Sep. 17, 2008 - First School Days - Preschool Focus

Posted in First School Days Series '08-'09

I am continuing my series on our First School Days with my post today.  I wanted to make my first focus on the preschooler in our home.  I have written posts in the past that were some what against home preschool.  And I am not particularly changing my mind about that.  Preschool is such an important time.  They learn most by reading a ton and playing a ton. 

Although I don’t believe that formal preschool in necessary (especially in another building away from mom), I remember being the mom who really wanted to do something school-like with my children.  I probably worried WAY more than I needed to.  Formal preschool never happened for us despite all my attempts (and wasted money.)  But I have walked in the shoes of wanting to work with my preschoolers to do school.  That is part of the reason I am posting this first.  There are many moms out there who are eager to begin and I have a few ideas for them. 

Before I get into what I am doing with my own preschooler this year, I wanted to remind those moms with younger children of a few things. 

1. Make sure that your days are very relaxed but complete with some structure.  The little ones thrive on structure.  I don’t think this must be rigid.  Despite having a very specific MOTH (Managers of Their Homes) schedule, I don’t follow it to a tee.  We simply follow the routine.  And it’s still a work in progress.   

2. Spend LOTS of time reading.  How do you create a reader?  READ!!!!! 

3. “Structured, sit down at a desk preschool” is overkill.  That is especially true when using workbooks and programs.  If your “program” takes you longer than 20 or 30 minutes, it is overkill.  But you don’t even have to spend money to achieve what these “programs” are saying you can achieve.  I’ll give you more on that in a moment. 

4. If you have older students, teach your younger students FIRST.  There is no better way to guarantee you will have time to teach an older student than to give the preschooler (and toddler if you have one of those as well) undivided attention from the very beginning.  (Better yet, train your older children to work independently for a time so they can continue work while you focus on your little ones.)

5. Don’t underestimate the value of life skills lessons at this age.  Preschoolers CAN do chores and you aren’t depriving them OR abusing them by having them do a few chores.  They also feel like they are part of the family to have specific jobs to do on their level.  (I will share more tomorrow about what we do for chores around our home.) 

6. Don’t sweat the small stuff.  Preschool was invented decades ago to give smaller children of working moms something to do while their moms worked.  In all reality, it’s a socialist attempt to separate even the smallest members of the family from their children.  Preschool isn’t necessary in order for them to learn to read.  Can children learn from it?  Absolutely.  Is it necessary when you have a toddler and a newborn that need your attention as well?  Not if it’s going to make you crazy trying to accomplish the work.  Don’t sweat it at this point.

7. This is a touchy subject but I would say that the TV needs to be severally limited with preschoolers.  I have noticed with all my children that when I turn off the TV during the day and we rarely watch it on the weekend, they play and learn better.  They have a better imagination AND they use it more readily.  If we do watch TV at some point in the day, they have a harder time finding things to do in their free time.  This isn’t proven science and I would never condemn anyone for using it.  I can’t tell you how much I used it when my older children were little.  Having 2 or more children under the age of 5 can be a true challenge.  You are in the trenches.  Sometimes it’s just necessary to plop them down in front of a short TV show.  But even doing that, I would encourage you to limit that time.  If you need time to clean the house, involve them in that work or work to organize yourself so the work gets done with a husband is home or your can hire a mother’s helper.  I will also explain a bit more about how I organize my days to help keep my home. 

8. If you don’t already do this, start rotating toys AND get rid of the massive amounts of toys you have.  Nothing stifles play more than too many toys to choose from.  You will find that their imagination is so much fuller and lively if they have only a few toys at a time to work with.   I would also discourage the use of too many toys that use batteries.  Let your kids make the noise for the vacuum or the fire engine. 

These are just a few things that I have learned through the years.  They apply to all preschoolers regardless of that unrevealed learning style and personality.  J 

All that said, I have changed a bit in my view in preschool in general.  What I have witnessed over the past few weeks has made me seriously consider the idea that perhaps there is some merit to starting a bit earlier with them.  I would certainly not be a proponent of sitting down to do formal learning with your child.  No way.  But I have been having such a great time just spending time with our Little Linebacker Starter Kit (LBSK) and I think this is something that all moms can do with their preschoolers (assuming there aren’t major life changes taking place in the home – like a new baby.)   

This is the first year I have had 3 children doing "formal" school so I knew that I needed a better schedule (routine.)  I also have two little boys very close in age with a tendency toward bored destruction.  I NEEDED a fairly tight routine.  I wanted to keep my younger set pretty regimented through at least the morning time.  So I created playtimes and cribtimes for the two young ones and opportunities to build responsibility into my 5 yod as she plays with K-head (formally Si-bay) for a while. 

This is our preschool/kindergarten schedule:

9:00am   Reading; "Bible Truths for Little Kids" (catechisms); great living books; "Juniors Colors" for K-head. 
9:45am   Preschool for LBSK (will cover below)
10:15am  Snack with everyone and (hopefully) exercise - it's been too hot though
10:45am  Kindergarten with Schmoo (more tomorrow)
11:30am  Clean up for everyone

That's the general routine. 

I am so excited about the LBSK “school” this year.  I love watching him get so excited to have something of his own.  We're making a preschool Alphabet Book.  I will share pictures below but I must first share that I got this idea from a website called Lapbook Lessons.  I love lapbooking but it seems that I never really have time to finish any of these with my kids.  But they had one idea that actually seemed achievable so I adapted it to fit our family.  The idea came off their Alphabugs book.  All I did was simply change our book to an Alphabet Book and used the same idea. 

I have several resources that I pull from.  The first being simply an idea that I got after reading Marilyn Boyer's book called "HOME EDUCATION with Babies and Toddlers."  Most of the information I pretty much already knew.  But I was sincerely challenged by her admonition to be placing the Word in the hearts of our preschoolers.  I bought her "Proverbs for Preschoolers" book as well.  This is our guide for the Alphabet Book.  We are memorizing 2-3 Proverbs for each letter now.  LBSK loves it.  He's so proud that he can recite these verses on his own. 

Our focus is mainly on scripture that is related to our letter.  Beyond that I pull coloring pictures and projects off a few favorite websites.  He gets a choice of what he wants to do each week.  To be honest, he's mostly coloring and pasting while I review letters and their sounds.  He grows excited every time he recognizes his letter for the week.  He'll stop whatever he's playing to come announce to me that he found a specific letter. 

Here are the websites that I use right now: 

http://www.first-school.ws/

http://www.dltk-kids.com/

http://www.coloringcastle.com/

Coloring Castle is being used to review shapes and numbers.  We will be making books of these.  Once a week, we'll do a coloring page with a shape and a number on it.  I will be making him a special book of his very own to review shapes and numbers when he's finished.  He knows his colors backward and forward so I am not focusing on those to much unless they start with the letter we're focusing on. 

We have a few other things we work on if he doesn’t want to work on his book that day.  I have taken the time through the years to make file folder games so I have a good collection of those that he will work on as well.  We work on stringing beads and puzzles as well.  I have a special board called a Trace Erase Board that I bought used at a local book fair. 

Let me share some of the pictures so you see first hand what he has done recently. 

Front Cover

“Aa” page front cover

Inside the “Aa” book; the red cardstock contains the Proverbs for the week and a picture.

Sep. 17, 2008 - Untitled Comment