School Too Early?

My little Megan will be four in April.  She is beautiful and smart.  She is the youngest of five.  She has LOTS of older "teachers" setting an example for her.  I recently bought the preschool curriculum from Heart of Dakota called Little Hands to Heaven for my young child. 

It's ironic that as soon as I receive the curriculum I run into articles and blog entries about how harmful it is for young children to go to preschool.  In that light, I thought I would explain why I made the decision to do preschool.  Truthfully, it had nothing to do with academics.

First, my child is not going to school.  I have no desire to put her in a room with a bunch of other three or four year old children so that she can pick up their behaviors or have "friends".  She sees and socializes with other children at church.  She is with me when I run errands and go about life.  She is with her sisters daily.   If anything, in our home, she needs quiet time not more socialization.

Megan is bored.  She sees me working with her sister every day and wants to be a part of it.  I didn't have to buy a program, but I also didn't want to think about planning anything. I could just read to her a lot, and I will, but I fell in love with Heart of Dakota.  Little Hands to Heaven is full of games and hands-on activities.  Megan is a busy child and thrives on activity.   I don't want to push her academically into learning too soon, but I don't have a problem offering opportunities for learning.

Yes, real learning happens in the everyday life.  I plan to use that too.  Lots of outside time, lots of reading, lots of being mommy or daddy's helper... this is preschool.  The program is to add to that, not take away or replace that.  It is to give me something structured to do with her every day.

I've read the research that talks about how damaging it is to push children too soon.  I agree with most of it.  I have vacillated between the fear of my children not being able to compete with the public schooled kids and the research that shows how bad it is to push them.  I have found that a gentle approach is wonderful, allowing my children to be exposed to things that engage their minds and arouse their curiosity, but doesn't cause them to stress out. 

Doing things with Megan that encourage learning when she is showing an interest is far different than sticking my kid in a class of twenty other children and allowing a stranger to teach my child.  Having access to a program that is full of ideas and reading and games is wonderful.  Will she learn letters and numbers?  Absolutely.  In the America's history, parents were the primary teachers for at least eight years of their child's life if not longer.  As long as I am my daughter's primary teacher, and I don't feel that she is failing at life if she isn't in some "program" to teach her the stuff someone else says she needs to know, then I am not worried.