite a while, but I had noticed that Joey was starting to develop a certain sense of entitlement, and I didn't like where this was going: since he can read, he got a hold of the many toy catalogues we received and started asking for things, a lot of them... so I felt that it was time to start teaching him the concept that money does not grow on trees and has to be earned, and that's how you can buy things. At first I felt bad for doing that because who does not want to spoil their child and let them hang on to the illusion that they can just 'get' when they ask because we are fortunate enough to be able to provide that illusion. But I felt that I had to withhold love to love better, and this was difficult. Also, I really did not want to pay him for a chore that I consider just 'good citizenship' (my initial idea was to give him an allowance when he was older but not as an exchange for being a good citizen in our home and doing his fair share, with the possibility of paying him for tasks that were above and beyond), but since he is so young, there are just not that many things he can handle that wouldn't end up giving us more work in the end, so this simple job works for us right now... and I can tell you that when he earned his first car, this was definitely a special moment for him. That car is clearly extra valuable to him, and we made sure to make a big deal about it. That feeling is what we were after, so this was a successful experiment. We still ask him to do other things as well, like go throw things in the garbage or recycle, help putting away paper towels, put his dirty clothes in the hamper, and so forth. 

So that's for delayed gratification. In terms of instilling work ethics, I think it is a matter of setting and sticking to expectations. Joey loves doing his learning program, especially math, most days, but not every day. So on the days he does not want to do it, he spends time in the 'time out' chair because we insist on a minimum amount of work every single day (except on the week-end) because as I tell him... life is not about doing what you want when you want. This may seem like a lot to expect from a three year old, but conforming to expectations and group dynamics is actually a lot of what even regular pre-school focuses on, and it is particularly important in the case of an only child dotted on by three adults at home (parents and nanny). When Joey does well, which is often, I tend to focus on his effort rather than his abilities, as the latest research advises. Will Joey eventually be completely self-motivated? I certainly hope so, as I know he is capable of incredible focus and motivation now, but only time will tell. 

There is some interesting research about grit by Dr. Angela Duckworth, on which she gave a very compelling talk, which you can find here and you can fine another excellent article about grit and disciplinarian instruction there. It turns out that grit is a little more than just work ethics: it is perseverance in the face of challenge. The good news is that with challenge and effort, it appears that you can change the ability of the brain to to learn for the better. The bad news is that in our school system, often times the brain of naturally gifted children is not challenged. So not only do their brains' natural abilities 'atrophy', but they also acquire terrible study habits (or rather no study habits) because for the first few years, everything is so easy and boring, and they don't need to work at them at all to 'do well', i.e. get good grades. Once they are further along, though, they eventually have to compete with the grittier kids, the ones who perhaps did not start out with as much innate brain power, but because they were motivated to begin with and had to work at it, ended up doing just as well, and with good study habits to boot. This would explain why many gifted kids do not necessarily end up as successful individuals in the end. So as I have already alluded to in my other post ('Why The Rush?'), that's why I firmly believe that letting a gifted kid 'cruise' through school, in order to avoid dealing with the challenge of pestering schools to differentiate and accelerate, is NOT a neutral decision, it is a harmful one for that child. 

3 TO 4 YEARS OLD: TEACHING ARITHMETICS TO YOUNG CHILDREN

This title is a misnomer because in fact, we started teaching math in the first year and mostly second year of Joey's life. I will not repeat the information that is on that page, but will refer to it. 

Pre-counting skills: before a child can start counting, he needs to understand that there is such a thing as quantity, and means to represent it, first by showing and implicitly comparing smaller or larger groups of actual objects (or their representation), and then by using numbers. This is where the Doman method, embodied in a convenient format by the Brillkids 'Little Math' program, is really useful to develop this concept. This program shows quantities of objects (or people, symbols, etc) and makes the association with the number in fast sequence... so little by little, your child understands, in part at the subconscious level, that certain quantities can be represented by certain numbers. While using the program, it is a good idea to read stories that include counting and count objects in real life in front of your child: from 0-5 (0 is a very important concept, and I think it is good to introduce it early); 6-10; 11-20. Once your child's general vocabulary 'explodes' (sometime between 18 and 22 months), you can start encouraging counting by rote, so that he can have the vocabulary to practice 'one-to-one' object correspondence (in other words, counting actual objects on his own).  

Counting skills: Actual counting is 'one to one' correspondence, i.e. pointing to objects sequentially and counting, without missing any object or counting any object twice. At first, this is going to take a while (perhaps several months), but practice makes perfect. This is where cute little puzzles, such as the eeBoo Counting Puzzles, come in to teach 'one to one' correspondence for up to 20. At the same time, you can go beyond the number 20 for rote counting (Joey could count to at least 100 by the time he was 19 months old). Once your child is comfortable counting to high numbers, other two important skills to develop (we did that toward the end of Joey's first year and through the first half of his second year) are counting backward (important for subtractions) and skip counting (by 2, 5, 10, 25), which is important for multiplication, and for counting money. 

Addition: once your child has mastered 'one to one' correspondence for numbers up to 20, you can start teaching the concept of addition, which is basically the understanding that when you add two numbers, the result is the sum of the two (it seems obvious doesn't it..? It is, but not to a one year old). For this, I have found that again, eeboo type puzzles or Eeboo Math Addition Flash Cards or 'Addition Match-Ups' from Lakeshore Learning were very helpful because they show additions in a visual manner which also helps reinforce 'one to one' correspondence. Once you feel your child understands the basic concept, you can move on to having him figure out additions by counting on his fingers and some automation with additions which result in 10, then in 20. 
Addition by counting on fingers: For X+Y, the way to do it is to have your child start at X, then use his fingers to add Y. For instance, 5+2 can be solved by starting at 5, raising two fingers to count: '6', '7'. If you think about it, no one needs to add more than 9 at a time. And when you do need to add bigger numbers, then it is time to write out additions, which is the next step. And by the way, your child does not need to be able to really flex his fingers to do this (this is hard for children under three years of age), he can do it with fingers extended as long as he pays sufficient attention. Regarding automation (memorization of simple additions), the tools we used for that were the 'Fact Family House', the 'Addition machine' (make sure you only allow you child to 'click' to check his answer, not before he gives an answer), 'Beat the Clock! Addition Facts to 18 Practice Board' (all three from Lakeshore Learning) and the Math Slam. The bottom line is to practice a lot and in a lot of different ways.
Solving more sophisticated additions: Once it is fairly painless for your child to do simple additions (which result in 20 or less), and assuming you have had him practice writing numbers (see the second year), it really will not be very hard to teach him to write out additions, first with no regrouping, and then eventually (it happened to us in the fourth year, when Joey was a young three) with regrouping. 

Subtractions: once your child is doing additions, teaching subtraction is exactly the same process, except it will go much, much faster. He will use his fingers to count backward (also a very important skill). A hurdle will be to teach him to 'borrow', particularly when borrowing not just from the tens, but also hundreds and beyond in the same subtraction, but as always, it is a matter of practice. 

Multiplications: important pre-emergent skills for multiplication include skip counting. While you teach addition, it is also important to point out additions of identical digit and say "2+2 is the same thing as 2X2" as often as possible. When the time came to teach him the concept of multiplication, we used a manipulable called 'Learn-To-Multiply Magnetic Center' (Lakeshore Learning) to really drive home the idea of 'X groups of Y' is 'X multiplied by Y'. Don't be afraid to slow down and spend some time on this. Once Joey had a solid understanding of the concepts, for the purpose of memorizing the multiplication tables, I recited the multiplication tables instead of a lullaby (I do two rows and he does two, then the following night, he does the same two I did the night before, and I do two new ones). He loves it. At first, before he had memorized any of them, I reminded him that the next result was always the previous result + the multiplier (so if 2X2=4 then 2X3=4+2), which not only increased his understanding of how it worked, but also got him unstuck when he forgot one. At three and a half, Joey knows his multiplication tables. To seal the deal, we will use the multiplication machine and Beat the Clock! Multiplication Facts Practice Board (both from Lakeshore Learning), as we have for additions and subtractions. Soon (not yet), we will teach him to write out multiplications with multiple digits. I will then update this post. 
October 2013 update: Joey has started doing complex multiplications with the John Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth program (accelerated grade 3 math). We could have taught him earlier, but decided he would get to it soon enough with that program, and there he is. 

Divisions: we are just getting started with that. The way we are presenting the concept is to say 'if you have X objects, and you want to divide them into Y equal parts, then how many objects would you have in each part?'. I really want to solidify this concept before jumping to 'how to solve divisions', which entails asking the question: 'What do you multiply X by to get Z?' because I think it bypasses a real understanding of the concept (although we have made exceptions). I will update this post when we are further along with divisions. 

By the way, as I mentioned in my 'Best Stuff' page and on the 3 TO 4 YEARS OLD: OUR PROGRAM page, we love the FlashMaster: Handheld computer for mastering multiplication tables that makes flashcards obsolete to practice all these skills. 

3 TO 4 YEARS OLD: TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

As you know, we are a bilingual family. I am a native French speaker (from France), but my husband does not speak French, so we basically use the 'one person, one language approach', and for the most part, we speak English when we are altogether, except for when I need a 'secret' language to give Joey a stern warning of things to come when he does not behave... So essentially, Joey has received 'immersion instruction' for French, but only from me, until we were able to get him into a weekly class at the French Alliance, which has been wonderful to expose him to other native speakers. This has been a good start, but of course, this is not sufficient for him to become proficient in French to the same level he will be in English. Since birth, I have been getting him reading material in English and French, and when it is my turn to read to him at night, I only read the French books. Interestingly, as I related in a previous post, Joey picked up phonics in French completely on his own, at the same time he was figuring them out in English. 

So what kind of books did I get? As usual, once we were past the basics, I tried to pick educational topics rather than just fiction (not that there is anything wrong with that, but I like to kill two birds with one stone). To start, I got him Mon Bébé Sait Lire and Little Pim (French). Then, I started ordering a lots of books  from Amazon France: Babar; books by Catherine Dolto (which deal with life issues from the point of view of a young child); books from the 'Aïe!' series, which teaches about various dangers and how to avoid them by obeying your parents; 'Ça sert à quoi ?' series ('What is this for?'); La Petite Princesse series (life from the point of view of a three year old); books from La petite encyclopédie and Ma première encyclopédie series; Richard Scarry books in French; and more videos: Le Muppet Show (I remember these episodes from my childhood!); videos from la 'C'Est Pas Sorcier' series, which deals with scientific  concepts at the lay level. It is not cheap to order things from a foreign country... many times the shipping is as much as the books... but the fact that the French Alliance has a great library we can borrow from has alleviated this problem.  But what next?? I have started to look at more structured ways of teaching him French. Someone suggested that I just got him French classroom books, and this certainly seems like a good way to go. So I ordered a few books from France for KD-1st grade, but I am still not sure this is the way to go because it may not be engaging enough at Joey's age outside of a typical classroom environment. 

I looked into the Rosetta Stone Homeschool French program, but first of all, it ticked me off that they do not have direct downloads like they do for other versions of their language programs (so you have to order a CD, and Joey's Peewee PC did not come with a CD drive); and it is an 'immersion' program: in other words, unless you make a special effort to work on word lists and conjugations, it basically does not happen. You might say that Joey is so young, he can still acquire the language by just immersion. To which I will respond, yes, he can, and he already did this.. I was the 'immersion program'. But immersion does not replace the work you still have to do to learn proper grammar. There is just no way around sitting down and memorizing rules to really take language proficiency to the next level. 

SO a possible solution could be to go ahead with the Rosetta Stone program, but supplemented with more conventional instruction. For this purpose, I am thinking about using the Bescherelle Ecole : Regles / Grammaire / Orthographe / Conjugaison / Vocabulaire and the Petit Larousse Illustre 2013, both well-known reference tools for grammar and vocabulary used in France for generations. If this works, we could start using a similar system for Hebrew the following year, with the caveat that we would not be able to use 'native' books for grammar, so we would have to think about some other solutions... 

Update (October 2013): as we are winding down with the math work that involves manipulables (the Learning Palette,  2-3rd grade Folder Game Library from Lakeshore Learning,  and Common Core Math Standards Learning Center,  also from Lakeshore Learning), I am planning to start with French toward the end of December. After much hesitation, I went ahead and ordered the Rosetta Stone Program (level 1 to start) and a CD drive to install it on Joey's computer. I have to say the program is engaging and well organized. Level 1 is divided into four different units: each unit is divided into five lessons, and each lesson is further divided into a core lesson, and then emphasis on different concepts covered (vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, listening, speaking, review). The homeschool version also has worksheets (with translated instructions and solutions for home teachers who do not speak French, quizzes, and tests). So it strikes me as a good product so far, as long as vocabulary and grammar concepts are properly reinforced outside of the program. I also ordered the Bescherelle Ecole and the Petit Larousse Illustre 2013, but after trying to figure out how to translate the grammar lessons for our nanny, I decided to keep the Bescherelle for reference and instead get a French grammar book in English. After looking at the reviews, I decided on Tex's French Grammar, a well-organized web-site that non-native speakers can use, and conjugationfr.com to conjugate specific verbs. This is what the prep and instructions for our nanny look like for Unit 1, Lesson 1 looks like, aiming for 30 minutes of work per day: 

PREP WORK FOR ME
1. Make list of ALL words in the lesson
2. Identify the grammar concepts to go over
3. Print relevant grammar sections, including answers to online exercises
4. Add links to grammar on Joey’s computer
5. When you get to conjugation, make sure you go back and ask to conjugate verbs that have been covered in vocabulary

LESSON PLAN

Unit 1, Lesson 1: 
Nouns: homme, femme, garcon, fille
Determiners: un, une, la, le, les,
Pronouns: il, elle, ils, elles
Verbs: lire, boire, manger, courir, nager, cuisiner
Other: Bonjour, Au Revoir

Lesson 1 DAY 1: Core Lesson on Computer (30 min)

Lesson 1 DAY 2: 
a.Pronunciation on Computer (10 min)
b.Nouns: Look up in dictionary; have Joey read definition; practice writing by hand (ask: How do you say: X?)

Lesson 1 DAY 3: 
a.Vocabulary on Computer (5 min)
b.Verbs: Look up in dictionary; have Joey read definition; practice writing by hand (ask: How do you say: X?)

Lesson 1 DAY 4: 
a. Grammar on Computer (10 min)
b.“Introduction to Nouns” (handout). 

Lesson 1 DAY 5: 
a.Reading on Computer (10 min)
b.“Introduction to Determiners” (handout). 

Lesson 1 DAY 6: 
a.Writing on Computer (5 min)
b.“Introduction to Pronouns” (handout)

Lesson 1 DAY 7: 
a. Listening on Computer (10 min)
b.“Introduction to Verbs” (handout)

Lesson 1 DAY 8: 
a.Listening and Reading (15 min)
b.“Numbers (Singular, Plural)” (handout)

Lesson 1 DAY 9: 
a.Speaking (10 min)
b.“Numbers (Singular, Plural)” (online)

Lesson 1 DAY 10: 
a.Review (5 min)
b.“Er- verbs (regular) present tense” (handout)

Lesson 1 Day 11: 
a.Rosetta Workbook 1.1 and 1.2.
b.“Er- verbs (regular) present tense” (online)

Lesson 1 Day 12: 
a.Rosetta Workbook 1.3 and 1.4. 
b.“Er- verbs (regular) present tense” (conjugations: manger, nager, cuisiner)

Lesson 1 Day 13: Rosetta Workbook quiz and test. 
            
_____________________________________________________

Lesson 1 Material Rosetta Review (exercises in Tex’s French Grammar + conjugation of 5 other verbs) to be reviewed after lesson 2, after lesson 5 (the end of unit 1), and at the end of Level 1


Tex’ French Grammar Instructions

Working with handouts
• Read explanations to Joey in English on handout (let him follow along) BUT have Joey read ALL the French words and sentences. In the case of lists of words, make sure you translate for each word after Joey reads it (for instance in ‘Introduction to Pronouns’, have Joey read “Je”, then translate with “I”). 
• Have Joey do the exercise by hand (you will have an answer key, but if he gets it wrong, point to the relevant grammar rule). He needs to write the full sentences, not just the parts missing and make sure he pays attention to accents. 

Working with online version
•Read explanations to Joey in English on handout (let him follow along) BUT have Joey read ALL the French words and sentences. In the case of lists of words, make sure you translate for each word after Joey reads it (for instance in ‘Introduction to Pronouns’, have Joey read “Je”, then translate with “I”). 
•When mp3s are available, have Joey listen to them on computer (no headphones) sequentially. Point the words to him as the lady speaks them
•Have Joey repeat exercises on the screen. He can check his answers by clicking the relevant button

Working with conjugations
•Read explanations to Joey in English on handout (let him follow along) BUT have Joey read ALL the French words and sentences. In the case of lists of words, make sure you translate for each word after Joey reads it (for instance in ‘Introduction to Pronouns’, have Joey read “Je”, then translate with “I”). 
•Have Joey write out conjugations by hand for listed verbs (you will have a key)

3 TO 4 YEARS OLD: EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

I think it is important for a child to have extra-curricular activities, but not too many at a time, and they should enhance, rather than detract from, what you are trying to accomplish overall. For example, I am not particularly interested in Joey becoming a 'jock' or getting his precious brain injured, so I will not allow participation in football, for instance, or soccer. That does not mean he should not be physically active, on the contrary, but there are other sports (swimming, running, tennis, crew, even basketball) that provide exercise and in some cases and even teach teamwork without the high potential for injury and without encouraging what I feel is aggressive behavior (like football). 

So as far as physical exercise, Joey has swimming lessons once a week, and as you have seen from prior posts (see here and here), he started very young with Infant Swimming Resource. One of the reasons we decided on this program, apart from the fact that it was THE sport a baby could practice, was out of necessity. We lived in an area with a lot of pools and year-long hot weather at the time, and there was hardly a month without reports of a young child drowning. I though that for a baby, this was a great gross motor developmental exercise too, although Joey has never been behind in this regard. We started when he was 6 months old, and repeated the program when he was a little over a year old. Both times, he did very well, and I felt reassured that if he ever fell into a pool, we would have that extra minute (I wouldn't count on much more) to rescue him because he would have learned not to panic and go back to a back float (and as a toddler to paddle to reach the rim and even pull himself out). 

Once we were done with this great program, he started small group (one or two toddlers) lessons, and then because of scheduling challenges, he had private lessons for a good while. Joey picks up the skills very quickly and loved swimming. Even though he is now at an age when he could try other things to a limited extent, it is clear that we found a sport he enjoys, provides good exercise, and is pretty bump and bruises-free. I think that within the next two-three years, Joey will become a strong swimmer, and we can move on to another sport (like tennis) or stay with swimming. 

Music: Neither I or Joey's Dad benefited from music instruction when we were growing up, and this is something we would like to provide for Joey. Because of our cultural heritage, the violin is our instrument of choice, but prior to that, we got Joey a little toddler piano. Not expecting much, we started teaching him a few basic tunes (using the color-coded sheets since we ourselves cannot read music), and he actually remembered a few! See below..:




Then shortly after he turned three, I started investigating the Suzuki method to teach him violin. I first learned about it in Amy Chua's book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and it seemed like the only choice to teach very young children music (traditional instruction starts as young as age five, but the Suzuki method can be used with children as young as two). The method is very regimented, and although anyone reading this blog can see that I love structure, it felt more like adopting another religion than a teaching method, and it is quite demanding on the parents and care-takers, and requires daily listening of the Suzuki CD 1 (Suzuki Violin School: Violin Part, Vol. 1), which is basically two hours of 'Twinkle, Twinkle' and other simple tunes. Still, I certainly understand the need for a lot of repetition in young children and of course the general principles of making small but continuous progress at such a young age. So I started looking for a teacher, and let me say that the average Suzuki teacher is rather peculiar, or perhaps all music teachers are like this. And just because the Suzuki method can be taught to very young children, it does not mean that every teacher will have the patience and experience to teach these young children and actually make measurable progress. So we did find a teacher, and for now I am reserving judgement. Joey is making progress, but not quite as fast as I got used to with his other endeavors. Still, I would like him to persevere (a very important life lesson) and eventually (sooner rather than later) learn to play Klezmer violin. 

October 2013 update on violin. I thought I would share this bit of good news: something happened this week that made me very happy: Joey started to understand the value of practice with violin and doesn't protest anymore when I make him repeat a music sentence (actually he does it on his own when he messes up). Joey is also starting to read real music, with minimal effort on our part, and starts practicing the next tune ahead in the book on his own volition (not well, but still).... He really seems to enjoy it and is making steady progress transitioning between notes. Now I can say that violin is here to stay!

There's a video of his recent progress (November 2013): 

And finally, we have chess. Chess for very young gifted children is interesting because it stretches not so much their intellectual capacities or memory (Joey understands and remembers how to move the pieces without any trouble), but their developmental readiness to play a game. What I mean by this is that the motivation to win, the give and take of a game is developmental, not cognitive, yet it is essential to progress in implement game strategies. We are fortunate to live in a city with a very famous chess center, and the teacher there gave me his curriculum at no cost, and this is what we are doing (actually, Joey's Dad is implementing this on the week-ends). Joey is making steady progress, and this is very exciting. I expect that when he reaches the minimum age (five years old) to go to chess classes, we will enroll him. To encourage his development, when it comes to playing board games, I got some other games, not very challenging ones, like Kosherland (the Jewish equivalent of Candy Land) and 'What Should you Do: A game of consequences'. Finally, as a special motivator, I ordered a beautiful custom chess set from Natural Chess. 

3 TO 4 YEARS OLD: LONG-RANGE PLANNING FOR ACCELERATION

So now that we are pretty sure that we want to homeschool Joey at least part of the time, we need to figure out exactly how and to what extent we would keep up and document his acceleration. It is clear from the data available regarding homeschoolers (see earlier post) that homeschooling often leads to acceleration, even for non-gifted children, and despite the fact that many homeschool curricula 'follow' rather than 'lead' a child's progress and can be rather unstructured. There is just something about avoiding the traditional school environment, where so much time is spent in what I call 'crowd control' activities, that saves time. And of course, for these children who can learn faster than average, there is nothing holding them back when they are homeschooled. This is why many have time to develop interesting hobbies which, apart from stellar scores on standardized tests like the SAT, earns them spots in Ivy League universities. There's a very interesting article regarding why homeschoolers get into these schools. Also, if you happen to be on the homeschool2 college yahoo group, you will see that getting into MIT or Harvard (and many others) is also relatively commonplace for children with this type of background. So.. how to get there? 

In order to figure out a tentative plan, I looked at the minimal requirements from top universities. For example Harvard U. states 'an ideal four-year preparatory program includes four years of English, with extensive practice in writing; four years of math; four years of science: biology, chemistry, physics, and an advanced course in one of these subjects; three years of history, including American and European history; and four years of one foreign language'. MIT requires 'one year of high school physics; one year of high school chemistry; one year of high school biology; math, through calculus; two years of a foreign language; four years of English; two years of history and/or social sciences'. Washington U. states that 'most candidates’ transcripts include: four years of English; four years of mathematics. (architecture, Business, and Engineering strongly recommend calculus); three-four years of history or social science; three-four years of laboratory science (engineering strongly recommends chemistry and physics); at least two years of a foreign language'. So the bottom line is that most competitive universities have the same quantitative requirements (X years of Y), but of course not a the same level: the more selective the universities, the more AP courses are encouraged, and the better a student needs to do on these and standardized tests (some universities also require the SAT subject tests) to have a chance to get in. 

For homeschoolers who do not take outside courses (like JHU-CTY or others), their progress is more challenging to track than for those who do, but this is far from being impossible. For example, certain homeschool curricula (like Calvert, a highly rated program), offer interactions with teachers who also grade assignments; another option is to take achievement tests, such as the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test or A Beka Testing. Of course once you reach the level for standardized tests and AP exams, a student can document his/her achievements that way as well. 

Our current plan is to continue with JHU-CTY, provided Joey qualifies again when he reaches the age when he would normally finish the second grade (see previous post). Starting at our current level, and assuming that Joey maintains his current acceleration, I figured that he would finish all his high school requirement in time to enter college at 15 years of age. Going this way is not inexpensive, but it will save us ~$20K over full-time private school in our area. 

See below:

For a better view or to save, select and copy all the cells into your own spreadsheet. If anyone knows how to present more user-friendly and attractive spreadsheets/tables in blogger, please contact me!

3 TO 4 YEARS OLD: TO HOMESCHOOL OR NOT HOMESCHOOL

Technically, Joey, currently in pre-school, is already being home-schooled part-time. As a matter of fact, this is what this whole blog has been about so far.... early education by parents and/or care-givers.  Many children Joey's age do not go to pre-school full time. What is different about what we have been doing is that we purposefully limited his school exposure to what we considered the bare minimum for socialization. When Joey was 18 months old, we started with two mornings a week for a year, then we increased to three mornings a week for six months, and now that he is accelerated to an older class (and will therefore enter pre-K at three and a half), he is going every morning so he can bond with this group of older children as much as possible. Another thing we are doing differently is that when Joey is not in school, we are implementing the program I design and plan every week, so his activities are not a random sequence of events (they do include extra-curricular endeavors, which will the topic of a future post). Therefore, we are not relying at all on the school to provide his education, just play and socialization. Now, I realize this is a very interesting statement I just made... The fact is that at some point I came to feel, as a parent, that my child's education was going way too well at home and was way too important to entrust a school with the bulk of it. This was the first hint that perhaps we should look into homeschooling (either full-time or part-time, the latter being currently our preferred option). But we will come back to that. 

Our Options for Kindergarten:
Clearly, everyone's options will be different, but this may give you an idea of how we are going about this decision process, and may aid you during yours. Our priorities are as follows: 1. the ability to keep Joey on his accelerated path and document this is the case (because when he gets older, if he is doing college work, why shouldn't he get college credit for it, right?) and/or 2. the ability to homeschool him part-time (and by part-time, we mean half-days because who wants to be doing math after getting out of school at 3 PM?) 3. the ability to incorporate serious language instruction (French and Hebrew) and studies in our religious background (for us, it is Judaics). 

Option 1: the local Jewish day school. Great for Hebrew and Judaics, but not good for acceleration (from reviews of parents with gifted kids there), although they did agree to screen Joey for KD a year early (so at least there would be some acceleration). As a matter of fact, the reality of private schools is often that they are really good for kids 'within two standard deviations of the mean' cognitively, but not for kids who are four standard deviations from the means, which is what we are dealing with. Also it doesn't look like they are willing to consider a half-time option, even though there is quite a bit of interest in the local community for having that option. Finally, they don't have a French language program (or if they do, it is not immersion).

Option 2: a private Montessori school. Great for acceleration (it is built-in with Montessori) but perhaps not so great when it comes to documenting progress in terms of grade level. Also, the multi-age classroom would mean that Joey would 'lose' his current accelerated status. Not a deal-breaker though. They do have a half-day option and we might be able to argue to continue it in the higher grades. The other thing I love about Montessori is that the classrooms are very quiet, and this is good for gifted children, I think, who tend to get over-stimulated in noisy environments (actually, don't most children?) And this particular school also offers immersion French as an after-school activity (with a native French speaker who is a teacher there). Of course there are no Judaics or Hebrew (but no 'seasonal' units and decorations either, so good for us in this regard), so we would have to provide that during our homeschooling. This may present challenges because our nanny really doesn't have the background for it, so we will have to hire tutors, which will add quite a bit to the expensive private school bill. 

Option 3: our area has a special public school for highly gifted students, but it is so insanely competitive to get in that we are not banking on it... I think we will try for it anyway, but they only start in 1st grade (they would admit Joey early as long as he had attended KD in an accredited program).. and it is also a public school (what we were trying to avoid since a full day might mean little time for religious studies). I am not sure if they would allow part-time homeschooling due to the special nature of the program (part-time homeschooling is legal in our state). Clearly, we would have to provide foreign language and Judaics ourselves. 

Option 4: our area also has a French language immersion school. It is a public school, so not so great from this point of view and in a so-so neighborhood. However, the principal, having a highly gifted child himself, is very understanding and is completely on board with part-time homeschooling. So it would be free and we could provide tutors etc to cover Hebrew, Judaics, and other extra-curricular activities without too much problem. Joey would be grand-fathered into early 1st grade there if he had attended KD early in an accredited program the previous year OR if he had been home-schooled and had completed KD this way. An issue with this school is that we do not live in the right district, so this may be a non-starter. 

What about regular public school full-time? Regular public schools do have gifted programs, but being 'pulled out' to an older class or enrichment for a mere few hours a week is just not cutting it for children who are so far from the norm and who may have other issues, such as asynchronous development (i.e they are ahead cognitively and academically, but they are a bit behind in social and emotional maturity etc) or even deeper issues (such as children who are 'twice exceptional' or '2e'). Joey is a bit asynchronous, but not 2e. 

What about full-time homeschooling? Well, it is a possibility, and it certainly is tempting. I have read many books on the topic, including: Homeschooling for Excellence (very inspiring and some good advice there too, especially for those of you who are considering unschooling); Homeschoolers' College Admissions Handbook: Preparing Your 12- to 18-Year-Old for a Smooth Transition (absolutely awesome and full of practical information you can use); Early Entrance to College (also very useful); Homeschoolers' Success Stories (ok, not so useful but inspiring); Creative Home Schooling: A Resource Guide for Smart Families (I am not done with this one yet, but it seems that a large portion of it is dedicated to why homeschooling is best for some children). One truly inspiring book is "College by Twelve". It is an eBook that you can purchase. Clearly this family's background is nothing like ours, but it was still a great resource. So full-time homeschooling is on the radar, but things that concern me are: 1. vulnerability: if you do this full-time, your child's education is (for the most part, although not 100%) provided by one person. So you are completely dependent upon this one person, therefore if an illness or other change of fortune occur, you could find yourself without a teacher and without supervision for your child during the day; if you home-school only part-time, there is a readily available back-up if any of these things happen 2. socialization: it is clear from the data that home-schoolers are very well socialized, but it does take an extra effort and a higher level of vigilance to make sure that peer contact does happen on a regular basis. Also, in our case and although the homeschooling movement is a lot more diverse than it used to be, we do not fit the typical profile of a homeschooling family, so it may be more challenging to socialize our child with people we can easily relate to; 3. on a related topic, so much of Judaism focuses one one's ability to function as part of a community and to be part of a community. In other words, religion, while it encompasses things like law and history, is not just an intellectual pursuit that you can get good at 'in a vacuum' (by the way, the same comment could apply to learning a language). Certainly, this can be achieved through means other than a day school (like regular worship attendance and other related activities), but it is clearly more easily achievable when your child attends a faith-based school. 

So this is where we are at right now! I will update this when I find out more information and as the year progresses.