Guest post by Christie of Childhood 101

Just recently my five year old daughter could not attend the swimming lessons that were part of her school program due to a nasty head wound. As she was so disappointed to be missing out on swimming, I wanted to be sure that we did something fun during the two extra hours a day we would have together, while also making the most of the time she would be away from school – being engaged, productive and learning together.

She had recently expressed a renewed interest in frogs, playing often with a collection of small frog figurines.  With the idea of using a short project-based approach to learning, I decided to make the most of her engagement and curiosity to set her a challenge – to create a home (habitat) for her frogs. As well as being good fun, the project process provided me with valuable time with my daughter (something I have missed since she started full time school) and although I set the challenge and acted as a prop manager and guide, it was very child directed – allowing her to take ownership of her learning, though to be honest she was having so much fun that I am pretty sure she didn’t even realise she was learning! The steps shared below were spread out over the course of one week.

1. Brainstorm: On the first day we headed off to our local library to find some books to fuel our research. On the way we talked about what my daughter already knew about frogs and their habitat and any questions she had that we might be able to find answers for. A simple brainstorm at the commencement of a project provides you with valuable insight into a child’s prior understanding of a topic, and their questions – “Do frogs live in salt water?” – and even their misunderstandings can provide a useful springboard for guiding the direction the project takes.

2. Research: As well as choosing some non-fiction books about frogs from the children’s collection at our library, I showed Immy an age-appropriate video from You-Tube about the habitat and life-cycle of frogs. Magazines, audio recordings, field trips, pictures and infographics are all useful research tools for use with young children – just be sure to vet the information first. As we conducted our research (investigation) we looked for clues as to what we would need to include in our habitat.

3. Plan: As we talked about what would need in our frog pond, Immy suggested we make a list. She has been learning about the sounds letters make and letter formation at school this term so as well as being a great tool for keeping us on task as we collected materials and got into constructing, I knew a list would provide a meaningful way of reinforcing her letter-sound learning. We sounded out the words together, with her writing the letters that she already knew and my assistance with those she wasn’t sure of. I used a highlighter pen which provided her with the option of tracing over my letters should she wish to.

4. Collect: The next step involved lots of problem solving and decision making as together we decided on materials to use to represent each feature of the habitat. We went on a walk to collect sticks, rocks and leaves, cooked playdough together and gathered other creative materials such as plasticine, buttons (which we had thought to use for the frogspawn but didn’t end up using) and fairy stones (for my five year old daughter, fairy stones have a place in everything!)

5. Create: Once all of our materials were ready Immy got to work constructing the habitat. We talked as she worked but I stayed hands off unless I was asked to help with a particular task. Her completed frog pond (which somehow I did not get a photo of!) included;

• Playdough to represent water and sand
• Rocks, leaves (as lilypads) and sticks
• Blue/green fairy stones to represent algae for the tadpoles to eat
• Plasticine tadpoles and frog spawn (shown above)
• Plastic frog figurines

Without a doubt, the greatest outcome of this project was the extended imaginative play that resulted following the construction of the frog pond. It provided the perfect opportunity for Immy to meaningfully reinforce her newfound knowledge about the frog lifecycle, behaviour and habitat.

What suggestions do you have for make the most of your child’s curiosity to extend their interests?

Christie Burnett is the mum of two very busy, little girls and a qualified early childhood teacher with many years experience working with children in kindergarten, early elementary school and day care. Eagerly awaiting the launch of her first book, Time to Create, Christie now works as a freelance writer and blogger, sharing her parenting adventures and passion for early childhood education on her award winning blog, Childhood 101.

Guest Post by Charity Hawkins, author of The Homeschool Experiement: a novel

Read Part 1 of this series here.  

In the last post I talked about a workable daily routine for homeschooling preschoolers. In this post I want to delve into the specifics. Here’s how those activities teach your child.

LIFE SKILLS / CHARACTER

I messed up with my first child. I didn’t have a great routine; I basically let him eat whenever he wanted, have terrible sleep habits, and call the shots for what we did a lot of the time. I’ve wised up.

You want to help your child establish good habits, with the parents as the authorities. With my first son we spent the first six-months of kindergarten (okay, fine, the whole year) just getting him to obey with a good attitude.  Help preschoolers cultivate an attitude of cheerfully helping and obeying.

These Little Jewel Books are super cheap ($3 each) and do a good job of reinforcing the idea of being a cheerful helper at home.  My favorites are: Just Four, Molly Helps Mother, Helping Mother, A Boy to Help .

Helping make rolls: fine motor, counting, sensory activity. Tie optional.

Regular social interaction with other children is helpful. My three-year-old learns manners and sharing at home with his brother and sister, but he also gets practice at Sunday School, Awana Cubbies, and a homeschool co-op we go to one morning a week. When I had two preschoolers, they attended a Mother’s Day Out type program. I don’t think it was necessary for their academic or social development, but it was pretty helpful for my sanity. My guess is that your child is around other children in some form, whether at church or soccer class or with friends, but if not and you think that is needed, then there are lots of good one-day-a-week programs or classes.

ACADEMICS

 My three-year-old might get an hour of reading plus an hour of other “academic” activities spread out through a normal day. The rest of his time is spent on playing, helping, joining in with whatever is going on in the house, nap, baths, meals, etc.

puzzles – fine motor, spatial, pre-reading

1.     PRE-READING – There are so many excellent picture books out there. I read to my three-year-old son one or two books in the morning and again before his nap. Sometimes he gets a few while the older two are working on their school. My husband reads him two books at bedtime. If you need ideas on wonderful picture books for these ages, I’d recommend Five in a Row books or the Sonlight books. I personally don’t mess with chapter books (with no pictures) until age five or so. There are so many wonderful picture books with rich vocabulary, Beatrix Potter for instance, that there’s no need to jump to chapter books yet.

Even more than actual books though, talking with preschoolers and telling them stories can prepare them for language. I talk to my three-year-old about what we’re doing, ask him to follow simple instructions, and listen to his silly stories. Talking naturally falls into your day whatever you’re doing; you don’t have to schedule that. If we’re waiting at a restaurant, for example, instead of looking to an app for entertainment, we can play iSpy, make up stories about the silverware, or color. The other day while he got a haircut (and was decidedly unhappy about it), I held him and told him a “Three Bears Story.” This is our standard story, but I have the baby bear do whatever he’s doing that day.  Nursery rhymes, songs and finger plays at the library all teach rhyming and language.

Lots of excellent books

Before the brain can do the eye-tracking necessary for reading, it has to have mastered large-motor and fine-motor skills. So just as important for reading as actual books is that your preschooler uses his muscles a lot. Pushing the laundry basket down the hall is working his large muscle groups. Throwing clothes into the washing machine crosses the mid-line of his body, which helps establish those cross-lateral connections in the brain that are so important for later learning. (See Healy’s book for more on this.) Jumping outside is good. Climbing jungle gyms. Swimming. Gymnastics. Running in circles. Whacking at baseballs. All that energy they have? Great! It’s God’s way to help their bodies do what they need. It IS school.

For the actual ABCs, with my three-year-old I use a couple of puzzles (also good for math and handwriting skills) and we talk about the letters. I relate each of them someone’s name, like “M. for Mommy!” or “oh, that’s a D. That says ‘Duh’ for Daddy.” I also have been giving him a printout letter to color from this site but mostly to keep him busy while I do school with his brother and sister.  He has improved a lot. About a month ago he’d scribble and be done in thirty seconds. Now he is at least attempting to color and working two to three minutes, so that’s quite the increase in attention span, right? That’s very normal at this age.  (Many girls might sit and color for 20 minutes though. That’s probably normal too.)

Your goal with the ABCs is to teach the letter sounds. “That’s a B. It says ‘buh.’ “ I teach short vowel sounds for the vowels. “A for ‘aah’ as in apple.”  That way once your preschooler knows her letters, she is ready to start blending three letter words like C-A-T, probably in kindergarten. (See Jenae’s book for more info on Teaching Your Child to Read.) I also point out letters on signs we see. Teaching letter sounds is phonics. (Blends like “ch” usually come in kindergarten.)

Songs, Poetry, and Bible verses are easily memorized and teach language. I love the Steve Green Hide ‘Em in Your Heart CDs for scripture. We listen in the car to CDs. Any nursery rhymes count as poetry. Songs do too. These all lay the foundation for reading. Think of it this way—when your child starts reading in kindergarten if she’s never heard of a word, she’s going to have a hard time reading it. By giving her rich vocabulary through books, memorized songs and poetry, and stories, you “build the database” of rich language for later reading and writing.

(This is a fantastic presentation ($3) about language acquisition through reading and poetry.  In fact, I just listened to this tonight and if I had one educational resource to recommend to any parent, homeschooling or not, this is it.).

2.  PRE-HANDWRITING – Along with those large motor skills, preschoolers need to develop fine-motor skills to prepare them to hold a pencil and write letters and numbers in kindergarten.

Cutting a play-doh “green bean” with a popsicle stick. Fine motor/ sensory activity.

a.  Helping activities like wiping a table, sorting silverware, folding washcloths, digging in the garden, putting muffin liners in a muffin tray, cracking eggs, stirring, pouring, sweeping, Dustbusting, watering plants, helping cut and arrange flowers or leaves for a centerpiece, cutting a banana with a butter knife. Scooping birdseed into the birdfeeder. Basically the kid version of your real work.

b.  Sensory activities like play-doh, playing in a sand box, digging, pouring dried beans, pouring water, making rolls, bathtub play, washing toys outside. Lots of things outside provide this: sand, leaves, grass, water, etc.

c.  Craft activities like cutting with safety scissors (great for fine motor), pasting, coloring, watercolor (cleans up easily) painting, playdoh.

d.  Learning toys like puzzles, shape sorters, matching games, etc.

Almost everything they do fits the bill. (Except picking their noses. That’s one fine motor activity I could live without.)

This cute workbook is cheap ($3) and gives your child practice sitting in a chair, holding a pencil, etc. (You’d be surprised at how much practice it takes to not fall out of a chair. It’s amazing.)

Candyland (and other games) are great for colors and numbers.

3.  PRE-MATH – Math concepts are easy. Those happen all the time in life. You can talk about the days of the week, sing songs, show him the months on the calendar. When you measure him against the wall, talk about inches. When you cook, talk about cups and teaspoons. When you weigh him, talk about pounds. Shapes and colors are everywhere—right now with my preschooler, I have talked about squares, triangles, hearts, circles, and rectangles.

Chores are great for math. When your daughter helps set the table she’s learning one-to-one correspondence (math). Putting away silverware is sorting skills (math). Folding washcloths is spatial skills. Cooking pancakes teaches the idea of measuring liquids and solids. All of these things also teach following directions, memory skills, and vocabulary (pre-reading).

I have taught my three-year-old counting with fingers and toes, grapes at snack time, and putting apples into the bag at the store. When I’m teaching a child to count, I touch their finger to the object as we count. Board games often teach counting when you move your piece. Hopscotch is fun for number recognition.

Then we work on recognizing the numerals, then about four, he’ll start writing the numerals.  (For that, I LOVE this sweet little booklet ($3). That alone prepared my daughter for her kindergarten math curriculum.)

After that, and into kindergarten, you can play easy “add” or “take away” games.

Scooping Rocks – sensory, fine motor

SCIENCE– Right now your child is exploring everything. With my three-year-old, we look at daffodils and ducks, birds and butterflies. We feel snow and rain and hail. He helps us dig in the garden. He’s learning about the seasons, which is part of the curriculum at most preschools. Most years we watch caterpillars turn into butterflies.

HISTORY / LANGUGAE / ART / MUSIC — History  is over the head of preschoolers. They don’t understand past, present, and future well enough to grasp that, so don’t worry about history. If you know another language, why not say some things in that language? We read Spanish books and some soaks in, but just as it comes up. Whatever you are passionate about will come through to your preschooler. If you are musical, you’ll sing. If you love art and nature, as I do, you will point out things about art and nature. If you speak Chinese, your preschooler will learn Chinese. But none of those things is necessary.

Think about the typical preschool. Much of what they do and learn is about the life that they would be living if they weren’t in school. I’m not saying that’s bad, but you are giving them the actual experiences in your home. You have the luxury of getting to go to the farm and see the sheep, or plant the actual plant in the actual garden, or make real bread. It’s wonderful.

If you focus on the basics: character, play, and some academics (pre-reading, pre-handwriting, pre-math), your preschooler will have an excellent foundation for kindergarten.

If you do decide to homeschool preschool, just check to see if there are any requirements in your state. I believe most states do not have them for preschool, but double check to make sure.

I had so many resources to share, including more ideas for older preschoolers (4s and 5s), that I had to make a separate resources page. That has a lot more information.

Please let me know what questions you have. Does that make sense? Are you considering homeschooling? What worries you the most?  I’m happy to try to answer any questions if I can.

 

Charity Hawkins is the author of The Homeschool Experiment: a novel.. She lives, writes, and tries to keep her preschooler from picking his nose in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Guest Post by Charity Hawkins, Author of The Homeschool Experiment: a novel

Spring is the time many people start making decisions for next year’s school. If you are considering homeschooling preschool but are nervous, take heart. You can do it.

Homeschooling preschool is not hard.

My goal today is to convince you that you can do it. (You can.) In Part 2 of this series, I’ll share more specifics on what we did in our family. (I understand not everyone has the option to homeschool. I’m certainly not saying it’s the “best” choice. But if your heart is drawing you towards it, and it is a viable option for you, I want to encourage you that it’s not as daunting as you might think.)

By the time this post runs, my oldest son will be nine, my daughter will be seven, and my youngest son will be three-and-a-half.  I’m writing this based on the experience of homeschooling my oldest two through preschool (and up to 3^rd and 1^st grade) and my littlest one right now.

PRESCHOOL SKILLS

I’m sure there are more, but these are my priorities with my third.

1. Life Skills / Character –knowing she’s loved by me and by God, knowing how to wait patiently or not get his way without throwing a fit, obeying, sharing, being helpful and kind, having good manners, and listening respectfully. If these things aren’t in place, there’s no point proceeding. (If we were in France they’d add: enjoyment of healthy, nutritious foods. We’re currently working on that one!)
   

   Books, wonderful books

    

2. Academic –Pre-Reading – understanding of language, rhyme, ideas; love of books and reading; talking and forming his own ideas; ABCsPre-Handwriting – the brain must master large motor skills before fine motor skills, so large first, then fine.Math Skills – Anything that deals with numbers ex. Time, temperature, calendars and days of week, months, years, height, weight, cooking measurements. Also counting to five, then ten, but I want him to understand. (Counting to 100 doesn’t mean anything to 2-3 year olds.I’ll give practical ideas on how I’ve taught all these skills tomorrow.
3. START WITH A WORKABLE ROUTINE         

   Before I start planning what we’ll do for “school,” I think about a healthy daily routine. This is more important than baby flashcards, I promise. This isn’t set in stone, but a guide for our days.

   Sleep and Wake Times – Let’s say you have two children, a three-year-old and a baby. Get out a piece of paper and jot down sleep and wake times for both. (This alone sometimes feels like advanced calculus.) Make sure and put in naps, and the time to read before a nap or whatever your routine is.

   Schedule a nap for your preschooler. If they are younger than five, they probably need a nap or at least a quiet rest time, even if they think they don’t. And you certainly do. They can play quietly in their room or listen to tapes or look at books if they don’t sleep. Definitely schedule this in. I’m hard-pressed to think of any homeschooling mom I know who doesn’t have an afternoon rest time of some sort.

   Meals – Now put in meal times, and schedule enough time to prepare healthy meals, whatever is realistic for you during this season of life. Let’s say you eat lunch at 11:00, then you can put a half hour of preparation and clean-up before and after, and your preschooler gets to help you. That is part of school.

   Also include feeding times for babies, so maybe you write in your typical nursing time and you read to your preschooler during that time.
   

   Chores – Now pencil in the chores you need to do. (Oh yes, did I mention use pencil? I actually do my schedule in Word because I update it every season.) For example, on Wednesdays we do a mini-housecleaning day where we gather laundry and trash, start laundry, and do a quick pickup of rooms and bathrooms. Saturday is our main cleaning day (in theory). My three-year-old helps with all of this, to the best of his ability. That’s school too, as I will explain in more detail tomorrow.

   

There are also things like going to the grocery store. I try to do this on Wednesday nights or on the weekend so I don’t have to take all three kids, but when they were younger, we had one morning we went to the store.  If you want to, that can be a fun learning activity, but if you’d rather do it without the children, fine. It’s your schedule.

Play – a lot of what we’ve mentioned already feels like play to my son, but he also needs unstructured deep, imaginative or imitative play. This may be playing dolls, dressing up like “Super Cowboy,” or playing restaurant. If you’re home a lot, your preschooler will naturally find things to do, though you may have to help get him started sometimes. If you’re out a lot, you may need to carve out time for play at home. This teaches creativity and higher thinking (the “executive brain function”) in a way structured parent-led activities do not. Because it involves movement and decision-making, it may also help with “self-regulation,” one of the things lacking in children with ADHD.

Developing Executive Brain Function (playing)

What Mom Needs – Especially if your children are young, think about what makes you happy. For me, I like going to the YMCA once or twice a week, and when the kids were younger we’d do that in the morning. Maybe you like a walk outside each day, or to write a few hours a week. Think about when that would happen, and pencil that in. If Mama is happy, life is better for everyone. No martyrs!

Okay, so by now your schedule is probably pretty full. Life takes up a lot of time, doesn’t it?  “When am I going to do school?” you might be thinking. Well, remember, your preschooler is learning all the time, so he has been doing school all day. But if you have any time left over, you can plan some:

Learning Activities – If you have twenty minutes and the baby’s asleep, you can do a puzzle with your preschooler (math, pre-handwriting). While you’re going on a walk, you can talk about God’s amazing creation and how he makes the buds on the trees appear (science, vocabulary). When you play dolls with your daughter, you are helping develop her imagination, vocabulary, and story-telling. When you read a book snuggled up on the couch, you are teaching her of your love, of the rhythm of our language, love for learning, and introducing her to a rich wealth of experiences and knowledge.

Limit Screens – Notice, there’s no screen time on the schedule yet. Here’s what I’d challenge you to do: Pretend your TV is broken and plan what you would do in lieu of TV time. I actually have a list of ideas I have written down by the TV so if we need help thinking of some activities I’m ready. For example: instead of TV in the morning when you’re all groggyà reading snuggled up on the couch while munching Cheerios. Instead of TV before nap timeà audio book or reading. Instead of a movie to get her out of your hair while you make lunch à have her play outside or color. (Can you tell we’ve had to work on this a lot?) Once you have your ideal schedule, you can always add back in 30 minutes a day, or keep DVDs handy for when you are all exhausted or sick. We do watch TV, but I try to keep the bulk of it on the weekends, not as a daily habit. In our house my preschooler gets no video games, no electronic toys with screens, almost no computer or iPhone time (like once a month, maybe). I’m just a freak that way. But here’s the thing—he doesn’t know anything different. He’s as happy as a clam. And I learned with my first son that I was creating appetites—the more he played on the computer, the more he wanted to.  It’s much easier to just say no for now. You’re the mom—you get to decide and your kids will adapt and be content regardless. (Jane Healy’s Endangered Minds is an excellent book about the effects of visual animation on children’s brain development.)

You just want the majority of your preschooler’s activities to be moving, interacting with you, playing, storing up a rich database of language and experience, and learning to be a nice little human.

So there you go. You’re homeschooling your preschooler.

See, I told you– you could do it!

In Part 2, I’ll dig down a bit more into how each of those activities is teaching your child the skills she needs for kindergarten and life.

Read Part 2 of this series here.

What questions do you have so far? Please ask in the comments and I’ll try to answer them. 

Charity Hawkins is the author of The Homeschool Experiment: a novel. She lives, homeschools, and enjoys life with a three-year-old (most of the time) in Tulsa, Oklahoma.