At the Y today I was talking to another mom about the preschool her daughter attends and she waxed rhapsodically, “Oh, it’s fabulous! It’s academic, and she knows all of her colors…” She listed some other things the preschool did, including the beginnings of subtraction, but I was somewhat floored by the first one she came out with.
Colors?
Your kid had to go to preschool to learn colors?
This wasn’t the first mom I’ve talked to who’s said something like this about the preschool they use. Another mom told me about how her 3 year old had learned how to count up to thirteen and knew all her letters!
Okay, I don’t think we’ve pushed Sophia. Maybe we have and I’m just not aware of it, but…hello? She’s known her letters for, uh, a long time. She knows her colors—she even knows how to mix certain colors to make other colors (unless she’s completely disinterested in the topic, in which case she says she has no idea).
Are these parents talking to their kids? Reading anything to them?
I’m thrilled to pieces when Sophia starts singing a song she learned in school. But her colors? Good Lord.
Gah! My EYES! I’m never clicking on any of your links again. Now “Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see” will go on an endless loop through my head for the next twelve days.
The color thing is sort of bewildering to me too, but of course all schools (pre or not) teach at different levels. My favorite is the family that moved to a tiny town in the midwest, and when they realized that the students were just learning to read in 5th grade, they opted for homeschooling. Hee.
Perhaps her daughter learned exotic colors — puce, lilac, fuschia — although you can probably find all of those in a box of Crayolas these days. But I think you’re right, being astonished about learning colors at 3 is a little bewildering to me, too.
I’m amused that the book you linked to is one with very few words. How about this one?
I picked Goodnight, Gorilla for the simple reason that it’s a book of many levels. You can discuss the pictures in depth with your child — the gorilla’s trickster origins, the dichotomy between the oblivious humans and wily animals, the saga of the balloon, the tale of a mouse and a banana — or you can flip through those damn pictures as fast as you can.
Simon keeps flipping through it to get to his favorite page: “Uh…OH.” If you’ve read GG you know what page that is!