As I continue planning our curriculum, I am getting more and more excited to homeschool preschool E this fall. She shows us signs that she is ready for more organized learning and she's even self directing these activities occasionally.
Waiting for friends at a restaurant, she looked at the word search on her place mat and said, "I color all the Es pink!" Um, YES!!! Great idea and adapted to her level! Wow!
She assigned Daddy to find the Rs (for his first name) to color with a different color. I was over the moon!
My tentative plan is to continue with
our calendar time daily. Next, we will begin monthly themes to base our curriculum around. We'll start slowly, practicing our routines with farm animals in August since we will be attending several local fairs. Once we see what works for us, September will bring a more formal start with the theme of apples. I want to include literacy skills (letter identification and matching, letter sounds, pre-reading skills, etc.), math skills (patterns, matching/sorting, shapes, number identification, counting, making sets, etc.), Handwriting Without Tears, journal pre-writing, science inquiry, real life discovery, pretend play, sensory play, and art.
We will have two planned mornings a week this fall when we have activities outside of the house (library story time and a moms' group where E will attend an age grouped classroom separate from me) primarily because I want her to get used to listening to an adult other than myself. I also want to make sure that she continues to socializing with new and familiar peers in many ways, including these two outings and other play dates. I am also considering dance classes this fall.
Winter will be more complicated, because E will move to the next age for library story time. It will then be held the same day as the moms' group, so we'll have to make a choice or attend a different library (I really love the teacher where we currently go) plus we'll have the new little one in tow.
That leaves at least two mornings a week for focusing on homeschooling, plus one day for other activities. I am already using
these planning sheets from Infarrantly Creative for our schedule, so I will just need to add more homeschooling curriculum to their content. We will be flexible with our scheduling by selecting 10 - 20 curriculum activities per week that we will complete based on our day, E's mood and attention span, other tasks that need to be done, etc.
She amazes me every day. This morning, she is attempting to role play through some toddler emotions. "You hold doll. I take it. You ANGRY!" I respond with an I-message, "I feel angry when you take my doll because I don't have another one to hold!" We work out different scenarios, including asking for a turn, how it makes me feel when she shares, and how we can solve the problems so we are both happy.
