An Interesting Approach

A while ago the mother of a friend of mine mentioned Dr. Raymond Moore and his wife Dorothy. She suggested their book, "Better Late than Early," and their unique approach to homeschooling. "Unique" mainly because it goes against the mainstream thinking that school starts at 5 years old. Period. 4, if you're lucky!

Their teachings are not new, they first got involved with homeschooling in the 1940's! I ordered one of their books, "The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook," from PaperbackSwap and couldn't wait to get it in the mail. I was not disappointed, because the book turned out to be extremely interesting!

The main theme was that forcing children to enter formal education at 4 or 5 years old can actually be detrimental in the long run. They state this is actually most evident with little boys. Hmmm. We noticed this first-hand last fall when I tried to start a kindergarten curriculum with XMan. He is a pretty bright kid, and we figured, "Oh, he's smart enough, let's start 'schooling' him at four." A lot of parents, whether using public or private schools, have this same mentality. (We think faster is better, Pre-K is better, bigger is better, more is better.)

We were definitely subscribers to this way of thinking a few years ago. We had XMan in a "Mother's Morning Out" program when was 2, until he was 3 1/2. He liked meeting all his friends, but he didn't like being stuck at a table, learning how to color inside the lines. He also wasn't learning anything that Mommy hadn't already taught him at home! So what was the point? Just so I could run a few errands unhindered? When we moved to TX, we decided not to go that route again.

Back to boys and school, though. XMan proved to be just like most other little boys when faced with a workbook and the idea of sitting still for an hour or so. He balked! Even though he knew the answers, he was so overwhelmed with the (seemingly) endless workbook pages, that he couldn't concentrate. He kept looking out the window, hoping to go play and discover things in the yard! It didn't take long for me to realize that it wasn't working. He just wasn't ready yet. We stopped all activity and only did a little bit of reading practice when he prompted it. The stress seemed to fade away immediately! He no longer hated the idea of "doing school" and was asking me for craft times, etc.

It has been a few months, and I have noticed a lot of little things happening that are really BIG learning opportunities! The other day, on a whim, XMan "wrote" and illustrated his own book and insists on reading it to his little brother daily. Another day, he got out his magnifying glass and looked at ants eating the crumbs we'd thrown into the yard.

A week or so ago, we checked a book out of the library called, "The Floating House." The family is traveling down the Ohio River in 1815 to make a new life in Indiana. They live in a houseboat - pioneer style. It was a really good book, with wonderful illustrations, and apparently the book made a lasting impression on him. Today, he got out his Lincoln Logs and began building his own floating house! He did a good job duplicating their picture and he explained it all to his little brother. To me, these are awesome examples of learning while carrying on with life. He didn't feel forced to write an essay about the book, but he knew he could build a model of that houseboat!

So, for us, waiting until he was ready has proved to be a wonderful decision! I am now a big fan of Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore's style of teaching!