Hey all you soon-to-be Preschool Homeschool Mamas! This one is for you! (Or for anyone who is curious about what this even looks like!) What a wonderful time you and your littles are going to have doing preschool together at home! I am so excited for you! These are some of the most fun times ever…for kids and parents! There are so many opportunities to explore. There are things to try out, new ideas to learn; the list goes on and on! Fun! A little disclaimer before we begin: Although I am a certified and experienced teacher, I didn’t ever teach preschool in the classroom–just to my own kids. I will be sharing our experience and what that looked like, so you can have one example of one way to go about teaching preschool at home. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s hop into the excitement!
As you may have gathered from other posts, we are a very outdoorsy, nature-loving, and active family. I tell you this because it shaped our preschool years in a big way. We spent our days learning through play and directed hands-on activities. We went to the park…a LOT. We went to the zoo, the farm, the library, the pond, and sometimes the beach. Most of the outings we went on were either free or of minimal expense. We did, however, choose one place per year to get family season passes to. We were fortunate to be located near two different zoos, a teaching farm, a large aquarium, Disneyland, and countless museums, so we had the ultimate smorgasbord as far as choices. And at one point or another, we tried them all!
Our days at home were spent in the backyard, kitchen, and at the kitchen table, which doubled as our school table. One thing I made sure of was that our arts and crafts supply cabinet was always stocked with tons of colorful things to be creative with. From pompoms to feathers, sequins to popsicle sticks, we had them all. I found a great kit to get started with. It has tons of goodies in it!
We often did unit studies where we would incorporate all kinds of messy cutting, gluing, glittering, ribbon-clad artwork. We also used so much play dough, clay, Crayola Model Magic, tempera paint, twistable crayons, Pip Squeak markers, colored construction paper and glue-sticks that I really should have purchased stock in those companies, haha!
All this sounds like lots of fun, and it was! Alongside all of this hands-on creativeness, I also planned intentional learning for them. Above, I mentioned unit studies. What is a unit study, you ask? Well, I’m glad you did! In a nutshell, a unit study is a themed and planned out unit centered on one larger thing–let’s say plants, for example. All, or most of the things you do will center around that general idea. A unit study can last two weeks or two months! It’s all dependent on what you want to do with it, and how much everyone is enjoying it. I have had many a unit study that I have lengthened because no one wanted to stop learning about it, and likewise many I have shortened that turned out to be not-as-much-fun as I had thought it would be. Using that example of plants, here’s the kind of procedure I used to plan unit studies for preschool:
- Decide on the next unit study (i.e. Plants)
- Go to the library and check out lots of books about it. (Aim for a mix of informational books, and fictional stories with the theme you’re going for.) I also tried to get a few short DVDs on the subject if they were available. Magic School Bus, although an older series, is excellent!
- Display the library books in a way that piques the interest of our kids. Read only 1-2 per day.
- Gather ideas for art projects about the unit theme.
- Gather special craft supplies. For plants, I would make sure to have multi-colored leaves made of fabric or felt, leaf and flower shaped cookie cutters, sticks gathered at the park or in the yard, peeled crayons for making leaf rubbings, radish and bean seeds for sprouting, etc.
- Plan a few themed meals. Using plants, it’s easy to plan meals made of primarily plants, that the kids can help shop for and prepare. Note: If there is cutting involved, I always let them help using these special kid-safe knives so they wouldn’t get hurt.
- Write the names of frequently seen unit items on the whiteboard. It’s ok that the kids can’t actually read them yet. Just getting used to seeing letters written on the board and read by you is a great way to introduce the concept.
- Count items. Count by ones, twos, fives, tens. For a unit study on plants, you can count leaves, carrots, flowers, palm trees, seeds, sticks, petals, apples…the sky is the limit!
- Always include “calendar time.” Set up a small area near your school table where you have the current calendar displayed. Everyday at the beginning of your sit-down instruction time, say the days of the week, months of the year, and help kids figure out today’s date. You’ll be amazed how quickly they pick it up! If you’re super crafty, you can even make a wall calendar sheet in the theme of your unit study! I wasn’t quite that crafty, but I have many friends who were!
- Set up “invitation to play” opportunities. For a plant study one time, I bough each of the kids a simple ear of corn at the market. I gave it to them when we got home, and told them to take it outside. There, they were allowed to make anything they wanted with it, as long as they used all the parts, and cleaned up their mess. I was amazed at the creativity they showed! One made a paintbrush out of the corn silk, once rolled the ear itself in paint and and made a cool print, etc. In doing this, they learned all about the parts of the corn cob, and were able to invent things to do with it. So exciting!
- Add in any “extras” you can think of. Songs, field trips, games, etc.
Beyond these basic guidelines, feel free to add or subtract how you see fit! Or, don’t do it how I did at all and take your own approach! The time spent learning together is the important part. Preschool is a time of discovery. It sets the stage for the entire production of a child’s education. It is a natural progression of curiosity. It’s a time of puddle jumping, rainbow chasing, and insect watching. However the preschool years look at your house, I want to encourage you to find the everyday joy and wonder in them. Don’t be afraid of the messes, but take joy in the opportunities. March, jump, dance, cartwheel, or swing in to these upcoming days with confidence and a joyful spirit. Blessings and love to you and your homeschool preschool, mamas…