Educational Toys

When does home schooling really begin? The whole point is to take responsibility for your child's education, and that starts way before they're 5 years old.

Katerina's toys at 3 years, 4 months:

We've looked at (and played with!) so many games and toys - Some we liked, and others hardly got a 2nd glance. As far as early education toys go, by far the best we've found so far is the "Leap Pad + Writing" from LeapFrog. The recommended age for most of the modules is 5+, but that didn't matter a bit to Katerina. She got one last Christmas when she was 2 1/2 (which meant that I had to help her use it until recently). It took her 10 months to figure out how to write the numbers 1 to 10.

I certainly don't push or force any of Katerina's learning - It's more like just trying to keep up with her, and provide for her interests. With all the toys and games she has to choose from, she still pulls out her LeapPad at least once a week and insists I use it with her.

The 2 other classics that she loves to play right now are "Mousetrap" and "Snakes & Ladders".

Home Schooling Starts Before Kindergarten

More than once I've been advised to work at slowing down my daughter's rate of learning, otherwise she would be very bored when she starts school. I cannot even imagine intentionally preventing any child from learning at their own speed, especially when they are having such fun with it. Another argument for home schooling....

Katerina already knows all the uppercase and lowercase letters, and is beginning to put them together into words.

I hadn't really given her enough credit for how much she's actually learned. I was busy in the kitchen a few days ago when Katerina pulled out some magnetic letters and put them on the fridge. Next thing I know she's very proudly saying "Daddy, look! I made the."

"You made the what?" I asked her.

"No, I made the on the fridge." she answered.

I looked at the fridge and saw that she had arranged the letters "T" "H" and "E" to make the word "the".