160. What to Do When Your 5 Year Old is Reading and Writing

Melisa Nielsen at Waldorf Essentials receives this frequently asked question. 

"What to Do When Your 5 Year Old is Reading and Writing?"

This is rooted in many things:

- Parents getting excited and buying all the quick reading lessons in 100 sessions. 

- Pressure from family and friends "why aren't they reading yet?". 

- Fear of them entering school one day possibly and being behind. 

Try this:

- Get to know the Waldorf curriculum and how reading and writing progresses. What stage are they currently in?

- Don't pull their work away from them and say "no, no, no you're not old enough to read yet."

- Look at their work, listen to them but also encourage the aspects of the curriculum for where they are, like being physically active, the flute and handwork. 

Tips for helping your child at this stage:

- Let others know how to help them. For example if your child is in a Sunday school, let the teacher know they are not fully reading yet and to please not call on them to read aloud. 

- Let relatives and friends know "we think they can read, but we are following our curriculum to focus on the whole education, not just this one aspect of learning."

You can also find us on all podcast platforms "Waldorf Essentials"

Please share with your fellow parenting friends and homeschoolers. We are in this journey together. 

Have the homeschool and peaceful foundation of your dreams. 

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