I really want to make the best of our son’s (age 2) education. I really think he can learn better at home in a more personalized setting. Should I start home schooling him when he is 2.5 or 3? Or should I wait until about 4 or 5? Alison G.
I suggest starting now by:
- reading to him
keeping him away from the “screen”
talking to him in a non-baby talk way
model reading and learning to him by letting him see you reading to yourself
giving him access to art materials
start him memorizing VERY simple things
At around age 5 or 6 you’ll start to teach him to read by intensive phonics. You’ll need to buy a phonics curriculum at that time.
This is just my personal view, but I think whatever you want to teach him is fine (aren’t we all teaching our kids anyway, even from the point that they begin their lives as infants?).
However, the MOST IMPORTANT point, especially at your son’s early age would be to make learning enjoyable and fun – make him want more after each “lesson” and try to instill in him the same sort of feeling we have when we just can’t put down that great novel.
I think homeschooling at the age is just good parenting. Explore God’s world, art. literature, movement. Help you child to see that they are not the center of the universe. This is both good from a educational standpoint and a theological one.