Homeschooling preschoolers (or how to fit preschool into a busy homeschool day)

I am often asked about homeschooling so many different levels in our home.  Currently, we have a 7th grader, a 5th grader, a 2nd grader, a 4 year old preschooler, and a toddler.  Probably the hardest thing about teaching so many levels is finding the time to teach the preschoolers.  Even though they aren’t actually required to learn much at that age, most preschoolers are eager to learn as much as they can.  Or that is the case in our home.  My two little ones beg me to include them in our school day.  But how does one teach the little ones their letter & numbers, an older child to read, and an even older child pre-algebra?

I’m going to share how we have managed this year in our home but I want to say up front that I believe one thing that makes this system work is that our older children are able to do much of their school work independently.   None of the three older children do all of their work independently but they can do large amounts of work on their own which enables me to spend time with the younger children.  Then I teach the older children during the little ones’ nap times. 

Another thing that helps me balance teaching time for the preschoolers and the older children is that my older children are willing to help with the little ones.  Sometimes, when I’m teaching an older child, one of the other siblings will play with or even teach/read to the younger children.  This helps me give undivided attention to the child who needs help, teaches the older child about caring for others, and keeps the little ones out of trouble. 

Our homeschool day with preschoolers looks something like this (all times are approximate).  One thing that doesn’t show up on this schedule is that even though I may be working with one child at a particular time, I will sometimes finish early and head back to work with the younger ones again.  Sometimes when I’m teaching E(7) during her language arts block, she and I will head to the kitchen where she will read to me.  At that same time, I might be working with the little ones on painting letters or shapes or writing in shaving cream.  I spend more time with the preschoolers than this chart actually shows. 

	Mom	B (12)	G (10)	E (7)	A & E (4 & 2)
9:00	Math & discuss independent work w/E(7)	Independent Work	Preschoolers	With Mom	With G
9:30	Preschool time	Independent Work	Math on computer	Independent Work	With Mom
10:00	Language arts with E(7)	Math on computer	Independent Work	Language Arts with Mom	Preschool activity
10:30	Work with G (10)	Preschoolers	Work with Mom	Independent Work	With B
11:00	Work with B (12)	With Mom	Independent Work	Preschoolers	With E
11:30	Outside break and/or science
12:00	Lunch and clean up
12:30	Independent reading and art			Read with Mommy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the little ones and I have read some books and snuggled, they lay down for naps/quiet time.  Then the older ones and I do history and go over subjects that they were not able to do independently.

Some things I have found that make a homeschool day with preschoolers easier are:

• Be willing to allow for some messes.  The little ones love to be active.  Sometimes that means playing with water (like above) or beans or even play dough.  It seems the messier it is, the longer they play and the quieter it is.
• Keep everyone close by.  I don’t let the little ones roam around the house during school time.  This seems to lead to messes. 
• Have them do a fun activity with their sibling buddy teacher.  They will often play blocks or play dough with the older siblings while I’m teaching others.
• Try to start the day with the little ones.  I actually start my second grader off with her work first but then I make sure to teach the little ones as soon as possible.  The day goes much smoother when I do this.
• Keep a few activities ready.  My little ones will sometimes breeze through an activity that I have prepared.  I try to have another one ready to go.  Some of our favorite activities are painting with watercolors, painting with dot paint, washing baby doll clothes, playing with playdough, and cutting paper.  Sometimes I even turn on the TV!
• Be flexible if it doesn’t go very smoothly.  Some days just don’t go smoothly.  {smile}

 This week the little ones are learning the letter W.  So today they washed baby doll clothes in water and hung them out to dry!

That’s how we have managed to find time to teach the little ones and keep them busy during the school day.  It makes for a busy day but it does keep our home more peaceful while everyone is getting their learning time with Mom!

Preschool fun ~

It is amazing the amount of learning that happens when you are having fun!

The little ones think that they are just having fun as they paint, glitter, and eat but they are really learning…

letters

numbers

counting, graphing, classifying, and colors

writing skills

vocabulary

And for those times when they want to do school like the big kids, these books are wonderful. 

 Workbooks are from Rod and Staff.  The Kumon workbook was found at Barnes and Noble.  Kumon workbooks can also be found in many homeschooling resources such as Rainbow Resources. 

While I sing, paint, glitter, snuggle, dance, run, read, count, and many other fun things with my little ones… I am blessed with this:

Learning is fun! 

A post about random things ~

Hi y’all!  I am in the middle of working on our new school area and school supply shopping so I’m just a bit busy right now but I wanted to share a few things with you all.

My older boys have finally started their blog.  Actually, that should be that their mom finally started their blog.  My boys are reluctant writers and I am  hoping that this will inspire them to write a bit more.  (It was their idea too.)  I am planning on including this in our school time each week.  There are a few posts over there and a few in the drafts waiting for my approval too.  Here’s the address if you’d like to visit them:

The Adventures of Bryce and Grant

(click title for link)

~~~~~~

A few weeks ago I was trying to decide what to do about my blog due to some internet searches that concerned me.  After talking to David and some friends about it, I decided to wait and see what happened for a while.  David’s actual advice was to “wait and see what happens & then make a decision”.  So that’s what I’ve been doing and it seems that things have calmed down. 

My decision is that this blog will remain public.  I will check up on internet searches and my sitemeter to make sure that things seem to be staying ok.  I’ve also decided to move all homeschool posts over to a homeschool blog which I linked to earlier this week.   If I see any problems in the future, then I will make the moves that I need to make.   Thank you all for being understanding of my concerns and probably irrational posts that I posted earlier.  Sorry for any drama that I may have created.

~~~~~~

 

My Baby Boy makes me laugh so much.  This morning as we sat on the couch he was full of boundless energy.  His dad and I, however, were trying to keep our eyes from slamming shut again.  I looked at Baby Boy and said, “Can you give me some of that energy?”  To which he said, “Uh – huh.”  He took his little hands and cupped them like he was holding something.  Then he handed it (the energy) to me.  Of course, I took it!  But it made me smile that he was so willing to share his excess of energy with his tired mommy!

I hope you all have a day full of energy, giggles, and smiles too!

 

Preschool ~ The letters M & X and plans for the new school year

We are in the middle of planning & organizing for the new school year and I realized that we did not even tell about our letters M & X.  I think we did these back in…MAY! 

Since we were nearing the end of the school year, we kept it very simple and had fun.

~ M is for markers~

 

  

 

 ~ X is for xylophone~

~ M is for music~

~Clapping a rhythm and the remnants of a painting session~

~Making music with some instruments (and a little more paint…we love our paint!)~

 

 

~We even made some of our musical instruments.~

 

 ~Here comes the marching band!~ 

 

~ M is for motion~

Ok, so I didn’t use the word “motion” with Little Brother but he gave me some blog photo ops and he learned a little science too.

 

~ M is for movie day~

 

One day, we popped a bowl of popcorn, got comfy, and watched a movie.

 

 ~The big kids joined us too!~

 

~M is for Memorial Day Weekend~

I’d really love to edit out my double chin but I don’t have photoshop. ;) So please focus on my Sunshine beauty instead.  :)

We still have two letters left to do – the letters O & Y.  We will finish those up so she can put them on her alphabet wall and see all that she has learned this year!

Plans for Preschool 2010 – 2011

I really wanted to write our own preschool curriculum this year.  However, I  realized that I really don’t have the time to do it.  So here are my plans for  the year.~

Before Five in a Row

Letter  & Character Curriculum at Hubbard’s Cupboard (free curriculum)

Begin reading (if she is ready) with The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading

Math Ideas from Hubbard’s Cupboard

This past year we did an alphabet wall to display her letters.  However, this year we are going to do a scrapbook.  I’m thinking…

My memories of my letters, numbers, and me 

Or something like that!

Heard around our house this Sunday afternoon

We sat down for lunch today and bowed our heads as our ten-year-old son said the prayer. 

Then our twelve-year-old son asked if he could also say the prayer.

He started praying and when he was about on the second sentence of his prayer, we heard a little voice softly say:

“Mamen (Amen)”

Our son continued praying and after he finished his next sentence, we could again hear a little voice say (albeit a little bit louder):

“Mamen”

As I tried to suppress my giggles, our oldest son continued with his prayer and then we heard in a very loud voice:

“MAMEN”

On that cue, our oldest son concluded his prayers and the entire room erupted into laughter!

I guess Baby Boy was really hungry today!

Baby Boy eating his “bawberries”. 

 

The Art Box ~ Snow Art

I’ve been wanting to participate in the Art Box for a while and now I finally have time! Yay!

This week, Sunshine Girl was learning S is for snowman so I carried the s and snow theme over to art box.

Project 1:

* wooden shapes: snowman, snowflake, star, the letter s

* blue and white paint

*white glitter

Sunshine Girl painted the shapes and sprinkled with glitter. LOTS and LOTS of glitter. (Her favorite part!)

Project 2:

* empty soda bottle

* white paint (we used tempera at first, but we found out that you need to use craft paint. The tempera flakes off.)

* brushes

*other paint for the details or googly eyes, pipe cleaners for arms, fleece scraps for the scarf, hat

I found this idea at this site. If I had read her directions I would have seen not to use tempera paint! ;0)

All of the siblings got in on the fun!

Baby Brother was learning about blue and winter. So he drew pictures with chalk. (And he tasted the chalk – yes, I’m sometimes a bad mommy.)

He painted with white paint on a piece of blue construction paper. He would. not. let. go. of the paint brush. I wish I had a picture of that! Hard to take that picture though when I’m the one he is struggling with!

And he painted with blue…

We even painted his hands. He loved this! However, I did not wipe all of the blue paint off of his hands and he let me know! He was telling his daddy about it when he got home by pointing to his hands and the picture hanging on the line.

Sunshine Girl colors a wooden seal. This was a kit that came from Michael’s. (I love Michael’s!)

We did not get to all of the objects that I had in the art box but we had fun with what we did do!

I’ve had fun planning this week’s new box too!

For a peek at some other art boxes, please visit Tired, Need Sleep

Our Tot School – Week of January 18 – 22

~ Sunshine Girl is 45 months and Little Brother is 18 months~

I is for Igloo and I is for Ice

This week we focused on the letter Ii. Since I am just introducing Sunshine Girl to her letters, I taught her both sounds. She learned that I is for igloo and I is for ice. On Monday, she painted the letter with her dot paint and then she stamped i’s on the paper with ink. On Tuesday, we added insects made with our fingers dipped into the ink. The template for this Ii page is found at DLTK.

Since I like the capital I to have a “roof and a floor”, I also made copies of the Ii pages from Confessions of a Homeschooler. We also used some of the inchworm activities that she has on her page. There are many other great free printables at her site.

Sunshine Girl built an igloo using white squares. (I is for igloo found at Making Learning Fun.)

Of course, we had to make ice cream. (Idea found at No Time for Flashcards.) We also could not let the week go without eating ice cream. No pictures of that though because I was too busy eating mine!

We made colored ice cubes. For some of the ice cubes we mixed primary colors into new colors. But we left one tray full of just the primary colors.

Then we did a little experiment of mixing the colors. We placed two primary colors into each bowl and waited for them to melt.

Yellow + Blue

Red (looking a little orangey after freezing) + Blue

Red + Yellow

The results:

Every week, we build our letter on the floor and then we march around it while singing the ABC’s. This week we also “inched” around it like inchworms.

We learned about Polar Bears and Penguins this week also.

Little Brother (18 months) does school with us also. He focused on directional words like: in, out, on, etc.

Painting with ice on construction paper:

They love reading the little I Spy board books.

Sunshine Girl also worked on “in” when she practiced sorting silverware as she and her sister empty the dishwasher.

What a fun week we had with the letter I!

For other tot school posts, be sure to visit 1+1+1=1