For those starting homeschooling at pre-k

[brasilmom]

Greetings,

 

For those of you that just decided to homeschool your child/children from pre-k, what was the biggest challenge you encountered? How responsive was your child at first? Did you get some sort of set up "schedule" for your own sake? What have you done to keep your child's interest sparkled?

 

Thanks. Be well

 

Miriam

[Heidi @ Mt Hope]

I've homeschooled my ds (almost 7) from the beginning. We started simple math, phonics, and handwriting when he was four. Here are the things I learned or wish I had known in the beginning:

 

1. At the age of four, a good routine and discipline system is worth more than hours of 'school work.' Having a child that is used to routines (not schedules, necessarily) and is respectful/obedient will make your home environment wonderful for learning later on. Also, teach your children how to do simple chores and help out around the house.

 

2. Read, read, read, read, and read some more. Read aloud. Picture books, chapter books. Books about history, science, art, geography... Don't forget books, stories, and music on CD. In the car, at quiet time, during play time...

 

3. Every child is different. My oldest fought phonics lessons, and yet he loved stories and books. I knew he would be a voracious reader once we got past the tedious early phonics. I was right. But it wasn't too much fun getting there. I had to mix things up a bit. I let him jump on the mini trampoline while I showed him word flash cards, etc... My middle guy has never been much of a story guy. I thought I would wait a little longer before teaching him phonics. Until he decided on his own (at age 3) that he wanted to read. And, voila, at age 4 he's reading.

 

4. Get out and discover. Take nature hikes. Go to museums. Dig in the dirt. Be curious about everything. Kids will take their cue from you.

 

5. Discover your educational philosophy. It will help you make the right decisions for your homeschool (curriculum, length and style of lessons, etc.) Know *why* you are homeschooling. Write it down. It will help on days that aren't all roses and sunshine. And you'll have lots of those...

 

ETA: LOL, I didn't really even answer your questions! The hardest thing has been my ds's attention span and his constant motion. We do whatever it takes. Short lessons. Writing standing up at the table. Saying poems while jumping on the trampoline. Letting him play with Legos while I read. Letting him write each word of his copywork with a different colored pencil.

 

He did okay with math and even handwriting lessons, but phonics was the hardest. Keep the lessons really short, and at this age, don't worry. Keep things lighthearted and enjoyable. Don't start by making school a struggle.

 

I had a hard time getting a schedule/routine going because I had two younger children, one was a very fussy infant. I really wish we had worked harder on the routine aspect.

 

Know your child's strengths and interests. My oldest could listen to stories all day long. And sometimes I let him do just that. He learns many of his subjects through stories. My middle guy wants hands-on projects and more work-book style learning. I'm okay with that, too! Pick curriculum that isn't dumbed down. Kids get the hint. Choose quality stories, illustrations, documentaries, math manipulatives, and open-ended toys (building blocks/legos, costumes, art and craft supplies, etc.)

Edited December 19, 2008 by Heidi @ Mt Hope

[bkpan]

I've homeschooled my ds (almost 7) from the beginning. We started simple math, phonics, and handwriting when he was four. Here are the things I learned or wish I had known in the beginning:

 

1. At the age of four, a good routine and discipline system is worth more than hours of 'school work.' Having a child that is used to routines (not schedules, necessarily) and is respectful/obedient will make your home environment wonderful for learning later on. Also, teach your children how to do simple chores and help out around the house.

 

2. Read, read, read, read, and read some more. Read aloud. Picture books, chapter books. Books about history, science, art, geography... Don't forget books, stories, and music on CD. In the car, at quiet time, during play time...

 

3. Every child is different. My oldest fought phonics lessons, and yet he loved stories and books. I knew he would be a voracious reader once we got past the tedious early phonics. I was right. But it wasn't too much fun getting there. I had to mix things up a bit. I let him jump on the mini trampoline while I showed him word flash cards, etc... My middle guy has never been much of a story guy. I thought I would wait a little longer before teaching him phonics. Until he decided on his own (at age 3) that he wanted to read. And, voila, at age 4 he's reading.

 

4. Get out and discover. Take nature hikes. Go to museums. Dig in the dirt. Be curious about everything. Kids will take their cue from you.

 

5. Discover your educational philosophy. It will help you make the right decisions for your homeschool (curriculum, length and style of lessons, etc.) Know *why* you are homeschooling. Write it down. It will help on days that aren't all roses and sunshine. And you'll have lots of those...

 

What great advice! :iagree:

[Audrey]

Greetings,

 

For those of you that just decided to homeschool your child/children from pre-k, what was the biggest challenge you encountered? How responsive was your child at first? Did you get some sort of set up "schedule" for your own sake? What have you done to keep your child's interest sparkled?

 

Thanks. Be well

 

Miriam

 

 

We were pretty laid back about pre-k. It was like a game -- or series of games.

 

"Let's play find the letters now. What sound does that one make? Can you think of any words/animals/foods/names that start with that sound?"

 

"Let's play with numbers....."

 

And so on. We would do two sessions of these types of games in a day. That was like "seatwork" because it came to include learning to write letters and numbers and using a few workbook-y things, too.

 

Then, we read... and read.... and read... as many good stories as he could stand. Word of warning on that: don't underestimate your child's capacity to listen to you reading. Had I given him his own way every time, I'd have been reading 12 hours a day some days! :)

 

The biggest challenge in pre-k was knowing when to challenge him and when to back off. Too little challenge, and he'll lose interest. Too much pushing and he'll be frustrated and develop a negative attitude towards learning.

[Guest]

We are doing PreK right now.

 

BIGGEST OBSTACLE, by far:

The discouragement you get from others for starting too early. Really, that's been the hardest part.

 

If you are experiencing resistance from your child, then I would re-think what you are doing, but if not, the things that have helped us are:

 

 

• Pick curricula that is enjoyable for all - mom and child - for this age I believe everyone should be having fun, above all.
  
• We do work as long as ds is interested. If he loses interest, we put everything away. (And really, that has never happened...)
  
• My son is awake for 11 hours in a day. We do formal schooling for about 30-45 min. + read aloud (which we don't consider school.) That leaves over 10 hours to play in the dirt, play with cars & trucks, get dirty, be a kid, etc. ;)
  
• Yes, I am an uber-organizer, so we do have a schedule. I find that when I schedule (or as some refer to as micro-managing!) our day, we have so much more fun and accomplish way more than if we just play it by ear - those days usually end up being jammy/TV days, which I hate.
  

Just a view from a homeschooling newbie who has been having a blast this year. :)

[Tree House Academy]

I have homeschooled my youngest since Pre-K. The hardest thing for me, at first, was getting into a routine with teaching him. He was VERY receptive, but I didn't have my head together on what I wanted to do and I wasn't using a "curriculum" yet, so it was tougher for me. We did get quite a bit done, though. He knew his letters, their sounds, and his numbers to 10 (at least) by the time he was 4. We took a break and he went to a church preschool last year. I homeschooled here and there, but didn't do a lot. In that one year, he learned literally nothing new. We went back to homeschooling in May and it has been smooth sailing ever since. I did start a curriculum with him and obviously we have a schedule now since I homeschool his older brother too. That helped a LOT.

[AuntieM]

Really, ten minutes sit-down-at-the-table-time was plenty enough at one stretch for my 3-4-5 yo boys, though my girls could go longer if I required it.

 

At this age all the learning modalities are in play, so be sure you present concepts to them visually, orally, and in a tactile manner as well.

 

Keep it fun. Back off when necessary. You have LOTS of time ahead of you.

 

And that's my two cents :)

[Doodle]

We are doing PreK right now.

 

BIGGEST OBSTACLE, by far:

The discouragement you get from others for starting too early. Really, that's been the hardest part.

 

 

:iagree: This has been the biggest obstacle for me as well.

[EKS]

The biggest challenge that I had when my preK son and I did academic stuff together was how much to "push" him to do things he didn't want to do. I tried to pick things that I thought would be well within his ability and that would be interesting to him. When it didn't work out that way, I didn't want to just say, "Oh well, you don't want to do school today? That's OK!" because I thought that would be setting us up for more problems down the road when it wouldn't be ok.

 

So what I finally ended up doing was that if a lesson started to go downhill, I would always end it on my terms, that is, if he said he wanted to stop I would always make him do a little more and then we would stop when I said to stop. Now this wouldn't necessarily be when I had originally intended to stop. And then I would adjust my expectations for the next day accordingly.

 

If something seemed to be really too hard for him, without giving up, I would adjust what we were doing for him to be successful. For example, if he was learning to read and was having trouble with sounding out the word cat, I might sound it out for him with some space between the sounds and have him do the blending.

[lionfamily1999]

Until he decided on his own (at age 3) that he wanted to read. And, voila, at age 4 he's reading.

 

What did you use?

 

Luke can recognise and name all the letters. He can find his name, and "reads" it with great relish. He's also started "reading" the books we read together (you know, the ones we have memorized). I'm considering adding some structure to it all, so he CAN read, IF he wants to, but I don't know what to use.

[brasilmom]

1. At the age of four, a good routine and discipline system is worth more than hours of 'school work.' Having a child that is used to routines (not schedules, necessarily) and is respectful/obedient will make your home environment wonderful for learning later on. Also, teach your children how to do simple chores and help out around the house.

 

3. Every child is different. My oldest fought phonics lessons, and yet he loved stories and books. I knew he would be a voracious reader once we got past the tedious early phonics. I was right. But it wasn't too much fun getting there. I had to mix things up a bit. I let him jump on the mini trampoline while I showed him word flash cards, etc... My middle guy has never been much of a story guy. I thought I would wait a little longer before teaching him phonics. Until he decided on his own (at age 3) that he wanted to read. And, voila, at age 4 he's reading.

 

5. Discover your educational philosophy. It will help you make the right decisions for your homeschool (curriculum, length and style of lessons, etc.) Know *why* you are homeschooling. Write it down. It will help on days that aren't all roses and sunshine. And you'll have lots of those...

 

ETA: LOL, I didn't really even answer your questions! The hardest thing has been my ds's attention span and his constant motion. We do whatever it takes. Short lessons. Writing standing up at the table. Saying poems while jumping on the trampoline. Letting him play with Legos while I read. Letting him write each word of his copywork with a different colored pencil.

 

Know your child's strengths and interests. My oldest could listen to stories all day long. And sometimes I let him do just that. He learns many of his subjects through stories. My middle guy wants hands-on projects and more work-book style learning. I'm okay with that, too! Pick curriculum that isn't dumbed down. Kids get the hint. Choose quality stories, illustrations, documentaries, math manipulatives, and open-ended toys (building blocks/legos, costumes, art and craft supplies, etc.)

 

Thank you everyone for all the good advice. Like you Heidi, my dd is constantly moving. She is now 3 1/2, loves to listen to stories and we can do hours without end of reading. Her motor skills are good and she can do some letters alone. She knows all the letters, but is a bit shy about numbers. She can count up to 20, but dislikes doing numbers activities. I am trying to start the process of teaching her how to read and we are using bingo as one of the games. Since we do not have other child I use a puppet as the other "school mate". She likes it a lot.

 

Thanks again everyone for your help. Now with the winter completely settled in, it is time to do more indoors.

 

Happy holidays. Be well

 

Miriam

[Lady Q]

The biggest challenge that I had when my preK son and I did academic stuff together was how much to "push" him to do things he didn't want to do. I tried to pick things that I thought would be well within his ability and that would be interesting to him. When it didn't work out that way, I didn't want to just say, "Oh well, you don't want to do school today? That's OK!" because I thought that would be setting us up for more problems down the road when it wouldn't be ok.

 

So what I finally ended up doing was that if a lesson started to go downhill, I would always end it on my terms, that is, if he said he wanted to stop I would always make him do a little more and then we would stop when I said to stop. Now this wouldn't necessarily be when I had originally intended to stop. And then I would adjust my expectations for the next day accordingly.

 

If something seemed to be really too hard for him, without giving up, I would adjust what we were doing for him to be successful. For example, if he was learning to read and was having trouble with sounding out the word cat, I might sound it out for him with some space between the sounds and have him do the blending.

 

:iagree:

 

I think ending school on my terms, rather than ds' is a good idea. I don't want to set him up to think that he can walk away from work if it's too hard, boring or something better comes along. We do little seatwork, but when do, I expect him to give it his best, follow directions and not leave things half-done (like start tracing a letter and not finish it :P).

 

I've come to believe that working on character and discipline issues, like obedience, now will set us up for a better learning environment when we really need it.

[Ellie]

I didn't think of it as pre-anything (we don't label dc by grade levels at all, anyway). I just started doing stuff with little dd as I could tell she was ready.

[The Governess]

We are doing PreK right now.

 

BIGGEST OBSTACLE, by far:

The discouragement you get from others for starting too early. Really, that's been the hardest part.

 

If you are experiencing resistance from your child, then I would re-think what you are doing, but if not, the things that have helped us are:

 

 

 

• Pick curricula that is enjoyable for all - mom and child - for this age I believe everyone should be having fun, above all.

• We do work as long as ds is interested. If he loses interest, we put everything away. (And really, that has never happened...)

• My son is awake for 11 hours in a day. We do formal schooling for about 30-45 min. + read aloud (which we don't consider school.) That leaves over 10 hours to play in the dirt, play with cars & trucks, get dirty, be a kid, etc. ;)

• Yes, I am an uber-organizer, so we do have a schedule. I find that when I schedule (or as some refer to as micro-managing!) our day, we have so much more fun and accomplish way more than if we just play it by ear - those days usually end up being jammy/TV days, which I hate.

 

Just a view from a homeschooling newbie who has been having a blast this year. :)

 

:iagree: with all of this!! I have found that I also need to have a schedule. We don't always stick to it, but I'm lost without it.

[Heidi @ Mt Hope]

I make sure the boys know the letter *sound* as well as the letter name. (I actually put more emphasis on the sound when learning the alphabet.) If your son doesn't know the letter sounds, I *highly* recommend Leapfrog's Letter Factory and Word Factory DVDs.

 

Once my Luke :) knew his sounds, we played around with letter magnets (lowercase). I would spell simple words (cat, hot, dog) and help him sound them out. I appreciated having The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading as a reference for myself, but didn't use it directly with my son.

 

When he was comfortable reading very simple words, we moved on to Nora Gaydos beginning readers as well as Bob Books. They are phonics based, and build slowly, so that is about all we used. He is now reading level one and two readers. When he comes across a word he struggles with or doesn't know, I help him sound it out or name the phonics rule. (The silent E makes the vowel say its name, etc...) I think it would depend on the kid, and you have to watch for their interest and level of focus, but that process went really smoothly for my second son. YMMV. :)

[brasilmom]

Thanks everyone for the insight. My dd speaks 2 languages, she knows the letters name in both languages too. Now, since Portuguese is my first language, I am teaching her to read in Portuguese first as the phonics is way easier, at least for me. Once she has mastered that then we will do English. I am doing researches to find orientation that regardless of language can be put to good use. I will check the books that some of you are using and I am most certain that I will find useful information.

 

The entire process is fascinating. To observe the child to become curious and their ability to take in all what is going on around them is incredible. I think that I am the one learning most. It is sad, however, to realize how easy it is for an adult brain to become lazy. I am looking forward for the journey and to learn it all, all over again.

 

Be well