As many of you know, Valorie is our homeschool blogger here at Families.com. While she prefers the home education setting, I am into the public school setting.
Although the two of us have some differences when it comes to how to educate our children, we also share many similarities and beliefs.
If you have read previous articles from Valorie, you likely know that she is not for formal schooling of children under six years of age. I suppose that I differ. My daughter is in preschool. However if I did not work a full time teaching job, she would receive her preschool education from me at home.
While keeping up with Valorie’s homeschool articles, I noticed she had written about preschool. Knowing her views, this interested me.
In Valorie’s article she discusses how to educate your preschool child at home. She also comments that her article is from a homeschooling and not academic stand. However she is right on target academically speaking.
The four things suggested in her article were: turn off the television, talk, read, and play.
These things are exactly what children need to begin school. I can say this because I am a kindergarten teacher. I can tell when children have been read to, talked to, and played with by parents or other adults.
Although Valorie’s idea of not sending children to school until the age of six is a nice thought, it is also very idealistic. If the parents in the world would take the time to do the things that Valorie suggested, preschool would not be needed. However, most parents do not.
Therefore, many children receive their only enrichment for the day from preschool. Many parents had rather pay someone else to talk to and play with their child.
Other parents are like me. They cannot be with their children during the day due to work. Their child has to stay with a sitter. Most sitters have more than one child and do not interact with the children as much as they need. The parents feel that if their child has to stay somewhere, it might as well be in an educational setting.