Preschool

G is working on preschool now. We haven’t spent a ton of time doing traditional academic things with her because she isn’t that interested in sitting and doing them. Instead, we focus on reading books together (and she will sit and listen to anything, including history texts and Shakespeare), physical activities (like dancing, pony riding, swimming, and hiking), and just playing together.

But lately I have felt the pressure to have her know her shapes, colors, letters, and numbers like all of the other preschool aged kids. Something about turning 4 this month makes me want to be more serious with her. I realize this is silly because it’s not like she needs to pass some test. She can learn these things just as easily at 5 or 6. But, I continue to bow to my self-imposed pressures to achieve things that culture expects.

The benefit to working on these things with her is that I also get to remember how fun it is to discover the world with a preschooler.

“Mommy, in the book about Froggy, why does his face turn….what is it…yellow?” she asked about the book where the frog forgets to put on his underwear.

“Red. His face turns red,” I explained. “When people are embarrassed, sometimes their face turns red. Froggy was embarrassed that he forgot his underwear.”

Skepticism on her face. “Faces don’t turn red when people are embarrassed. Is that just for frogs?”

Ah, the literal interpretations of a preschooler. True, faces don’t turn crayon red. And the collision of literal interpretation with imagination. It doesn’t even occur to her that frogs don’t wear underwear.

And like a clever preschooler, she is a good problem solver. In working on our shapes, she just cannot seem to remember the word “triangle” for some reason. Don’t ask me why. We have sung songs, cut shapes, drawn pictures, read books….that word just doesn’t want to stay in her brain yet. So, when asking her about shapes the other day, I asked her to identify a triangle.

“What shape is this?” I asked.

“Um….Rectangle?” she guessed.

“Rectangle has two short sides and two long sides, right? So, do you think this is a rectangle?”

She shook her head no but still couldn’t retrieve the word.

“Do you want a hint?”

She nodded her head yes.

“It starts with a T.”

“T-rectangle?!” she giggled.

At least she has a sense of humor. That passes whatever test we would want to apply this week.