Homeschooling Preschool/Kindergarten

I have been told several times that there is really no such thing but I think differently. We are setting up a room for our boys in our home that will be similar to what you would see in a preschool.Im looking for help from anyone that home schooled Pre school or Kindergarten. I have lots of work books, craft items and a few other thing.

What are some must haves?
How did you keep them interested?

Any info would be great.

We go to story times and things like that for socializing but I prefer to keep them home and be part of their learning.

Thanks everyone!

 

I have helped 6 different families homeschool their children (I plan to homeschool ours!). I set up a little Montessori-type room in my friend's homes. One book that I like (especially if you just want some ideas for some hands-on activities and don't want to go all out Montessori) is Teach Me To Do It Myself by Maja Pitamic. There are some very simple activities in it and most you can make yourself. I found it lots of fun!

 

We're doing it with the girls for preschool and we're all loving it so far. Our schedule is Mon-Wed-Fri from 9 till about 10:30/11ish, which is about all the girls can handle right now. I find if we do too much in a day they hit info overload and burn out by the later activities. I use a formal curriculum (Horizons, by Alpha Omega), but I modify it alot to decrease the reliance on worksheets and lecture and increase the use of hands-on-learning and experimentation, as well as games and lots of crafts. That seems to hold their attention and improve retention of information so much better. But, like I said, by the end of about 2 hours, they're sooo over formal activities and want to chill out. I even let them have lots of play breaks between each learning center activity, so I think they're really not ready for much more yet. One must have for us was a personalized school box for each girl with their own school supplies that they can access only for school. They love to dig in that box and use the fun stuff inside, and that keeps them a bit more interested. Also, we give stickers for completion of each subject.

 

No such thing? :rotflmbo: Why in the world not? If you are teaching your kids at home, you are homeschooling! You might not have to take care of any legal stuff (we don't in Kentucky until they are 6), but you are still homeschooling!

We are doing preschool right now and the kids love it! I am using the Letter of the Week as a guide to keep me organized. My kids already know their letters and all the sounds, but I am using it as a guide to help organize everything we are learning in a fun way for them.

For example, in Letter A week, we did the following:
English - Read lots of "A" books, reviewed the sound "A" makes, traced letter "A"s on worksheet
Math - used apples to count and show the concept of addition
Science - studied ants and watched videos of astronauts
Art - made an ant out of egg cartons and colored pictures of apple trees, made letter "A" posters for both capital (made to look like an alligator) and lowercase (made to look like an apple)
Social Studies - looked at America on the map and learned the pledge to the flag
Music - Sang letter "A" songs ("The Ants go Marching One By One" etc) looked a pictures of and listened to an accordion
Sign Language - learned the sign for the letter "A"
Bible/Character - Read the story of Adam and Eve and talked about attentiveness, learned a verse that starts with the letter "A" ("All we like sheep have gone astray")

We are also using "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" to learn to read. They are loving that, too.

Our schedule is from about 9:00 until 11:30 everyday. My kids ask as soon as they wake up if we are having school that day and get upset when school is over. I make sure lots of it is fun, play-type activity. But, I do stick to a schedule so they know what comes next. One of the joys of homeschooling is that you can make a schedule that works for you and your kids. If they do better with less time or more time, you can adjust to their needs.

I would love to have a room set aside for a schoolroom simply for the sake of keeping organized. But, we don't have that, so our "school" is the whole house. We start out in the living room for the pledge and prayer (we pull up a pic of the flag on the computer), move to their playroom for calendar/weather time, go to their bedroom to review their chores for the day, then back to the living room/dining room for most of our other lessons and activities. We use the dining table a lot. I even take one of them at a time to my bedroom where we sit on my bed for our reading lesson. That sounds like a lot of moving around, but our house is actually really small and it is all on one floor. I don't think a specific room is necessary, but certainly can be helpful!

I will definitely continue for Kindergarten if I can convince DH. He isn't a fan of the idea at all. But, I am hoping he will see how well this year goes and give me just one more year to try and from there we will go year-by-year.

If you have any other questions I would love to help you out!

 

I'm in the same boat, Stacey... I'd love to keep homeschooling, but DH wants me to go back to work for money reasons when they're old enough for grade school... I'm still hoping he'll change his mind. We also start with prayer and the pledge, and it's nice to find another Mom who feels that is important. My DH asked why do the pledge, and I told him it's important they feel a sense of loyalty and appreciation for our great nation, even if we don't always agree with it's politics (which to me is why our nation is so great!). We have a school room, but we move about all day, and I'm finding the more flexible I am with our schedule, the better my girls do because they tend to need it on days when they're feeling less attentive. In addition, I was having them get all dressed like they were going to school outside our home, but I'm finding they do better if we don't worry about attire and can stay comfy in our pjs till school is over. They're in for a rude awakening if we go off to grade school elsewhere, I guess.

 

My DH wasn't as supportive of HSing until he saw how well our kids are doing. So you have some time. There are many different ways to handle preschool. (I also second the Montessori book already mentioned.) I also use a variety of materials but actually started my youngest three with a curriculum at this age.

In mathematics, Singapore Essential Mathematics is really good, and very hands on in the younger years. Early Bird is also good but the pages are very busy, to distracting for my crew. Lots of manipulatives. You can never have enough library books to read to little ones. There are many lists out there. Plenty of reading and hands on projects that explore early science concepts. A good phonics based reading program. Most important keep it relaxed and fun. My current preschooler is at the PS for speech services but otherwise we fit him in around all the others. Sometimes he is doing phonics at the kitchen table while I get dinner ready, because he wants to and that's great.