Preschool: Listening Skills

Some children have difficulty listening.   We used to call it selective hearing because, while the boys could not "hear" me tell them to take out the trash, they could hear the cookie jar opening at 200 yards and come running!

Actually, some children actually do have troubling listening either because they have immature auditory discrimination skills.  The can hear with their ears, but they have trouble processing some of what they hear or a weak auditory memory.  Sometimes this "hearing/processing" problem is linked or wholly attributed to attentional difficulties.

You know these children; you send them upstairs for their socks and shoes and have to go looking for them 10 minutes later!   They have trouble "hearing" you call them when they are distracted, or when there are other voices and noises around.  They have trouble telling back a story in sequence.  Once they are ready to read these children may display difficulty with phonemic skills -- remembering the sounds of the letters, recognizing rhyming words etc., blending sounds together into a word.

Regardless of whether the listening difficulties stem from immaturity, processing or memory causes, training and practice in listening is valuable for children.

The point is to help children develop a habit of attentive listening.  Developing a strong listening "habit" will help children overcome any weakness in auditory perception or memory if one exists.    Charlotte Mason says it very well -

 "...the point of training children to have good habits is so that they'll do things without being nagged or scolded. Then the mother isn't constantly chasing them down with a barrage of commands and reminders. She can leave them alone to thrive in their own way once habit has secured a boundary for them to grow in."
volume 1, page 134

That sounds encouraging to me!  
 
Here is a free resource to help you help your children develop the habit of listening!   Click here to download a free copy of the book.    


 The book is not my own -- I actually found it through Marie Miller's Math website.   The book itself is a publication provided compliments of Renee at SchoolSparks,   which also provides some handy checklists and other free resources for preschoolers.  

Preschool at Home

When I was a young mother, I felt that I needed to send my children to the top rated preschool at the local church.   I was attending the woman's Bible Study one day a week at that church and saw all the fun these children seemed to be having in a Christ centered environment.   It felt to me that I wasn't doing so much at home to get them ready "for school".  I wondered if having experience in a preschool class, with friends, wouldn't be advantageous.

The first step to getting into this preschool was to be put on the waiting list for the three day a week, half day classes.   So we did -- and waited and waited!

On the day our coveted position opened up I faced a huge reality check.  We actually couldn't afford the monthly tuition!   About the time we were led for me to leave my teaching job to be a "stay at home mom", my husband's company closed and he started over in his career -- at half the pay. Times were tight -- very tight.   Even though I was tutoring students after school and took a job at the local book store in the evenings, there was no way to squeeze tuition for preschool out of our budget.

Luckily, for me, the Lord provided a mentor.   I volunteered to assist in the 2 year old class for the children's program in the Bible Study and my teacher was Mrs. Mangum.  Mrs. Mangum had been teaching preschool for over 30 years along with raising her own brood.  I admired the way she guided the children with love and helped them to have fun while they learned.  

The most encouraging thing she ever said to me was "you don't need to send your children to preschool!  YOU do all those important things to help them learn in your own home!"  So I did!

She demonstrated to me how to guide children with love, what type of activities were developmentally appropriate for different ages and, in general encouraged me in my job as a "preschool-mother-at-home".  I used to joke with her that I needed to have another baby so I could get a "do over" -- and ultimately the Lord provided for that too!  But that is a different story....

I tried to soak up all Mrs. Mangum's ways in the one day a week I helped in her class.  I took note of special activities and listened to how Mrs. Mangum interacted with the children in story time.  I asked her for resources and ideas that helped me implement my own preschool program for my children.  I found that there were many materials to help me plan and carry-out a quality preschool at home. 

This new series is dedicated to Mrs. Mangum! 

I've noticed that most of the younger women I know and many of the homeschoolers send their children to preschool.  There is nothing wrong with that!   One of my best friends from church is a long time preschool teacher and then, of course, there is Mrs. Mangum.  However, in these financially challenging days I want to give others the confidence to design a quality preschool for their children in their own room.

Tomorrow - a fun and FREE resource to help your child develop listening skills.