Pre-K3

Big E and I had a wonderful week together as we jumped into the world of preschool homeschooling. I think our first week went very well and I'm excited about what the coming weeks will hold for us.

Our Morning:
I allow the children to wake up on their own.  We then get dressed and have breakfast.  Whenever we are done and cleaned up we head to the living room for our "school" time.  I don't concern myself with having an official "start time."

Calendar Time:
We start our time with "Calendar Time." We talk about the days of the week and the current date.  E puts the date on the appropriate day on our calendar.  We also talk about "Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday" and place cards in the appropriate spots.  I plan on adding a section about the day's weather to this part of our time.

Bible Time:
I have the children sit in their own chairs.  I insist on Big E sitting still during this time.  I allow 'Lil E to move around since she is only 15 months old., though much of the time she does sit with us.  We read one or more stories from one of our Bibles, review our house rules, review our memory verses, and review and learn new catechism questions.  We are currently using  "The Big Picture Story Bible" by David Helm. We work on one new memory verse a month that teach basic scriptural convictions.  We are also using "My 1st Book of Questions and Answers" by Carine MacKenzie.  Big E seems to really enjoy these catechism questions that are based on Westminster Shorter Catechism and has already learned the first 23 questions.   After we go through these things we pray for our day together.

Music Time:
Right now all this consists of is singing 1 or 2 songs off of  various christian children's CDs.  This gives them the opportunity to wiggle, dance, and get some energy out before moving on to the next part of our school time.  I eventually hope to start incorporating a monthly hymn into this time.  I believe the hymns to be rich in good theology and I hope to teach them to our children at an early age so they can have these great truths embedded in their minds.

Workbox Time:
After music time Big E gets to select a drawer to work out of.  We currently have a drawer file with 4 drawers in it.  Each drawer contains a different activity each day.  So, that makes 20 different activities in a given week.  Sometimes he isn't interested in doing some of the activities.  At this point, I'm okay with that, though eventually I will work towards making him complete each activity.  This week I think he did 17/20 of the activities planned for him.  I let him select the drawers in any order, except for the very first drawer of the week, which introduces the letter of the week.

Reading Time:
At anytime during our school time E can choose to read our special book for the day.  I select one book to "feature" each day. I place it on top of the file drawers for him to see.  Then, most days I have a planned extension activity based on the featured booked.  For example, this week we read "If you give  Mouse a Cookie" so we baked cookies together and ate them with milk through a straw.  Later we read "If you give a Moose and Muffin" and made and ate muffins with jam.  We also read "Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel" and boiled water in a teapot to watch the steam come out, then we drank tea together.  We might not always do the extension activity, but I have them ready in case we need another activity for later in the day. 

Tray Time:
After we have worked through all the drawers E may select a tray to work with.  Some of the trays are more geared for 'Lil E and some are more geared for him.  Some trays are designed so they can work together.    Often they play with the trays at non-school times, which is fine.  I generally try to allow only one tray out at a time... though that is difficult to enforce. 

This week's trays included Autoblox cars, stackable plastic easter eggs, a mini foam building set, See and Spell puzzle, Lauri foam shapes and pegs, and a construction puzzle.

Curriculum:
1. Letter of the Week: I found this great free curriculum called "Letter of the Week" at confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com .  We use many of her ideas and printables for our letter themed activities. 

2. Pre-Writing: We are also using several Kumon Workbooks.  We are currently working on "Let's Sticker and Paste", "My First Book of Tracing", and "My First Book of Uppercase Letters".  E really enjoys these.  I have one of these books schedule for 3/5 days in the week.

3.  Unit Study:  This month we are working on learning "All About Me."  This unit idea came from  the "Hands on Homeschooling" PreK 3 curriculum. I adapted it for our needs and made a little booklet that we will work to fill out a little each week.  This week we talked about how tall E is, how much he weighs, and what color his eyes and hair are.  Then he drew a self portrait.  I plan on to focus 1-2 drawers a week on the unit of the month.  Next month we plan to focus on Fall/Harvest Season.

4. Arts/Crafts:  I hope to have 1-2 "craft/art" projects a week so E can play with glue, paint, glitter, etc and get our house good and dirty:)  This week we tried to glue macaroni to the Letter M.  He wasn't thrilled with the project and only did a little, but that's okay.

5. Reading:  I am loosely using the Sonlight Curriculum for our reading.  I purchased their Pre-K 3/4 teacher's manual and use that as guide from finding good age appropriate books.  They also include some fun extension activities in their manual.  I am also using "Honey for a Child's Heart" by Gladys Hunt for book suggestions. 

6. Pre-Reading:  We are using "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Siegfried Engelmann.  I'm not forcing E to work on his reading skills, but he seems interested so we are gradually working through the book.   We are only on lesson 12 but he seems to get great pleasure out of reading successfully.  Some of the rhyming tasks are a little hard for him, and somedays the lessons are longer than his attention span, but he is learning and having fun so we will continue wit this for a little while.  I leave the book on top of the file drawers as well.  Some days he requests to do the lessons, some days we incorporate this time into our reading time, and some days we don't do it at all.

Planning:
I have the entire year loosely planned out so I know for the most part which unit studies we will focus on each month.  I have some of the letters of the week scheduled as well, but the order in which they come could still change.  I also have a Manners/Personal Care goal for each month, ex. pick out clothes and put them on my himself.  Having this general schedule will help me plan ahead for the unit studies that will require more pre-planning.  It will also help make sure I am teaching him more of the basic skills.

I also have an excel file outlining the activities for each drawer each day, and for each day's featured book.  It takes a little bit of time to plan it out, but it helps me know which activities to prep, and what supplies I will need for each week.  I am trying to stay 3-4 weeks planned and prepared ahead of our current week.  Hopefully this will eliminate the stress of preparation. 

So far, only one week in I am pleased with our plan.  Big E has enjoyed our school time, 'Lil E is adjusting to the routine, and the preparation time each night has been minimal.  I have really enjoyed spending this intentional time with my children and having more structure to our day.  It is fun to watch them learn with such joy and energy.