Year 0 Philosophy

Here is my Year 0 philosophy - written in words so much better than I could ever have written (and believe me, I have tried!)

Are Speed and Ease Our Only Goals

Is MEP Math CM? - Also, Kindergarten Math

On some of my Charlotte Mason message boards, whenever the MEP math program is mentioned, there are always some posts saying the MEP (Mathematics Enhancement Program) is not in the CM style of doing math. The main criticism seems to be that it is not a Mastery program.

So - is the MEP math program consistant with a Charlotte Mason education?

First it should be noted that Charlotte Mason did not put a great emphasis on math. She agreed that it was necessary and useful, but should not have a great importance put on it. Of course, a lot has changed in the last 100+ years, I think Science and Math has a greater importance than it did in the late 1800's!

So, what were Charlotte Mason's recommendations? Here is my understanding (at least for the early years).

1. Short Lessons (with attention)


2. No cramming (slow progress with math rules)


3. Teach concrete before abstract (ie, use manipulatives, or real life)


4. allow counters as much as they want


5. make a multiplication table before using one


6. use actual items (use money to learn money. Weigh and measure to learn weights and measurements)


7. put concepts on the board (or paper) to allow visual memory. (ie, write 2x4=8 instead of just reciting it)


8. Master a concept before proceeding. (I haven't found where this is said - but it seems to be mentioned on the message boards...)

So - how does MEP fit?

1. Short lessons. Although MEP (in Year 1) is designed for a 45 minute classroom class, I find that doing it 1 on 1 with my son takes us about 15 to 30 minutes... usually about 20. On top of it, each lesson is broken down into 4 to 8 different activities (including a streach and sing counting songs in the middle), each of which is different enough to keep my son's attention. On the occasional day that he has had enough before the whole lesson is done? Well, we just leave the rest for the next day. (That has happened maybe 3 times this year...)


2. No cramming - With MEP, you don't need to recite math facts - at least we haven't had any need. So far the facts have been being learned slowly, with the introduction of each number. Delta has learned many, and uses manipulatives as needed still. There certainly are not pages of "sums" to do...


3. Teach concrete before abstract - I think MEP does this well, using pictures, word problems, counters, dominoes, and other manipulatives you might have to help understand what you are doing before doing it straight with the numbers. (Note that you don't HAVE to buy expensive manipulatives. A set of dominoes is nice, although there is often a picture of dominoes when used.... and you can use anything for counters.


4. Allow counters when needed. - MEP has so far emphasised (even in the test) to allow counters.


5. Make a multiplication table before using one. - Well, we aren't that far in MEP yet, so not sure if it would do that - but if it doesn't specifically have you do that, before working with multiplication - take a week or so to make one! (ie, use several counters to figure out the various problems, then write the answer on the table.


6. Use actual items (money, measurements, etc.) Well, so far the money problems we have done in MEP have involved pense - we use pennies. We aren't up to doing measurements yet either - but I know that soon we will be measuring length - doing actual measuring.


7. Put concepts on the board for visual memory - MEP often tells you to write on the board the equation after discussing a word problem or other puzzle.


8. Mastery - talked about below.

Well, I guess MEP is a spiral program. I know that I read a post somewhere about how it isn't the same as most spiral programs, but is different. Unfortunately, I can not find that post as I would have liked to reference it.

That said, MEP is fairly spiral, in that not every student in a class is expected to understand every principle before the class moves on. It does Addition and Subtraction at the same time (and later Multiplication and Division at the same time), instead of focusing on Addition until it is totally mastered before starting subtraction. And it will throw in an advanced concept at times, just to give the student an idea of the existance (ie, negative numbers) then leaves it later.

I don't know - all that makes sense to me. And it seems to me that MEP does have the student work at basic concepts until they are likely mastered. For instance, a number is introduced (say the number 5) at the beginning of year 1. They learn different ways it can be represented (sticks, tally marks, roman numerals, and of course a 5) They practice writing a 5. They do basic addition and subtraction problems using pictures that use the number 5. There are problems that include up to number 5, as well as review numbers 1-4. There are word problems that work with number 5 (or others done), logic puzzles. This goes on for about a week or so, with a few other things thrown in for variety - then they move to the number 6. I don't feel that there is a lot of jumping around, even though there is variety, and cool concepts.

So, to me, MEP seems like a mixture of Mastery and Spiral - somewhere in between.

In any case. I feel that MEP follows CM recomendations in SO many ways. Add in that it is FREE (except your paper and ink), and that most kids seem to love it - it seems like a great choice to me.

RECEPTION

Oh - and the Reception (Kindergarten) Year lessons have been being added to the website. As Echo was always wanting to do math with Delta, we started her on the lessons. They are very similar, but move slower than the Year 1 book - and is dealing with the concepts through pictures. They are not using the actual abstract numbers - like 1, 2, 3.

So, for instance, there will be a picture (usually of a family - used throughout) that the child will describe. They will count various things in the picture, and do basic math in a real-life situation. For instance, there will be a picture of the family setting up for a birthday party - and you have your child count the plates (5) and the cups (3) - and you ask how many more cups they need to get out so there will be enough. The numbers have been slowly increasing... we are working with the number 6 right now.

Concepts we have seen so far (we are on lesson 23) include more/less; horizontal/vertical; very simple addition/subtraction (usually by 1 or 2); First, second, third, etc; Right/Left / Above/Below / Next/Before / etc; colours (child is asked to colour something a certain colour); basic writing skills (copy over a line in the picture); and probably some I have forgotten.

Note that the pictures (that come with the program) are all in color - so this course will cost a bit more to print off - but it seems very worth it!

ADDITION: Check out this http://ohpeacefulday.blogspot.com/2010/04/are-mep-and-cm-compatible.html for more on MEP and CM

More about Dick and Jane

Using the Dick and Jane books (along with some phonics) is working out well for both Delta and Echo. I found a great site that helps you determine what order to do the books in - the names of the books vary a little from decade to decade. I personally prefer the ones from the 40's and 50's - but any would likely work well.

For the starting reader, there are 5 to 6 books of interest.

The Early Primers go in order of

1. We look and See
2. We Work and Play
3. We Come and Go

Echo is currently working on the "We Come and Go" book.

There is a Junior Primer (from a later decade) called "Guess Who". One website mentioned that it is for slower readers - so I suspect that if the child is still having problems after the Early Primers, they would move to "Guess Who" instead of starting the Grade 1 Reader. However, it looks like it would also be a good Primer for a child that picks up reading quickly, but hasn't done the Early Primers.

There is a "Storybook Treasury of Dick and Jane and Friends" which has the Early Primers in it (but not in order!) - and uses "The New We Work and Play" (from the 60's.) It is the Yellow book. There is a Blue Storybook Treasury (not sure of the name) that has a couple of the Newer primers, and "Guess Who". Either of these books might be available in your library.

The Grade 1 Readers are called

1. Fun with Dick and Jane
2. Our New Friends

There are Readers for higher grades (only available used) - and I did find the books for Grade 2 and 3 at the same used store - but I feel by that point, using true literature is a better choice, even if you are buddy reading with your child.

It looks like there is a reprint of "Fun with Dick and Jane" - but I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, so I'm not sure if it is like the original or not. (Oh, and be aware.... there is a "More Fun with Dick and Jane" book that is an adult book satire of the Dick and Jane series. Don't mistake it for a Dick and Jane book!) [SEE UPDATE BELOW]

It doesn't look like "Our New Friends" has been reprinted. I was fortunate to find a used copy from the 40's in pretty good condition. I am having Delta read it for practice. I think his reading ability is a little above it, as he rarely makes mistakes, but he does occasionally need to work out a word, so I think it will be great practice. And he is enjoying being able to read a book with a story without it being difficult.

For a review of my understanding of Charlotte Mason's methods of teaching reading... She does advocate a little bit of work with phonics, mainly looking at word families.... but she mostly recommended a method of learning whole words. She recommended taking a nursery rhyme or poem, slowly teaching the words (by making copies of each word individually and having a child pick them out from other words) and working on all the words of a stanza of the poem out of order until they knew them - then reading the poem. As the very first Dick and Jane primer has a total of 17 words - it seems to me to be a good choice, although it was recommended by CM to include interesting words that are large and different. The repetition of the words in Dick and Jane serve to really get the child to know those words - and the child has a joy of reading a whole book right off!

Basically, I've found that a mixture of phonics and whole words seems to work well. The child has a way to figure out words that they don't know, and know how the system works through phonics - but phonics alone seems for many children to make reading hard work trying to figure out each word. Using whole words repeatedly lets them experience the joy of reading more easily and quickly. Together seems to work well. And although Dick and Jane is now looked down on for teaching reading - I think they can work well with that combined approach.

UPDATE

With some research, I have been able to find the Stories in the 40's Fun with Dick and Jane.

(Site with information)

They are....

• Family Fun (section)
• See it Go
• Guess
• Something for Sally
• Do What I Do
• Father Helps the Family
• Sally Makes Something
• Sally Wants to Play
• Jane Helps
• A Funny Ride
• Fun at the Farm (section)
• At the Farm
• The Pony
• Dick and the Hen
• A Family in the Barn
• A Big Big Dog
• Puff Wants to Play
• Funny Cookies
• Two Pets
• Pets and Toys (section)
• Fun for Little Quack
• Little Rabbit
• The Big Blue Ball
• In and Out
• The New Toy
• The Toy Farm
• Jane Wants a Doll
• Who can Talk?
• Fun with Our Friends (section)
• Sally Finds Friends
• Who Can Find It?
• The Funny House
• A Ride with Mother
• What Sally Saw
• Fun at School
• Pets at School

The Recent Reprint has 6 stories

• Look Up
• Who Is It?
• Something Pretty
• Where is Sally?
• Jane Helps Mother
• A Funny Ride

I assume that "A Funny Ride" is the same, and that "Jane Helps Mother" is "Jane Helps". Perhaps the others are the same with a different name.

In any case - there is obviously a LOT of stories missing - so I will have to hope I luck out and find the old one at a descent price.

Look, look. See, see. See Echo Read!

Ok, here it is. I can't remember the process that was taken when I learned to read because I read when I was barely 3.

I do know the story though.

Because my oldest brother knew how to read before going to school - and had a teacher who couldn't handle that - he absolutely ended up hating school in grade 1. So my parents worked hard to not let their other children learn to read before school.

However, one day when I was young, my older sister got out a "Dick and Jane" reader and played school with me. I'm not sure how long she played with me that day, but before she was done, I was reading. My parents shrugged their shoulders, and got out the rest of the "Dick and Jane" readers.

Jump forward a couple of decades, and I have been working on teaching Delta and Echo to read. But by now, the "Dick and Jane" readers are looked down on, as being a part of the illiteracy problem. So, I started the phonics program. It worked ok for a while, but none of the kids enjoyed it after getting to a certain point. And reading just was such hard work.

So, I talked to my Dad (who was a teacher), and he said that a mixture of reading instruction types works best overall. This was also about the time I discovered Charlotte Mason. I then made up some Doman type flashcards from "Teach your baby to read" and made a few homemade books. That worked well with them as a bridge. I started Delta on the Treadwell/Free Primer, and he did well. Reading is still work, but he is reading fairly well. I hope fluency will come soon.

But Echo.... she was to the point that she needed something other than just the phonics - but the Treadwell/Free Primer was too difficult. Then I had the flash go off in my head. If I learned how to read so easily with "Dick and Jane", then maybe my kids could too. I did a bit of looking, and found that my library had a couple of treasury books, and I requested them.

Well, what a joy! I sat with Echo, and she has read a couple of the "readers" in the one treasury with hardly any help at all. The phonics she has done allows her to figure out the word - and the repetitaveness gets the word in her head so that she doesn't have to figure it out each time - so it moves quicker. She is thrilled because she is reading a story, and a book, not just sentances. Delta has read both treasurys by now, and is enjoying reading without the effort. They have both spent a lot of time with them on their own.

So - I will be adjusting the learning reading suggestions on the blog. It is just exciting seeing them love the books. (And scarily enough, I remember the stories and pictures.)

I will admit that Mike finds the repetative stories annoying, and rolled his eyes when he saw the books from the library.... but I find them nostalgicly interesting.

Year 0 Music

On a message board I frequent, there was a question on what a mom can do about music instruction with their Year 0 (and Year K) children when they can't afford lessons and don't feel confident enough to teach them themselves. This mom did intend their children to do Piano when they were older. Here is my response.


What you can do at home on your own may depend a lot on what music skills you (or other family members) already have. Listening to good classical music is a HUGE part of music education, even if you can't do anything else. That can make a huge difference when the child later learns an instrument. Find quality recordings by good artists. (I'd buy the Suzuki CD's for the Piano, or whichever instrument you are thinking of for the future - even if you don't plan to do Suzuki.)

And as hard as it can be for an adult - for year 0 kids, I would say that repetition can be more important than a huge selection. (My 18 month old "sings" the notes to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Allegro" because she hears them so often. (My older kids do Suzuki violin, and the oldest is doing home-taught piano based on Suzuki Piano. So we listen to the CDs for Violin 1 and 2, and the CDs for Piano 1 and 2 every day) (As violin has 6 different rhythm variations of Twinkle on the CD, and Piano has 8 Twinkle variations on the CD - my 18 month old hears a variation of Twinkle 14 times a day at least from the CD's - and then hears it at least a couple of times from daily practice of the older kids.))

I know that not everyone can afford lessons..... but look into bursaries. A lot of programs out there do have bursaries or scholarships for people that need it. Sometimes deals can be worked on a barter system, if you have a skill that the instructor could use.

For older kids, some Orchestra's have programs to help teach kids musical instruments that aren't as "popular" - ones where there tends to be a shortage of players for the orchestra... (Things like Bassoon, or Oboe, or Tuba - I'm not sure which ones but there are ones out there...)

Back to what you can do now - besides the listening a lot - I would say that rhythm is a major thing. (If you do get the Suzuki CD's, you will here the Twinkle Variations that are different IMPORTANT rhythms in classical (and other styles) of playing. They were selected for a reason. I don't know the reasons for all of them, but as we go further in music, I see the rhythms over and over. Clap these, or other rhythms. Get some cheap rhythm instruments. We have used plastic coffee cans from Mike's for drums... we have real maracas, as well as some toy ones. Cheap tamborines from the $ store. Shakers. Some of this can be homemade - but I think that if you can get quality real ones, the sound is noticable. Practice "marching" to the beat. rhythm is SO important in music.

If you have a piano at home - start singing some of the notes. (make sure the piano is tuned!) Play a C key, and sing "Seaaaaa (C)" do the A key and sing "Aaaaaaa" (try to match the key). If you start doing this young enough, your child is very likely to develop "Perfect Pitch" which is loved by choir directors and music teachers of any instrument. If they don't develop "Perfect Pitch", they will probably still have a very strong "Relative Pitch", which is also very helpful. Note that you are not trying to teach the child where those keys are on the piano - you are teaching them that that tone or sound has a name, and this is the name.

Preschool Rush

It seems that everyone today is in a big rush to teach their children. Children now go to school based daycares or "pre-schools" as young as age 2 or younger. 3 year olds spend their time going to various lessons. Music lessons, swimming lessons, gymnastics, dance class, Karate, hockey, soccer, not to mention reading, writing and arithmetic. I often see children at the "Y" going from one activity to another, to another. Even homeschoolers are often busy going from activity to activity, and doing "Letter of the week" activities.

It is very easy to get caught up in so many activities that everyone is worn out. Children don't get the time and opportunity to play, pretend, and explore - all very important activities to learning.

Yet - I feel that there CAN be beneficial activities. Charlotte Mason advocated no lessons before age 6. I understand where she is coming from seeing how things are today. Yet - I have had personal benefits from music lessons as a youngster. I also was the child that learned to read by age 3 because my older sister decided to play "school" one day. (This was the early 70's - parents were GREATLY discouraged from teaching reading before school.) I needed to see the doctor often because of a heart murmer, and I was easily entertained with a deck of cards (learning a lot of math), or a few books, while I was waiting in the office. (Apparently I would entertain all the other people waiting as they would wait to see if I would see a card combination in a math game I would play...)

So - what to do? I say - keep it limited, keep it simple, and keep it fun!

I limit to generally 3 activities...

1) My children do swimming lessons at the Y from the time that they start to walk. For me, this is as much a safety issue as anything - it is good physical education, and my students love them! If my students didn't like them, we would still do them, but with breaks in between lessons instead of fairly continually.

2) My children do suzuki music lessons - see my post on music lessons

3) We do other occasional activities. For instance, we are currently taking a "Movement with Meaning" course - a "baby sign language" course for children age 2-5.

I do do some reading and math activities with my children, including some light phonics instruction. In our Kindergarten year of Year 0, we do a bit of reading most days. But only if the student is enjoying it.

What I DO do is make sure my Year 0 students have time to play, time to pretend, time to explore, and time outdoors. The little bit of scheduled activities we do are carefully limited. I occasionally get people suggesting that we should do this activity or that activity - and I have had to carefully consider what to include.

Note that these instructions are also important for Year K

Math Plan

My overall plan involves using the MEP (Mathematics Enhancement Program) for the first years of math, and "Life of Fred" for the later years. This is my goal, however math is a subject that needs to be catered to the needs of the student. On my Math Overview page, I list some free and inexpensive alternatives, enhancement activities, and basics on figuring out where to start if your student is not a year 1 student. For the later years, you may wish to change the order of topics if needed for other subjects (for instance, you may need Trig earlier for physics.)



Year 0


I do not advocate specific instruction on math for children in Year 0 (preschool ages) except for day to day life and regular play. However, many math concepts can be introduced lightly in life. Simple counting of real life objects. (With young children of age 2 or 3, start with the concept of 1, 2, and more than 2 - with real things. Don't proceed to higher numbers until this is sure.) The older child can do estimation of numbers with you using small items like seads. Other things I have done...

• provide puzzles of the right difficulty.
• Lego's and other building blocks provide math skills and engineering skills (just let them play)
• mosaic boards / peg boards.... light brites. (adds practice with fine motor skills too)
• Practice "Left" and "Right" through games
• Maze workbooks are fun
• The occasional Dot-to-Dot can be fun (but can be overdone too)
• Opportunities to play with playing cards
• • matching numbers
  • sort by colour
  • sort by number
  • sort by suit
  • sort numerically by suit
  • War - introduces Greater than and Less than
  
  
• Opportunities to play board games with adult/older kids (counting squares, dice numbers)
• Dominoes - matching, adding....

Children should get opportunities to do Year 0 activities throughout later years...

Year K

• MEP Reception Year

Year 1

• MEP Year 1
• Challenges Stage 1,2

Year 2

• MEP Year 2
• Challenges Stage 2,3

Year 3

• MEP Year 3
• Challenges Stage 2,3

Year 4

• MEP Year 4
• Challenges Stage 2,3

Year 5

• MEP Year 5a
• Life of Fred - Fractions
• Challenges Stage 3,4

Year 6

• MEP Year5b
• Life of Fred - Decimals and Percents
• Challenges Stage 3,4

Year 7

• MEP Year6a
• Life of Fred - Beginning Algebra (1st half)
• Challenges Stage 3,4

Year 8

• MEP Year6b
• Life of Fred - Beginning Algebra (2nd half)
• Challenges Stage 3,4

Year 9 - 12

Select appropriate "Life of Fred" books to match the goals of the student, and to match Graduation requirements where you live. If your student is going into a math intensive field, they should plan to do ALL of these.

• Life of Fred - Geometry
• Life of Fred - Advanced Algebra
• Life of Fred - Trigonometry
• Life of Fred - Statistics
• Life of Fred - Calculus
• Challenges Stage 5