“preschool”
Monday 
in the late afternoon 
Mystie
We’re not going anywhere or doing anything special or formal for preschool. This is still “training intensive” period in my book: prompt (that’s a little more accurate than “first-time”) obedience is more important than lower case letters or letter sounds, and now is the time when that cement is most wet. He can learn letter sounds now or he can learn them at four or five and at six or seven when he’ll most likely learn to read it won’t make a difference when he learned the sounds. However, if he doesn’t learn prompt obedience now, it will only get harder as time passes and other habits are ingrained. So my goals for him are mostly to learn prompt obedience, respect for authority and property, patience, and polite manners. He may pick up the lower case alphabet, numbers, and other “academic” content along the way, but I’m not terribly concerned about it at this point.
Yet, I do firmly buy into the classical method. I don’t think anyone would deny one of its basic tennets: young children memorize remarkably quickly. It’s absolutely stunning. Why put that capacity to waste, even at this young age? So Hans is memorizing his catechism (we’re working on questions 17-20 right now), Psalm 1, Genesis 1 (we’re only working on verse one through the first day at this point), and a few pertinent verses (Ephesians 6:1, for example). I’ve come up with a list of passages I’d like to cover over the next year, and we’ll also progress through the catechism at whatever rate he moves through them (once he can recite all the answers correctly several days in a row he gets a new question, and he loves new questions!). So next on the docket are the Fruit of the Spirit and the Ten Commandments. The comfort of the classical method, at least Dorothy Sayer’s version, is that it is not only ok, but still beneficial, for young children to memorize things they don’t understand. They don’t care if they understand, they just like to recite. And so far I have found that true. Hans will ask what words mean, but a simple definition suffices and he’s not inquiring or caring about questions like “In how many Persons does the One God exist?” He just proudly spouts, “In THREE persons!” Knowledge now, understanding later. Language now, comprehension later.
So, that is our preschool program this year. Next year I might try a little beginning phonics and beginning math, but maybe not. If he seems like an early bloomer, why not allow him to start early? But if he’s not quite ready, why waste the time? Why not focus on what he’s good at (memorizing) and let the formal concepts wait? I’d rather focus on memory work and story reading during preschool and kindergarten and let formal school wait until first grade.
We have found the exact same thing to be true with Bennett. He can memorize anything. He really enjoys it too. He has memorized catechism questions 1-8, Psalm 23, the Lord’s Prayer, and a bunch of Proverbs. I have found it good for myself as well, as I too was in need of some forced memorizing!