Winter/Summer Pre-Homeschooling Chat - Page 5

[Nicoleandco]

Revolting-  Oh gosh.  I think we all have days like that and doubt keeping them home.  I hope you all have a better day tomorrow! For this age group, you can find so much curriculum online.  Workboxes might work for you too.  Good luck! 

Well, I have a lot of great stuff planned...but I was sick all weekend, and DD is sick today.  When we are feeling better:

All About Me poster

Spin art using a salad spinner and paper plates (from The Artful Parent)

Baking soda and vinegar experiments

Animal sorting and classification (this is what our February unit is- animal classification)

Patterns and sequencing.  Dd just discovered sequencing cards and she loves them. 

[kaliyah'smama]

I've been welcomed to join here.  Thank you for that.

I posted a separate thread requesting support as I thrust myself into the new world of consciously creating routine and ritual for my 2 1/2-year-old daughter and was directed here. 

My story: I began making phone calls to preschools for the fall and......ugh.  Waitlists, pressure, competition, cost, reduced time together.....I began tuning into my intuition and hearing that it didn't feel right.  I want to provide the space for learning and creating for DD. 

No idea where to begin but lots of desire.  We'll begin the endeavor with interruptions of the 9-month-old baby brother and doula clients but I'm ready. 

Structure is necessary for me to engage her in the right ways.  And I need community.  I know that I can't parent/teach/love in a vacuum.  Suggestions on how to begin?

[Tjej]

You could find or set up a regular playgroup.  That is one thing about preschool that you can't do on your own at home - meeting little peers and figuring out how social relationships work.  BUT when you set up the playgroup you are there to help guide your child, so it's still different.

Anyhoo, other than that, I find there are all sorts of great books to get from the library.  I have had fun getting great childrens books.  If you feel like it is important you could base your activities off of that. 

Another thing I did was buy some stuff with my "preschool" budget (some of what I saved by not enrolling the kids in preschool).  I personally did rakes and shovels for outside, different crafty type things (beeswax and kite paper come to mind), and some toys I otherwise wouldn't have just bought (a nice bruder digger, a melissa and doug spelling puzzle). 

There are all sorts of websites with ideas - I'm not as structured as you sound like you want to be, but I find that as long as I am willing to explain and take time in the moment with the kids they seem to learn a lot.

Tjej  

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by kaliyah'smama 

I've been welcomed to join here.  Thank you for that.

I posted a separate thread requesting support as I thrust myself into the new world of consciously creating routine and ritual for my 2 1/2-year-old daughter and was directed here. 

My story: I began making phone calls to preschools for the fall and......ugh.  Waitlists, pressure, competition, cost, reduced time together.....I began tuning into my intuition and hearing that it didn't feel right.  I want to provide the space for learning and creating for DD. 

No idea where to begin but lots of desire.  We'll begin the endeavor with interruptions of the 9-month-old baby brother and doula clients but I'm ready. 

Structure is necessary for me to engage her in the right ways.  And I need community.  I know that I can't parent/teach/love in a vacuum.  Suggestions on how to begin?

Creat your own structur.

for exampl: 

Mondays we have ST and get the house in shape for the week.

Tuesday: Local / garden/ nature center

Vedensay: Libary trip possible park (at same location) aftervards. 

Thursday ST and ____ (possible park day with home scfhool group)

Friday:  Play date with same family

you can get as structured as you need -- by time of the day or whatever

routine helps me so much, and the kids too
 

[revolting]

So, I'm thinking about loosely following Wee Folk Art for this spring. Anyone doing this one? Or try it? What worked well for you and what didn't?

[MoonStarFalling]

Subbing. We have a son turning 9 who's homeschooled and our daughter who's turning 4. I'm becoming a little more structured with her now, reading the thread and exploring ideas. I'm reading Christopherus Kindergarten with your Three to Six Year Old right now.

[Tjej]

Well, I just registered DD for homeschooling in the fall.  I'm excited and a little nervous.  I'm sure it will all be fine, but its a lot of new stuff to figure out.  We're going to be part of a one-morning-a-week class and there is a support staff person that we chat with every week or so about what we are doing (that is what we registered for - in our area if you have a support teacher you get $$ from the government for cirriculum and activities).

Now I have to pick the cirriculum - ugh, so many interesting options!  I HAVE a sonlight K cirriculum with science from a cousin of mine, so I feel like I SHOULD use that, but part of me wants to just spread that over 2 years (my DS will be K age the next year, so it'd be more age appropriate for him in another year if we stretched it out anyway) and then I want to fit in all sorts of other things... I like the Charlotte Mason idea, Enki sounds AWESOME, Unit studies is sort of how we already live our lives...

Anyway, just thought fellow homeschooling preschooling people might be happy to listen to my mental ramblings... :)

Anyone actually using Five in a Row?

As far as our un-preschooling - DD has taken to coloring some of her pictures nicely lately instead of scribbling and I LOVE it.  It is so fun to see her actually work on something.  DS and DD both really like the Mo Willems Elephant and Piggie books (I do too). 

Tjej

[umsami]

I'm starting to get more formal with DD who is 3-1/2....mainly because of her desire.  She sees her big brothers "doing school"--and she wants to do stuff.

We've been watching some youtube videos on "Days of the Week".... and some of the Hooked on Phonics ones.

I thought we'd need to work on numbers, but somehow on her own she's managed to learn her numbers up to 10.  She didn't know how to recognize them two months ago.  Maybe it was the board games we've been playing? No idea.  So, we count Cheerios, almonds, etc.  Right now, Monopoly Jr. is a favorite game--as is Hi-Ho Cherry-O.  We just got "Scavenger Hunt" which looks good!

She likes the Kumon pasting/cutting books a lot. We also had a copy of the HWT pre-k book...and she likes to do a page or two of that after breakfast.  She likes to "write" letters to her grandparents.  Probably the best investment I made was a giant package of drawing paper at B.J.'s (warehouse store).  

I've been thinking of "Before Five in a Row".  Tried to snag a copy twice this week on eBay and through curriculum ads, but they were all gone.  

Has anybody tried the dry-erase crayons by Crayola?

[CCJWGM]

Originally Posted by revolting 

So, I'm thinking about loosely following Wee Folk Art for this spring. Anyone doing this one? Or try it? What worked well for you and what didn't?

I look at it for book recommendations and craft ideas but don't follow it formally.  We tried doing the nature journal and it didn't quite work as planned so I didn't repeat it..  DS drew the picture and refused narrations (cute picture of our Molting chicken).  DD gave me the world's longest narration but refused to draw a picture.  "Oh Dear Minerva Louise.  We love you so.  We want you to go to the store with you.  Oh dear Minerva louise.  At the store we will get (this continued on for about 20 minutes).  LOL.  Although they are now GF at the blog I haven't been able to use the food craft suggestions because of our gluten, dairy issues.  I always love tying good baking into a theme.  I'm very bad at following a curriculum though.  We just do our own thing tying in a bit of this and a bit of that.  It works for us.

[inkslinger]

I'm subbing! I just started hsing my 6 year old, and I also have a 4 year old. Very new to this, and you have lots of great ideas!

[zebaby]

Are there two pre-Homeschooling chats out there? How did I miss 5 pages??

I'm in the middle of trying to organize a schedule to actually have some structured homeschool time with my 4 y.o. DS. In the middle of doing an online Montessori course which has been very motivating to get organized!

[Momma Aimee]

missing you all -- let's post more :)

[Stacey B]

One more day of winter!!! It's already spring like here and we've been outside a lot lately, starting the garden and talking walks around town. Ds has also gotten very interested in architecture lately so we've been looking at lots of architecture books (we go to the adult section of the library and find books photos and plans) and making a lot of our own. This has led to a lot of discussions about scale and other architectural conventions (like why it make sense to put a bathroom right upstairs from the kitchen (plumbing)). It's also led to collages and watercolor paintings.

It's crazy that it isn't even officially spring but we're signed up for an open house for a local homeschool program for next year. It's a one day a week school program with other homeschooling kids. I'm afraid that we're going to be a lot more relaxed/liberal than most of the other families but it's free and gives him the social time he craves.

Anyone else starting to think about Kindergarten around here?

[CCJWGM]

New thread started for the change in season.  :)

http://www.mothering.com/community/forum/thread/1304149/spring-autumn-pre-homeschool-chat#post_16335201