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What does your preschooler's school day look like?
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Can you just give me an idea about what your preschooler’s school days look like? Subjects, activities, schedules, structures… My DS is 4 and wants to learn everything. I basically don’t do any school with him. He has started reading a little bit. He wants to learn to cook and sew. I just don’t really know how to structure it to fit it in. Between meals, morning and nighttime routines, Bible time, and a nap I’m not sure where to find the time and what all to include…
Thanks!
Dana
I don’t do “formal school” with my 4.5 yo other than lots of reading aloud. She loves hopscotch and we use that as a tool. She also plays a lot with number and letter tiles that I found at dltk.com. She can put them in order and build various words. She does a lot of watercolor painting. She dumps her piggy bank and counts the pennies as she puts them back in. (I have to put the stopper in for her). She has taught herself how to write. She recognizes some words. (I don’t know if that’s reading or not). I don’t know if that’s a good thing, since her form is wrong on some of the letters, but I’ll worry about correcting it when she’s a little older. I keep telling myself I’ll plan something a little more formal, even if it’s just 10 minutes, before we start kindergarten, but that day is fast approaching (June if I use the same schedule I use for ds, August if I wait until she turns five).
HTH,
Karen
I don’t do anything formal with my daughter who is almost 4. She listens in to read-alouds for her older brothers. I encourage her to play with letter blocks to try to spell her name and to count things in our day-to-day life. Otherwise – nothing.
I only require my 4yo to join us for Bible reading and memory work. She usually stays right with us for school though. She listens to read alouds and I usually choose one from the early years list for her too. She also requests copywork so I give her letter pages to practice writing. We practice letter sounds and when she is ready I will start teaching her to read. She does a lot of playing with dolls while I read, drawing pictures, painting, play dough, dress up, etc. I am slowly adding structure. Her name is on the schedule now to practice letter sounds and write one letter a day. She can already count.
She also likes to join us for Spanish, picture/composer/nature study, and usually disappears upstairs to play after read aloud time.
Sometimes I do a special read aloud just with her in the evening and she eats up that attention 🙂
I overdid preschool with my oldest and I’m seeing the benefits of letting the child set the pace and teach when interest asks.
Tara
How do you know when they are truly ready to start school stuff? He asks to learn, has soaked things up from mere exposure and life in general. But maybe those aren’t signs that he’s ready? I feel a little like I’m cheating him because he’s asking to learn, teaching himself when he can, but I’m holding back a bit… Thoughts?
We are moving from France back to the States in June. Maybe we can keep things informal until the Fall (he will turn 5 next March) and start with more structure over the next “real” school year. Does that sound like a decent plan? If so, what kind of schedule/structure do you have for your 5 year olds? 🙂
Thanks a ton!
Dana
I have observed that letting little children learn on their own is a great precedent for curious, independent learners later. I have both a 4 & 5yo. My 5yo is in Kindergarten. Her only requirements are Bible reading, memory work, and then I have about a half hour or less with her where we do a few minutes of copywork, some math (I just use books or manipulatives and work on different things like reading a clock or simple addition), and then she reads to me from her readers.
Because I have an older child my two youngest join him for a lot because they like beig all together with me. So yes, my 4yo is listening to Robin Hood and learning Spanish but my oldest never did things like that!
Charlotte Mason recommended children begin formal schooling at age 6.
Until then I focus on reading lots of good early years books and add the 3Rs as we go. As far as being ready my youngest knows all her letters and their sounds – but 3 months ago when she asked to learn to read I would show her the letter and she knew the name but after teaching her the sound she would forget it everyday! So I told her we would wait a little while and I gave her the letter flash cards. She would sometimes ask me the sounds and lo and behold she now knows them all without mommy having to drill every day and get frustrated. So I tried to move her on to blend letters to make little words – brick wall! So I backed off and we just kept practicing sounds. The past week she has started picking out little words herself – ok she is ready to move on!
If they pick it up within a few days they are developmentally ready (for most children with no learning issues) but if you have to retract something over and over you are just frustrating both of you. The same with writing. My daughters picked up writing so easy but my son didn’t write easily until this year (2nd grade) so I went slowly with him. My 5yo already does a whole line of cursive copywork at a time. Every child has different speeds in different subjects.
Just relax. 🙂 outside play and good books at nap time are the best preschool!
I would agree with the others that it isn’t necessary to do much ‘structured’ work with preschoolers. I did do ‘preschool’ with my oldest (now 6.5) from the time she was about 3.5 which didn’t hurt her any, but in retrospect was probably unecessary and could have saved us some frustration in learning to read and write. My middle child is now 3.5 (4 in June)and I am utterly amazed by all that he has picked up naturally with almost no effort on my part. The only thing I have done intentionally with him is read aloud. I do print off preschool-type activities for him sometimes, but that’s mostly to give him something to do while his sister is doing school. He can take them or leave them – sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn’t. So it’s not a big deal at all, especially in comparison to what I was doing with his big sister at the same age.
That all said however, I am the type of person who tends not to get get things done at all unless I have them pencilled in to my schedule somehow, nor am I the type of mama who gets down on the floor to play with my kids just because. While I don’t think it was necessary for me to start doing “school” with my dd at 3.5, I quickly realized that it was a really good way to be sure that I was being intentional about doing things with her on a regular basis. Having “school time” made sure that happened. I wasn’t planning to do formal work with my ds 3.5 until later on but am thinking about starting to do a few very gentle activities with him soon just for the purpose of being more intentional about doing things with him on a more regular basis. (This is my middle child who tends to get a bit lost in the shuffle sometimes.)
FWIW.
Jen
Ah. Yes. I didn’t even realize that was part of my motivation for getting some structured school time but it is. Good point! Thanks!
My 1st son (now 6 years) didn’t want or need anything formal until 1st grade. My 2nd son (turns 5 this month) wanted to do sit-down school this year. We used My Father’s World Kindergarten, which is a wonderful, gentle approach to science, reading, literature and Bible. It has been great. Just 30 min per day with that then another 15 min with Right Start Math Level A, and he was ready to go back to play. I had my older son do chores, copy work, etc. independently while I worked with my 4 yr. old.
My toddler, on the other hand… Don’t quite know what to do with that little guy some times 🙂
I am not good at structuring time with the little ones, because I’m busy with the older ones, but I agree with lots of reading out loud. I also do a short phonics or sight word lesson on our chalkboard wall after breakfast while the older two are doing their math.
I printed off these toddler packs and preschool packs, and one of my children likes them, one doesn’t. They aren’t Charlotte Mason I’m sure, but they help with pre-writing skills, logic, etc. Maybe you could just do a few of them with your son? She has a great booklist that goes with each one too, we get those from the library and read one with the pack. http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/preschoolpacks.html
I don’t do a whole lot either with my 4 1/2 yr old. I try to structure a couple days per week for math (tangrams, patterns with teddy bear counters, counting objects, color a calender for the month and glue on numbers and put stickers on for decoration, etc), and reading (magnet letters, color alphabet picture or we cut out the letter from a magazine with pictures with the first sound and glue on a paper for a book). Otherwise she sits with us for all the subjecst and even narrates proudly some bible accounts we read.
I feel like I’m the only mom who doesn’t get to preschool with 2 older dd’s. lol
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