preschool, kindergarten, so forth

I didn’t save what I did with my oldest dd for preschool/k, which has been fine – I’ve found the dynamics are so different when your oldest student is preK/K age then when your preK/K age child is tagging along with an older sibling. I’ve ended up doing things very differently with my next preK/K age child – in part because he’s not my only student so gets a lot out of just tagging on to what his sister is doing and in part because I find my educational philosophy/method of what works well for us has changed a bit each year. I reckon that what I do with my current toddler a couple of years down the road will look different again to what I am doing with her brother at the moment. But that’s just me. Hope that helps some…

My kids are 7, 5, and 3, so I only have a few years to look back on so far, but here’s what I have right now. 

I’ve started a master booklist to keep track of the books that we’ve used and I know we’ll want to use again.  I just made a table with 5 columns – the title, where the book is (ie. ebook, library book, hardcopy on the shelf) and then a column for each kid.  I date when each child listened to/read the book.  My kids are all 2 years apart, so I can easily see that if we read something 2 years ago, it might be time to revisit it with the next child.  I have a few notes next to the books to remind me if the book turned out to be a bit advanced for DD7, so I’ll know to wait a bit for the younger kids.  I also put books on the list that I want to read in the future, so as we finish something, I know what my next choices are.

For another example, right now DS5 is learning to print, so I’m glad I filed all of DD7’s printing practice and early copywork that I designed, so I don’t have to re-invent the wheel.  We started with copying family members names, days of the week, months of the year, simple phrases, etc., so I just make a new blank sheet for DS5, and off we go. 

With some other things, I can look back at my ‘term plans’ to see what we did in any given area and decide whether I want to repeat it with the next child. (I keep notes of what worked/didn’t work) As the middle child, DS5 will probably get things twice in some areas, once as a tag-along with DD7 and once again when DD3 is ready.  I may not do everything 3 times (such as a book of poetry that we did together).   I supposed it would depend on your children and spacing.

Joanne

I keep a 5 subject notebook full of notes and dates for long term planning. Sometimes I journal about what worked and what did not work. Sometimes I print a booklist or forum notes and tape onto a page. It is all broken down by subject with 10 subjects as I put one subject at the front and one at the back of each division. It is all right there for me to flip through when needed. Some books I repeat with next child and some not depending on how well we liked the resource the first time and depending on the child. But it helps me plan the order of books and helps me remember what boks we have/liked or what books are on my shopping list for the future.