Homeschooling preschoolers support thread - Page 9

[eminer]

I just posted a thread about this, but I thought I'd ask you preschooler parents in particular: Does anyone know of good computer games for this age that are not overtly academic (e.g. involving phonics, or counting as an end in itself as opposed to simply an incidental requirement, or "finding the right answer")?

[joandsarah77]

I just posted some on your other thread.

[eilonwy]

Originally Posted by majazma

The other day, my uncle came over. He's a teacher, and has been for 25 years or something. I told him I was going to homeschool my kids, and he tells me that what the teachers call home schoolers is home-foolers. He seems to get the impression that parents homeschool so that they can keep their influence other their kids... like homeschooled kids are little clones of their parents.

This struck me as very funny; there are many teachers on this very forum, home educating their own children for a variety of reasons... I just read Guerilla Learning, and noticed that there are an awful lot of teachers/former teachers in their little blurbs. Some continue to teach, but they're all unschooling their own children or actively removing them from school settings on a regular basis to help them/allow them to explore their own interests.

[SunRayeMomi]

:

I see this often as well. It's as if they are fully aware of the cons/pros of ps and decided their own children probably wouldn't benefit.

Starfall has sound??!?! Argh, we need a new computer... and I need to see if the ILs have speakers around anywhere.

:
It's only the best part!

[AppleOrangePear]

We will hs our DS he is currently 25 months old. My biggest thing for him is free playing, using his own imagination not trying to push him or feel the need to use tv or computers. ( sad many cant believe he is very aware and knows so much for not watching tv : ) We follow a rhythm now and will continue to do so. Mornings are our inbreath: We make breakfast, modeling beeswax, water color painting, coloring, nursery rhymes , finger play . afternoons are our outbreath times: outside time things of that nature.... Most importantly his day is full of free play and min uninterupted. Of course i do enjoy playing with him to....

His imagination is really begining to flourish.

OH LOL We follow waldorf and have even joined a newly waldorf support group in our area.

Michele

[eminer]

Wow Michele, I love the inbreath/outbreath concept. I would love to hear more. How does your own work fit into your ds's day? (Or you could just link me to Rhythm for Dummies or something -- I am pretty challenged in this area.)

[SunRayeMomi]

( sad many cant believe he is very aware and knows so much for not watching tv )

I've gotten similar questions about dd's reading. "Is she in daycare?"
"No, she's never been in daycare or anything similar" As if they assume that she must have had peer or classroom influence on her ability/interest to read.
Is it the norm for a child to not have an interest in something unless it was force-fed to them? I would like to think not....

[eminer]

Today we spent "Black Friday" at the art and craft supply store (didn't even know it had a craft supply section down the block until today!). Came home with polymer clay, blank cards/envelopes, a purple gel pen, and some plastic beads and cord. The bead selection was amazing...so dd naturally gravitated toward a 50-cent bag of bright colored plastic ones. Which is a good thing, because I was pretty much spent out on the polymer clay. When we got home, dd tried the clay and beading and seemed to have fun. Not nearly as much fun or intensity as she has drawing with a pen, though, of course. Eve, on the other hand, LOVED the beads. Maybe I'll make her a toy with big shiny beads for Christmas.

[OhTheThinks.....]

Originally Posted by sweetpeasmom

Hey how are the muzzy videos? are they worth the money for them?
we are doing spanish here and i have a couple of dvds with kids songs and beginner spanish words that she loves but it's just not enough right now. SInce i'm learning spanish also right along side her.

:yawning: DH did not like the Spanish Muzzy at all. He sent it back after 10 days. You have 30 days to return it.
I heard a bit better response from a friend who had the German version. But she did not want to go to the expense of Lesson 2,as she said it was good, but too expensive. She is looking for a loaner instead.

[luckylady]

Well I am late coming in here but...

My DD is a very bright 3-1/2 year old. I have a few books on preschool/K curriculum from which i get ideas. At the beginning of the month I plan our theme for the month and break it down by weeks and then days. It's not like we "do" school, I just expose her to lots of things, art, explorations etc and see what she' interested in exploring. I mostly buy her educational toys and open ended play toys, like little horses and animals that she plays make-believe with for hours on end. I have a VERY active child - mentally and physically active so we need at LEAST 1 hour of park time everyday to get her energy out!

I have been wanting to find a preschool homeschool group locally because my poor DD needs some new friends as most of her old friends are now in preschool - some everyday of the week! I belong to a few on yahoogroups.

happy to have found this thread!

I will go through and gleam information!

[eminer]

Cheryl, you don't live near New York City, do you? I would so like to get our dd's together.

[SunRayeMomi]

Or Detroit?

I need a support group as well, but haven't found one around me, sadly

[Jillybean]

I found a support group around here by way of our local yahoo AP group. Someone posted that they were looking for other homeschoolers to get together regularly and 3 of us replied. So its small but we have fun and hopefully will add new members soon. Maybe you all could try something like that?

We are loving Starfall over here, too. Ds is so excited to be reading! He is obsessed anew with letters and plays with his magnetic letters pretty much all day. Lines them up and says the sounds, separates the vowels and consonants, does upper case and then lower case, spells words and makes sentences, etc. I have a hard time getting him to stop and eat or sleep! (or potty : )

I just posted a thread about this, but I thought I'd ask you preschooler parents in particular: Does anyone know of good computer games for this age that are not overtly academic?

I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for but my ds likes www.uptoten.com a lot and www.pbskids.org has some decent games. They are less academic, I kind of consider them "just for fun" type sites.

[bwylde]

I'm so disappointed. The library just called and the only copy of the Reading Lesson in our interlibrary loan system is lost . I think I might request the 100 easy lessons to see how that is. I'm doing other things with DS to help him learn to read but it would be nice to have something that starts out right, if you know what I mean.

We've been doing some of the language programs on the computer. He just loves those! I can't believe how easily he catches on and how well he can pronounce. I've heard kids catch on to foriegn languages easiest in the preschool years which I think may be right . I'd like to focus on french but I can't find the CD-Rom I had for it right now .

Today he found a folder full of sheets I had printed out ages ago and wanted to do them. I thought he had no intrest in doing worksheets so I was pleased. There were some with writing practices (follow the line kind of things to develop the motions for writing). Some were mazes and connect the dots with letters. He had a ball doing them. It was fun because DD was sitting next to us on the couch with a crayon and coloring book while I was showing DS what to do. I kept thinking how this is how learning should be, spontanious (sp?), fun and comfortable :

[Rigama]

Where to start???

After much deep discussion DH and I decided that we(read-I) will be homeschooling our 3.5 year old DS. The reasons are pretty simple: we can't afford Montessori and we deplore the public school system in our area.

I'm not sure where to even begin. I've always exposed him to lots of different things and just followed his lead. Lots of trips to the library, we are going to tour a local bakery soon, that kind of thing.

I believe he's right on the cusp of begining reading. He can identify all his letters and sounds and he tries to "read" words he knows. And if he sees a sign while we're driving he'll stop and phonetically say each letter.

He is also very into counting and adding. I can ask him "what does 3 plus 1 equal?" and he can tell me. So my problem is that I want to encourage him in these interests without pushing him. I want, for MY own sake, a more definitive idea of where he is and where he's going, and I want to be able to develop appropriate "lessons" for him. I feel like he has this inate desire to learn and grow, but that *I'm* wasting this precious time because I don't know what's too much and what's not enough. Am I even making sense? LOL

So please tell me, homeschooling mamas of preschoolers, How in the world do you do it? Any tips, advice, ideas, feedback and thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Rigama

[eilonwy]

Well, my advice is to start a program and keep going until your son resists/loses interest. You will definately know how much is too much, your son will tell you (though perhaps not in as many words). Just as you knew when he was full while he was nursing/taking a bottle, you'll know when he's had enough time sitting down and doing lessons.

Right now BeanBean (3) is willing to sit for up to an hour and a half doing some things, but for others lessons can be no longer than 15-20 minutes. It's all good. I'm not anywhere near the point where I feel like I'm forcing him to work, but he is being challenged and working hard. He looks forward to doing lessons (spending time with Mamma and learning something new? How much better could life get!) and enjoys them, as well as discussing the new things that he's learned with his grandparents, cousins, daddy, etc. It's all in good fun.

I'm trying to save some money to get him the Singapore workbooks.. but it's looking like it won't happen for a while. I've been making stuff up for him based on the textbooks, but I'm afraid that it's much more boring coming from Mamma (there's no color, for one thing ).

[eminer]

Rigama, since you mentioned being interested in Montessori schooling, are you interested in Montessori homeschooling? (I'm not personally doing it, but I looked into it.) If so, here is a link to a group of Montessori homeschoolers: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/playschool6 There is also an associated group for materials making support (Flylady style) and a website with templates and instructions to help in making materials.

[UlrikeDG]

Originally Posted by eminer

Rigama, since you mentioned being interested in Montessori schooling, are you interested in Montessori homeschooling?

In addition to the resources Erin mentioned, there are also a number of books on homeschooling Montessori style. Neither of the libraries I've lived near in the past 4 years has had a very large selection of homeschooling books, but they've both had at least one on Montessori HS, so I'd suggest checking the library first. Of course, Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, Borders, etc all carry books on the subject, as well.

[splendid]

Hey Rynna,

Which Singapore book are you looking/saving for?

[eilonwy]

The workbooks that go with Primary Math 1A & 1B. We've got the textbooks, but I think that the workbooks pages would really help to reinforce the ideas in his mind, and I'd get to see how much he's actually understanding. And of course, they wouldn't be as boring as the Mamma ones.

I can't find my copy of First Language Lessons. I don't know where it went. It must have gotten moved when Mike cleaned up last week... But I'm totally bummed. Meh.