Hellobee Boards

My five year old LOVES doing workbooks! She has a blast. We started doing them when she was 4.5 years old, and she really enjoyed it. I also think she learns a lot. If she starts getting frustrated with it, we stop immediately. I want learning to fun and exciting right now, so the second she gets frustrated we just stop.

As a teacher, I don't plan on doing workbooks with my LO's. They learn much more from authentic experiential lessons than from worksheets. It's not going to hurt them, but it won't help either. Cooking together, doing science experiments, reading, etc., is what I plan to do.

I would recommend googling / searching on Pinterest for "tot school." There are a lot of ideas that are kind of like "homeschool lite" for toddlers/preschoolers. Now that I am going to be SAH with my 2 year old and she is not going to daycare, I am hoping to do a couple activities with her per week.

I agree with @T.H.O.U.: that kids typically learn better through more experiential/sensory activities than worksheets, especially at this age. The Internet is FULL of themes and activity ideas! I know @photojane also did "letter of the week" crafts & activities with her LO starting at 18 months. I'm hoping to follow LO's interests (like she is really into trains right now) as well as the seasons (so pumpkins, leaves, etc. in the fall for example) with the activities we do. Without being overtly about "learning" they can learn a lot. For example, you can learn that pumpkins are orange by painting with orange paint and talk about what else is orange. Or you can do a transfer activity with mini pumpkin toys and they can count the pumpkins.

I don't think it's necessarily too young, considering your LO likes them, but I personally wouldn't make it a super regular thing. I think it'd be more meaningful to learn letters/worksheet material in other ways (shaving cream writing, form letters with play doh, etc). I taught K for a bit and while I think the discipline involved in sitting through a worksheet, along with developing penmanship, etc is impt, I think the content can be presented in experiential/tactile ways

Our daycare center has an optional (pay more $) in which the kids are pulled out to do worksheets in small 1:2 settings with floater teachers. I think it's for the kids in the 3-4 year old classes (my LO is 2 and not eligible yet). The lead teachers are not so into it bc they think play is most impt and that it is disruptive to pull kids out (plus it brings up the issue of who can afford the extra fun class), but the classes are full so it's clear parents still want some worksheet based academic time.. To each their own!