At Home Preschool

A month or two ago, I decided Caius needed some more structured time during the day. I found some workbooks for preschool aged children and we started by doing a page a day from each book.


Here are our supplies. Crayons, and this is Cai's brand new pencil case which holds his pencils (A new spiderman pencil and an old wolf man pencil Neal used as a kid), a pencil sharpener, a glue stick, and his scissors.

 

For Cai's birthday he got a few of these brain quest decks, which he has a lot of fun with. I have had fun seeing how he observes. He is at an age now where he is learning from everything around him. I'm always thinking, "How does he know that?! I didn't teach it to him!" Going through these decks, I see that he knows more about his world than I assumed. 

This is Cai's new workbook which has ABC's, 123's, Phonics, Vocabulary, Shapes and Colors, Sorting and Matching, My World, Science, and Fun and Games sections.

Caius seems to grasp the 123's and Science activities easily.

 

The workbooks we started out with. Now I choose 5-6 activities from these books and the Brain Quest activity book to do everyday. I think Cai's favorite is cutting.

The book I am reading, preparing to use with Cai when he's ready.

One of our ABC charts.

Numbers! We are working on recognizing the characters and associating them with the correct number.

 

Since Leland is phasing out of naps, he is joining Cai and I for activity time. We work on recognizing and saying the right name for colors, and the ABC's.

It has been more difficult to get Leland to sit and follow instructions. He is at a very defiant age. Yesterday was a particularly hard day. That morning Neal woke up at 4:30 to find Leland had been up turning on all the lights, getting food out of the refrigerator, and he was running around with Neal hacksaw. We put a baby gate in front of his door, but he just plows it down. In nursery (I am a nursery teacher) Leland was one of the most difficult to get to sit down during lesson time and snack time and singing time. THEN at dinner time he absolutely refused to take a bite of his food. I made him sit at the table until he took a bite. Around 9:45 he finally fell asleep. Never took a bite. I am reaching the end of my rope. I try to remember that Caius was like this too, and he has become an obedient, responsible and caring little boy. I just have to stick it out I guess.

When Caius was 2, I was pretty sure I would not be homeschooling him.  As he has gotten older and better behaved, I am interested. I have been so lucky to have a number of mothers around me who have homeschooled their children, or who are homeschooling now. My questions have been endless, so I really appreciate their willingness to talk with me so openly about their lives. I think the most attractive aspect of homeschooling is the freedom these families enjoy. The freedom to travel or vacation whenever they want. The freedom to choose what their children are learning. The freedom to find out and use the best learning styles for each individual child. The freedom to explore together and teach children to love learning.

So preschool at home is my way of testing the waters. If I feel like we come out successful, I will probably continue to teach at home. I'm still adjusting my methods and trying to find the right balance of workbook and hands on leanring. So far, Caius has been wonderful and adapting easily to changes!