Can these months fly by any faster? Preschool homeschooling is going by quick. Focussing on what my 3 year old should be learning and how she learns has taught me a valuable lesson. I cannot force a square peg into a round hole!
At the beginning of our homeschooling I tried sitting her down and "teaching" like I was taught and loved growing up. A fairly regimented few hours felt like days when she voiced her disdain for "school". I learned quickly that she doesn't learn in this type of setting, so I let her dictate how and when she learns. Talk about flourishing!
A number of people have asked what I'm using for homeschooling. Here's what I do:
I use the book "Active Learning for Threes" by Cryer, Harms & Bourland as a base line to make sure she is where she should be for her age. Then for each month I decide what themes to incorporate for the fundamentals she needs to build on. Once the theme is chosen I scour the web for awesome sites with lesson plans and printables then head to the dollar store for "stuff" that will keep her interested.
My uber favorite website for printables is
2 Teaching Mommies. These mommies have done all the work which saves me hours! All I have to do, usually an hour before our lesson day begins, is print everything I want to incorporate!
I also hit up the used book store and amazon.com for books that go with the theme and can be enjoyed for years to come. Today I ordered 3 books on Thanksgiving and have lesson ideas from brighthub.com for each.
Of course, anything, everything, and everywhere is a learning opportunity. In October we studied Apples & Pumpkins so at the end of the apple unit we headed to County Line Orchard for some apple picking. While there she was able to identify everything she had learned at home and it was fun for her (and us)! It worked great going there because they have a pumpkin patch as well, so we seamlessly moved into our pumpkin unit and she was none the wiser to my evil plan of learning!
This week we are doing a leaf unit theme, perfect timing for her to help rake leaves under the guise of jumping into them once they are piled! Oh, I'm learning alright! :-)
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| Napkin Folding (Scored the napkin rings at the thrift store for $1!) |
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| Apple Picking |
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| Fall Counting Basket (This month we are counting up to 20!) |
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| Some of the Fall Themed Books |
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| Learning the days of the week in English & Italian |
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| Counting Clip Cards (Have them in Halloween & Leaf themes too!) |
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| Apple Counting (Dollar store apples so they don't rot!) |
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| Leaf Hunt |
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| Coloring Pages from a variety of websites |
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| Fall Sensory Tub |
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| I love this CD! |
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| Leaf Sorting & Counting |
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