Mynyel Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Ds(almost)4 wants to do school work. I had gotten him some things a few months ago but he wasn't quite ready. He is now. I have 5 "subjects" I want to do with him but I don't know that I want to do them every day. I have this: Reading - All About Reading Pre-Level Reading Eggs - Not a subject but need to factor it in. Math - I have the Critical Thinking Co Math books for 3 and 4 year olds. Handwriting - HWOT - the very first book, can't remember what it is called off hand. Activities - I will use fun sheets (dot to dot, mazes etc...) painting, lapbooks... etc... How much do you think would be good each day? It was sooo much easier with my other two, dd was in school until 2nd grade and ds10 was jsut easy, he listened and he did. My youngest though? Ugh... I need a schedule for him. Sooo... Help? :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperDad Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 (edited) nvm Edited April 8, 2012 by SuperDad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 I would not do more than 30 minutes of structured time a day. My dd will sit and color for hours. I just have to keep enough sheets for for to color. We do about 10 minutes of phonics and maybe some number review. She is not really interested in learning other than reading though. We also do some matching and mazes in her workbook. I don't push. When she asks, we do. When I push, she rejects anything I try to teach. She also watches leap frog videos. Every day or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mergath Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 My dd is almost exactly the same age (she turns four next month). I keep all of the things we're doing on a shelf in the living room, and we do a lesson from something when she requests it. So we might end up doing three math lessons in one day, or two all week long. The only thing I really schedule is Exploring Science, which we do around once a week. I tried scheduling stuff at one point, but trying to do school stuff with a three-year-old who isn't interested at the moment is like herding cats. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aspasia Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 I came across this brilliant idea on Pinterest: http://www.walkingbytheway.com/blog/?p=715706 It's an activity jar where you put slips of paper for all your preschool activities (painting, mazes, play dough, pattern blocks, etc.) in a jar. This lady puts the different subjects on different colored paper and her son picks one of each color every day. I love it because it makes sure all those awesome activities we all load up on actually get used regularly. I have the hardest time with that, and our homeschool area is quite organized! It's just hard to keep all those great activities at the front of your mind all at the same time, you know? And it's no fun to schedule them day by day. So, depending on how interested your dd is and/or how hard you want to push, I would just try to do a reading lesson 3-5 days a week, a handwriting page 3-5 days a week, and as much math as she's interested in 3-5 days a week (my dd tends to move in spurts with math), and then let her pick from the jar every day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperDad Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 I came across this brilliant idea on Pinterest: http://www.walkingbytheway.com/blog/?p=715706 It's an activity jar where you put slips of paper for all your preschool activities (painting, mazes, play dough, pattern blocks, etc.) in a jar. This lady puts the different subjects on different colored paper and her son picks one of each color every day. I love it because it makes sure all those awesome activities we all load up on actually get used regularly. I have the hardest time with that, and our homeschool area is quite organized! It's just hard to keep all those great activities at the front of your mind all at the same time, you know? And it's no fun to schedule them day by day. So, depending on how interested your dd is and/or how hard you want to push, I would just try to do a reading lesson 3-5 days a week, a handwriting page 3-5 days a week, and as much math as she's interested in 3-5 days a week (my dd tends to move in spurts with math), and then let her pick from the jar every day. :iagree: I love the jar idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mynyel Posted April 8, 2012 Author Share Posted April 8, 2012 I would not do more than 30 minutes of structured time a day. My dd will sit and color for hours. I just have to keep enough sheets for for to color. We do about 10 minutes of phonics and maybe some number review. She is not really interested in learning other than reading though. We also do some matching and mazes in her workbook. I don't push. When she asks, we do. When I push, she rejects anything I try to teach. She also watches leap frog videos. Every day or so. :iagree: I was thinking of doing 2 or 3 sessions with him a day or so :) I was going to start and then just stop when I knew he was done.. like when he changes the subject (he is good at that) or just starts making up his own game or something. I came across this brilliant idea on Pinterest: http://www.walkingbytheway.com/blog/?p=715706 It's an activity jar where you put slips of paper for all your preschool activities (painting, mazes, play dough, pattern blocks, etc.) in a jar. This lady puts the different subjects on different colored paper and her son picks one of each color every day. I love it because it makes sure all those awesome activities we all load up on actually get used regularly. I have the hardest time with that, and our homeschool area is quite organized! It's just hard to keep all those great activities at the front of your mind all at the same time, you know? And it's no fun to schedule them day by day. So, depending on how interested your dd is and/or how hard you want to push, I would just try to do a reading lesson 3-5 days a week, a handwriting page 3-5 days a week, and as much math as she's interested in 3-5 days a week (my dd tends to move in spurts with math), and then let her pick from the jar every day. I love this idea.. I am going to see about making these!! My dd is almost exactly the same age (she turns four next month). I keep all of the things we're doing on a shelf in the living room, and we do a lesson from something when she requests it. So we might end up doing three math lessons in one day, or two all week long. The only thing I really schedule is Exploring Science, which we do around once a week. I tried scheduling stuff at one point, but trying to do school stuff with a three-year-old who isn't interested at the moment is like herding cats. ;) I like this idea, the only problem with it is that with my son... ugh. I tried letting him pick his worksheets once. He blew through several and would have done a quarter of the book if I hadn't stopped him. So he does need the structure. He *LOVES* routine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohmomjacquie Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Love the jar idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALB Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 My ds is 4.5 and we do about 30 min. of structured pre K a day. We spend about 10 min. each on phonics, workbooks and math. It is all lumped together in one block, but that is because I am also teaching his older sister. I try to take into account factors such as how tired/ grumpy he is, and sometimes we go a bit shorter or longer. Usually he loves it all, (who wouldn't love pre K, its so FUN!), but there are times when he is just too tired to concentrate and then I don't push it. But I never ask him IF he wants to do it, I just say we're going to do and then adjust my expectations and plans as needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 (edited) Well what I finally did was make a checklist on my ipad (paperless app, love it!) with all the categories of things we can chose from in the day: Sing (Wee Sing, play at piano and sing together, motion songs) Memory verses (thanks LaughLearnLove, just realized I hadn't put that on there!) School work (Kumon workbooks, that sort of thing) Color Art project Flannelgraph Games Science, art books (non-fiction read alouds) Learn piano Imaginative play (Thomas, play mobil, tent, stuffed animals) Build (duplos, kapla blocks) Do something together (cook, garden/weed, make play dough) Learn alphabet (puzzles, letter formation, Bob books) Nature walks, guides (ipad or book) Go to town (park, playground, shopping) Read Alouds Within that, he gets to chose. So that's more encompassing than your actual school list, but it might give you some ideas. I found I was often distracted by my things or dd's needs and wasn't taking the time to just stop and DO those things with him. This way they're on a list to remind us of our options. We do something from the list, then he plays a while independently. Then we do something else from the list. It has made things a lot more fun and fills his bucket with the mom time he needs, resulting in better behavior. No, we don't do ALL those things in on day, lol. I let him chose, because I'm not a very structured person. If you prefer structure, put some times by it. You can use a pocket chart and put the activities onto index cards with pictures. Then order them the way you want your day to go, so he knows what comes next. You can even put times onto cards and put them beside the activities. Structure is always good, even if it just means knowing what your *options* are, kwim? There's also a job jar app btw, but I wouldn't be that random. I think it's good to learn to make decisions and live intentionally. The checklist is going well for us. Edited April 9, 2012 by OhElizabeth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LearnLaughLove Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 This is what older DD did for K4. 4x/week: Circle Time (memory verse, storytime, movement activity or fingerplay) 4x/week: Phonics/Reading 5-10 minutes 4x/week: Fine Motor Skills 5-10 minutes 2x/week: Math 5-10 minutes 1x/week: Nature Study 1x/week: Cooking/Baking 1x/week: Handwork 1x/week: Art Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.Balaban Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 My DS is younger. He's just turned 3 in January, but I just ask him what he wants to do. If he wants to learn letters, we do a letter activity or I let him play on Starfall. I printed off a bunch of different type of activities. Simple dot-to-dot, or mazes. We just do that and whatever else he wants... for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LEK Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 My DD (3 in november) generally just potters around next to us. She does a lot of "work" with tangrams, pattern blocks, MUS blocks, geoboard etc and does heaps of drawing and colouring. I am in the process of ordering her a few workbooks for next term, I am thinking I will get 1-2 work books for each of the areas she wants to work on (maths, beginning phonics, fine motor skills). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craftyerin Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 (edited) I have an near identical list of "subjects" for my three, who fall into the same age/stage category as yours. A typical week for us looks like this: Calendar, then: Monday: AAR pre-level lesson, including the coloring page Tuesday: HWT lesson (I do the letter that we're on in AAR instead of in HWT order, though). We just do the manipulatives on this day. Wednesday: Kumon workbooks (folding, cutting, tracing--we have several) Thursday: HWT workbook page (that takes 10-20 min, depending on the day) After they've done the above, I turn them loose to choose an activity off the shelf. This is where I have other things I'd like them to experience and work on, but I don't want to "teach". I rotate shelf items weekly. This week, the items on the shelf are: lacing beads dry erase uppercase letter cards with a marker age 3-4 Brainquest cards--they LOVE these counting bears for sorting and patterning two puzzles a few connect-the-dots in sheet protectors with a dry erase marker a few mazes in sheet protectors a few pages of a PK math workbook in sheet protectors They'll spread out and work on those things for 20+ minutes, and when they lose interest, we're done for the day. It works great for us! We read aloud before rest time and bedtime, and pull out board games, paint, playdoh, etc. after rest time in the afternoons, as they request. Edited April 9, 2012 by craftyerin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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