4-year-olds - K Slowly or Preschool? (author reply)

[Marie]

I am interested in using MFW (K) for my four year old son. Since I will be teaching his older brother this year I thought it would be nice to have a good curriculum to use with him (rather than try to dream up something for him to do each day.) Are there specific skills he should have first, or could we simply adjust the pace? The catalog mentioned sample lessons, but I wasn't able to find any.

Author: Marie Hazell
Date: 7/23/2003

SAMPLE LESSON: If you go to the kindergarten section of our website, you will then see kindergarten sample lesson listed on the [top right] bar. Click on it and you will be able to view a sample lesson which also shows samples of the reading worksheets.

Some 4 year olds are ready for kindergarten, but most are not really ready until age 5. Unless he really seems to want to begin learning to read, we usually recommend waiting until age 5, especially for boys. If you think he is ready to learn letter names and sounds, and sit still for one worksheet a day, you could begin the K program now but do it slowly -- in other words, take two days to do one day's work. If he begins to struggle, put the program away for a few months and then try it again.

There are some posts on this board from moms who began with 4 year old boys and found that they just weren't ready for K yet.

[Rebecca]

Author: Rebecca
Date: 7/24/2003

MFWK is a wonderfully rich program with many activities and skills that could work for a mature 4yo.
Have you taken a look at the MFW Pre school program? We started it with my son last year and it is a great precursor to MFWK. No worksheets, just several good learning toys and a handbook full of ideas to implement them. I took the handbook and added a few activities from it for each day to our weekly lesson plans. It helped Connor to have his own schooling to do while I worked with my dd. Also, it worked well for us because instead of having a curriculum to follow it allowed us to concentrate on building fine motor skills and foundational skills (such as patterning and higher-level thinking) that will benefit him when we do start MFWK.
Have a fun year!
Blessings,
Rebecca

[bringirl]

We recently purchased the K program. My son is 4. He turned 4 in April. We have really been enjoying the first few days of Creation. He really likes to do the Creation book and color/paint the Creation number and cut it out. However, when I pull out the ABC cards he gets antsy. He knows a lot of his letters, upper and lowercase, but he does not like the idea of sitting and me "drilling" him with the ABC cards. I keep it short, 5-10 minutes. I don't overdue it. But I'm getting a gut feeling that maybe I should have went with the MFW Preschool 3/4 program.

As I look in the MFW K teacher's manual, I see that we will be learning the blend ladder and other skills as the year unfolds. I'm just not sure if he's ready for this. I feel like I should have done more research (even though I have spent countless hours already!) on the MFW preschool program. I thought he was ready for MFW K. He is a sharp boy for only being 4.

Should I send the MFW K back and reorder the Preschool program? I'm really unsure right now. I want him to love learning. And right now, when I pull out the little ABC Cards he is sort of shutting off. We made homemade clay and we formed letters with the ABC cards using the clay. He liked that much better. I love the Alphabet Cards that came with the K program. I'd enjoy keeping those and displaying them. So I'm not sure how to even go about returning what I've purchased with K.

Help! Any advice of moms who have 4-year-old boys?

[Julie in MN]

We recently purchased the K program. My son is 4. He turned 4 in April. We have really been enjoying the first few days of Creation. He really likes to do the Creation book and color/paint the Creation number and cut it out.

However, when I pull out the ABC cards he gets antsy. He knows a lot of his letters, upper and lowercase, but he does not like the idea of sitting and me "drilling" him with the ABC cards. I keep it short, 5-10 minutes. I don't overdue it. But I'm getting a gut feeling that maybe I should have went with the MFW Preschool 3/4 program.

As I look in the MFW K teacher's manual, I see that we will be learning the blend ladder and other skills as the year unfolds. I'm just not sure if he's ready for this. I feel like I should have done more research on the MFW preschool program. I thought he was ready for MFW K (even though I have spent countless hours already!). He is a sharp boy for only being 4.

Should I send the MFW K back and reorder the Preschool program? I'm really unsure right now. I want him to love learning. And right now, when I pull out the little ABC Cards he is sort of shutting off. We made homemade clay and we formed letters with the ABC cards using the clay. He liked that much better. I love the Alphabet Cards that came with the K program. I'd enjoy keeping those and displaying them. So I'm not sure how to even go about returning what I've purchased with K.

Help! Any advice of moms who have 4-year-old boys?

Just a few thoughts to help you thru the panic of tonight, and hopefully you'll hear from more experienced K moms in the morning.

First, it would be possible to just keep the K program and start it later, while ordering the preschool now. Not sure if that would be a financial stress, but it's an option to think about. Another possibility with K is to do "kindergarten lite" the first time thru, without having him do any writing or anything, and then do it all again more seriously.

Second, I'm one of those better-late-than-early types. As I see it, your child can be very bright and very interested, and yet the very best way for him to learn right now may not involve abstract symbols on two-dimensional pieces of paper. I can't remember ever reading about a genius who started book-learning early. Usually they were noted for spending their early years doing hands-on learning, and lots of it.

So that is just to say that I like your decision to possibly back off on the abstract learning this year

Julie

[Poohbee]

Hi!

I don't have a 4-year-old boy, but I do have a 4-year-old girl. Actually, my dd is 4 1/2 and will be 5 in February. Even though she seems as though she would be ready for it, I will not start her in the MFW K program until next fall. The way I look at it, when I start her in Kindergarten, she will be "required" to be there for our learning time. Right now, we just do light preschool with her. Sometimes she joins her older sister in the schoolroom and works on letters and numbers. She joins us for art and science projects. But, she can come and go. She can go and play when she wants to and join in when she wants to. I want to allow her to have as much time as possible to just play before she starts in on her required (by me), more structured learning, so I have not had her start a structured kindergarten program yet.

With your son, perhaps, as Julie said, just save the MFW K program and use it with him next year instead. MFW's preschool program is very much about hands-on play and learning through play. When you and your son made the letters out of play-doh, that's what you were doing. Keep doing hands-on fun things like that with your son. Spread pudding on a plate and let him make his letters in it. Look around the room and find things that begin with the "m" (or another) sound. It's okay to let his learning be very informal, hands-on, and play-oriented at this time, especially if he doesn't seem quite ready for certain aspects of the K program.

My advice would be to wait on structured learning. Do hands-on things and read lots of books together. That will do much to prepare him for more structured learning. Just one opinion for you. May God guide you in your decision.

[beaglemamma2008]

I don't post on this forum too often (certainly not to give advice, anyway!) but I felt like I had to respond to your post.

My dd (5) just finished MFW K in June. When she was your son's age (4), could she have handled the kindergarten curriculum? Sure, she could have; she was already reading CVC words, doing basic addition/subtraction, knew the correct way to form her letters, etc. That being said, I'm so glad we waited until she was 5 to embark on our official Kindergarten journey! I found that she was old enough by the time we started that school didn't take long at all because she already knew most of the skills anyway, and she definitely built confidence because I wasn't giving her more than she was capable of doing. But the biggest reason I'm glad we waited to start is because a big part of MFW K is the Bible lessons, and I just can't help but think that the older your child is, the deeper their understanding of these priceless lessons/truths will be. Because we waited for Hannah to start, our "focus" during school wasn't on handwriting, phonics, or counting but on exploring God's creation and understanding how His creation reveals eternal truths He wants to share with us.

So my advice for you would be to definitely DEFINITELY DEFINITELY keep the MFW K curriculum because it's an amazing curriculum, but put it on the shelf until next year. In the meantime, check out some great picture books from the library; play outside and see how many frogs, worms, snails, etc. you can find together; play some fun letter and number games together; and then next year pull your MFW box off the shelf when your son has had another year to mature and better embrace the timeless truths that are in MFW K!

[SandKsmama]

I would recommend either holding off, OR just doing K more slowly - those units could easily last 2 weeks, IMO. I did use MFW K with a 4 year old boy, and it was fine for him, *but* (and this would be my main concern for your son as well), 1st grade was a BIG jump for him. It moves more quickly, it requires more as far as writing, etc. I wound up having to slow the MFW 1st grade wayyyy down, and tweak the writing part a LOT for him, b/c he just wasn't ready for it.

hth!!!

[bringirl]

Thank you, ladies!

I definitely want to keep MFW K. Julie, I like your idea of doing "K lite." We could still do the activities and learn each letter, a little fact about our topic, and the sound the letter makes. This morning I thought that instead of "drilling" with the ABC cards we could play the matching game the TM suggests. My son likes those types of things. I can see where I can still use a lot of aspects of the K program.

I think I'll hold off on most of the worksheets and Reading Program. I don't think he's ready for that. There is a website someone posted on here where you can print off one worksheet with a capital letter and the lowercase letter and trace it. My son loves to trace. He's already writing some letters and that's totally by his own accord. I like the idea of sticking to one letter per week as the K manual says and doing the hands on activities of making the dough into a letter, baking it and eating it, writing in pudding/corn meal, etc.

So I guess I was a little panicked last night! Just because I have the K program doesn't mean we have to do everything this year. I can still use the scripture/Bible references in the lessons but just shorten them a bit. I do want to get the Wee Sing Bible Songs CD. Do any of you have that? It looks so cute.

I know he wouldn't be ready for 1st next year. Next year, I'll have everything I need (minus the Creation unit as we are doing that now and loving it!) we need and we can do K as it was intended to be used. Even though we are doing the Creation unit this year, next year we can review the Creation Story with the Creation book he is making this year. It'll be a fun review.

You all are so helpful and encouraging! I really needed the words of wisdom. God bless!

[Teresa in TX]

I wanted to offer another pov that was one that led me to wait until ds was "good and 5". Last Oct. ds turned 5. I almost started him on K last Aug., while he was still 4. Because of his early b-day I think he would have been ready. Up to that point, school had just been fun for us. He had learned through various very fun activities that worked well but had no real structure, which was good IMO. If I started K then, it would definitely be more structure, even though mfw K looks like a lot of fun!! The question I asked was what my long-term goal was. Did I want ds to start K early and therefore finish school early...like at 17? Or was I planning on coming up with stuff to just "fill in" and have him do 14 years of school? I have a friend who was so anxious to get her dd "ahead of the game" and push her through higher grades while homeschooling that she just sent her should-be senior, newly-17yo girl, off to a college away from home. I think I would be regretting that decision, personally...I want my dc at home with us for the maturity, the discipleship. Even if they are educationally ready, I don't know that that would mean they would be mature enough to deal with college life. I realize that is really thinking ahead to take a 4yo and plan it out like that, but now that I have older dc I realize I want to let my younger ones be young as long as I can and I do want to think it through clearly.

Sorry so long!! Also, we purchased the mfw preschool set for Christmas for my 5yo and 3yo boys. They LOVE it!! We play with different aspects of it quite often and they have really learned a lot just from the fun. Ds 3 has a good handle on many of the letters and sounds and can count, recognize most #s, recognize colors, and shapes, etc., and I think it's mostly from those toys. I also had someone gift me some file folder games that I put together for them, and they like to do those too.

[BHelf]

Just another plug for the file folder games...I can't remember the website but google free file folder games. I've made a few of these and my kids really like them.

[meagabby]

I agree with SandKsmama, I started a 4yo daughter in K and found out she was not ready. She could read very well and that was the reason I thought she should be "in school." Unfortunately she didn't have the patience for all of the program at that time. She became frustrated alot.

Moving into 1st grade was a bigger challenge with the handwriting and focus. In the end we took 2 years to do 1st grade and I am very glad we did. And also, we found out that when we did outside activities at church they groupe d them by grade and she was always in a group that wasn't meeting her social level. Now she is with kids her age and interest level in activities that group them by grade.

oh, and keeping in mind that each child is an individual, I have a 4yo son now that is no where near ready to be still and learn in a table setting with writing and cutting.

Praying for you as you find peace in your decision.

-dena

[beaglemamma2008]

Oh, one other thought for you. When my dd was 3, she was in Mother's Day Out 2 days a week. At this time, I had NO PLANS to homeschool, so I was all about getting her ready for Kindergarten . . . at 3! What was I thinking?! Anyway, we did do something really fun that year that you might want to do with your ds.

Each week, we chose a letter of the alphabet and did fun activities with it on the three days she wasn't at Mother's Day Out. For example, when we did the letter "M," we made a paper mailbox one day, baked muffins one day, and drew a picture of the moon (white chalk/paint on black construction paper) one day. When we studied "B," we made a butterfly out of a toilet paper tube one day, made a paper baker's hat one day, and played ball one day. Most of these arts & crafts resources came from either http://www.dltk-kids.com/ or http://www.first-school.ws/. I also went to http://www.learningpage.com/free_pages/galleries/basics.html and printed a simple page for her to practice writing her letters. Yeah, I know. She was only 3. Talk about overkill!

But your son is a year older and some of these ideas might work out for you. Just thought I'd pass them along in case they help you plan your year!

[bringirl]

-------FOLLOW-UP-------
A week or so ago I posted about possibly making a mistake in ordering the MFW K program for my 4-year-old boy.

It was recommended by a few of you that I do Kindergarten "light." Well, that's just what we've been doing and it's going so well. Basically, I've omitted the Reading Plan in the K program as my son was definitely not ready for that portion yet. We started on lesson one (the sun) yesterday. We have learned a few facts about the sun, have done the activities in the TM and have been reading "The Sun Is My Favorite Star" along with other books related to our topic. Today, my son was writing the letter "s" in his ketchup with his chicken nuggets!

At first, I was a little bummed that we wouldn't be using the K package completely and thought that I might need to purchase a different program for this year, but once it was suggested to go light with the K program it made sense. And by repeating it next year (and adding the reading plan) I think it's only going to re-enforce the letters we are learning this year. So really we're building a foundation for next year.

I'm excited to see the year unfold using MFW K "light."