Preschool for 3yo?

[JessieC]

Hi,

 

I just began homeschooling dd. I meant to start next year, but her kindergarten teacher (who was wonderful) left for maternity leave for the rest of the year, and I thought, why wait?

 

I am making plans for her first grade year next year, and am trying to decide what to do about ds. I could put him in a preschool for two mornings a week. It's a nice place--dd went there too. I think he would enjoy it and learn something, and it may free up some time for dd and I to work together. BUT it is not cheap and I am a little reluctant to have to rush out the door, even for just two mornings per week. We could instead put this $ toward other activities instead.

 

Who has done preschool for younger children--was it worth it? FWIW, we'll be doing FIAR, and I will include him in some of the learning. He'll be turning four in the fall.

 

Thanks!

[Garga]

We found a program at the local highschool that was $60 for the year. It was a class for the high school seniors to learn about early education. The teens had a teacher who taught them about child development and how to plan lessons...and then the preschoolers would arrive and the teens would work with them.

 

I really liked having some time to work with my older son while my younger one went to preschool, even with having to leave the house early and then go back out after an hour and a half to pick him back up. We were able to get a ton of 1st grade work done during that time.

[RoundAbout]

I only have one, so I can't speak to the issue of whether it would be beneficial with your older DD, but our reasons for not doing preschool are similar to yours. I absolutely hate having to rush out the door, and hate the inflexibility of having to commit to being somewhere every week. Definitely understand about the $$ too. The cheapest preschool program around here is $250/month for two mornings a week. We could certainly afford it, but for our family I thought the money was better spent on other activities. Some of the things we've done this year instead of preschool:

 

*Zoo membership

*Botanical garden membership (awesome kids programs)

*Ski school during our vacation

*Family YMCA membership (has childcare while working out, cheap swim lessons, and monthly Parent Night Out)

*An awesome local hiking-with-kid's nature group that meets several times a week

*Tickets to museums, aquariums, and special events when grandparents come to visit.

*Moms groups that arranges things like park days and Firehouse tours, etc.

*Library story and craft time

*Monthly preschool programs at a local Audubon center

*Outings to local rock climbing gym

*Weekly family bike rides

*Educational toys, supplies, and books for use at home.

 

With all of this we could be busy every single day of the week with enriching stuff, and it would cost half of what preschool costs. But I also like the fact that I don't have to be busy at all if we just feel like spending a day or week hanging out around the house.

 

I definitely see some benefits to preschool, especially if you have other children, but just wanted to share how we are doing without.

[Rosie_0801]

My dd will be 4 next month and we've been "doing school" since she was 2 3/4.

 

Last year, her K3 year, was jigsaw puzzles, jigsaw puzzles and more jigsaw puzzles. We also did the usual preschoolish art activities, I read to her when she'd put up with it and we watched too many dvds. They were mostly Auslan (Australian Sign Language,) nature documentaries, musicals and the old, slower paced Disney cartoons.

 

This year we're doing K4. We're still doing puzzles, but she has declared this year to be the year of drawing, so she's drawing a lot and colouring in a lot. She's more willing to listen to stories and, thanks to a Baby Einstein dvd, has become interested in numbers, colours and shapes. (Far more interesting than her old mother droning on about it :rolleyes:) We're currently doing mini-unit studies on musical instruments (colouring pics, watching youtube clips, reading from kiddie non-fiction and looking at the real thing in music shops.) We also started Kindermusik. For the rest of the year, I'm planning more work on numbers, some very basic "people around the world" stuff and some basic science- mostly weather vocab along with the usual kinder stuff.

 

Next year we're going to do another year of pre-school and apart from continuing with what we're doing already, I hope to start teaching letters if we don't do that later this year, possibly handwriting if she keeps up with all this drawing and beginning maths, MEP Reception, if she's ready. No big deal if she isn't because they are perfectly good things to do in Prep (what you guys call K.)

 

We have a zoo membership and meet a friend there each fortnight, and we also go to playgroup and a park meetup as well as our new Kindermusik class.

 

Anyway, she's my eldest, and is speech delayed (because she wants to be, as far as I can tell) so your situation is different. But still, we're an example of what the resident little kids are doing :)

 

Rosie

[teachmejoy]

Check out my Signature. I'm using this with my 3 yo this year while teaching my ds 1st. She's loving it and I developed it just for this purpose. :)

[Rosie_0801]

Oh yeah, your boy might like having his own workboxes. I was doing this with dd for a while, but ds grew into the destruction phase and hasn't grown back out of it yet...

 

:)

Rosie

[Mergath]

For me, it would depend a great deal on the preschool. We looked (very briefly) at a few of the preschools around here, and decided very quickly they weren't for our dd because most of them focus almost exclusively on school readiness, which means a ton of learning how to stand in lines, sit silently for long periods of time, etc. They also spend a lot of time trying to generate excitement for starting kindergarten, which would be kind of a letdown for a hsed child. So we won't be sending our dd to preschool, but if the ones in your area aren't so focused on the "school" part, it could be a good thing for your family.

[ChristusG]

My kids are the same ages as yours....6 and 3 (well, she just turned 4 last Saturday and my 6 year old is about to be 7). My 4 year old LOVES doing most of the stuff that my 6 year old is doing. She listens in on the Bible lessons, enjoys learning about science and doing nature studies, she listens to any read alouds that we do, etc. She even has her own "school book" (Explode the Code Book A) that I do with her when I'm doing phonics/reading with big sister. She loves having her own school book. The only thing she really doesn't participate in is math.

 

It's been a great learning experience for her. She can spout out some of the same knowledge as her big sister.

 

When she gets bored, I allow her to go off to the playroom. She plays well alone.

[ondreeuh]

My 3 y/o goes to preschool two mornings a week. He gets to play in the rice table and learn to share with other children his size, and I am suddenly able to get through a lot more history and science with my middle child. My 3 y/o does NOT play well alone. He wants to be right in the middle of whatever we're doing. Middle son is very distractable and gets overwhelmed with his brother's noise. This is the best solution for us right now.

[Mommy22alyns]

Sylvia was 3 when we started homeschooling Becca. We started her out at the same 2 day a week MDO preschool Becca had attended, but after 4 months she wanted to come home too. So your little guy might want to be part of the fun at home! Sylvia is definitely no worse for the wear only having a short preschool time. ;)

[JessieC]

Thanks, everyone! This is helpful.

[BlsdMama]

I would definitely "invest" that money towards your family instead of giving it to the preschool. :)

 

I'm not a fan of workbooks or a huge amount of structure with little ones, however, I'm guessing most would call what we do with our two year old "preschool."

 

She's very language adept so we've had a lot of fun with her asking for "reading lessons" too. :)

 

We've taught her prayers, her ABC's, each phonetic sound of each ABC, her parents real names. We've taught her to sit still for Bible reading, family reading (chapter books - about 3rd-5th grade level), books written FOR young children about artists, composers, history, literature.

 

We play music CDs - classical, folk, Bible songs, etc.

 

You'd be shocked how much a little person can pick up without any truly "formal" study. She knows all of her ABC's - lower & uppercase & the phonetic sound of each as well - at two. So, yes, keep the three year old! Have fun! Enjoy! Spend the money on your family! :)

 

~Museum Membership

~Zoo Membership

~Music (Check out Pandora though.)

~Dover coloring books

~Art post cards

~Magnetic Letters

~Art supplies - GOOD colored pencils like Prismacolors gives little hands lots of control w/o losing the vibrant color of crayons.

~Go to the library every week - teach them about picking out GOOD books - literature & non-fiction

 

 

GOOD toys:

~Wood blocks

~Lincoln Logs

~Play stands

~Play silks

~Felted animals

~Make wood laundry peg people

~tree blocks

~Dress up clothing (historic is fun too!)

 

Art Supplies:

~Clay

~Play-Doh

~Wood rollers for play-doh from Lakeshore (love these)

~Prismacolors

 

 

 

Field Trips:

Take them places!

 

~Post Office

~Veterinarian

~Bakery

~Butcher Shop

~Ethnic Markets

~Spring & Summer Farmer's Markets

~Fiber Stores (wool festivals!)

 

 

Teach them handicrafts. You might really enjoy reading on Charlotte Mason, btw. ;)