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Early years: preschool
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For those who have older kids and do a “preschool” time with the littles, can you share what that looks like? I have 3 kids, and oldest is an advanced kindy. Just in the past month or so I’ve started doing 30 minutes of “preschool” with my 3 and 1 yo girls. Right now we are doing prayer, Jesus Storybook Bible, and an assortment of picture books and songs/fingerplays. Then once a week after Bible we do preschool games. Today we did the very hungry caterpillar game. It seems to be working pretty well, but I am afraid it will get old quickly! Love to hear what (easy) things others do. I want low-prep and high-fun and active. The girls have a separate table time where they do some sit down activities somewhat independently (3yo does pattern blocks, dot to dots, etc; 1yo does busy bag activities).
I have a 7yo second grader and then a 4.5 yo and 3yo. I start our school time doing a bit of preschool work with the two younger ones while dd7 does her independent work. I start with dd3 – we alternate between an alphabet cut-and-paste craft or a page or 2 out of the Rod and Staff 3yo preschool workbooks, or maybe doing a puzzle together. (The 4.5 yo plays quietly by himself.) Then I read something to the 3 and 4.5 yo together – right now it’s Winnie the Pooh. We’ll work our way through the AO Year 0 selections and other things my older daughter and I enjoyed when she was a preschooler (and these two were just babies). Then dd7 comes and plays with the 3yo while I do some math games (from the Right Start Math Games book) and early word-building/reading with the 4.5 yo. Everyone joins together for ‘circle time’ – we read poems, French stories, sing together and have a snack. Then the two little ones have some special independent activities they are only allowed to get out while I work with the 7yo. Kumon books, paper to cut up, stamps, dot markers, playdough, etc. We have our days where this little system doesn’t work out – but mostly it does. =) I can’t be bothered with things that involve a lot of prep work either (I don’t even like taking the time to print off some of the cute preschool actvities out there online), so I tend to use more what we already have laying around. Anyhow…hope that gives you a few ideas.
Jen
I just started doing preschool activities with my youngest. I already had Heart of Dakota’s preschool program, so I pulled it out. There were a few activities that I didn’t care for with my middle DD, but I realized we could just skip those (it was a true lightbulb moment)! Their program is very similar to what you are already doing…Bible stories, fingerplays, songs, crafts, pretend play, and games. Some of the activities seem too school-ish for my taste, but I’ve just been skipping those. She also loves to play with dry erase markers during schooltime…I’ve picked up a couple inexpensive dry-erase workbooks or she just draws on a marker board.
I hope you don’t mind me posting this here, I have been been working on planning out next year , and wanted to read these posts to see what others are doing and how it’s working. I currently do preschool with my LO here is a link so you can check out what we have been doing if you are interested. http://naturalbeachliving.blogspot.com/search/label/Letter%20J
If you have any questions, I’m an open book 🙂 I also currently have 2 other children ages 7 and 9 that I homeschool plus 2 more that I’m not schooling yet 🙂
btw, I just started reading The Jesus Storybook Bible a few days ago, we love it.
Jen-I love that you shared how you balance the three. I can envision us being there in a few years! Right now DD1 just mostly plays nearby while we do preschool, but I know in a few years she’ll want to be more involved. I am curious about the R&S preschool books. Do you use the “about 3” series? Is it too workbooky? We do “circle time” too and really enjoy it!
HollyS-I have looked at HOD several times, and keep talking myself out of it. Are you using just their preschool program, or older years also?
Kim-Thanks for the link. How old is “Little B?”
I definitely feel like I started “school” too early with DS and I want to make the most of these preschool years and really enjoy them. DD3 already knows pretty much all the capital letters, and some lowercase, so I don’t feel like I really need to focus on a LOTW type thing, at least right now. Technically she has 2.5 more years before kindy as she just turned 3 in Dec.
Little B is 4, I try to focus on mostly great books and play, while incorporating Letters, numbers, and practical life skills. Good Luck-It sounds like you are on the right track.
We used HOD for a few years…We spent 3 years going through their Beyond and Bigger programs, and I added LHTH for my then 4yo. I switched to SCM last fall for several reasons. Mostly I wanted to keep everyone combined. Another issue was that my DC were taking too long on science and history activities at the expense of their 3Rs subjects.
My youngest two are 3 and 4 (almost 4 and 5). We’ve been doing Sound of the Week for the past several months. Each week I choose the next sound (this week is -nd) and I choose books and crafts that go with the sound.
http://www.letteroftheweek.com/sound_of_the_week.html
For the past several months, I had been giving them lots of opportunities to learn to form letters – writing in a pan of rice, using Play Doh, using the How to Build an A book, etc.
Now, though, they have progressed to the point where they have both started with Delightful Handwriting from SCM.
Just this week my 4YO (who will be 5 in May) showed me one of her favorite books. She said “I don’t know how to read this” and I said, “Nope, not yet”. She hopped right on my lap and said, “Will you teach me how?” 🙂 She knows her letter sounds, but I know she’s not quite ready to read yet…but I suspect we’ll be starting that soon!
mama_nickles – Yes, the Rod and Staff workbooks we are using are the “About 3” series. We just started the first one. The activities are things like connect the two objects that are the same, cross out the item that is different, trace over the lines, etc. I think some of the later ones have more color/cut/paste types of things. So…they are ‘workbooky’ – but my dd3 LOVES having her own ‘school book’. We sometimes extend it a little by coloring the pictures too (ie “Can you find the red crayon and color the ball red?”) or talking about the initial sounds of different words (ie “Ball starts with B, b ,b, ball, can you hear it?) They are very quick and easy. With the older two, I worked through a lot of the freebie printable activities I found online, but like I said even hunting and printing is more time than I’m really willing to spend on preschool prep right now which is why I finally broke down and bought the set of workbooks. I’ve been happy with them, and she loves to feel ‘included’ as part of school time which was my goal. (This little one will go wreak havoc if she’s not part of things, rather than like my 4.5 yo who is very capable of entertaining himself quietly!)
HTH,
Jen
We’ve also used the About 3 series (and the R&S preschool series at age 4/5). Kumon has some nice preschool books as well. I’m not a huge wb fan, but younger DC have begged for them at that age! I think they want to be like their big siblings.
I’ve also given them $ store workbooks. Since they are only $1, I don’t need to watch them as carefully with them…if they just scribble on the pages, it’s not a big deal! I used to give them coloring books, but my 3rd child demanded “real” workbooks when she was 3, so I picked up a couple of these for her.
HollyS-Interesting insight about not enough focus on the 3 R’s in HOD. Note taken!
I feel like I have several WBs that we’ve been given over the years, so I’ll have to keep my eye open for if she seems interested.
Really she wants her own chapter book! I remember when DS was 3.5 we started doing a chapter book RA at bedtime, so I told her when she is 3.5 (in June) we can start Paddington. She is really excited! She also does do some writing per her own request. A few days ago she was coloring with DD1 in a coloring book and announces, “Mommy, I can write a U” then proceeded to do so. I guess the thing is that I feel like she is getting so much stuff naturally that I don’t really need to work on it. She can also already identify the letter some words start with after hearing them….like I tell her to find the Monday for her calendar and she says MMMMMMmonday so it starts with M!
I feel like with the CM way of doing preschool you are waiting to intro stuff, and if she learns all letters, sounds, writing stuff, etc, then what will we have left to work on when she’s 4 and 5?
There is a good amount of 3Rs in HOD…My DC were just spending so long on the history/science activities that we were struggling to fit in the rest. A history lesson that should have taken 20 minutes was taking us 40 or more, mainly due to their dawdling. Science was the same. My DC needed to spend that extra time on math and phonics and we just weren’t able to fit it all in. I needed to find a program with lighter science and history for all of our sanity!
If its any help to anyone, I let my preschooler cut things out of the adds that come in the mail and make our own “books”. WE made a number book for instance, by folding five peices of paper in half, and stapling them into a book. then we looked for pictures of only one item, as well as a number 1 for the first page, a number 2 and pictures of two things for the next page extra. when we got to the higher numbers 8,9, 10, we had to mix and match items,like find four gallons of orange juice, in one place and then four more else where. We are now making an alphabet book of beginning sounds. He loves it! And its cheap!
I love the magazine idea too! I’ve done something similar with my 3yo — I’ve let her cut animal pictures out of magazines and paste them on to pages grouped loosely by categories. We have a page for furry animals, one for fish, one for bugs, etc. I’ve posted pictures of this activity as well as others I have tried here on my blog http://happilyoccupiedhomebodies.wordpress.com/category/preschool-2/. I have certainly found that occupying a preschooler during our homeschool routine can be a challenge, but as I’ve “gotten into it,” I’ve also found that I enjoy all the fun things preschoolers get to do!
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