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Minimalist preschool "stuff"


Hilltopmom
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I have minimalist high school homeschooling down pat.

 

Toddler/ preschool/ early years, um, no.

 

I think about the next few long winters ahead of trying to keep the littles engaged, busy, & sort of quiet so the teens can do their work & think "I need all the stuff!!"

 

Manipulatives, games, puzzles, blocks, playmobil, Lego, duplo, magna tiles, plastic dinosaurs, sensory bin, light box..... It's cluttering my space & mind but will get used eventually. Well, maybe not all the games & puzzles.

 

I wish I could see into the future for what they'll actually use- I'm holding onto things that were the teens favorites, that the littles may wind up not even liking. But the Lego & playmobil is at least out of the way, up in the attic.

 

The preschool "educational" stuff has me hung up. (Used to teach special Ed preschool too, part of me thinks to save it for going back to work someday)

 

Maybe I should just kep it all for now, & purge it all in a couple of years when they outgrow it all (pretty sure this is our last adoption).

Edited by Hilltopmom
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When my two youngest children were toddlers and preschoolers, I was in a Waldorf education kick. I had read You Are Your Child's First Teacher by Rahima Baldwin Dancy. Some of her ideas really struck me, and while I had moved on to other philosophies of early childhood education (I worked the last couple of year in a preschool), I still go back to some of the Waldorf ideas.

  • According to You Are Your Child's First Teacher, one way of keeping small children out of your hair is to do at least one creative (art) project a day. I would do wet-on-wet watercolor painting with my children at least once a week, and when I was teaching preschool we would rotate doing painting (with tempera paint), using play dough, watercolor painting, and pasting. If you are at home, you could add baking with your child (forming bread loaves out of bread dough for lunch could be one option, another option is to bake cookies that need to be rolled out or shaped, such as thumbprint cookies or gingerbread men). I know it is a mess, but having your child satisfied later and willing to play by himself/herself can be worth the mess.
  • Another Waldorf idea (also picked up from You Are Your Chld's First Teacher) is to tell your preschool age child one fairy tale a week. Every day you repeat the same story. If you have some dolls or plastic/wood figurines to act out the story, that's even better (for preschool, I made my own flannel board pieces using flannel I had bought in Walmart, some Sharpies, and copied some pictures from Draw Write Now Book 1). This page has some flannel board patterns, if you like. Some ideas to get you started are Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the Gingerbread Man, the Little Red Hen, and the Three Billy Goats Gruff. To add music to the stories, for the Little Red Hen I used some songs from this book and from page 76 of Making Music Grade 1 (ISBN 0382366441). For music for the Three Billy Goats Gruff, I got it from an old music textbook in the 1930's, but there's a
    of this song. The songs are lovely and memorable but not 100% necessary. However, just telling the stories to your child keeps his/her imagination going, helps with language, etc. but most importantly, in your instance, keeps your child out of your hair when you need to focus on your older children's needs.
  • I would also go with Angie's idea of putting away some of the toys and having only a bit out at a time. When your child gets bored with what he/she has out, take out something else and put away what isn't being used at the moment. Your playmobile toys (when you have a chance to pull them out) may be good for acting out stories as I mentioned above.
Edited by Shifra
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