Besides the state of our country and the world, I have also been thinking a lot about home-schooling my preschooler. I began the home-schooling journey back in March, when we first decided to keep him at home. We are still paying for his daycare now, so it was always intended to be a temporary home-schooling setup, but this fall we decided to continue home-schooling, as I will not be returning to teaching in a classroom this year. (I am still doing some virtual/no-cost tutoring just to help out with families that have greater learning or financial needs than us, but it only happens a couple of times each week, while my two kids are napping.) We are still paying for his daycare for now, but emotionally I am prepared for the possibility that my son would be at home with me at least through January, and possibly through the end of the school year, which would land him straight in Kindergarten next year.
To begin with, I was a reluctant home-schooler. I feel confident about my ability to teach my child anything that I know, but I think 1. he needs the socialization that comes with being in a formal school setting, and 2. it is not necessarily good for him to advance too quickly in any academic area, because it could result in boredom with school down the road, or a fixed mindset about learning. But, given that my son was already home with me for months on end, I decided that we needed a little bit of structure to our days, in order for him to not start jumping off the walls. I followed his school's general structure of going outside twice a day to play, and designating regular lunch and nap times, and reading lots of picture books throughout the day, but I wanted the days to have a little bit of academic focus to tie the days together with meaning and purpose. I already had a book from my neighbors, called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, which I had kept because other teacher friends of mine had raved about it in teaching their own preschoolers to read. I am all for trying to do what I can, with what resources I have, so I started to slowly make our way through that book of reading lessons. Flash forward, my 4-year-old did finish it, but it was a bit of a painful process. It was a combination of his stubbornness and mine; on the days when he struggled with the mechanics, he would push himself to read two lessons instead of one, because he did not want me to tell him it was time to stop; and on the days when he was just clearly defiant, I would power through half a lesson just to stick to the daily routine. In hindsight, I should have obviously mixed up the extremely boring book lessons with hands-on activities and Bob books -- which I did incorporate subsequently, and I saw my son's engagement go way up, as did his reading fluency. Hindsight is always 20-20, but it is a little embarrassing to say this as an experienced teacher, that it took me so long to realize the format was not really working for my son and that there were better alternatives. In the beginning of March, I was just trying to survive each day. I came up with a daily schedule that was incremental by 45-minute blocs of time. I knew at all times of the day what we were supposed to be doing, and having a detailed schedule quickly brought routine and comfort to both me and the kids. (My baby was still home with me, but it was a big adjustment for her to have her big brother around all day, everyday. It was also a big adjustment for me, because my daughter had to receive help with completing PT exercises multiple times each day, because of her gross-motor delays.) I also decided quickly that we should do a variety of activities. Besides being outdoors regularly and reading lots of books, I also incorporated hands-on science activities and bought a book on how to use scissors for daily preschool cutting practice. Those first days flew by quickly, until the scissors lessons ran out and I was exhausted from trying to do super innovative science lessons everyday. So, we entered Phase 2 of homeschooling. I dropped science, and started working in more extensive actual play activities. My son was starting to enjoy jigsaw puzzles, so we spent a couple of months really working on his skills of thinking strategically to assemble new jigsaw puzzles. He was able to independently play for longer and longer, and we also worked actively on learning to ride a bike when we were outside everyday (with some bribes on my part, since my preschooler really is physically risk-averse). During this second phase was when we introduced a lot of dancing and singing, at first everyday, and then it tapered to when my son was feeling really in the mood for it. As my daughter grew older and more mobile (a little after her first birthday), I began to remove the play pen for a period of time everyday, to ease both kids into sharing toys together. Eventually, she dropped a nap and they got on the same nap schedule, and the play pen was stored away. I would say that, right now, we are in Phase 3 of home-schooling. The kids do a pretty good job of alternating between individual play (in the same space) and communal play. In the mornings, I still do an academic lesson with my son -- we alternate between practicing reading and doing some math each day, but the lessons only last about 15 or 20 minutes. (I will write about the math that we do on another day.) I am trying to incorporate more creativity into our days, because I don't want my son to grow up to be too rigid. A few weeks ago, we painted rocks and shells, and I was thinking up mime scenarios to act out with the kids everyday, to encourage my toddler's artistic risk-taking. Last week, we had a group chalk session, where I asked my son to contribute ideas to my drawings, and he in turn took some pieces of chalk and added on his own abstract contribution. (The baby also scribbled on the side, which is good for her fine-motor development. A few weeks ago she was not able to hold the chalk to make any mark, but I could see that she is getting stronger recently after a lot of fine-motor practice / OT.) In another post, I will talk more about the math that we do, because as a math teacher, I feel so passionate about exposing our young kids to math (either informally or formally, whatever you feel comfortable with), the same way you would expose them to early reading experiences! But I am also curious what has worked for you, if you have tried to "homeschool" your young kids?
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About MeBorn in Asia, I have spent more than a third of my life living outside of the U.S. thus far. I currently reside in the Pacific Northwest with my techie husband and two biracial children. Categories
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