This year my daughter should have started Pre-K. It started with our favorite preschool teacher not having room in her class. But as we adjusted our budget to include new medical needs we thought it might be better financially if we did a home school preschool. I knew our day would have more structure if we had a preschool morning schedule. Our daughter is especially social. I know she would have loved going to preschool. But since we didn’t have any social concerns we thought we could get her excited about having preschool with mom. I know this time with her will be a blessing to our relationship.
I hope that this post might help other moms who are striving to teach their children from home. Whether you are looking for ways to spend quality time with your kids or you are trying to save money by doing your own preschool from home. Or maybe you want to spend time teaching your toddler before you send them off to preschool. I hope this layout can be a help to you. My goal is to have preschool Monday through Friday each week. I know doctor appointments, dance class, and hair clients for me will throw our schedule off a bit. We typically only have preschool about 3 days a week. We’ve been working on preschool since the beginning of July. Starting in September we will be starting out letter of the week.
I plan to post weekly every Wednesday a lesson plan that I am planning for the following week. Feel free to follow along and join us. I have decided to go in alphabetical order to help my brain. I don’t have a degree in child development. I’m just a mom who loves teaching and reading. My first three kids all went to preschool one year before kindergarten. But I’ve been doing a letter of the week with my kids when they turn 3 and I have taught most of them how to read. It gets harder as we have more children, but I really love teaching my children.
And the most important part of teaching children is to have fun. Children learn through playing. Drilling kids and pushing flash cards isn’t the best approach. It’s about making connections and having fun. And far more important than teaching my children how to read is teaching them to love reading. So far all of my kids are in love with reading. It’s one of the best gifts we can give our kids. (Find a post below on tips for raising readers)
Morning Schedule
8:30– Chores. If I haven’t already I unload the dishwasher and tiding up the downstairs. My daughter can dust, sort silverware, or pick up her books or toys. Or put away all the items she insisted on bringing into the car to drop off her brothers.
8:45– Recite the Pledge of Allegiance
Say morning prayers
Circle time songs. We spend time singing whatever silly songs we can think of. I love songs with actions. She just loves this part of our morning. Some of our favorites:
- Isty-bitsy spider
- 5 Little Monkeys
- Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes
- Popcorn Popping
- Wheels on the Bus
- Old MacDonald
Calendar. We review the month and days of the week. We also sing a days of the week song. We count out to the current date and review fun things approaching on our calendar
9:00– Mini Lesson. During this time I teach her about a letter, person or place. Other options include Letter collage, blocks, circling the letter (using a word search worksheet), lacing beads, or Pattern Blocks with wood shapes.
9:20– Coloring, Play doh, sensory bins, painting, Do A Dots, or cutting exercising. During this time we also play classical music.
9:40 Reading time. We frequent the library often and have stacks of books to read.
10:00– Reading Activity or craft (with a book we just read) or Dramatic Play,
10:20– Movement Activity- going for a walk, bike ride, swimming, side walk chalk, dancing, marching, baking (see the post below).
10:40 Letter Practice. Lego letters, string formation, sugar tracing, Magnetic Letters, craft sticks, letter tracing.
11:00 Free Play (my trick for encouraging independent play while I work on the computer)
11:30 Lunch. We can run errands after or maybe she might take a nap.
And that’s our schedule. I give myself freedom to be flexible. If she’s playing with play-doh really well and I’m working on a post, I’m going to take advantage of it. And if we are spending time making muffins and she’s asking all kinds of questions I am going to give that priority. Or if we want to swim for a longer period I’m fine with that. Having a letter to focus on really helps me find ways to teach my kids. Starting the first week of September we will be learning about the letter A and we would love for you to join us!
You can follow along on Instagram and see what things we are up to. Every Friday we will have a field trip and invite friends. We will be reading books with that letter and baking a treat that week. I would love for you to follow along and share your ideas.
I’m not big into electronic toys. I really prefer using your imagination and starting with the basics (see some of my favorite Melissa & Doug products above), but I honestly love these magnetic letters. I bought them with my oldest about 12 years ago and they are still my favorite. And easy way for kids to learn their letters and the basic phonetic sounds they make. We love spelling and reading together with them as my kids get older.
I can’t wait to share my lesson and story ideas each week. And remember your kids are never too young to start learning. When we use teaching as a time to spend time with our kids and have fun, we find learning opportunities everywhere.
Baking Our Way Through The Alphabet
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