day ninety-five: challenging preschoolers in non-stressful ways

“Mommy read out loud from a chapter book while we ate. I’m starting to kind of like chapter books, even though they don’t have any pictures; I can make the pictures in my head now.”*



I have talked at length in this blog about expectations of our children (and will likely continue to do so!). Specifically, I discussed the concept of having high expectations of our children in the areas that they CAN control (i.e. kindness, obedience, diligence, etc.) and limiting expectations in the areas that they can NOT control (potty training, learning to read, penmanship, spelling, etc.).**

While children often do not have control over whether they are ready to learn to read or be potty trained, we can challenge our children in many areas in non-stressful ways. Today’s excerpt (which was also the excerpt from a couple of days ago) describes Jonathan listening to me read aloud to him from a chapter book (while the children ate—always the efficiency expert, here!). It also described something that I loved to hear my kids tell me: “I can make pictures in my head now.”

While we are waiting for readiness to develop in children in their “uncontrolled areas,” we can challenge them and help them build up to the readiness of those things. While Jonathan, as a preschool non-reader, could not read chapter books, I could read them to him, and challenge him mentally to develop the pictures in his mind, build his listening comprehension (which tremendously affects reading comprehension later when the child becomes a reader), and much more. This is a prime example of challenging children in a non-stressful way.

Here are a few ways to challenge your young children in non-stressful ways to get you started. Since my family has convinced me to continue PP 365 in the year 2011 too, I will likely add many more examples of challenging our children in academics and diligence (two other blog ideas I was considering for next year) right here on PP, so “stay tuned”!


1. Read above their readability level—This is what I described above. When our children are non-readers (or even limited readers—just learning and/or only reading phonetically-controlled materials), we can read above their reading level to increase their listening comprehension—and help them “make pictures in their minds.” (More on this when we talk about reading, elementary kids, and tweens—honest!)

2. Discussing everything—the best way to challenge our children in academics in a non-stressful way is to discuss everything. (PP 365 has several posts on this!) Just because a child cannot read it for himself yet (in the case of a young child or struggling reader) or just because he cannot experience it for himself (i.e. taking a trip to the moon!) does not mean that he cannot learn about it from you, the parent, through discussion. Don’t be afraid to embark on conversations about everything. Bring library books home about “school” subjects and discuss the books after you read them to him. Discussion is the best way to build a background of experience that a child can bring with him into all of his future learning experiences. (See Learning Hooks post earlier this year.)

3. Build attention span—One way to build a child’s attention span in a non-stressful way is to provide audios for the child to listen to—and, especially, replace some video/television time with them. I will be reviewing several audio recommendations throughout the year, but to get you started, consider the following for the preschool/elementary child:

a. Uncle Dan and Aunt Sue story tapes (i.e. Your Story Hour)—outstanding story tapes with sound effects, voices, etc. for young children—start with the Bible stories and true life character stories (available from Library and Educational Services)

b. Adventures in Odyssey radio drama—the best audio stories (Bible, true life, history, etc.) for ages six through fourteen we have ever seen, hands down. Available from Focus on the Family. (Also available to listen to online at http://www.whitsend.org/ )

c. Book and “tape” sets—book and tape sets, available at your children’s library, usually in bag and cd/tape pairs, are outstanding ways to have your child go through hundreds of picture books on his own. (We personally had our preschoolers do a book and tape set every day on their “daily checklist.” They especially enjoyed re-listening to stories that we had read together during story time.)

d. Audio books—if you are just making the transition from picture books to your child listening to chapter books, and you want to do more than what you have time to read to him, consider audio books or talking books. If he is just starting out, you can do some easier ones like Magic Tree House, Boxcar Children, American Girl, Aesops’ Fables (or other story “collections”), etc.



4. Focus on skills and behaviors that he does have control over. I have mentioned this like a broken record, and, believe it or not, I have more to say about it in “readiness for school” coming up sometime in the future! For now, I just want to reiterate the common sense idea of spending your time and energy on controllable things for your child. Your four year old can learn to be helpful, kind, obedience, cheerful, and more. Do not be concerned if he can say his ABC’s backwards or skip ten feet. Focus on the really important stuff now—“it will all shake out in the end”! smile….



*For the complete story of “Jonathan’s Journal, follow this link: http://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/03/day-seventy-eight-introducing-jonathans.html



**Link to expectation post from earlier this year: http://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/01/day-twenty-seven-have-high-expectations.html