Early reading programs for preschoolers

The 10 Best Online Reading Programs

The availability of online study materials has transformed not only how students learn in the classroom, but also the ways in which their parents can help them learn at home. Whether it’s teaching or reviewing the basics in the evening, or seeking out the best resources for homeschooling, online resources are a game changer in child literacy and instruction. Indeed, recent studies have shown that students who work on basic literacy skills at home, during the earliest years of their pre-school and elementary school education, are up to 56 percent more successful on standardized literacy tests during their late elementary school years and during middle school.

In fact, students whose parents played an active role in their literacy education were more likely to read at least 10 books per year and more likely to show high levels of comprehension and literacy in other subject areas, including mathematics. These results help to clarify the importance of working with young students on reading and comprehension from an early age, and there are many online tools available that make this process even easier and more exciting. The best tools have been ranked below.

Though there are hundreds of helpful resources online that encourage greater literacy in pre-school and elementary students, only ten were chosen for this ranking. These tools were selected based on a combination of factors. First and foremost, the tools chosen had to be developed either by a coalition of parents and teachers or by a group of teachers who work with real students on reading and literacy in their professional careers. Online reading programs were also chosen, and ranked, based on their affordability, their appeal to parents of homeschooled children, and their use of fully immersive web technologies that appeal directly to young learners. More immersive and interactive programs, like those with slide shows, videos, and interactive games, rank as some of the best and most productive resources today. This reality is reflected in their placement within the ranking.

10. ABCMouse Early Learning Academy

ABCMouse Early Learning Academy is widely regarded as one of the best online tools for early learners grasping the most basic concepts of reading and other subjects. Founded in 2010, the company was a leader in the immersive, web-based and app-based education boom at the beginning of the decade. In the nearly seven years since its founding, the company has focused on fully immersive experiences on an array of mobile devices, as well as an adaptive and immersive website that allows students to progress at their own pace through basic lessons in sight words, phonetics, and the letters of the alphabet.

As a bonus, a license for the company’s website portal, and all of its mobile apps is made available for free to virtually every public school, public library, and noted community organization. This wide accessibility makes the ABCMouse system widely accessible to both public schools and home schooling environments.

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9. CNK Digital

CNK Digital is a leader in making learning fun. Since first offering its gaming platform early in the present decade, CNK Digital has become a leader in game-based learning, with a variety of leveled games that work with students from pre-school through the beginning of middle school. The company’s games are fun, but also instructive, with lessons in phonics, sight words, the alphabet, sentence structure, and much more.

While fun to early learners, the CNK Digital service is also a robust analytical tool for teachers and parents. Every action taken in one of the company’s many literacy games records data about the student’s comprehension, including the lessons and games that they either struggled or excelled in the most. This allows teachers and parents to focus their efforts on critical weak points in their student’s literacy education, addressing major issues early on.

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8. StudyDog Reading

Designed based on core principles of the National Reading Panel and peer-reviewed research on childhood literacy, StudyDog is primarily an independent learning tool that encourages students to work on their own, with minimal parent or teacher supervision. The service incorporates several immersive games, videos, slideshows, and lessons from the “StudyDog” himself, to teach students the fundamentals of the alphabet, phonics, vocabulary, and even sentence structure, based on the student’s age and level of proficiency in core literacy concepts. The StudyDog approach is backed by scholarly research, as well as documented outcomes via standardized testing under the former No Child Left Behind Act, making it one of the most documented and reviewed approaches to reading education online.

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7. Book Adventure

Suitable for students in grades K-8, Book Adventure has a dual mission in the world of online reading education. First, the service is designed to help early learners master the basic concepts of reading comprehension and the principles of literacy. This is accomplished through a series of games and “adventures” that require input from students, corresponding with literacy lessons, to progress through the “adventure” and reach its conclusion.

Each adventure also promotes the company’s second mission: To encourage a lifelong passion for learning. The company’s mission statement notes that many people will only read if they are motivated to do so by an enjoyment of books and a commitment to literacy. Each “adventure” excites children about reading and books and gives them a new goal that will push them toward more independent reading outside the bounds of each lesson.

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6. Kız Phonics

Kiz Phonics draws a great deal of its instructional inspiration from programs like Hooked on Phonics, which was one of the first programs to emphasize phonics and phonetics in literacy education. With that being said, the program is also differentiated in several key ways. First and foremost, Kiz Phonics is developed by a 27-member panel of teachers who work daily in reading and language arts education. The program also has the support of several tenured professors of language from around the country.

The Kiz Phonics program, unlike Hooked on Phonics, is available entirely online or through mobile applications. Because the program was developed by people who teach English or ESL to young and adult learners, heavy emphasis is placed on the proper progression through fundamentals, like the alphabet, phonics, pronunciation, sentence structure, and reading techniques. Digital letter, word, and pronunciation charts are also available online and can be printed, making this a great instructional tool for a homeschooling environment as well.

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5. Mr. Nussbaum

Mr. Nussbaum is a real person with years of experience in childhood literacy education, and the MrNussbaum.com website is a testament to this. The approach taken by this unique online tool, appropriate for children in grades K-8 that combines lessons in reading and literacy with a zeal for research. The Nussbaum approach to literacy education strongly believes that students need to not only learn the basic principles of reading but also employ those principles in everyday tasks.

To that end, students will put their skills to use as they scour real scholarly materials, researching concepts and actively reading in pursuit of a final goal. It’s a practical approach that helps students connect theory with practice in a meaningful way for the rest of their lives.

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4. Hooked on Phonics for Early Learners

Dating back to 1987, Hooked on Phonics is both one of the oldest and one of the most successful programs for people of all ages who are learning to read. The program has historically focused on early learners, from preschool through the early middle school years, when developing most of its books, DVDs, and other materials. To that end, Hooked on Phonics today is the single most comprehensive tool for parents and teachers who are assisting early learners with phonetics and the most basic concepts of literacy.

Though Hooked on Phonics was started by a father who wanted to teach his son to read, the company has evolved over 30 years into one that involves both parents and teachers. Lessons are designed and revised by a panel of literacy experts, early childhood educators, and actual classroom teachers, in an effort to make them immersive, interactive, and fun. The company most recently turned its series of successful books and DVDs into an interactive web portal and a mobile app, giving students and parents a vast number of digital lessons on virtually every portable device. It remains one of the most highly effective teaching tools in early literacy.

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3. Headsprout Kids Reading Program

Part of the Learning A-Z family of learning tools, which has been providing at-home and in-school instruction to students since 2002, Headsprout is known for its adaptive approach to early childhood literacy. Unlike many of the company’s competitors, which apply a one-size-fits-all approach to learning basic phonetics and reading comprehension methods, Headsprout’s software uses an adaptive approach that responds to student answers. If the student needs more time on a concept, Headsprout detects this fact and acts accordingly. Likewise, the software can speed students through concepts that they already know or are grasping with ease.

Headsprout’s unique, adaptive approach to teaching reading has produced real results for students both in the home and at school. Furthermore, the company’s approach has been validated by peer-reviewed studies, published in many major journals of education, since the software first hit the market over a decade ago. The company’s consistent approach to student learning, and its use of algorithms and lesson adaptation, make it a great fit for independent study times and all levels of early learners.

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2. Reading Bear

There is one problem that has almost always stopped homeschoolers and budget-weary parents in their tracks: licensing fees for literacy programs. Many of the most popular literacy programs, even those offered primarily for home use, require steep subscription and licensing fees that can eat into family budgets. This makes it hard to review, or to teach, the most basic literacy and reading comprehension concepts with early learners. Reading Bear was founded to put a stop to this problem. All of its literacy and reading comprehension lessons are completely free for home use, making this tool the best option for parents on a tight budget.

Reading Bear, like many other tools, understands the importance of “leveling” its learning programs and providing numerous instructional options to parents. The free service offers its early childhood reading lessons in both video and slideshow formats. In addition, the service offers seven different levels of instruction for each lesson, ranging from a short “review” of the lesson’s concepts to a longer, fully immersive lesson for young learners who are either new to the concept or need more time to review before moving on. The ability to choose different instructional methods and levels, in addition to its free price tag, makes Reading Bear a top choice for parents who prefer flexibility and have a tight budget for instructional tools.

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1. K5 Learning for Reading

One of the things that originally made K5 Learning unique was its founding members: parents. When the company was founded, virtually all literacy tools were marketed exclusively to schools and sold on a “volume license basis,” making it nearly impossible for parents and homeschoolers to take advantage. The company’s original mission was to democratize this process, bringing high-end, highly effective phonics and literacy tools to early learners across the country, whether they were at home or at school.

In the two decades that have elapsed since the founding of K5 Learning, the company’s reading and basic literacy program has become one of the best options on the market for both schools and homes around the world. In fact, the K5 Learning program in reading was recently named the best such program in the country by a leading educational publication. The program is designed by a coalition of parents, ESL teachers, and literacy experts, along with early childhood educators who design interactive lessons compatible with Internet browsers and mobile devices. As a result, it easily tops the rankings for the best at-home literacy and reading program available to parents in the United States and around the world.

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The Best Learn to Read Programs 2022 ⋆ Advanced Moms

Children Learning Reading was created by Jim Yang, a teacher with over ten years of experience specializing in teaching kids to read.

At the time of publishing this article, over 78600 parents have successfully taught their kids to read fluently using Children Learning Reading.
This resounding success has even seen it featured on prominent parenting shows on tv.

One of the things we love is that it’s appropriate for kids of any age and reading level. So it doesn’t matter if your child is:

A young beginner reader
A struggling reader
A foreign language student learning to read English as a secondary language

This is mainly due to Children Learning Reading’s step-by-step approach to first building a crucial reading foundation in kids before moving on to more advanced lessons.
This reading foundation is mostly responsible for reading fluency, spelling, and comprehension. And you’ll often find that struggling readers lack this foundation, which is why they never catch up to their peers.

The lessons need just 10-15 minutes of your time every day, making it easily manageable even if you’re on an extremely tight and hectic schedule.

Below is a list of what’s inside Children Learning Reading:

Important Information for Parents

Giving you insight into the theory and proof behind why Children Learning Reading is so effective, based on authentic research and studies.
It also shows you how to keep your child engaged during lessons and get the most benefit from the program. Giving you the best possible chance of teaching your child to read effectively.

32 Step-By-Step Lessons

Easy to follow, systematic lessons giving you clear direction for teaching your child to read. With absolutely no confusion or guesswork on your part.

4 Lesson Videos

Showing you the Children Learning Reading program from start to finish in a real-life case study of Jim teaching his 2-year-old son to read. This is an excellent way to see exactly how to work through each lesson and a fantastic resource to reference should you ever feel stuck.

26 MP3 Audios

Demonstrating all the phonics letter sounds and examples of how to introduce and teach them to your child.

11 Phonics Games and Activities

Assists your child with their learning to read with engaging games and activities. These are also a great way of deepening your bond with your child by playing games and having fun with them.

Nursery Rhymes Book

A collection of 35 popular nursery rhymes to assist with learning and to have fun reading.

9 Short Lesson Stories

To reinforce the lessons and further develop reading proficiency.

Free Lifetime Updates

Always have access to the Children Learning Reading program and all new updates at no extra cost.

Scientifically Proven

Children Learning Reading is based on teaching your child to learn and master Phonemic Awareness and Synthetic Phonics.
Which are essential building blocks required for developing a solid reading foundation. As revealed by multiple studies from numerous sources provided by Jim. Ensuring you’re using the most effective method for teaching your child to read.

Solutions to Common Problems

Jim walks you through common problems children have when learning to read and practical advice and examples for you to use to effectively help your child overcome these problems.
Knowing what these problems are is incredibly reassuring for any parent as you encounter them. Rather than panicking, you’ll understand that these are problems most kids have, and you’ll be equipped to deal with them confidently.

Many learn to read programs fail to teach kids to read because they are simply passive tv shows and apps without measurable and meaningful progress. Whereas Children Learning Reading lets you actively teach your child this invaluable skill and allows you to spend more meaningful one on one-time bonding with your child.
So you can effectively monitor your child’s progress and ensure they’ve mastered a lesson before proceeding to the next.

You should see noticeable progress in your child’s reading ability in the first 8 weeks of implementing the program, as well as these additional benefits:

Accelerated reading fluency
Increased vocabulary, spelling, and reading comprehension
Positive attitude and more profound love for reading

And suppose your child is a struggling reader. In that case, you see them steadily catching up to their peers in reading ability, and more often than not, eventually overtaking them.

Rather than teaching children the ill-advised and ineffective method of memorizing word shapes (leading to children only guessing words and leading to one of the biggest causes of poor readers), Children Learning Reading ultimately teaches how the English language works when reading, and how to decode words.
And that’s just one of the reasons why it retains its spot as our #1 recommended offline reading program for kids.

For more information, please see our Children Learning Reading Review.

We’ve managed to secure a 69% discount for our readers who wish to purchase Children Learning Reading today.
To take advantage of this discounted one-time price, simply click on the button below, access the official Children Learning Reading program.

Teaching reading according to an effective method Zaytseva N.A.

The question of teaching reading at an early age in literate parents begins with the choice of an effective method. The less literate begin with the question: “ Why teach children to read before school, why take away a child's childhood? ". This article is devoted to the disclosure of this topic related to teaching reading at an early age.

To begin with, let's determine the position of the author of the article on this topic in order to look at the essence of the issue from the same angle as the reader.

First, it is possible and necessary to teach reading at an early age (before school) . Of course, childhood cannot be taken away; children need to be taught in the game, according to specially developed game methods. Human intelligence depends not only on heredity, but also on the active stimulation of mental activity during the formation of the brain, i.e. in the time interval from birth to six or seven years. Early reading is one of the best ways to stimulate this.

Secondly, to teach reading in Russian, the emphasis should be on domestic methods , since it is better than Russian, only another Russian can know Russian. Global methods of teaching reading are from the evil one. There is no universal method of teaching reading suitable for all languages. And what works for English doesn't work very well for Russian. If you dig even deeper, then there is no universal technique either. All children are different, and what works for one child does not mean that it will also work well for another.

Thirdly, teaching a child to read is best entrusted to a specialist , so as not to instill in your child, through negligence, an aversion to reading from an early age. After all, it is not enough just to teach reading, it is equally important to consolidate this skill and try to turn this process into an exciting and interesting activity, to teach you to enjoy reading. Otherwise, once having learned to read under pressure, your child, except for special school literature, will not take a single art book from the shelf.

So, we have dealt with the main theses, and if you agree with them, then our opinions on the issue of teaching reading generally coincide and you can continue reading further.

Why the article is called “Teaching reading according to the effective method of Zaitsev N.A.”, but because, of the modern domestic methods of teaching reading in Russian, it is the methodology of Academician Nikolai Aleksandrovich Zaitsev, a remarkable Soviet and Russian innovative teacher, that is the most holistic, flexible and efficient today. This is confirmed by hundreds of private children's early development centers throughout the country that have tested Zaitsev's methodology since its foundation, back in 90 years that still remain true to her.

There are many methods of teaching reading (we are talking about Russian), but there are few holistic methods, built into a logical system, with a large number of specially designed visual aids, handouts and methodological materials, a well-functioning system for teaching teachers to work with the methodology, few ... And if dig deeper according to the above parameters, then there is only one such technique - Nikolai Zaitsev.

More than 20 years of practical work with children according to Zaitsev's methods have confirmed its effectiveness in group work with young children in teaching reading, mathematics, developing intelligence and creative abilities. Zaitsev's technique is unique and original in itself. And although in the course of many years of practical application, many elements of the methodology were refined and rethought, it retained its essence - a warehouse method of teaching reading in a playful way, using special multi-colored cubes, tables and cards.

Practice shows that children studying according to the Zaitsev method begin to read literally after a few lessons. A characteristic feature of learning to read in this way is the absence of overload, weakening of vision and posture, which are so characteristic of most modern methods.

Classes are held in a playful and competitive form, with singing of educational materials (provided with audio recording), in motion, monotony, prolonged sitting of children and related stress are excluded.

You can see for yourself the effectiveness of Zaitsev's method by visiting several trial classes at the UmNyash children's center closest to your home. We will be glad to see you and your children at our classes in Moscow.

Early childhood development | Teaching children to read

Early childhood development and preschool education is the foundation of the education system.

Man, like many other mammals, begins to teach his children from the very moment they are born. The only difference is that animals pass on to their cubs the skills necessary for survival in nature, and a person, in addition, develops intelligence in his child - a necessary quality for a full and successful life in a human society.

For animals there is no question - how to teach their cubs, instinct tells them. It is not enough for a person to teach children only with the help of traditionally established methods. Progress in the development of human society is immeasurably faster than evolution in the animal world. If we teach our children only “the way we were taught, the way our grandfathers and great-grandfathers were taught”, if we do not stimulate the mental activity of the child from the very first days, when the physiological formation of the human brain begins, progress will be impossible.

The traditional argument of opponents of early development of children (I call them proponents of late development): “Why take away a child's childhood? They didn’t teach us anything like this before school, but, thank God, we lived our lives well.” Notice that they are still alive, and often they already talk about themselves in the past perfect tense: “have lived”, write off themselves ahead of schedule.

Meanwhile, whether they agree with this or not, the intellectual development of the child begins from the moment of his birth. And what is commonly called early child development is actually just normal development.

The initial stage of a child's development from birth to three or four years is educational games.

Even a newborn baby can be played with all his senses. Mom's touch already gives him pleasure; his still unformed vision already allows him to distinguish his mother's face when his mother breastfeeds him or when he leans over him; his sense of smell helps him find breasts; he gets used to the light and noises, and soon begins to respond to his mother's voice. Therefore, it is very important to talk to the child long before he begins to babble. If you find it difficult to find topics for constant conversations, just comment on all your actions, tell your child about everything that you do in his presence. At the same time, your baby learns to listen, begins to recognize the words that he often hears, long before he himself can pronounce them.

The older the child becomes, the more diverse the set of games with him should be. After all, a child left without attention begins to lag behind in its development. Well, when he is not alone in the family. Look at how kittens and puppies play, how goats butt heads, whose horns have not yet grown.

But if there is only one child in the family or this is the first child, the main partners in games are his parents. In any case, parents need to learn how to play with their baby. Games should give the child pleasure and, at the same time, help him master the world around him, contribute to his intellectual and physical development. Everything that pleases a child also develops him: when his mother touches his fingers, and when he gives him a massage, and when he picks up a toy thrown by him over and over again, and when his brother carries him across the floor in a shoe box, and when dad throws it up or wears it on his shoulders. But playing with a child does not mean just tickling him and watching with delight how he chokes with laughter. Do not make your child a toy for yourself.

Now there are a great many educational games, it is impossible to cover them all. Parents need to work hard to find in literature, on the Internet, in children's stores what they like and what will contribute to the comprehensive development of their child. In this they can be helped in children's consultations, in good schools for early development. If necessary, experts will help you choose the appropriate games for each month, for each week of the child’s development, they will tell you when to hang a rattle over him, when to put a duck in the bath, when to start showing bright pictures, and when to start reading poems and fairy tales to him, when to start drawing fingers, and when - with felt-tip pens, when to sort toys by shape and color, when to build towers from cubes. This is not only games, but also the creation of a developing environment.

A child at this age should not be left to himself, he should play under the guidance of adults. Up to one and a half to two years, it is not necessary to take the child to classes in early development schools. Mom can visit them without a child if she wants to learn how to play with him at home. And after two years, it is advisable to take children to one of these schools, and then to a good kindergarten. After all, a child from an early age needs socialization in a team. He will learn to communicate there, make friends, defend his interests or give in, participate in collective games with elements of competitiveness. He should not grow up “with dad and mom in plain sight, like a mimosa plant in a botanical garden” (Sergey Mikhalkov).

And home activities with babies (if it can be called activities) are a variety of games a child plays with his mother for several minutes from time to time during the day. This is pouring water, and pouring sand, and folding pyramids and Montessori frames, and drawing patterns from Nikitin cubes, and looking at pictures in books, and at first even tearing these books, and memorizing rhymes, and mother's reading fairy tales, and much, much more . In a word, the child needs to be developed from birth.

Such children are not only more developed (and this is the foundation for life), but also brought up: by the age of three they have already developed the ability to concentrate on some activity or game. A developed child consciously perceives the norms of behavior and by the age of four already obeys adults, which is mandatory for this age. After all, he cannot yet foresee the consequences of his actions and, of his own free will, will always choose to receive the greatest pleasure with the least expenditure of effort. It `s naturally. And as a result, the child who commands the older members of the family will gradually lag behind in development.

At the same time, overzealous parents should be warned: do not overdo your obsession with children. Parents should not devote all their time to children, they should go about their business, live their own lives, and give children the opportunity to play pranks, frolic, and play on their own. When a mother or father plunges headlong into parental care, the children develop and firmly entrenched the erroneous idea of their own importance, that their opinion should be the law. And since this also brings up helplessness in children, over time it turns into constant parental care and harassment with unnecessary advice to already grown daughters and sons.

Closer to the third birthday, many parents begin to worry about the question: “Are we wasting time, isn’t it time to teach him to read, count, write?” You can often hear from them: “After all, according to the method of Glenn Doman, children are taught to read from the cradle. Yes, and Masara Ibuku wrote: "After 3 it's too late."

It must be understood that Glenn Doman's method is valuable not because it allows you to teach a child to read in infancy (he will still begin to read meaningfully only by the age of four, even using this method), but because it develops him from the first months of life memory, forms the basis of intellect.

What about Masara Ibuku's warning then? Read his book carefully. Masara Ibuku did not at all believe that by the age of three a child should be able to read. He spoke about the need for comprehensive development and aesthetic education of children at an early age.

Preschool education

So at what age is it better to start teaching a preschooler to read, count, write? It depends, first of all, on the parents themselves, on whether they put effort into the development of their own child or simply brought him to a preparatory school and said: "You are the teachers, you teach. "

If they have already taught their child to enthusiastically engage in some one thing for at least 15-20 minutes: listen to a fairy tale, put together puzzles, draw, sculpt, then they can already begin to teach them to read, count, prepare their hand for writing. But this should be done exclusively in a playful way, first at home, and then in a small group of children like him, but in no case according to school methods and not at a desk. And the study of letters, and learning to read, and oral counting, and music lessons - all this should be tried to make an exciting game for the child.

No one asks at what age you can start teaching a child to speak. It is necessary to teach a child when he shows interest in the subject of education, and not after this interest has faded from him.

Preschools, or preschools, must have small groups of three to five children. It is enough to spend lessons in them twice a week for two to three hours, and on other days - classes of interest: someone has drawing, someone has embroidery, someone has modeling, someone has dancing, and all sports. At first, the presence of parents is desirable at the lessons. Such education will not take away a child's childhood, it will enrich his childhood.

When teaching preschool children, one should not forget about their health. Most of the lessons should be carried out, if possible, on the move, and seated at the table only when necessary: in drawing lessons, modeling, needlework, etc. But it is worth doing this only if immediately after that you begin to teach your child to read. Any knowledge must immediately find its practical application, otherwise it is forgotten. And the study of letters in itself, without learning to read, does not make sense. There are many other equally effective ways to develop a child's memory and stimulate his brain.

It is also not necessary to artificially postpone the beginning of education to five or six years, as some teachers advise. These teachers simply make their work easier, because it is easier to teach a five-year-old and a six-year-old child. But if you want your child to read a hundred or two children's books by the age of five and have time to reveal all his natural abilities, start teaching him early. Do not forget that human intelligence depends not only on heredity, but also on the active stimulation of mental activity during the formation of the brain, i.e. from birth to six or seven years of age. And that this intellect, acquired at an early age, remains with him for life.

In connection with this, I have heard the following opinion of supporters of late development: “What does early education give children? Well, suppose the child grows up smart, but will he be happy? According to their logic, only narrow-minded people with no higher than average intelligence are happy. In Ukraine, they say about such happy people: "Radenki, scho ugly."

Of course, a high intellect instilled in childhood is not in itself a guarantee of a happy life. Both the education of character and the reasonable love of loved ones are important. If a child is caressed, does not know refusal in anything even after three years, is demanding, capricious, pampered, does not fulfill his feasible duties in the family, he will have a hard time in his adult life.

High intelligence can neither guarantee nor hinder happiness. But it makes a person's life interesting, rich, exciting, diverse, opens up opportunities for creative and career growth. A talented person is interesting to others, his children imitate him. He is not content with little, he takes everything from life and gives his whole life to life. This is life on a different, higher level. And already now you can look into the future of your child, predict what he will become. Of course, he will choose his own path. But how he will go through it depends largely on you, on how you bring him up.

Early education develops the child in all respects: it teaches you to work, builds character, develops intelligence and other qualities useful for life. I remember one example of such ingenuity of a four-year-old kid. I show the children who are just starting to read animal cards and read their names. Then I show them the reverse side of the cards, on which there are no drawings, but only these names are written, and I say: “Whoever is the first to say which animal’s name is written on the card, I’ll give this drawing a circle.” The boy Yura declares: "And I want to draw goats." “If you guess where it says “goats”, you will get “goats”. And if you don’t guess, I’ll give it to someone else,” I say. And Yura immediately realized: “And I will call everyone goats in a row until I get goats.” This boy will never be lost.

Many people ask: "Is it necessary to force a child to read or do something else if he doesn't want to?" There is no need to force it if the child is accustomed from the earliest years to perform feasible tasks that do not exceed his capabilities at each stage of development. This is where parents need to be patient. You can't get irritated if your child doesn't succeed. The child feels your displeasure and begins to be afraid to make a mistake. Being irritated, you only achieve the opposite result. Do not worry if other children learn something faster than your child, and do not try to put pressure on him in this case. By doing this, you can discourage him from a keen interest in learning-play. Let everything go on as usual, and if you yourself do not forget to give your child at least a few minutes a day, in the end he will please you with his successes, and you will be proud of him and yourself. Well, if at an early age your parents did not pay enough attention to the child, then you have to apply firmness to catch up.

And another common argument of supporters of late development: “What will he do at school if he knows everything before school?” In this they are probably right. Such a problem does exist. In the primary grades, students with advanced development often go unnoticed by the teacher, who simply has to deal with twenty or thirty less prepared children in the class in order to bring them closer to the required level. And well-prepared children spend their first years at school partly in vain, and if their parents do not provide them with an additional load (sports, music, foreign languages, etc.), they can wean themselves from work, acquire the habit of being lazy, and even lose interest in learning .

Is there a way out of this situation? Yes, there is, and further I will talk about how I imagine it.

Continuing education

Children with advance development should not be scattered one by one in different schools and classes. It is necessary to form separate classes from them, or better, schools with curricula specially designed for them and short deadlines for their development. They will not need to be taught reading, elementary mathematics. They will know most of the program of the first and second grades already upon admission. And such developed children will master the programs of subsequent classes much faster. 7-8 years would be enough for them to master the volume of knowledge of a secondary school, but no matter how gifted they are, it is undesirable to graduate from school before the age of 16-17, since the system of post-school education is not yet designed for teaching teenagers.

But we must not allow such children to have a lot of empty idle time, which is harmful to the psychology of a maturing person. Therefore, they will need to be trained in special advanced programs that provide for a deeper study of subjects, extracurricular reading in literature, history, geography, teaching a number of subjects in foreign languages, studying computer science, the basics of programming, understanding the basics of professions at the choice of students in high school, more hours for physical culture and sports.

And in the future, all three categories of schools: early development, preschool education and school education, should be combined into unified educational complexes of the continuing education system . What can such a union give? Unified educational complexes will ensure a continuous learning process at all three stages of education : from birth to 16 years.

The initial stage of education in educational complexes

Some people may be outraged by the words “learning process from birth”. Perhaps I have not found a more precise definition of the initial stage of education. Of course, this is what I already mentioned above. Initially, these are consultations of parents on child care, on creating a developing environment for his physical and mental development from the first days of life. And from the age of two, a mother can already take her child to an early development school, where children play under the guidance of a teacher, and parents are given recommendations on how to develop a child at home.

The second stage of education in educational complexes - pre-school education

The next stage, pre-school education, should start at the age of three or four. In pre-school educational institutions, otherwise, preparatory schools of this continuing education system, all children who have successfully passed the first stage of preparation in early development schools or have reached the same level with the help of their parents can be enrolled.

As I mentioned above, classes in such schools should be conducted exclusively in the form of a game. For them, it is necessary to develop and master special methods that take into account the age characteristics of children and are intended for conducting classes in a playful way.

Today, preschoolers are often taught either simply according to the school curriculum, they only start a year or two before school, or they use inefficient teaching methods, spending many months just learning letters.

Someone may object to me: “Don't we do early development of children? After all, there are public and private schools for early development, preparatory schools, preparatory groups in kindergartens. The biggest problem in this area, as in all work with children, is the lack of consistency. In families, parents develop kids, who knows how. You can find good methods in the literature, there are manuals for sale, but few people navigate this sea of \u200b\u200binformation and advertising. There is no ubiquitous network of courses for parents. Not all kindergartens have compulsory reading instruction, they say, it is impossible to overload the kids. In reality, there are simply not enough staff. And where they teach, in separate kindergartens, in the preparatory classes of schools and gymnasiums, they often do not know how to do this, they study with them according to the first grade program, fill the kids' heads with school terms, instead of teaching them to read books.

Creation of educational complexes of continuous education system is designed to systematize and qualitatively improve preschool education and development of children. After such preschool training, children will be transferred, as they say, "from hand to hand" in the primary grades of secondary school - the third stage of educational complexes. At the same time, opportunities for the development of the child in early childhood, which cannot be made up for by any subsequent education, will not be irretrievably missed.

The final stage of education in educational complexes - schooling

Children at the age of six who have completed the first two stages of the continuing education system will be significantly ahead of their unprepared peers who are just beginning to learn letters and numbers in their intellectual and physical development. For their education in educational complexes, it will be necessary to develop special in-depth programs, as I have already mentioned above, as well as to select and train teaching staff.

In the process of learning under these programs, year after year, children will not only learn a volume of knowledge that exceeds what is required in a modern school, but also acquire the ability for further learning and self-learning. These will be plants for "cultivating" gifted and talented people. This is how I imagine a continuous education system in the future, I hope, in the near future. But even now it is possible to create pilot educational complexes of this type, bringing together educational institutions of different levels, and then disseminate this experience so that, over time, education in them becomes mandatory.

Early development and preschool education of children is the key to the further development of civilization

In many countries, including Russia and Ukraine, there are targeted programs to find and support gifted youth. But, speaking about the search for talented young people, we kind of mean that this talent was given to them by nature at birth, and our task is only to discover and support it. Meanwhile, it has long been recognized that human intelligence depends not only on heredity, but also on the active stimulation of mental activity during the period of brain formation, i.e. from birth to six or seven years of age. After all, all further education, to which the main attention is now being paid and for which the main budget expenditures are allocated, takes place on the basis of the mental apparatus that has almost completely formed by the age of six. It was not for nothing that Leo Tolstoy, already at an advanced age, noticed that from his seven-year-old to his current one - one step, and from his newborn to his seven-year-old - an eternity.

Without discarding the factor of innate ability, one cannot rely only on it and passively expect the appearance of geniuses without being engaged in the early development of children. Natural inclinations are just grain. For it to sprout, favorable conditions are needed. Such conditions must be created purposefully, and not just wait for them to develop by themselves somewhere for someone.

Undoubtedly, the search for talented children is an urgent task of today. This work is already underway. These children cannot be lost, missed. But a more global goal of the state should be the cultivation of a talented generation. This is a fundamentally different job. In comparison, it's like growing berries in plantations instead of looking for them in the forest.

A qualitative leap took place in the history of mankind, when our ancestors millennia ago switched from collective farming (gathering plants, catching game) to producing farming (agriculture, cattle breeding). The search for talented young people is a typically collective way of managing in this area, and the cultivation of talents in a continuing education system is a typically productive way. And when talented youth will not only be found, but also cultivated, humanity will expect an even more significant qualitative leap, one might say, a breakthrough in the development of civilization. And it will be headed by those countries whose leaders will be the first to implement a nationwide program for creating a talented generation.

In recent years, the importance of early childhood education has been recognized at the national and even international levels. In September 2010, Moscow hosted the First UNESCO World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education. Ministers of education from 50 countries took part in it.

In Ukraine, the Minister of Education and Science considers pre-school education to be the basis of the entire education system and takes measures to develop it. In Canada, there are uniform standards for teaching children to read, starting at the age of four, implemented in the program "From Level A to Level Z", each level of which is provided with appropriate literature in all preschool and school libraries.