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occupying a toddler/preschooler during school time
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I also need some advice on what to do with a 3 y-o during school. Suddenly my soon to be 3 y-o wants to “do school.” Previously she was fine to just play around us, wonder in and out, pay attention to stories here & there. That is no longer enough. At breakfast last week she asked. “Mommy, what am I going to learn in school today?” I started to teach her the letters in her name & she points to them everywhere, and now asks what everything says…during school most anything I give her lasts but minutes & then she says what next mommy? I’ve looked online & there are endless suggestions, most seem to involve lots of STUFF…which I am not 100% sure I want to spend so much time & money & then have to store it if there are other ways…the workbox idea sounds tempting but seems that it could involve again lots of stuff & time. I don’t want to feel like I am pushing her away. I don’t want her to not enjoy these years because I am schooling her older siblings…I want to mainly have a plan for next year and she will be 5 months older which should help a little on attention span…I try to have her siblings take turns playing but often I need them both to listen since we do as much together as possible & that will only increase…I know lots of people have successfully done this with even more kiddos so I figured I may as well tap into all of the wonderful ideas out there from those of you who have already done this!!
When I started to hs, I had a grade k and a 3yo who wanted to do school too. I started with a free grade k letter of the week program to teach letter sounds and asl (sign language). There is a free letter color page to print (I soon learned the economic advantage a laser printer would be over my inkjet) and a booklist of picture books to get at the library that focus on items that begin with the letter sound of the week. I also played the Leapfrog dvd Letter Factory and we had foam letters to play with in the bath tub. Beginning writing was to write big letters in fun things like a tray of rice or whipped cream or sand using their fingers.
My 3 yo wanted a coloring page so I gave her one too which she scribbled on. I helped her trace big letters with her finger. She listened at story time and watched the dvd along with us. When I spent more time with her older brother with his pencil work I gave her educational toys which were used only at schooltime like a Leap pad jr or a puzzle that she could do with little or no help.
The next year when it was time to teach my older to read, I was surprised at the comprehension she had from tagging along with us. Both of them could read beginning words like cat. So she learned to read early although after that her progress was slower than her older brother’s progress. I never enforced lessons early on. She wanted to be there with us so I just included her where I could and then where I couldn’t, I kept her occupied with edu. toys that she thought was school.
I have a 3yo who isn’t interested in toys (she never has really been into them). She’s pretty content with dry erase markers and a board though…we often pull it out when the older DC are working on their 3Rs. I don’t think you need a preschool program, but we just started LHTH and it’s been a huge hit with her. I need everything planned out for me or it won’t get done…I’m sure many moms could figure out lots of ideas on their own. We do a short fingerplay, read a Bible story, and listen to a song from The Singing Bible. In addition, we do some little art projects, letter and number activities, and dramatic play. I often skip activities that seem a bit too school-ish for me or when I don’t want to get a bunch of things out for a cheesy science experiment. :blush: It takes less than 30 minutes to get everything done (and we sometimes skip and activitiy or two).
She also joins in with some of our school…picture studies, art and science projects, some readings, etc. She also has her own composition notebook and nature book (even though it’s mostly full of scribbles and silly smiley faces). 🙂 I try to incorporate her as much as possible (which prevents her from getting into as much trouble)!
I’m guessing you have some nice CDs, picture books, and story Bibles you could pull out for her…and maybe some homemade letter flashcards (since she’s interested in letters). I don’t think it needs to be more complex than that. You’ve probably been to the Early Years Guide, but maybe it would give you some ideas if you re-visited the page…I sometimes look to the later ages as well since they all develop so differently! http://simplycharlottemason.com/planning/eyguide/
My youngest is three and it can be a challenge to keep him content for the few hours it takes his big brothers to do school. Part of what I learned from the older two is that kids go through stages– what works for a few weeks or months will suddenly need to be changed. For that reason, I don’t want to commit to any curriculum.
I have some Montessori pracitcal and sensorial activities that my older kids enjoyed at that age. I also have some of the Lauri preschool activities and pattern blocks which came with our My Father’s World curriculum. He likes to do Starfall.com and PBS Kids.org so I let him use the computer for 30 min. or so.
We are doing My Father’s World Adventures next year and I’ve heard that preschoolers can participate in some of those activities, we’ll have to see how that goes 🙂
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