Going from relaxed preschool to something more structured

[cottonmama]

For those of you who have made that transition, what did it look like? Did you ease into things, or did you have a big First Day? If the latter, what did your first day look like? If the former, how long did it take to get to the point where you were consistently doing enough school for it to "count"?

[Coco_Clark]

We are using this next year as a transition year. Isnt that what Kindergarten is for? PreK in our house is layed back to the extreme, with lots of daily reading but only 45 minutes or so of "table work", mostly coloring or games, twice a week. My biggest goal for our K year is to ramp up to a consistant 2-2.5 hours a day of daily "school". (I'm supposed to count 20 hour a week with my umbrella program, but I doubt I'll do more than 10-12 for the first few years. I'll fudge the rest :).

[plath]

We eased in. Michigan has no attendance or reporting requirements though, so nothing to keep track of as far as when to count a full day.

[IHaveNoIdeawhatIAmDoing]

We had a "First Day". She was super excited to start using all of the new curricula I got for her, so I remember it being really fun. It was mostly just an introduction to what we were going to be doing/using during her Kindergarten year.

[Lori D.]

For those of you who have made that transition, what did it look like? Did you ease into things, or did you have a big First Day? If the latter, what did your first day look like? If the former, how long did it take to get to the point where you were consistently doing enough school for it to "count"?

 

Agreeing with previous posters who say pre-k and kinder are about developing a love of learning, so keeping it informal. By structured, I would not do more than just make school part of your daily routine -- say, get up by a certain time, together make breakfast, clean up and do whatever chores you want to train your child into, and then do your fun learning for 30-45 minutes. Then free time. After lunch, enjoy read-aloud time. Or whatever way it works for you to schedule. But that's as structured as I would get -- use this year and next to move into a *routine*: "We get up in the morning, take care of certain chores, and do some school before having play time." Or, "We have an hour of quiet time, with everyone on their beds resting, reading, or doing a quiet activity after lunch."

 

 

Every year we eased into the new school year, as it was just asking for crash-and-burn to try and go from summer vacation to full school days the first week. Usually first day was looking over what new stuff we were going to cover, clean up the desks, break out the new supplies, start a fun read-aloud, and go out for a fun field trip and ice cream.

 

For easing into things with students in grade 1 or 2 and above, here's what we did:

week 1: read aloud, reading, phonics math, handwriting, fun science and history reading/activities

week 2: add spelling and writing

week 3: add grammar and vocabulary

week 4: add geography and anything else planned for that year

 

 

BEST of luck in finding what structure best fits your family -- and ENJOY your homeschooling journey! It goes by SO quickly! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.