Our daughter, however, has always been home schooled.
She was three when we began our adventures at home. I quickly learned ways to involve her in our learning process, keep her happy and allow for academic growth at her own pace. I'm sharing a few ideas with you today, they may work for your family as well!
1) Let your preschooler work with the big kids.
Not only does this help them feel a part of your family projects, but it is a great opportunity to teach your older children about inclusivity, patience and consideration for littler ones. There doesn't need to be a goal or expectation of what your preschooler will learn - they just need to have fun!
2) Give them 'big kid' activities as well.
My preschooler loved having worksheets, handwriting assignments, or math work to complete. Many of her color sorting and counting activities were extra fun for her because I presented them like I did for her older brothers. It really didn't matter if she did them correctly or if they were made up - it was great practice for her to trace letters, match colors, or just pretend to be as big as her siblings.
3) Encourage them to watch.
If your preschooler is interested, allow them to learn by osmosis. Try not to save all your schooling for nap time. My older children just love to show off for the littler ones.
4) Give them something to do with their hands.
Each day, give your preschooler an activity to work on during school. This can include any sort of crafty or manipulative activity, just save anything involving glue for bath day. Crafting was always something that helped my little one sit for read alouds.
5) Enjoy being all together; it's one of the greatest blessings of homeschooling.
In this picture, my preschooler asked to practice tying my shoes while her brothers worked on spelling words with sidewalk chalk. I missed my older children while they were away at 'regular' school, and I have treasured being spared the same separation from my youngest.
Some days are tougher than others with preschoolers underfoot, but if you work with the personality of your child and try to focus on their interests, you will have a wonderful year. What works for your family in terms of homeschooling with preschoolers?
Today I'm going to show you some of our Montessori-style activities. I keep a big tub in a closet and when I come across interesting boottles, boxes, jars, corks, boucy balls, beads, spools... you get the idea- I toss them in there. Then, when I have a chance, maybe once or twice a year, I go through and put together a few new activities.
There are many books about Montessori and the Montessori method. Many are stuffy and want to make sure that you walk away feeling that only a professionally trained individual can successfully teach Montessori-style. But many are good. I can't really begin to make recommendations here, though, or this post would never end.
Here's what's important with these activities:
-the child can do them on her own after being shown how;
-the activity has natural control-of-error (i.e. yellow botton in red basket: child sees mistake, or, circle lid doesn't fit on heart box, etc.)
-easily set up and put away by child.
Here's what's important with mom:
-DO NOT interrupt child to point out her mistakes, let her find them herself;
-be willing to help clean up.
These first are from "Do Touch," referred to earlier:
Jumbo craft sticks. Pics 1 & 2 are just matching 2 sticks with same patterns. Pic 3 is a simple puzzle.
Also from "Do Touch," sponge sey cut up. One left whole as a control. These are actually quite difficult to put back together!
Button sorting. 3 peanut butter lids with colored paper glued in, heart container with lid to store buttons in the activity's bag.
Flower beads to sort. Three sizes of flower beads (found these on ebay for $1 and knew Rose would love them), 3 peanut lids, tweezers to pick up the beads for fun, pouch to store beads, all in a baby shoe box.
John Paul at work!
These little number puzzles are part of a huge, overwhelming set and were a gift. I rotate a few at a time into a bag with "jewels" to place on the completed puzzles. The jewels make the puzzles much more fun to do.
Letter puzzles. Were also a gift. 26 puzzles are too much for most preschoolers all at once. So a few with objects to match get rotated for this bag. I love that tiny ball of yarn!
Fruit bead sorting, tweezers missing. Sigh. This idea was stolen from the Montessori-n-Such catalog. Fabric covered cardboard, Cezanne picture glued on, jar lids glued on. I like these beads but this tray isn't used very often. I'd really like to replace it with the M-n-S set, but it's definitely a want and not a need!
Lauri crepe rubber toys. Top pic is puzzles that go in a bag together. Bottom is a sorting toy I found for $1 at a thrift store. Lauri toys are great! They are safe, non-toxic, and your toddler can hurl one across the room and it sticks together! They make some cool, inexpensive puzzles for older kids, too. Most of their toys are available on Amazon.
Feel 'n find. A traditional Montssori game. There are 10 objects in bag 1 and their matches in bag 2. Birthday candles, big screws, marbles, thimbles, small spoons, plastic flowers, you get the idea. Make sure the blindfold is easy to get on and off. I actually did buy this one from Montessori services beacause it was cheap and I was feeling lazy, and it is a really nice blindfold!
More bead sorting. We're kinda heavy on bead sorting these days!
Butterfly toss. Just a target and some plastic butterflies. Less dangerous to your breakables than a bean-bag toss.
Bendaroos shape making. I need a laminator, see my bent control card? This is much tougher than it looks.
Boxes and lids. Really fun for 2 year olds. These boxes are usually $1 each, but stock up when Hobby Lobby puts them 50% off.
Hands down favorite! Opening and closing activity. Random assortment of containers, each requiring a different skill to open. Usually each one has a frog or lizard who lives inside, but I'm down to 2 frogs at the moment. JP gets this out at least 3 times a week, and so did my older kids from about ages 14 months to 3 years. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT put child=proof pill bottles in here. They will figure them out quickly and then you'll have a serious problem on your hands.
Transferring activity. Jars of different objects (with tight screw-on lid!), variety of tongs and spoons to use, 2 pails to transfer to and fro. John Paul likes to pour, which is ok, too.
Some of Rosie's activities in a deep basket which sits on a shelf in the dining room.
OK, friends, I am too tired to photograph my science kits. But you can see them at either catalog website mentioned above. We have a sink or float set and a magnetic/ non-magnetic set, plus a rice play box.
I hope this peek into a selection of our Montessori-style activities inspires you!
"It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself."
~Joyce Maynard
"Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you."
~Robert Fulghum
Like many homeschooling moms, I have a small child (Charlotte is 14 months old) in addition to my homeschooled preschooler. Because she wants to be just like her older sister, she also wants to "do school". Most mornings, when I tell Abigail that it is time for preschool, Charlotte also heads to the table. Because she is so excited about learning, I plan activities for her. I started my career as a toddler teacher and have found that experience very beneficial in knowing how to "teach" Charlotte!
I include Charlotte in our circle time, so she listens to stories, songs, and the bible lesson. We also use several materials that I have purchased, such as 3-piece puzzles, stacking toys, a bead maze, and toddler crayons. Additionally, I have created a few tasks for Charlotte to work on and would like to share them with you. All of these activities work on improving her fine motor and motor planning skills and were created with items that I already had around the house. Because she is small, Charlotte needs to be supervised when doing any of these tasks.
Task One:
I have given her this bucket of plastic Easter eggs and she puts them in and takes them back out. This week, I made this task even harder by giving her two containers and having her move the eggs back and forth between the two. When doing this activity, Charlotte often also spends time opening up the eggs and then trying to close them.
Task Two:
I placed some of Charlotte's favorite small toys inside an old wipes container. She pulls them out and puts them back in. This is one of her favorite activities and it is now permanently in her playroom; she does this during free play time multiple times each day!
Task Three:
I give Charlotte a handful of dry beans and a paint cup. She drops the beans into the top of the cup. When she does this game, Charlotte often giggles at the sound the beans make as they drop into the cup.
Task Four:
Charlotte drops unsharpened pencils into a water bottle (I have also used an empty milk jug for this task). Then, she turns the bottle over to get them out. This is the hardest of the four tasks, but she has quickly figured out how to do it.
In addition to her special tasks during our preschool time, I also do several sensory activities (jello, playdough, cool whip, cooked noodles, paint, etc.) with Charlotte each week.
Because she is very young, I never force Charlotte to participate in preschool and always let her decide which (if any) of the activities I have planned she wants to do. Charlotte's learning is completely child-led. I have been very impressed by her progress in her fine motor skills and her desire to learn. I hope that by including Charlotte in our homeschool and creating specialized activities for her, I am helping to develop her love of learning and her desire to be a lifelong learner!
The options for activities that can be made at home for toddlers are limitless. Almost every day, I see something in my house that gives me an idea for another task to make for Charlotte (but I never seem to have time to make them all). How do you incorporate your toddler into your homeschool?
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