Motherhood & Parenting Thread - AKA: Why is my daughter eating my chapstick?

[HowlingChasm]

It's certainly worth keeping in mind, but if she's four, I wouldn't worry too much just yet. At that age, she's already ahead of the curve learning proper mathematics when most other kids are just learning their numbers, and subtraction may just be less intuitive for her and need some extra time (or alternate explanations of the concept that make more sense to her).

Yeah I have no reference for how much a pre-schooler should know but figured she’s old enough for something a step up from phonics and the colors of the rainbow and since we’re homeschooling in the near future, there needs to start being a routine of sitting down to learn.

 

[Castoreum]

Teaching my 4-year-old math the only way I figure you can by using physical objects to add and take away. She understands addition but subtraction short circuits her brain and she wants to stop playing which is weird because she can count backwards. I think the biggest hurdle is just keeping her attentive and disciplined enough to focus.

Do the kids still play Math Blaster?

My daughter's not at that age yet, but I figured I would either show her Math Blaster or play age appropriate board games where basic addition and subtraction are a mechanic.

 

[Froggy Fresh Sextape]

My daughter's not at that age yet, but I figured I would either show her Math Blaster or play age appropriate board games where basic addition and subtraction are a mechanic.

Yeah my mom made up a version of Candy Land where you rolled dice to move (actually, I think she just lost the cards...) and then if you were near the swamp you'd have to roll one die and then subtract the second rolled die from it. Shitty ass rules because we'd both get stuck in there forever but it worked.

There are also dot cards, which my friend uses with her kid, but I know I would have become frustrated with that shit real fast.

 

[Otterly]

Teaching my 4-year-old math the only way I figure you can by using physical objects to add and take away. She understands addition but subtraction short circuits her brain and she wants to stop playing which is weird because she can count backwards. I think the biggest hurdle is just keeping her attentive and disciplined enough to focus.

There’s a great little British show called Numberblocks which teaches the basic numbers in a really nice visual way. Obviously doing it in person and with real stuff and you is way better, but if you ever need half an hour to cook dinner and succumb to the screen, may as well make it educational.

 

[HowlingChasm]

There’s a great little British show called Numberblocks which teaches the basic numbers in a really nice visual way. Obviously doing it in person and with real stuff and you is way better, but if you ever need half an hour to cook dinner and succumb to the screen, may as well make it educational.

I'm familiar with Number/Alphablocks. We've tried before but she said turn that shit off, which I'm not arguing with a kid not wanting to watch tv lmao.
Important update: she can in fact subtract to the outrage of me eating her goldfish.

 

[8reallybigbirds]

My partner and I are looking to start our family this year, but we live in a busy city with a high population of blacks and browns and fairly high crime rates. The area is developing quickly, but I fear 8 years isn't enough time for the schools to clear out all the riff raff, for lack of a better term. I don't want my kid to be surrounded by screaming nigglets all day, but we're not wealthy enough to afford private institutions. I'm considering homeschooling, but I have some personal hangups about that because I was a homeschool (well.. rather unschooled) kid and I know how socially hard it is. Of course, I did also learn the correct way to homeschool so I won't just be throwing my kids into the zoo or a museum while I read a book on a bench like my mom did, they'd be going to co-ops with regular class schedules and after school activities with other kids.
Still, I'm hesitant. I can't help but feel like regular schooling might prepare them for the world better.
Any advice?

 

[Froggy Fresh Sextape]

Still, I'm hesitant. I can't help but feel like regular schooling might prepare them for the world better.

Yeah, it will. Sorry. You gotta throw your kid into the melting pot with other randoms, that's how kids learn to socialize.

One of my friends went through the same thing and decided to homeschool her oldest kid until high school and he just turned out really weird. He is always very excited to tell me about his horse fursona though!

 

[Brenda Holiday]

My partner and I are looking to start our family this year, but we live in a busy city with a high population of blacks and browns and fairly high crime rates. The area is developing quickly, but I fear 8 years isn't enough time for the schools to clear out all the riff raff, for lack of a better term. I don't want my kid to be surrounded by screaming nigglets all day, but we're not wealthy enough to afford private institutions. I'm considering homeschooling, but I have some personal hangups about that because I was a homeschool (well.. rather unschooled) kid and I know how socially hard it is. Of course, I did also learn the correct way to homeschool so I won't just be throwing my kids into the zoo or a museum while I read a book on a bench like my mom did, they'd be going to co-ops with regular class schedules and after school activities with other kids.
Still, I'm hesitant. I can't help but feel like regular schooling might prepare them for the world better.
Any advice?

Take everything wrong with your personal experience with homeschooling and strive to do better. If you want your kids to actually enjoy learning don't send them to public school. Your kids will be weird, but if normal is how public school kids act then I don't want my kids to be normal.

 

[HowlingChasm]

Yeah, it will. Sorry. You gotta throw your kid into the melting pot with other randoms, that's how kids learn to socialize.

One of my friends went through the same thing and decided to homeschool her oldest kid until high school and he just turned out really weird. He is always very excited to tell me about his horse fursona though!

Can’t I just bully my own child into not being a sperg?

 

[Forgive Me Im Retarded]

He is always very excited to tell me about his horse fursona though!

that’s unfettered internet access, and using a computer to raise a kid.

 

[8reallybigbirds]

Yeah, it will. Sorry. You gotta throw your kid into the melting pot with other randoms, that's how kids learn to socialize.

One of my friends went through the same thing and decided to homeschool her oldest kid until high school and he just turned out really weird. He is always very excited to tell me about his horse fursona though!

Well, I can't control the autism variable, but I will do my best to avoid bringing another furry into this world.

 

[Froggy Fresh Sextape]

that’s unfettered internet access, and using a computer to raise a kid.

He was supervised very closely but you can't do it 24/7.

There's value in having other kids telling you that you're gay and retarded, basically.

 

[netkiwimoongladewave]

I don't want my kid to be surrounded by screaming nigglets all day, but we're not wealthy enough to afford private institutions.

School is terrible because it is a one size fits all diktat, a prison for the fertile mind, a round peg being pushed through a square hole. A private school is a better school than a public school because the school can afford to give each child a bigger push, increasing the chances they make it through the hole... but it is still a school, you still end up with a square child.

The simplest way you can make school better for your kid, even when you haven't got a penny, is to give your kid the choice. Raise your kid to be interested and intrigued by the world, then give them agency. Let your kid go to school because they want what it is offering, let them take what they want from it and ignore the rest. If they decide that it sucks and isn't worth it, let them opt out, try again next year, try a new school, homeschool, unschool, whatever.

We go to work and sit in front of the bad screen lamenting our capitalist nightmare, and then we go home and stare at the good screen enjoying the fruits of our capitalist dream. The difference between enjoying something and hating it is being able to make the choice. I'll spend hours writing comments on the internet for free but god forbid I had to do this shit for work, I'd rather kill myself.

Homeschooling has a bad reputation because so often it isn't a decision made in service of nourishing the child's mind, it is a desperate parent's way to keep their child trapped in the parent's fiefdom If homeschooling is chosen based on the specific needs of a specific child, if it is chosen because it is the best available option to nourish that child's mind, then it is a great choice.

Anyway, what really matters, more than education, is raising your kid to be an optimist. Sure, the world is fucked, but don't weigh a kid down with that, let them believe that anything is possible, let them spend every day enthused about the future. Pessimism is far more dangerous than public school. Success comes from, like, 90% being able to ignore the depressing reality of life and 10% hard work / talent / intelligence / opportunities / privilege. There are a lot of successful idiots, but no successful pessimists.

All that assumes your roll of the dice produces a good kid, but guess what, the same lesson applies, nothing good comes from treating your kid like a dud, be an optimist, treat your kid like the world is their oyster, even if they're a furry.