Question about how to schedule/pace a preschooler's learning progress

[waiting2bemommy]

It looks like ds is going to be home at least through the end of summer and he thrives on structure, so I am trying to create a schedule/plan for us that incorporates everything that he needs: lots of running around/dirt digging/unscheduled free outdoors play time with pretty solid learning.

I'm not interested in "hothousing" him; these are all things that he has taken an interest in at one point or another. 

As an example, I was doing sorting with him one night, and he breezed through the activity I gave him and was getting wild. So I pulled out a jar of change, and started teaching him how to sort the coins, which really piqued his interest. He started asking me who the people were on the coins. Next thing I knew, we were on the computer, reading aloud about Thomas Jefferson and Abe Lincoln. So now he is all into the presidents.

He has very asynchronous development, and has actually regressed in his motor skills a bit (is now in OT), and I am having a hard time figuring out how to know when I should push him a little more and try to even out his learning a bit, or whether I should just continue to let him take off in the areas that interest him and not worry about the rest.

I was a very poor math student but love reading, so naturally Ive gravitated towards teaching him more language based skills and less math skills. So, I'm not even sure if his skills are totally a reflection of HIM, or me and my biases. in the interests of not leaving anything out I looked up our public school's kindergarten goals for each subject matter. (He's already past all the preschool stuff)

We are fine on the language arts stuff. Obviously his handwriting/fine motor is not going to rival a 5 year old's no matter how "smart" he is, so we'll just keep practicing, at his pace.

But there are other things , for example, patterns. Do I work with him on patterns until he has "mastered" it? And what does that mean, for a 3.5 year old? Do I just let him keep going with it until he gets bored of it, even if that means he never moves beyond one simple pattern activity, and just does that same activity (we do file folder games a lot) over and over for a month? Or should I stick to a set schedule, work on that skill for a set amount of time, and then move on?

Should I be trying to focus more on the areas that he is less ahead in? (I hate to say "behind" when he is only 3 years old, plus he is only truly behind in non academic stuff, which is already being addressed through other avenues) Or should I assume that he will eventually have a burst of interest in those areas, and just keep letting him focus on his current interests and ride them out for however long it takes?

To a certain extent I HAVE to guide him, or he would sit and chew the wheels off his cars all day long, and dig in the dirt outside, watch toy story 3 repeatedly, and not do much else. so I can't be totally child led....he wouldn't learn anything. But once I present an activity to him and work with him, you can see him engaging and really getting into it (or not) and that's how I gauge what activities to do again or continue with.

I just need help figuring out how to pace ourselves and make sure I cover everything I'm supposed to cover. He complained daily about the diagnostic preschool classroom...he said it was a "baby class" and that he wanted "real stuff." I guess since he couldn't sit and chew things and recite movie lines all day , he wanted them to give him a real challenge beyond coloring and singing songs.

[atpeace]

I love your post and find your questions and concerns very interesting and relevant. I'm wondering the exact same stuff (just starting out researching homeschooling possibilities). Sorry I don't have any contributions but I really hope some experienced mamas answer. :) 

[Aeress]

How does your son respond to new material? It sounds like he enjoys the novelness of it and uses it as a springboard to doing other activities. This is a great skill! I would keep doing what you are doing, offering new ideas based on what he is doing currently, it is a great way to build skills and leads to mastery of skills. Being able to do a similar activity in new ways is the cornerstone to learning.

  While you could do the exact same activity over and over until he gets that and then move onto another activity/skill, I think it is better to let him work on the skill until he wants to move onto something next and then re-introduce the basic concept, in a different form, later on. Again, this approach brings in the idea that when we reintroduce a skill, the child uses their prior knowledge and any new knowledge to improve,invent, create, and work the existing skill in new ways.

As far as giving him a gently nudge, I think this can be done in a loving way,  being respectful of the child's need to be in that place/skill/learning because that is where he needs to be, and also realizing that it might be time to move on/try again. My middle dd sometimes needs a nudge, like- "Hey kiddo, you have been making your G's this way,lets see if you can make them this way."

Does that help? I think you have the right idea!

[Aeress]

Oops, missed a part-

As far as covering everything- do you mean, all the skills necessary to enter kindergarten?

[waiting2bemommy]

Originally Posted by Aeress 

Oops, missed a part-

As far as covering everything- do you mean, all the skills necessary to enter kindergarten?

Well, actually, the stuff I'm working with him on now IS the kindergarten curriculum. So I guess you would say the skills necessary for entering first grade, which I know sounds completely ridiculous given that he is just 3! I've had a copy of the "ready for kindergarten" assessment list for over a year and he has everything on there down pat except for tying his shoes, and I just don't think he's got the dexterity for that right now.

My goal is not to frustrate him by pushing new skills that he's not ready for, but at the same time to keep his mind engaged by constantly offering him new challenges. It's a really fine line!

So, assuming that things go at the child's pace, how does one plan any kind of schedule?

For example, I'd like to schedule some field trips based on different things I expect we'll be learning about. Also, we don't have a printer at home so I have to make a special trip to print out any supplies/art templates/worksheets that we'll be doing. I never know how to gauge where we'll be on a given day or week! Anyone else have this problem.

[LuxPerpetua]

It sounds like workboxes filled with fun activities would work well for your son.  There are lots of Montessori homeschooling ideas online that you could make up and put in some shoeboxes for each day of the week to do.  For instance, one day you could have a craft, a fine-motor activity like stickers or Legos, a recipe to make, a book to read together, etc.  I found this site the other day that has some good preschool activities: http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2010/07/letter-of-week-curriculum.html  .  Also, check out the free samples from Little Acorn Learning.  We're doing LAL for kindy this Fall because dd is progressing so well on her own but I wanted to add in more stories and crafts.  At 3.5 I wouldn't worry at all about being ahead or behind or even just right.  I'd simply just have fun and have lots of free and play time sprinkled with a few more organized activities.  At 3.5 we started doing daily nature walks and instituted painting day.  Both are still big hits for us.

[pigpokey]

It never occured to me to have academic learning goals for my 3.5 year olds beyond "exposure" to various things.  That being said we did Teach Your Child to Read, all of us together, when DD was almost 5 and DS was an older 3.  But, DS is gifted and what the heck, it seemed to work.  But I don't think DD suffered for having started at K.