Question about themes and time frames for prek homeschooling

[DelKroemer]

Hello all,

As I am getting prepared for my first year of homeschooling my DDs (ages 3 and almost 5), I am wondering how much time is spent on themes? For instance, we are going to do a baby theme because we have a new baby coming soon. Do you typically spend a day or a week on a particular theme (or more)?

Also, do you schedule your homeschool hours/time? Or do you wait till the kids get up and start when they are ready for the day? Do you do all activities within a certain time frame, like they would if they were in traditional school, or do you home school the whole day through and take as much time as needed for each activity/subject?

I know that's a lot of questions,lol. Thanks for any and all answers!

~ Del

[jenfl]

I think the answer to each of these is going to depend on you!

I spend various amounts of time on each theme, depending on how big it is, how interested she is, and how deep we want to get. For instance, we'll do just a week on the human body, touching each subject briefly but knowing that she'll continue to ask questions about things outside of "school" time. We'll spend 3 weeks on plants/trees so we can get deeper, 2 weeks on amphibians and reptiles, etc.

We only vaguely schedule time. We do "most mornings". That gives me a goal of when to get started each day, but also flexibility in case we want to go out and do things as a family.

Since we do Montessori, we aim for a solid period of time in the materials area (1-2 hours). But we also talk about things throughout the day, and she probably learns and retains most from that because it's whatever she's currently interested in.

At 3 years old, the goal of our structured school time is to provide an extended stretch of time with the Montessori materials and to, as my husband says, "throw things at the wall and see what sticks". I'm not expecting that she'll retain everything we talk about, but I'm just seeing what strikes her interest that we can expand on outside of school time and give her a framework for starting to learn different subjects.

[lach]

The best thing about working through themes is that kids love something "new" and tend to get really excited to explore a new subject. Everything looks new and shiny and different through a new lens.

The worst part about themes is that it is, at the end of the day, a one trick pony and once it's dead and you're still beating it, nobody is happy.

It's not really a question that can be easily answered, because it really depends on the theme and it really depends on the kid. When I plan a theme (either for my kids or in my past life tutoring), I plot it out to take a week, and think of things to do every day that week. Some weeks, the theme fizzles out by Wednesday. Some weeks go into 2 because there's still lots more to explore. The only way to really know how long interest will last is to try it and pay attention. Kids are weird. Something that you think will be the most interesting thing ever and will immediately capture their attention for weeks may very well turn out to be a complete dud that obviously isn't going anywhere. Something that you think you kinda have to do but will probably be really boring and you'll only spend a day on it may turn out to really excite them and they'll want to do it all week.

IMO one of the best parts about homeschooling is this flexibility. In a classroom, things really do need to be plotted out and if there's no more time to work on something (either because the period or the day is over, or because there's a deadline of a test, or because something that needs to be tested needs to take priority) then there's only so much a teacher can do. At home, if something isn't working you can stop right away and figure out how to fix the problem, and if something is working you can run with it.

[LuxPerpetua]

My dd is 4.5 and though we don't do specific themes (we're Waldorf) we do do broad seasonal themes. At this age, we do our reading aloud during meal-times and in the car (when I'm not driving) and really whenever dd requests it. Read alouds are all the planned activities we do--the rest are simply immersing ourselves in the season, such as garden-tending, cooking/baking, swimming, collecting leaves, nature walks, etc. At age 5.5 (dd's kindy year) I'm hoping to start a short circle time after lunch or so but not for now.