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The first question I asked in search of a preschool was do you teach the alphabet? It may surprise you why I asked that question; it was because I wasn't really interested in Liam learning the alphabet... at least not as a formal, academic curriculum.
A few years ago my sister-in-law asked my advice about how she could teach her youngest daughter to read. I told her to read with her daughter. This turned out to be very convenient because they were already reading quite a lot. By the age of four, my (very adorable) niece had already read the chapter book Charlotte's Web along with countless other picture books (including Wide Mouthed Frog, which I bought for her). As a 7 year old, she still loves to read each and every day. To be fully clear, my sister-in-law did mix a bit of phonics into her daughter's program. I believe in addition to their steady diet of real books, she also did learn quite a bit from Hooked on Phonics and other toys & games. Still though, I think the reading part is the most important and the real reason why my niece loves reading so much.
Now that Liam is a 4 year old, I am constantly reminded about our alphabet. He loves to read and does so often- at home and at school. But everywhere I go, there's another reminder about the alphabet and it leaves me with the question... why? And why in that order? I'm quite sure that the alphabet is just a string of letters that fit into a song to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (did anyone else take 32 years of their life to finally notice that connection?).
We visited Liam's current preschool in the fall and I was very happy to see a bulletin board with X-Rays on the wall, a sensory table that was left open for kids to play in and a huge Lego table. There was a photocopy on one of the tables with the numbers 1-10 written in English, French, Spanish, Hebrew and Punjabi. Not to mention the children's garden outside of the classroom windows, a ginormous playground and certified preschool teachers. We happily started paying (in July... for a preschool class that didn't start until September).
Did we find the perfect preschool? Was Liam about to embark on a school year of discovery? Yes... but... it only took a couple of weeks of holidays and settling in before the first art projects started to appear in his mailbox- an Apple person, who was soon followed by a Bear with Buttons and, the following week, Caterpillars and Cats and Cars. But what about the X-Ray bulletin board? Well, it turns out that we just happened to visit during the week they learned about X.
It's been weeks since my realization. We tried to get into the spirit but it's a little hard when you have to bring in a picture of something that starts with the letter K (Liam, you can bring in a picture of a Knight [but that might be too confusing], a King, a Kite or a Key). We embraced the show-and-tell for items that begin with the letter J (Jelly Beans to share!).
Am I spoiling the fun of all of you preschool mommies out there who are proud of your child's Dogs, Elephants and Fish? I hope not. I really do value the art projects, show and tell (even with specific parameters), story reading, etc... I just can't help but wonder about our ABC's.
What if instead of teaching the ABC's in order, we started with the "easy" letters that only make one sound- like B, D, F, H, etc... and then moved on to those multi-sound hellions like C & G only to finish up with the vowels? Or how about if we ditch the ABC's altogether and go more whole language? Or subject-based? So maybe a unit on lizards where they also happen to discuss the fact that lizard starts with L? I was just talking to a friend who said at her daughter's preschool, they based the order of letter learning on shapes of letters. And that's the thing, the more preschools I called last year and the more friends I talk to, the more I realize there's no escaping this alphabet thing (unless maybe you go Montessori... but the visit the Montessori preschool may be fodder for an entirely different blog post someday...).
I am very happy with our decision to enroll Liam in this preschool. It was the best decision for our family. Liam loves his classroom and has learned so much about social development, appropriate behavior and more. They read two or more books every single day and I think that is where the real learning is taking place. On the way home from school Friday, Liam even recited all of the months in a row to me (I have barely tried to attempt that one at home) and I know I saw a bar graph on chart paper hiding behind the teachers' desk last week too. So for the time being, I'll help Liam look for his show and tell Lion or a Leopard. This being said; I'm really hoping that, on the second week of September, Liam doesn't come home from Kindergarten with colored in Alligator.
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