New to homeschooling (3 yr old)

[FindingJes]

Hey guys

My husband and I have decided to homeschool our son. We're very excited about this and I'm now trying to find all of the information I can. I do have a few questions for all of you amazing people <3

How would I go about finding local homeschooling programs? I have heard that some museums, etc offer things such as "home school day" where kids can come in. Is there some sort of website where I could look this up?

What type of curriculum do you suggest for a 3 year old? I cannot remember attending preschool myself. I do have programs on my iPod touch which he has mastered and I have a big workbook as well.

Thanks. Sorry if this all seems slightly vague or doesn't make sense. Super sleep deprived momma over here, hehe.

<3

[DoulaVallere]

Hi there and welcome to the adventure! I have a 4yo, so I'll just tell you what we did last year. NOTHING STRUCTURED! Squirmy 3yos just can't sit still for that, and I wanted to start him off thinking school was FUN, so we spent a lot of time drawing outside with sidewalk chalk, fingerpainting, playing in the yard, going on nature walks, and letting him help me cook (which is a great way to learn counting AND fractions at a young age!).

We also let him play for maybe 20-30 minutes a day on www.starfall.com which is a free game based phonics program. He seriously learned all of his letters and letter sounds in about 2 months just playing games online for a little while every week. It was amazing! The site has 4 levels, the first is letter sounds, the second is 3 letter words, etc up to reading whole stories. Now that he's 4 we switched over to Hooked on Phonics and were able to skip the whole first section because he had already learned it on starfall!

We also found that stickers were very motivating, so we started introducting chores with a sticker chart where if he got 10 stickers he could earn a "treat" like ice cream or a sheet of stickers, etc.

I also have the preschool books from Rod and Staff (a Menonite publishing company) which work on learning to write letters and numbers, shapes, colors (which he already knew, but there are lots of matching activities, etc), learning to use scissors, etc. Those have been fabulous because he LOVES to cut and paste. If you don't want something with a Christian slant, places like Sam's Club sell comprehensive curiccula books for preschool that have a lot of the same types of activities.

My biggest piece of advice is to just have fun and not stress about it. Let learning be just a part of life...you don't have to have "school time" at that age, you can turn any activity into school just by pointing out and explaining what you are doing and why you are doing it. Like I said, the kitchen is a great place to learn math, pointing out letters on signs as you walk down the street, counting how many sides a bolt has, planting a garden, sorting beads or beans, etc. Just make it fun and they will soak it up like a sponge!

ETA: Forgot to answer your first question! The easiest way is to see if there is a homeschool co-op in your area. They will probably already know alllll of the homeschool deals that you are eligible for, be happy to share them with you, go on field trips together, and get lots of great support. You can find them just by asking around (at the library, LLL meetings, etc are good places to find other homeschoolers) or by searching on Google or Yahoo Groups.

[FindingJes]

Thank you SO much for your advice! Simple things like you said with the beads and beans I never would have thought of. I think I am trying to make this so much more complicated than it really should be. I appreciate it!

[Lillian J]

Here are some suggestions I made in another thread about resources for getting started. And here are contacts for local support groups.

Here are some other threads on young children
home preschool
preschool recommendations
preschool curriculum?

Here's a copy of an old post I wrote in response to someone who was looking for ideas:

I think it would look a lot less overwhelming after awhile. Just think simply - and make a list, maybe in a special notebook you keep for ideas as they come along. And look at the notebook every morning. And collect materials that will be available for the activities you have listed.

You could just go to a nursery rhyme website one week, for instance, and pick out some fun rhymes and finger plays you'd like to do with your child. Things like that can go on for a long time and be fun memories your child will always remember. Another time, you could go to Mr. Rogers' site and pick out a few little fun activities you'd like to do that week - his site has wonderful ideas. You could make a note to yourself to go out and point out different kinds of flowers or clouds or birds - not in the sense of lessons or anything of permanent importance, but just in the sense of being your child's tour guide for her fairly new and fabulous world. That's the way I think of it - being a tour guide.

And print up ideas. If you have a list of things, you could just open it in the morning and be ready with ideas. And you can set up a loose rhythm/schedule - not to necessarily follow, but to be able to refer to - such as what mornings you'll try to get to the library, what afternoons you'll try to go for walks, what times of day you'll try to snuggle together and read books aloud to your child, what times of day you'll make a conscious effort to do some sort of musical activity (even if it's only playing an audio recording), etc. You can do as well as any book or program in picking and choosing from all the great ideas that are around.

It could be fun to just set aside some time to go into the various sites and just look around, jotting down notes when something especially grabs your attention. It doesn't take much to enrich the days of a young child who's already busy playing and exploring.

You could start with just the environment - setting up a sand play spot, a place to put beautiful picture books, a place to set up blocks. You can set up a place where a little fort/playhouse can be set up and remade on a regular basis I put some links in that page to sites about "play-stands" you can make, and if you do a search here in MDC on play-stands, you'll find suggestions for some you can buy. But forts/playhouses can also be made from very simple ways of hanging cloth. Gather materials for crafts and craft making, like homemade "playdough" making, etc., and keep those things organized and available.

If you go to Amazon.com, there are some nice little books of suggestions for activities - if you do a search there on "activities for young children," you'll find lots. But I think you can find those same things online through the links in the page you found overwhelming. But keep in mind that a lot of the books today are focusing on the ABCs and numbers - because there's such an obsession with all that now - so to find just lots of enrichment activities, you'll need to "look inside" the books on their Amazon pages (or, of course, at the bookstores and library, but that's only natural). Any curriculum is probably going to dwell on traditional school basics, whereas you can turn to a much bigger world of wonderful things to explore and learn about that aren't about preparing for academic studies - it just might require keeping a list. Have fun! Lillian

[ILoveMyBabyBird]

here's a thread I started for those of us with pre-k age kids homeschooling/planning to homeschool http://www.mothering.com/discussions....php?t=1161286

as for finding things to do outside the home, if there are any museums, nature centers, etc. in your area, just check them out on the web and there will probably be info on homeschool groups, etc. Right now ds-who is 3.5 is not in any groups, he just started going to the gym daycare for 3-4 hours a week and that is plenty for him for now, but i do hope to get him into the library reading time in january-in my area it is divided into spring and fall groups and you can only register during a certain time. I also plan to get him into basketball in March and go from there. I am learning as I go so nothing too permanent and things could change if they don't fit our family well...just keep that in mind! I know one thing I worry about is interaction with other kids and now seeing how ds really loves going to the gym daycare it made me realize he needs to get into more group activities, i never even cared much when he was younger, but i do think once a child hits a certain maturity a bit of social interaction with peers is good for them.

[skueppers]

At that age, I made it a point NOT to homeschool my daughter. What I mean is, I avoided thinking about what the "learning objectives" of activities we did together might be, and selected things to do with her based on what we both enjoyed, rather than based on what I thought might be needed to prepare her for the future.

So far, this method has worked out just fine. She did not require any specific instruction in order to learn any of the typical preschool skills.

[Jennifer Z]

At three, it isn't really "homeschooling" yet, it is just parenting. If you are looking for things to do, one of the things I am considering is getting something like the "Family Fun" magazine and doing projects out of it each month. That way my dd gets to develop the skills she needs most at this age (cutting, gluing, and fine motor development) in a fun way and I don't have to constantly think of new ideas on my own.

The other really big thing at this age is to read, read, read to them. Lots of books with rhyme and rhythms, lots of books with repetitive sequencing, (brown bear, what do you hear, stuff like that), and doing things like singing and having them help you cook and clean. Really, that is all they need at this age, and it is plenty.

Mostly, just remember it is a journey and not a race. Enjoy the moments.

[Savoir Faire]

Hello,

I have a three (almost four) and a five year old. I agree....NOTHING STRUCTURED! Sing the alphabet song, read Chicka Chikca Boom Boom...do arts and crafts and such, go to the park...

I honestly don't know how a museum would view a 3-year-old on homeschooling day...I'm not sure of the logistics on that.

Just have fun, try not to get too crazy and search around to decide what it is that you want for the future...when needed.

Welcome!

[Jennifer Z]

As far as homeschooling groups go, most of the events I have been at only have kids under 5 or 6 if they are the younger siblings of an older homeschooler. There are occasionally things where they ask that siblings under school age don't come along (which, for us, means we don't go).

If you want to have a group to meet up with, you might look for AP parenting groups. Here I see a lot of crossover between the two groups, but the parenting groups are meant for the younger set and that time the older sibs are usually the "extras".

[pigpokey]

When my kids were 3, we swam together regularly year round and also they went to both structured and unstructured gymnastics. Both of these they use in their K-1 years as team activities.

I agree with pp's that preschool is not school, and thus you do not home school then. Though I was constantly accused of home schooling when I could not pull out the name of my children's preschool at parties.