How to easily and quickly learn the Russian alphabet. How to learn the alphabet with a child? Learning letters with pleasure

Do you want to know about the most effective way to teach your child letters and learn the alphabet in the shortest possible time? With our recommendations, it will not be difficult for you to teach your child the alphabet at 3-6 years old. In just a month of short lessons, you can learn vowels and consonants with your child and start reading.

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Why teach a child the alphabet

Before you introduce your child to the letters of the Russian alphabet, answer yourself the question WHY you want to do this right now. Is your child 5 or 6 years old and you want to prepare him for school? He is 2 years old and you want to show off the successes of a little genius to your friends and relatives? The kid is 3 years old and you want to "invest in him the maximum" in all ways available to you, so as not to miss the optimal moment for all-round development? What?

Of course, you can teach a child the alphabet at any age. You can show letter cards from the cradle, but... Let's put parental ambitions aside and focus on the object - the child. Why does he need to know letters? Right to read! Are you sure that right now he is READY to learn the basics of reading? Read what conditions are necessary in order to teach a child to read in our articles and only after that make the right decision:

Any knowledge should be put into practice. You must clearly understand that the study of letters and the alphabet is teaching the child to read. Otherwise, there is no point, there are a lot of other effective ways to develop memory, thinking, speech. It is not necessary for this to learn letters with a one and a half year old malupas, who is not yet able to pronounce them correctly. If you start learning the alphabet too early, there is a high chance that the child will simply forget the letters by the time he is ready to learn to read. Or the second, more "terrible" moment. Having learned “be”, “ve”, “de”, the child will not be able to read, because other rules work when reading. To merge syllables and turn them into words, you need to pronounce sounds completely different. Relearning is always harder. Be careful with the choice of talking toys and books: they do not always pronounce the letters correctly!

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By itself, knowing the alphabet will not give the baby anything. He will simply memorize it like a song or a rhyme, but this will not teach him to read. Therefore, leave the study of the alphabet for children 5-6 years old, who will need it at school, and with toddlers, just learn the letters without adhering to the alphabetical sequence.

• The alphabet is not just all the letters, it's the letters in a CERTAIN sequence.
• The alphabet is the basis of any language.
• The alphabet is the key to all dictionaries, reference books, encyclopedias, and other documents where order and systematization are important.
• Knowing the alphabet saves time.

Learning letters: where to start

In what order do you learn the letters? Do I need to learn the alphabet? Start with vowels or consonants?

Let's be clear, then:

1. No need to learn letters in alphabetical order.

2. Do not learn letters mixed up: either vowels or consonants.

3. Be the first to learn with your child 10 letters for vowel sounds.

The most important thing at this age is to pay attention to CORRECT SPEECH. If necessary, contact a speech therapist to help put the right sounds, because success in school education directly depends on this.

A common problem at this age is sound R. You can work with your child on your own by doing it regularly.

Modern parents have different attitudes towards the early development of the child. Many people think that it is not necessary to “stick” to the baby too early with reading, learning English and other tricks. It is better to create conditions for a full-fledged carefree childhood, surround him with love and care. Nevertheless, there is nothing wrong with starting to introduce the alphabet to the baby long before school, gradually learning the letters of the native language and their correct sequence with it. At what age do you start training? What methods and techniques to choose?

At what age can you start learning

Educators and psychologists do not have strict guidelines regarding the specific age at which a preschooler can be introduced to letters. However, experts still consider five years to be the most favorable time for this. This recommendation is based on the fact that in very young children the visual-effective type of thinking prevails. But by the age of 5, the brain is already able to perceive abstract information, symbolic images, which are letters.

According to psychologists, it is at this age that the child shows special curiosity and can memorize a large amount of information without much effort.

In addition, up to 5 years, the speech apparatus is still being formed, so the baby often cannot pronounce the names of some letters correctly. There is a chance that he will remember their wrong sound, which in the future will create problems when learning to read.

According to psychologists and educators, the optimal age for learning the alphabet is 5 years.

Another important point. Parents should understand that learning letters and the alphabet is closely related to learning to read. If you start getting acquainted with the alphabet too early, the baby may simply forget the letters by the time it is time to master reading (to prevent this from happening, you need to repeat them almost daily).

Correct acquaintance with Russian letters at the age of 3

By the age of three, many children already have favorite fairy tales and books. At this age, you can learn only individual letters with your baby, and certainly not get hung up on their sequence (do not touch the alphabet).

Best of all, three-year-olds remember the letters A, B and C, as well as the first letter of their name, M and P (“mother” and “dad”).

A three-year-old kid should make or purchase toy letters - voluminous, colorful, interesting to look at. Various cubes (preferably voluminous, soft) with painted letters and pictures will come to the aid of parents. The image can be selected with a specific theme (for example, only animals).

For a three-year-old baby, letters are best associated with toys, for example, voluminous soft cubes

For example, in my childhood I had a big inflatable ball, on which all the letters of the alphabet were depicted with black and red pictures. I remember that I loved playing with him very much, I looked at the images for a long time. My first acquaintance with letters was connected with this toy.

Mom can also lay out small letters from counting sticks, matches, buttons, draw them on paper, chalk on asphalt. Then you need to stimulate the baby to repeat these actions.

4 years: play and remember

For example, you can play the game “Find the pictures”. Mom lays out a certain letter and 3-4 pictures. Among them, the child must choose an item that begins with a given letter.

In addition, you can purchase an interactive alphabet in the form of a poster or book. Toddlers usually really like to press the buttons on it. The form of the letter will be deposited in the memory of the child, he will associate the graphic symbol with the sound.

Interactive alphabet will associate a graphic symbol with a picture and sound

The child can already be shown various educational cartoons, videos where the alphabet, for example, appears as a funny song.

Video: the whole alphabet in the form of a fun song

5-6 years old: school methods of learning in the comfort of home

At 5 years old, you can already learn the alphabet directly, that is, the letters in their correct sequence. We need to tell the child that the alphabet is the basis of our language. His knowledge helps in life, for example, it is much easier to navigate in the library when you need to find a book that begins with a certain letter.

At this time, games, more complex productive activities (for example, plasticineography, making unconventional applications from seeds, cereals, napkins, etc., modeling) will again help parents. Various manuals (printed alphabets), special workbooks, copybooks will come to the rescue (after all, you can not just study letters, but immediately learn to write them).

At 5-6 years old, the child can already be offered special workbooks, prescriptions

In addition, there are many useful applications for smartphones and tablets. These are educational games that help you learn the alphabet.

Together with the child, you can make a unique author's primer. An ordinary album is taken (applications from postcards, magazines can be glued to the cover), a letter and a picture are drawn on each page - an object whose name begins with this letter. This activity will bring family members together and will undoubtedly captivate the preschooler.

How to interest a child (and not force!)

Of course, for the successful development of the alphabet, adults need to interest the baby, motivate him. There are many ways to do this:

1. On a walk, the mother shows the child that the letters surround us everywhere - on store "enticing" signs, advertising banners. Pay attention to colorful options, where the letters are large, colored.

   You need to pay attention to the child that the letters surround us everywhere

2. Associate letters with specific images (“Look, O looks like a ring or a donut, F is like a beetle, P is like a horizontal bar, G is like a crane, D is like a house, etc.”).
3. Arrange a tea party with letters. In the store, you can try to find cookies in the shape of letters or bake them at home. In addition, pasta of a similar shape is on sale.

   Delicious homemade cookies in the shape of letters, no doubt, will delight the baby

4. You can offer a preschooler a stack of colorful glossy magazines and let him cut out letters from there.
5. Acquire various games related to letters: lotto, dominoes, paired pictures (where you need to connect a letter with an image according to the puzzle principle).

   It is necessary to offer the preschooler various games related to letters, for example, loto with bright cards

6. Allow the child to type in the World program - click on various letters and look at their image on the screen. In this case, you need to set a beautiful large font in a bright color (you can make a color fill for each letter).
7. Introduce learning elements into the interior of the nursery and other rooms. It can be pillows in the form of letters, puzzle mats, curtains with such a pattern.

   It will be great to include letters in your home interior.

Naturally, based on these games and activities, parents will need to prepare the necessary didactic material (after all, the alphabet cannot be learned “on the fingers”). These are cubes with the image of letters (soft, wooden, plastic, etc.), posters, cards, alphabet (including interactive). For classes, you will also need paper, colored pencils, felt-tip pens, counting sticks, natural material, etc.

You can even sew large letters from fabric and stuff them with something soft, such as foam rubber. Everything here depends only on the scope of parental imagination and the availability of free time.

There can be a lot of didactic material for studying letters, the main thing is the desire of parents

Video: what can come in handy when learning letters

How to learn letters

The basic way to learn the alphabet is to use cards with letters (they can be supplemented with pictures). The algorithm can be chosen as follows:

1. At first, it is better to master all the vowels, it is convenient to do it in pairs: A - I, O - E, U - Yu, S - I, E - E).
2. Then consonants are introduced, first paired in voicing-deafness (B - P, V - F, Z - C, etc.), then unpaired.
3. At the end, introduce the child to b and b.
4. Only after studying all the letters you need to move on to the alphabet - their correct sequence.

At the same time, when studying letters, it is better to name the sounds that they represent, and not how the letters are pronounced in the alphabet. This will make reading easier later on.

Secrets of fast and easy memorization

1. The lesson should not be too long so as not to tire the child. For a baby of 3-4 years old, 7-8 minutes is enough, for a 5-6-year-old - 10-15 minutes.
2. It is best to enter a new letter once every two days.
3. You need to do it regularly, do not take long breaks. However, if on some day the baby is not in the mood, it is better to reschedule the lesson, otherwise the negative emotions that have arisen may discourage the child's interest.
4. For each letter, it is desirable to find or come up with a quatrain, tell a tongue twister, sing a song, etc.
5. Each studied letter must be consolidated: in exercises, productive activities (drawing, modeling, designing from improvised materials).
6. Each lesson should begin with a repetition of the material covered so that the child does not forget the letters already learned.

Each letter studied must be well consolidated, including in productive activities.

Letter consolidation exercises

If you connect fantasy, an adult can come up with a lot of exercises to consolidate the studied letters. For example, you can use the following:

1. Show the child a card with several letters and offer to find a specific letter.

   On the proposed card, the preschooler must find and show the given letter

2. Similarly, pictures are offered (for example, animals or toys). The preschooler must name the one that begins with a given letter.
3. The kid must “fix” the letters - an adult draws them on paper without drawing a specific element for each.
4. On the street, you can lay out the given letters on the ground from leaves, pebbles, at home - from cereals, pasta, etc.

   On the instructions of the mother, the child can lay out letters on the ground from pebbles or leaves

5. Letters can be drawn on the surface of porridge, pancakes, using, for example, jam or condensed milk.
6. An adult with the help of pantomime depicts various letters (of course, this will not work with all of them, but, for example, with G, O, S, F, F, K, L, etc.). Then it is proposed to do the same to the baby.
7. Mom asks the child to find objects in the room with a certain letter.
8. The preschooler is invited to "revive" the letter: to give it human features (face, arms, legs, etc.).

   Mom offers the child to revive the given letters - to give them human features

Author's methods

When familiarizing a preschooler with letters, parents can use the author's methods:

1. M. Montessori, when getting acquainted with the alphabet, suggests using several analyzers at the same time: visual and auditory, tactile and motor. An adult shows the child a new letter, pronounces the sound that it stands for. The kid must certainly touch it with his hands, crush, twist. In the course of classes, the teacher recommends using letters of different textures, for example, rough ones (made of velvet paper). Also, the preschooler must draw them (for example, in the sand), circle, shade.

   The Montessori method, when introducing a child to letters, involves several analyzers at once - visual, auditory, tactile and motor

2. Elena Bakhtina, the author of educational cards, suggests memorizing a letter with the help of associations. For this, drawings, short stories, sound analogies are used. For example, a baby screams: “Aaaaa”, Yo and Yo are two sisters, the first of them has their eyes closed, and the other is open.
3. The methodology of Olga Soboleva is also based on associations. For each letter, an image (story) is created that will help to remember it. For example, the letter U loves to tease, says "Whoo!" everyone: snake, snail, duck, coal. In addition, games with lettering are also used.

   Each letter has its own mini-story to help you remember it.

4. The technique of Sergey Polyakov is clearly divided into lessons. First of all, the teacher suggests learning 10 vowels well. At the same time, they are offered in rhyming pairs: A - Z, O - E, U - Yu, Y - I, E - E (respectively, 5 lessons). You can prepare 10 cards: the first letter of each pair is indicated in red, the second in blue. After that comes the study of consonants. In just 18 lessons, the kid masters the entire alphabet, as well as reading warehouses.

The computer will help you learn letters

Of course, parents have heard a lot about the harmful effects of computers on the emerging child's psyche. However, using it correctly can help a preschooler learn the alphabet. After all, there are a number of developmental programs designed taking into account the age characteristics of children. Here are just some examples:

1. Azbuka Pro. Letters are hidden under the squares. When pressed, they open for a while, announce their name, and then disappear. The child must open pairs.

   The task of the child is to open pairs of identical letters

2. "Smeshariki: primer". The goal of the game is to collect letters from sticks located above the playing field. You can choose different difficulty levels.
3. "Primer-Smesharik". Together with the characters of the animated series Smeshariki, children travel across a magical land to find the lost letters.

   Together with the heroes of the animated series, the child must find the lost letters

4. "Luntik: the alphabet". The study of letters takes place in 4 stages. 1. The child clicks on the letters in the alphabet - Luntik calls the word that begins with a given letter. 2. Kuzya names letters - they need to be found in the alphabet. 3. Luntik shows pictures - you need to choose the letter with which the word begins. 4. There is a sequence of letters on the screen, the first and last ones are open - you need to place the missing letters.

   

When we learn letters with a baby, we often have various questions and doubts. Acquaintance with letters is an important stage in the development of the crumbs, because it is from them, while signs unfamiliar to him, that he will then learn to compose words, read, write the first word.

How to make the learning process simple, as interesting as possible, present information in a playful way and help the child remember important information, we will tell today in our material.

Learning letters: preparation for the process

To the question "at what age is it better to start learning letters" no clear answer , it all depends on the initiative of the parents and the individual readiness of the child.

Some mothers and fathers begin the process of learning the alphabet from 2-3 years old. At this age, the child seldom remember well such a large array of information, but he doesn’t need it yet, but some letters he can master and learn.

For example, A, B and C, the first letter of your name, become familiar and recognizable, K - if a cat lives with a child and C - when a four-legged dog friend is a full member of the family.

But overzealous it’s not worth it, at this age it’s not the number of letters learned that matters, but the ability of parents.

How to do this if the baby is still small enough? We have some rules .

Read to your child every day . Well, if there are a lot of children's books at home, the child will have favorite ones, he will be able to choose books to read.

While reading, sit next to your child so that he can see the text on the page. As in childhood, slide your finger along the lines , so it will be easier for the baby to remember and compare the spelling and sound of letters.

Don't hide books afraid that the child will tear or stain them. Buy children's editions with hard, cardboard pages - such copies are harder to damage by careless movement.

Carefully but firmly take books out of the hands of the little prankster if he decides to use them for other purposes. Tell and explain that they need to be read, they are our friends who tell a lot of interesting things.

Even if the child does not want to listen to fairy tales yet, let considers there are bright pictures in the books, flipping through the pages, studying the facial expressions of the characters.

To train memory and attention ask crumbs about what you read. At least in a few words, let the child tell who he learned about this time, try to retell the plot, reproduce the sequence of events.

In the case of an early start of education, parents should not forget that at the age of 2-3 years, the child hard enough to concentrate on something longer than 10-15 minutes, and they may also have difficulty if they need to learn several new letters at once.

Do you see that the baby begins to lose interest and get distracted? So, it's time to finish the lesson, even if you worked out for only 5-10 minutes.

You should not introduce a large number of letters at once - 2-3 per day is enough. It is not necessary to introduce them into everyday life strictly in alphabetical order, while this is absolutely not important to the child. Take for example some small understandable word, such as "ball", "meow", "nose", "house" or the name of the crumbs, and begin to master the sounds that make it up.

Best assistants - interest and motivation

Let's go back in time for a bit. Remember how you introduced your baby first lure ? Most parents start doing this when baby shows active interest to the contents of adult plates.

In learning the alphabet, we advise you to follow the same rule - no point in rushing learn all the letters as quickly as possible. The motto "five-year plan - in two months" is not the slogan that should be followed in this case.

Better wait for the moment when , and asks what the new book is called, what is written on the juice box, or how to read the name of his favorite toy store.

We play-study

How to make the process of learning letters interesting for a child? Unfortunately, there is no universal method.

Many parents, without further ado, give preference to alphabet books familiar from childhood , but there is more Several variants to which we would like to draw your attention.

Magnetic alphabet . Multi-colored letters on magnets can be attached to any metal surface: easel, refrigerator or dishes. The kid will be able to pick up each letter, feel it, place it in the company of others, experiment, creating combinations at its discretion. With the magnetic alphabet, you can not only create different words, but also develop the child's imagination - let him tell you what the letter Zh, L or D looks like. Do not forget about attention. For example, you learned the word "cup" with your child. Remove one of the letters, and let the kid say which one is missing, and then name the resulting word.

Cubes . The method by which our parents learned to read is still in force! It doesn't matter what the cubes are - wooden or plastic, the main thing is that there are enough of them to add at least a small word. Therefore, if you purchase a set, check whether it contains, for example, the letters A, P and M, so that you or the child can simultaneously add the words MOM and DAD. For those who are ready to start studying not only letters, but also syllables, and are also actively tuned in to reading, Zaitsev's Cubes will help.

Cards . Assorted letter card sets are usually sold in toy stores or bookstores. The task of parents is to choose a design that you like. But you can create such cards yourself, together with the baby, this is a great creative activity. Draw large any letter on a sheet from the sketchbook, select and stick next to small pictures depicting objects that begin with this letter. You can choose pictures from magazines, and if you don’t want to draw, type the letters on the computer and print. If you wish, you can make a whole primer with your own hands, decorating each leaf as you wish.

improvised materials . For those children and parents who love creativity, we advise you to move away from the usual pencils and paints, and write letters with chalk on the pavement, erasable felt-tip pens on the floor, a finger on the sand, jam on the table, a laser pointer in the dark on the wall. Sculpt letters from dough, plasticine, cut out from wood, create words from constructor cubes, lay out from caps, pasta, counting sticks, pebbles, leaves and cones.

Talking alphabet . Those people who came up with posters with the "Talking ABC" are really great, this is a very useful thing. By clicking on a particular letter, the child will hear how it is pronounced, and by answering questions in the "Exam" mode, he will be able to consolidate his knowledge in a playful way.

Mindfulness Test . Did you know that letters tend to hide? Yes Yes! And at the same time, they love being looked for. This is what we advise you to do with your child, armed with a red felt-tip pen and an unnecessary magazine with large letters. Announce who is hiding with us today, and forward - in search! With an older child, 5-7 years old, it is interesting to play such a game in a race. The main thing is that you have the same magazines that you will open on the same page. One, two, three - it's time!

Watch and sing . On the Internet, there are many short videos, cartoons and songs that will make it easier for the baby to memorize new letters. Letter learning apps available for iPad and iPhone . The task of parents: first, before showing the child, view and evaluate the video or task to your taste. It is important that it be interesting, positive, and also appropriate for his age and the level of development of the child.

letter hunting . You will need a stack of old magazines, glue, and scissors. The task is to find the letters in the magazine, cut them out and paste them into the album alphabetically . A more difficult version of this game is to find only uppercase or only lowercase letters. Level for connoisseurs who already know how to read - cut and paste whole words. You can play for speed or just for the correct execution of the task.

Any undertaking will surely succeed, provided that parents believe in the child .

We wish you success, and if you have your own, individual way, thanks to which your baby learned letters, share your experience with us in the comments to the article.

Stock up on love, patience, and start!

The kid should not be forced to learn the alphabet: you need to memorize letters gradually and with pleasure. Inventive moms and dads are constantly coming up with new ways to get kids interested in learning letters. We have found some of the most effective options.

1. Sculpt letters from plasticine / clay / other materials

A great way not only to memorize letters, but also to develop fine motor skills and imagination. You can give the child a template, for example, a piece of paper with a letter on it. Next, you need to ask the baby to mold what is shown in the picture.

Sculpting letters from plasticine can be practiced 2-3 times a week for 7-10 minutes. Do not make several letters at a time, one is enough.

2. Cut out letters from magazines or newspapers

Children are not at all interested in reading serious adult magazines, but cutting them up and down is a completely different matter. So take an old magazine, scissors and look for the right letter with your child. For example, cut out 5 letters "I" of different sizes and stick them on paper.

3. Bake letter cookies

Why not make delicious cookies in the form of letters? Ask your child to be your helper. You can cut out the letters yourself from the finished dough, or you can use special forms, which, by the way, even a child can handle.

Good cookie recipe:

Take 50 g of softened butter, 0.5 cups of sugar and 2 tsp. vanilla sugar, 1 chicken egg and beat thoroughly into a homogeneous mass. Add flour and baking powder. Knead the dough, wrap it with food oilcloth and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Cut out the letters and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes at a temperature of 160 degrees.

When it's time for dessert, start playing!

4. Finger writing on flour/starch

Writing with a felt-tip pen on plain paper is boring, but drawing on anything (flour / sand / starch / cream) is great! That's how little kids talk. So let them display the letters where they like.

5. Make letters from Lego

From Lego you can build not only towers, fortresses and castles, but also letters. At the same time, the child will train his imagination and fantasy, because it may not be so easy to assemble the letters.

6. Draw in the snow

When walking with your child, be sure to draw letters or words in the snow. You can give him a small stick in his hands and write letters with it, or you can ask him to “trample” the letter with his legs.

7. Hang and arrange letters around the house

While your child is growing, why not decorate the house with letters? If you look for beautiful letters (or make them yourself), then a very cool decorative element of the interior can come out of them. Your baby will constantly see these letters and remember them in a matter of days.

8. Play hide and seek with letters

Surely you have already bought a set with plastic or wooden letters to teach your child? Think about how you can use the letters in the game. For example, take 3 different letters and hide them in a room. Ask your child to find a specific letter. Find - hide again, and play until you get bored.

9. Lay out letters from improvised materials

Learn the alphabet anytime, anywhere! Give the kid an unusual material, and let him draw any letter. Buttons, cones, stones, beads, pasta, nuts can be used...

10. Show letters with your hands

Play a game: ask the child to draw letters with his hands, and you have to guess which symbol he means. Believe me, the baby will have to turn on his imagination at full capacity.

A few tips for young parents on how to learn the alphabet with their child:

• There is a lot of controversy at what age a child should start learning the alphabet. It all depends on the opinion of which psychologists you trust. Anyway, the optimal age is 3-4 years.

• Set aside 10-15 minutes each day (or every other day) for letter play.

• To quickly learn letters, you need to simultaneously teach the child to write the letters that he remembers.

• Be patient, you may repeat the same thing several times.

• The more varied the activities, the faster the child will learn the alphabet (so use all of the above methods).

• Once you have learned a few letters, start adding small words with them.

Good luck!

Teaching a child to read. The child does not want to learn letters. How to learn letters with a child. At what age should a child be "developed"? The problem of preparing a child for school. school maturity.

You know, you have to do something! - anxiously told me a plump, well-dressed lady, barely fit in a chair. Her legs in neat boats were tightly compressed (the skirt to the middle of the knee seemed a little short for such a monumental figure), her hands were folded on her knees. - She’s going to school that year, all her peers are already reading, but she doesn’t even want to learn letters. Can you imagine? Now is the time to enter a decent school, you need to take integrals ... We were examined - all the doctors said that everything was fine, development according to age. Here is the note on the card. Now they came to you, look, advise what we should do with it ...

A large, slightly sleepy-looking Zoya sat in an armchair and lazily straightened the frills on a very beautiful velvet dress. On her feet were exactly the same boats as her mother, only, of course, smaller. The legs hung completely motionless in the air, not reaching the carpet. Glancing at me and my mother from under her brows, Zoya suppressed a yawn.

Zoya, what do you like to do? I asked the girl.
“Play with dolls and watch cartoons,” Zoya responded in a bass voice.
- You see! - Mom tragically wrinkled an eyebrow.
- And what in this answer seems unnatural to you? - I was surprised. - For a girl of six years, completely normal addictions ...
But we must also think about the future! Mom screamed.
"So you think! - I wanted to snap back. - And don't fool the child's head!"

Naturally, I didn't. People came up with a problem. The problem must be solved. At least try.

What exactly does Zoya not want to do? I clarified.
- Never mind! - Mom exclaimed in her hearts, and immediately cut herself off, tried to be objective. - That is, she does everything that is necessary, around the house there, helps me, she can sweep, vacuum, set the table. Serve, bring - she never refuses, even when she plays or watches TV. But he doesn't want to do it at all! We already bought all sorts of books, and took a neighbor teacher as a tutor. So she refused. I, he says, take money from you, but there is no progress. Zoya just sleeps in class and can't hear me. I'm so uncomfortable. Imagine, since the age of three we have been learning letters and numbers, and she still confuses them. He draws well, paints even better, and if you ask him to name a color, he will say such a thing! They tried to solve problems with her on logical thinking, attention and everything else there - you know, now there are a lot of all sorts of benefits - so she sometimes solves, and sometimes she doesn’t seem to understand at all what they want from her. I gave these books to a friend, so her son is six months younger, and already resolved all these problems. I'm so offended!

It's a shame, I agreed. - Do you have one child?
- No, that's the point! - Again, the lady, who had calmed down and grieved, swayed again. - We have an older sister, Varyusha. She will be sixteen this year. So no problem! There are not enough stars from the sky, before school for a year and the first three classes I sat with her as if glued, but the results are visible. Never a single triple, she went to school - she knew how to read and write in block letters, she counted freely within ten. So when I refused to do it - I don’t remember this. On the contrary, she asked: come on, mommy, I’ll rewrite it again, otherwise it’s dirty here ...
- It's necessary! I was genuinely amazed. - And Zoya, she is completely different, right?
- Yes, yes, it’s different, - Zoya’s mother was delighted with the understanding. - And I want you to do something, that is, help me to make her ... - Then my mother became confused and fell silent, looking at me expectantly.

And I realized that now she believes that she has told enough, and is waiting for specific advice on how to make Zoya want and finally learn these unfortunate letters.

How the brain and mental functions of a preschool child develop

Preschool childhood (3 - 7 years) is an important period in a child's life. At this time, he discovers the world of human relations, various types of human activity. His own character is being formed. A child at this age strives for independence, but it is not yet available to him. From this contradiction, a role-playing game is born, which occupies a huge place in the life of a preschool child. In it, a child can pretend to be a pilot, a policeman, a doctor, that is, to experience something that cannot yet be experienced in reality. Somewhat later, games with rules appear, but for a long time they coexist with role-playing games.

If the child does not play role-playing games at all, parents should pay attention to this and, perhaps, somehow stimulate the development of the child's curiosity, his interest in the objective world. It seems to the author that among modern children there is a tendency to supplant role-playing games, although, perhaps, they are simply replaced by the virtual reality of the computer space, in which the child, again, can be a driver, pilot or killer fighter (although the author has not yet come across a computer a game in which one could be a cook, a doctor, or just mom and dad - the traditional characters of preschool girl "role-playing games". I wonder how this will affect the growing girls?).

In the period from birth to school, the brain and mental functions of the child develop especially intensively. A child is born with a structurally ready brain, but the functions of the brain are not fixed hereditarily, but develop in the process of the individual life of the child, as a result of the constant interaction of his body with the environment. Compared with the young of most animals, the child has a small supply of innate unconditioned reflexes. Conditioned reflexes can be developed in a newborn from the very first days of life on the basis of external stimuli. From this it follows that you can begin to "educate" a child from the day of his birth. At the same time, it must be remembered that in young children, excitation processes predominate over inhibition processes, and therefore inhibitory reflexes require a much larger number of repetitions ("You can't get out of the stroller!" - you need to repeat more times than - "Come on, run to Sister!").

In preschool childhood, a long and complex process of mastering speech begins and basically ends. The vocabulary grows, the grammatical structure of speech develops. It is in the preschool period that the child actively uses his word-creation abilities ("The driver rode in the cab, and the rest - in the cargo"). Perception in preschool age loses its original affective character, it becomes meaningful and purposeful, analyzing. Arbitrary actions are distinguished in it - observation, examination, search. Perception at this age is closely related to thinking, so they talk about visual-figurative thinking of preschoolers.

The main line of development of thinking is the transition from visual-effective (typical for very young children) to visual-figurative thinking. At the end of the preschool period, verbal thinking appears. Thinking in preschool age is objective and concrete. The main form of thinking is thinking by analogy ("I am small and my stick is small. I will grow up and my stick will grow too"). However, under favorable conditions, a preschooler can already reason logically correctly. In connection with the intensive development of speech, concepts are assimilated, there is a tendency to generalize, to establish connections. The latter is very important for the further development of the child's intellect.

Preschool childhood is the age most favorable for the development of memory. However, memory at this age has a number of specific features. In younger preschoolers, memory is involuntary. They do not set themselves the goal of remembering something, they cannot remember something of their own or someone else's choice. Between the ages of four and five, voluntary memory begins to form.

A little earlier, another important event related to memory occurs. Memory is included in the process of personality formation, that is, the child has memories.

At what age should a child be "developed"? How and why is it usually done?

In the last 5-7 years, in the big cities of Russia, the fashion for the "early development" of children has spread (the province is still sleeping in this regard, and rare "Varangians" do not change the situation in general - here the vast majority of children "develop" before entering school "in the old fashioned way, that is, running in the yard, looking at the TV and watching the life of the surrounding adults). What is this very "early development" and why is it needed?

Without going into too much detail, two distinct trends can be traced here.

The first is when the mother (much less often the father) develops the child herself, using various kinds of reference books and collections of tasks and exercises. Here, any system as a whole (for example, Nikitin or Zaitsev) can be adopted, or, much more often, there is a certain "compote" based on a more or less randomly acquired set of benefits. In quite exceptional cases, a mother concerned about the early development of the child does not use any benefits, but empirically draws up, as it were, her own, individual program, relying solely on her worldview characteristics and intuitive insights and taking into account (very rarely) the individual characteristics of the child. Parents who adhere to the above point of view, as a rule, begin to "develop" the child immediately after birth, literally from the first days of life. Such parents often keep detailed diaries of their child's "accomplishments", scrupulously compare his data with the average statistical indicators given in the literature, and persistently "work" in directions that seem problematic to them.

It is these children who become the objects of all kinds of experiments. From birth, they swim in baths with cold or slightly warm water, walk barefoot in the snow, lie on the floor on their stomachs for hours, surveying the world around them, or, conversely, up to two years, like little Africans, constantly with their mother, suspended for convenience in modern kangaroo models. It is for them, three months old, that all the furniture in the house is signed, it is with them that they speak two languages ​​at the same time, it is they who, with monkey dexterity, hang on all sorts of ingenious gymnastic apparatus for up to a year. The advice of doctors and traditional educators is usually skeptical of the parents of these children, and most mass educational systems are considered rigid and hopelessly outdated. But all sorts of our and foreign "novelties" arouse in them a burning and not always justified interest.

The second trend in the "development" of children looks much less radical at first glance. Here, the parents of the first two years of the child's life are limited to "reasoning on the topic", more or less carefully read the literature, as well as announcements on poles and front doors, and, in addition, collect all kinds of rumors about the surrounding "educational trainings". In the future (as a rule, this happens in the third or fourth year of a child's life), on the basis of the collected and carefully analyzed material, they make some kind of active movement and entrust the development of their child to specialists. Such parents are usually more cautious and prudent in nature than the parents of the first group, are more inclined to listen to advice and carefully follow all the recommendations of doctors and teachers, without even trying to "creatively process" them. They do not consider everything old to be bad, on the contrary, all ultra-modern programs cause them some, sometimes excessive, alertness, and in the future they prefer to send their children not to experimental schools, but to schools with "good, kind traditions", to a class that led by a young and experienced teacher.

Fashion, as you know, is an irrational concept, but still let's try to figure out why parents need (it is clear that 3-5-year-old children practically have no voice in this matter) this is the most "early development". Here are the most typical responses that I was able to collect while interviewing parents who pay a lot of attention to the development of their preschool children.

Elena Alexandrovna, 27 years old, nurse, daughter Anya, 4.5 years old:

Now is the time, without it it is impossible. To get into a good school, you must already be able to read and write. We grew up without it, of course, but now what is being done in ordinary schools! What? Well, you know yourself... So the sooner you start, the more chances... The chances of what? Well, go to a good school and continue ...

Alena, 23 years old, seller, son Igor, 2.5 years old:

They sing songs in English and rhythm there. Letters are still being taught. Let. He likes it, he runs, he rejoices. And I also have rest. I don't even know how to play with him. I'll build cubes there, into the ball - and that's it. And they figure it out, I guess. And useful later.

Irina Semyonovna, 38 years old, engineer, daughter Liza, 4 years old:

Liza was born weak, late child, caesarean section, and I was ill for a long time. So I just had to harden her, and do all sorts of exercises, and massages, and swimming. Yes, and in mental development, she was not so very. I worked hard with her, used all the techniques that I could get, and the result is obvious. So I went to the kindergarten, the teachers say: "Wow, what a developed girl!" And after all to her the neuropathologist put "mental retardation"!

Vera, 28 years old, teacher, sons Volodya and Kirill, 3 and 1.5 years old:

Yes, you know, it's just more fun for me. Well, I’m not just washing diapers, but some kind of purpose, meaning. At first I developed them according to Nikitin, and now I invent games myself. I'm still a teacher. And then here are my friends who are sitting with children, grumbling, bored, angry ... And I have fun with them, because I always come up with something. And the head is always loaded. We sometimes do this with them! The husband comes, at first he can’t understand anything, and then he also starts messing around with us ... This is happiness, am I right?

So, they develop a child who was born sick, weak or retarded in development. This is reasonable and expedient. The adaptive possibilities of a small child are very great, and the earlier the correctional program comes into effect, the greater the success will be.

A mother sitting at home with her children does not want to sour and sour, like her friends. She loads not only her hands, but also her brain, activates her creative abilities and professional skills and directs all this for the benefit of her sons. She, having two very small children in her arms, does not need sympathy at all. On the contrary, thanks to her work, the whole family lives a full-blooded life filled with fun and diversity. What can be said here? Just envy white envy.

A young woman who does not read books and does not have a special education sends her son to a "training school" because she herself does not know what to do with him, but wants him to be interesting and fun. She vaguely realizes that all this can also be somehow useful for him, but the main thing is positive emotions for her son and for herself, who receives a long-awaited rest from worries about a nimble and mischievous baby. We can say that, if there were no "educational training", Alena, realizing her responsibility, she herself could learn to play with her son. Maybe yes, maybe not. In any case, there seems to be no harm from singing songs and jumping to the music.

And finally, the last, which is also the first point - "it is impossible without this today." There is not a trace of Vera's creative fun or Alena's frivolous reasoning here. Only a severe debt brought to life by no less severe environmental requirements.

We consider this type of answers last, but it is this type that prevails quantitatively. With a huge margin from all other types.

It is pointless to talk about whether the competitive selection of children in the first grades of some schools is good or bad. If more children want to go to the school than it can accept, then the school simply has no other choice. It is difficult to judge which is more immoral or productive - a competition of children's mental abilities or a competition of parents' wallets. Moreover, in practice, as a rule, we are dealing with some kind of mixed options. That's it. Therefore, let us not shake the air with useless declarations and narrow the subject by posing the questions as follows.

Is it really necessary to send the child to the pre-school group as early as possible in order to enter a good school and successfully pass the test? And should all children aspire to these very good schools? The answer to both questions is negative. First, because for each type of skill there is its own optimal age for the start of training, usually closely related to the maturation of some mental functions and the start of using this skill. In addition, the well-known law of Lomonosov, the law of conservation of matter and energy, says: "If something is added somewhere, then somewhere something will certainly decrease."

If you start teaching a child to read at the age of two and complete this process at the age of five, then it is clear that you did this at the expense of the energy of forming some other functions and skills. Well, if your child is super-gifted and he has nowhere to put his energy, but what if everything is wrong? In addition, those who begin teaching a child to read at five and a half to six years old spend much less time and effort on this. A two-year-old child can be taught to read in three years, a six-year-old in three months. A two-year-old reading skill is useless; a six-year-old will go to school next year. What do you prefer? We will return to the answer to the second question below ...

How to develop a child so as not to harm him?

Having firmly decided that your child positively needs "early development", you should remember that there are a number of fairly simple rules and patterns that it is advisable to keep in mind.

Rule one.

For most somatic diseases and neurological conditions, there are very clear indications and contraindications, which you will be informed about at the appointment of the appropriate specialist. A healthy child may well dive into a bath of cold water, but for a child with chronic pyelonephritis or two previous otitis media, this is very dangerous. A child who has had dysbacteriosis, has functional disorders of the digestive system or food allergies, is unlikely to respond positively to bold diet experiments. And a child with a speech development disorder should hardly be taught English before he learns to speak Russian correctly.

Rule two.

Don't believe any advertisement! Experimenting on a small person who cannot give you adequate feedback and tell you about his feelings and experiences is simply immoral. If you decide to send your child to a preschool educational institution, be sure to talk with teachers and parents of children already attending this educational institution, ask permission to attend all (!) Types of classes. If you are denied, you do not need to prove anything to anyone. Just look for another tutorial.

No advertised remedies (including those to improve psychomotor development) should be given to young children, unless you have been recommended this remedy by a specialist whom you have known and trusted for a long time. If it was this remedy that helped one of the children of your acquaintances, this is not yet an indication for its use, since the reaction of children to all pharmacological preparations is purely individual and depends on many factors that only a doctor can figure out after reading a detailed history.

If you decide to adopt some kind of "early development" system, which, judging by the author's book, gives amazing results, try to find the followers of this system and first observe their work. It is likely that you misunderstood something in the book. It is likely that a system that is generally very valuable and progressive is not right for you or your child. And finally, it is possible that you are dealing with a not very professional, vain, overly enthusiastic author, or even just a charlatan.

Rule three.

Each child has its own individual characteristics in the pace and quality of mental and motor development. If we are talking about healthy children, then no "average" can be considered as an absolute. The category "all children at this age ..." in nine cases out of ten has absolutely no basis.

The early development of children quite often assumes the collectivity of this development and the category of comparison as the basis for assessing achievements. When it comes to the age of two to five years, this is fundamentally wrong. The indicator for the success of education should not be a comparison of the child's success with the capabilities of other children, but the child's own progress.

Petya and Vasya are the same age, both are 2 years 8 months old. Vasya came to the "training school" with a well-developed speech, already knowing the letters and being able to put them into simple syllables. Petya had difficulty speaking in two-word sentences. After a year of classes, Vasya confidently reads two-syllable words like "mother", "fish", "cat". Petya speaks well from pictures, knows letters, talks freely on any topic. According to generally accepted views, Vasya is still "ahead" of Petya in development, but Petya's successes this year are immeasurably more than Vasya's. And, by and large, it is not Petya's, but Vasya's parents who have reason to worry. Why did a boy who was so well-prepared at the time of entering the "training school" learn so little? After all, that's how rapidly Petya's age "grows" ... Maybe this program is not suitable for Vasya and you need to look for another preschool institution?

Rule four.

When the child is small, it is best to avoid anything radical. Raising a child is good, but don't overdo it. The world of a small child already daily presents him with miracles and discoveries that need to be assimilated, digested and "sorted out". The most intense analytical and synthetic work is constantly going on in the child's brain. To be successful, your child needs your help. And it is wrong to think that the category "ordinary" - "unusual" child perceives in the same way as we, adults. A visit to the Louvre is as attractive to a child as a visit to a train station, and Niagara Falls is no more interesting than a beaver dam in a river in a country house.

It is true that for the development of a child he needs experiences. But these impressions and experiences should hardly be extraordinary from an adult point of view. You can be as radical as you like in experiments on yourself, in an attempt to give freshness and sharpness to your own life. But don't involve your child in this.

The author is familiar with a now adult man who spoke about his childhood impressions. The father of this man, an avid tourist, decided to introduce his son to his hobby as early as possible, and took a four-five-year-old kid on long hiking trails. The child loved and respected his father very much, did not dare to object to him, and for many years dutifully, at the limit of his physical capabilities, dragged along the roads of the Soviet Union, looking at his feet and not noticing anything around him. The father-engineer received from this boundless physical tension the relief he needed after sedentary work. And the son? When in his student years we called him on a hike, he shuddered and shrugged his shoulders shiveringly ...

I had to observe the daughter of a married couple of "meditative artists", a three-year-old baby, who, when the temperature rose, cheerfully dived into a bath of ice water and deliberately refused meat and sausage. The girl had advanced chronic otitis media, her hearing was significantly reduced, and in order to talk to her, she almost had to scream ...

So, avoid everything radical, because the truth may not lie exactly in the middle, but very rarely is located on the edge ...

The problem of preparing a child for school. school maturity

School maturity is a level of development of the child's abilities and health at which the requirements of systematic education, workload, school life will not be excessively burdensome for the child and will not have a negative impact on his somatic and mental health. Determination of school maturity is necessary to establish the optimal age for starting school, develop an individual approach to learning, and timely identify possible deviations in the development of the child.

Usually, school maturity is determined six months to a year before the child enters school. Based on the results obtained, the child's parents receive advice on improving the child's health and correcting possible shortcomings and omissions in the development of the child and his preparation for schooling. A psychologist conducts a school maturity assessment.

It is believed that most children reach school maturity between the ages of six and seven. It is at this age that the child develops voluntary attention along with involuntary attention. By the senior preschool age, the duration of classes in the same activity increases by 2-2.5 times. By the end of the preschool period, along with visual-figurative thinking, verbal-logical or conceptual thinking begins to form (begins because fully verbal-logical thinking is formed only by adolescence).

Of the factors that can delay the onset of school maturity, the following should be mentioned:

a) the child was born prematurely or weakened and, despite the efforts of doctors and parents, still has not caught up with peers in psychomotor development;

b) the child was born full-term, but has some neurological diagnosis (neuropathy, neurosis, MMD);

c) the child suffers from a chronic somatic or psychosomatic disease, due to exacerbations of which he was often in hospitals, lying at home in bed (asthma, severe diathesis, diabetes, nephrological disorders, etc.);

d) the child is mentally and somatically healthy, but they have never been trained with him, he is pedagogically neglected, and the level of his current knowledge is completely inadequate for his calendar age.

To determine school maturity, a psychologist, as a rule, uses a standard set of methods to assess:

General awareness;
- level of perception;
- development of auditory and visual memory;
- development of thinking;
- psychosocial maturity;
- the level of mental performance.

The child's answers and the results of completing tasks are evaluated in points or other conventional units. Then the scores are summed up and compared with the average data obtained by experimental psychologists by studying a large and standardized sample of older preschool children. Usually there are three levels of school maturity.

A high level of school maturity means that the child is ready to study at any school (including an advanced level), and there are sufficient grounds to believe that with attention and adequate assistance from parents, he will successfully cope with any educational program offered to him.

The average level of school maturity means that the child is ready to study in the mass elementary school program. Studying at an advanced school can be difficult for him, and if parents still send him to such a school, then (at least at the beginning of education) they should provide their son (or daughter) with very significant assistance, carefully observe the daily routine, create for the child, a sparing atmosphere, as far as possible devoid of severe stress. Otherwise, overstrain and depletion of the adaptive mechanisms of the child's body may occur.

In itself, such a life - overstressed at school and a sparing environment in the family - is not good for the development and mental health of the child, and if the parents' ambitions are not excessively great, then it is better not to create such a situation. It is better to finish elementary school comfortably and well, to be tested again at the end of it, and if the child’s abilities really turn out to be significantly above average (the child failed to prove himself on the first test or there was significant progress in the development of the child’s abilities over the three years of elementary school), take an exam in some gymnasium.

The low level of school maturity means that mastering even a regular primary school program will present a significant difficulty for a child. If, despite this, a decision is made to go to school, then such a child needs special remedial classes to prepare for school. They can be carried out both by the psychologist who observes the child, and by the parents themselves, with the help of appropriate aids and in close contact with the psychologist.

As a rule, at a low level of school maturity, various functions of perception and thinking are developed unevenly. For example, with a good level of general awareness and psychosocial maturity, visual memory is very poor and voluntary attention is almost completely absent. Or - a good auditory memory (the child easily memorizes long verses) and very low mental performance. The psychologist will tell the parents which functions are most affected by their son (or daughter) and recommend appropriate exercises.

Very low level of school maturity. The psychologist usually gives a recommendation to postpone school entry for a year and devote this year to psycho-physiological hardening and elimination of shortcomings in the development of the child.

You can prepare a child for school on your own (with the help of parents, grandparents), you can rely on a preschool institution (if the child attends kindergarten), or you can send it to special groups to prepare for school. The best results are found, as a rule, by a combination of all three methods.

I would venture to suggest the following algorithm for the actions of parents in the pre-school year for their child.

1. If your child has not attended any pre-school institution before, be sure to send him to a kindergarten. Otherwise, when entering school, three types of stress will fall on your child at once: immunological (thirty children in a class is a minimum, and one and a half thousand in high school), social (a home child will have to try himself in all social roles, without any prior training. "Educational training" does not count, because everything happens there under the control of adults) and, finally, the actual training. It is very reasonable to experience the first two types of stress before the child goes to first grade.

2. Go to a psychologist and determine the level of school maturity of your (still six) child.

3. If the level turned out to be average, and you are going to a "yard" school in the microdistrict, then everything is in order.
It will be enough for you to follow at home the recommendations that the psychologist will give, and correctly orient the child to classes in preparation for school in kindergarten. If you "swing" at some school with a "bias", then the pre-school year for you is a year of intensive studies. It is you and it is this year that you need to send your child to a group for preparing for school. It is best if this is the same school in which you want to study. Your child is not too plastic, he will be more comfortable if he gets used to the school (and if you're lucky, then to the teacher) in advance. Carefully complete all homework, adapt the child's daily routine to school in advance. It is in this case that the separation of different types of stresses in time and space is simply vital. All at once, and even a special school in addition, your child simply can not stand it.

4. If the level of school maturity of your child turned out to be high or very high, then this is not a reason to rest on our laurels. A special school is quite affordable for you, but you should think carefully and weigh - where exactly to give it? It is necessary to proceed solely from the individual characteristics of the child and your family as a whole. How to take this into account will be discussed in the next section. A child with a high level of school maturity is best prepared for school in pre-school courses. But here you can already choose those courses about which it is known that they are interesting and they give good and solid knowledge. Such courses are not necessarily located in the school where the child is going to enroll. They can be in a club, in the House of Children's Creativity or in a special private preschool educational institution.

How to choose the right school?

The general strategic rule is very simple and seemingly obvious. But for some reason it is often not taken into account by parents.

It is in elementary school that the interest and positive attitude of the child to learning (or the lack of this interest and, accordingly, the negative attitude to school and learning in it) is determined. Children who studied well and with interest in elementary school, and then "moved out", are, unfortunately, quite common. But the children who would have studied poorly in elementary school and completely without interest, and then suddenly would have kindled a passionate love for school, have never met the author at all (and I have never even heard stories about such children). Therefore, the main rule: the school should be such that the child in primary school can study well, receive good grades and praise from the teacher and parents.

This is where you need to start in the first place. And everything else - then.

Think thrice before "pushing" a child with average abilities into a strong school. He will be tired there, nervous, lag behind his more capable peers, complex and often get sick. Is an enhanced math program and learning Spanish from first grade worth it?

For a child with a low level of school maturity, it is advisable to choose a school with a 1(4) program, that is, one where children study in primary school for 4 years. A slightly stretched program will allow your child to "ripen" and catch up with their peers by high school.

The most diverse problems confront parents of children with a high level of school maturity. The child is capable, something must be done, but what?

The main thing is not to chase fashion. A mathematical school "thunders" in the district, its students win international competitions, enter the university without exams. It's decided - let's go there! And your child does not like to solve problems at all. In the "tutorial" he most liked the classes in music and English. In his free time, he likes to look at pictures and read an encyclopedia about animals...

But a very strong school with an artistic bias. There are amazing circles of folk crafts, children themselves sculpt pots and weave carpets, paint dishes and caskets, along with a certificate they receive a specialty. Rather go there! But your child has difficulty drawing clumsy houses and cars that look like mushrooms, and does not like to do anything with his hands at all. He is a logician, composes amazing stories with famously twisted plot and dreams of becoming an investigator for especially important cases.

Start choosing a school with the individual characteristics of the child. Is the child an obvious "techie", collects and disassembles everything, sits for hours at the Lego constructor? Can't get him off the computer? Does he prefer logic games and is very fond of puzzles "for ingenuity"? It makes sense to think about math school.

Does the child love music and poetry, does he easily remember and retell his favorite books, compose sequels to them? He has a good, literary speech, his curiosity lies not in the plane of solving problems. Does he ask questions from the field of history, geography, biology, even philosophy? You can think of a humanitarian gymnasium.

Next, turn your attention to your family. If you decide to send your child to a language school, immediately think about the question: who will study with him? Mom taught German at school and at the institute, dad seemed to be English, but in a regular school and always had a solid three in it. So who will help the child? Indeed, in a language school, the program itself is designed for the constant and qualified assistance of parents. Looking for a tutor? Next question.

Soberly assess the well-being of your family. Here they offer a very prestigious paid class with in-depth study of a number of subjects. Very interesting. But can you pay? Can you even sell the last shirt? For a child, nothing is a pity! Have you thought about what it will be like for your child in this class, where half of the children of the "new Russians", where values ​​are cultivated from early childhood, maybe not bad in themselves, but absolutely alien to the mentality of your family?! Do you want a stranger in the house? Do you want your child to worry, feel sorry and despise you for not having a luxury car, for not being able to fly to Hawaii for a vacation ... Maybe look for something else, less "modern"?

And finally, the last. An elementary school (precisely primary, for a secondary school the situation is changing, because the child is getting older and stronger) should not be very far from home, a long ride on public transport is especially unacceptable. In this case, the child already comes to school tired, with hypoxia and high or low blood pressure, having inhaled gasoline vapors and viruses mixed with microbes. And this is repeated day after day, week after week, month after month... No "goodness" of the chosen school can redeem this situation.

But what about Zoya?

We worked with Zoya for a long time, almost for six months. The slow, phlegmatic girl really instantly "turned off", it was worth offering her at least some intellectual task, or even just showing her a "developing" book. According to the test results, it turned out that Zoya had absolutely all the functions of perception and thinking poorly developed. A sad picture, but I did not lose heart and did not let Zoya's mother lose heart. I had every reason to believe that Zoya did so badly on the test tasks because she simply did not want to cope with them.

At first we just played with her dolls. Zoya loved this business, here she showed both ingenuity, and creative thinking, and curiosity. All the functions that did not work well in testing in the game worked absolutely fine. Zoya remembered everything, laughed, prepared intricate dinners, composed some family stories on the model of Mexican soap operas. I basically played the role of an observer.

Then it was time for the dolls to go to school. Zoya sighed heavily, but under the pressure of irrefutable arguments on my part, she was forced to agree. I warned her that this would not be an ordinary school, but a school with a humorous twist. To begin with, the dolls hid the real primer, because they did not want to learn anything at all. Then Zoya and I made a primer from plasticine. The letters were made of plasticine and stuck to cardboard sheets. The primer turned out to be huge and it was no longer possible to hide it.

Homework in our laughter school was to bake letters from dough (the real primer we found served as a model). Zoya brought the ruddy dried letters to the next lesson and honestly admitted that there were not enough letters "u" and "s" (they fell apart) and the letter "v", which, due to a misunderstanding, was eaten by dad. After that, the dolls ate the letters, and Zoya, referring to the plasticine primer, almost unmistakably guessed which letter was missing. Soon the alphabet was eaten up, literally and figuratively. Mom rejoiced, but it was only the beginning of the work. Zoya had to be convinced that studying could be as interesting as playing.

The "educational" books, to which Zoya had a paradoxical reaction, had to be hidden in a closet, and the main action took place right in the doll's bedroom. The dolls traveled, baked triangular, round and square pies, looked for missing things and remembered how many there were and where they stood, wrote love notes to each other and sent telegrams, looked for patterns in encrypted messages from a mysterious country and recited to each other poems memorized by Zoya on puppet holidays...

Once, I told Zoya in plain text that the successes of the dolls led by her were already quite pulling to the average level of school maturity, and all this tediousness could well be ended. Zoya thought, and then a grimace of obvious distress appeared on her inactive face:
“I'm used to it,” she said. - That's even more interesting. This is how I play at home now. How now?

I assured the girl that all the fun is just beginning and when she goes to school, she will have many finds that she can always use in her doll world.

And now? Zoya scowled stubbornly.
“Now you can use the books,” I suggested. - Mom once bought you a lot of them, but then you didn’t know how to use them. And now you know. “Now I know,” Zoya confirmed. - But my mother says that the average level is not enough. She wants me to go to an English school. That means the dolls have to speak English, right?
“Probably,” I sighed. - But it’s up to mom herself ...

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We recommend to parents and teachers the best site in Runet with free educational games and exercises for children - games-for-kids.ru. In the special section of the site "Learning to read" you will find an online primer (alphabet), games with letters, games for learning to read syllables, games with words and whole sentences, texts for reading. Bright, colorful pictures, a playful presentation of the material will make classes on teaching reading to preschoolers not only useful, but also interesting.