The first time I started homeschooling a preschooler, I was 24 with a three-year-old and a newborn baby. Now THAT three-year-old is 24 with a newborn baby (true story.) Needless to say, a few things have changed between that first preschool homeschool adventure and now.
Those early days of preschool were quite simple, focusing mainly on reading and math for 30 minutes a day, with a good amount of arts and crafts thrown in for my artsy-crafty child. But I also remember feeling like I needed to somehow recreate a public-school preschool setting. It didn’t take me long to realize that I didn’t need to act like a teacher because I had always been her teacher from the beginning.
Twenty Years Later…
So many things have changed in the last twenty years, but there’s plenty that hasn’t! I still want to make learning fun, I want to teach my kids *how* to learn so they can continue learning new things all life long, I want to teach to their interests, and I want to show them the wondrous works of God throughout the world. Of course, now “them” is just a “she” and it’s my first time schooling only one.
On the other hand, I’ve learned a lot of things to do and not to do and I’ve got a good bit of hard-earned wisdom under my belt. I know there are a lot of things that look like learning which are actually busy work, that many things can wait until the child is ready, and that a large amount of learning happens through fun and play.
Some Homeschooling Preschool “DO’s”
- DO Read LOTS of books. I’ve been reading books to our Mouse since shortly after she was born. It starts with simple board books and just a few words. It graduates to board books with longer sentences and then short storybooks. Everything about reading to your child is educational, from watching you turn the pages, to admiring the pictures, and eventually recognizing letters and words on the page. But more than that, everything about reading together also works to build your bond with your child: sitting close together, sharing quality time, having fun together, laughing together. Read to your preschooler often!
- DO make things with your hands, a lot. Preschoolers are very hands on! They like making and doing things. The fun part is that they even find cooking and cleaning entertaining and it’s a great way to build motor skills. More than that, though, let your kids squish and squeeze and feel all sorts of textures. Let them finger paint, play with modeling clay, dig in the dirt and plant flowers, fold and cut different types of paper. Scribble with different types of mediums, play with slime and mud, and glue and paste bits and pieces. The fine motor skills gained are worth every mess to clean. 😉
- DO get physical. Preschoolers ABOUND with energy and they need a direction for all that surplus. More than that, though, kids this age are still developing and refining some of their large motor skills. Physical activities like dancing, jumping, hopping, spinning, swinging, climbing, and skipping not only help kids burn energy but they also help kids learn how to balance better, practice depth-perception, take risks, and develop better self-awareness.
- DO have lots of fun!! Many studies have confirmed that kids learn better when they’re having fun. I wont’ link to all of them, but here’s one about WHY we learn better when having fun and here’s one about the importance of learning through play. But at the very least I can tell you this for sure: young kids won’t complain about having fun. They enjoy learning and trying new things, and we don’t want to squash that, so please, keep it fun!
A Few Preschool Homeschool “DON’Ts”
- Don’t rush things. There is absolutely no hurry to rush into homeschooling your preschooler. Some kids are ready to start doing some “learning things” at age two and others aren’t really interested until 5 or 6. Some, like my son, start off eager at age two and then put the brakes on from 4-6 and then resume at age 7. If you find your child disinterested or uncooperative when you do begin to introduce educational activities, it’s okay to back off and try again later. In the meantime, keep providing your child with plenty of physical and fun activities instead. Dressing up, pretending, play cooking, digging in dirt, picking flowers, and climbing the jungle gym are all valuable types of fun learning with very real benefits.
- Don’t put too much pressure on academic learning in the very beginning. Yes, a large part of education is reading, writing, and arithmetic, but there is so much more to it and there’s plenty of time to teach the ABC’s and 123’s. Introducing letters and numbers with a big pressure to perform and get it right is often the wrong approach for little minds. Yes, your kids love to hear you squeal in delight when they get it right, but don’t make a big deal about it when they get it wrong. Take it at their pace and keep the pressure off.
- Don’t Forget to Think “Outside the Books.” A lot of what your kids really need to learn in the preschool years are actually good habits, self-awareness, independence, relationship skills, making friends, manners, and self-confidence. These things don’t come from books but from plenty of opportunities. Giving your child the time to learn how to do things for themselves, while often exhausting, is one of the best things you can do for your preschooler.
Getting Ready for Preschool
With the days on the August calendar flying by, odds are that you’re about to launch your school year soon–if you haven’t already. With all the daunting options, methods, and resources available to help you teach your preschooler, it can feel a little overwhelming. Just remember as you begin this new journey that what you do doesn’t matter as much as how you do it. Your kids will learn things no matter what you do, because that’s what young kids do! Present plenty of opportunities, lots of fun ways to learn things, and encourage the curiosity. Enjoy it!
For us, I’ve spent the last month or so making a plan for our preschool year. I’ve purchased some books to read, made a list of books to find at the library, saved some crafts and projects on Pinterest, and I’ve even created some printables that I know she will enjoy! (Those are going in my store!) I’ve researched and found a co-op for finding and making friends, I’ve planned some field trips, and I’ve enrolled her in her second year of gymnastics (which she loves so much.) We officially begin next Monday, so wish me luck! 😉
I’ll be sharing more about our preschool plan in the next week or two. For the rest of August we will be studying “apples and seeds” (and other related things.) I’ll share more later. In the meantime, if you haven’t already read it, you can check out my post about what your child needs to learn in preschool.
