What does preschool look like in your home? There are plenty of advocates for keeping a child, a child and not starting school too soon. But, if you have little ones growing up in your homeschool, you’ve certainly heard, “Do you have school for me?” or “When can I do school?” Oh, the teachable hearts of our little ones! And what a joy it is for us to be able to encourage their love for learning.
So, where do you start? There are TONS of awesome **FREE** printables out there. You can find some of my favorites at 3Dinosaurs, Confessions of a Homeschooler, and 1+1+1=1. But, be warned…you will be entering the world of colored ink and laminating…lots of laminating :). So be picky, versus spending a summer like I did printing and laminating. We certainly do not come close to using even half of the free printables I have compiled.
As you may have heard, this year I am transitioning my kids’ work to interactive notebooks. They just make sense for us homeschoolers who need a record what our children have accomplished. And even if you don’t *need* to keep a record, notebooking provides you and your children with a great reference tool for the next year–you will be able to visually build upon (and re-use) what your children have learned.
So why not start your notebooking journey with Preschool? We are compiling My First Interactive Math Notebook–developing number sense, understanding number order, learning how to count, and the discovering how to add and subtract within 10. It has been such FUN!
Plus, we are working on a new letter each week/two weeks. Here is a peek at what that looks like:
The manipulatives we are using include: Handwriting Without Tears chalkboard and Wood Pieces Set to work on basic letter formation; capital and lowercase letter beads to work on letter orientation; plus play-doh and our ABC FUN sheets (I’m in the process of updating these sheets and adding numbers 1-20 :).
The notebooking activities include letter formation–crayon to paper for both capital and lowercase; identifying/finding the letter; building the letter (similar to the wood pieces we use); writing the letter BIG and small; sorting the capital from the lowercase; learning the letter’s beginning sound and ABC order. Plus lots of little extras (purposeful cutting practice–we cut the letter as well as a letter craft each week; simple mazes; magnify and match–capitals and lowercase; sequencing life cycles, events, and sizes; identifying items in pictures that have the target sound; visual discrimination–figuring out what doesn’t belong, or is “wacky” in a picture) to reinforce this learning.
But, most of all we are having FUN and loving this stage of life! It is a beautiful, sweet time in your child’s school career so fill it up with lots of Mommy&me time!
