Preschool in progress! Part 1

Hello Again!

Come take a peek into our homeschool preschool! We have been going at it for 14 weeks now, (hard for me to believe!) and are doing a letter a week.

I recently read an article about regrets homeschool moms had, and things they would do different if they were to do it all over again. One thing stood out to me, and that was one mother's lament over not including more fun in school. So, that is one of my goals that I hope to be able to stick to. Learning doesn’t have to be a drudgery. 

So apart from focusing on one letter a week, I also selected some fun activities that we do during the week.

- Colour letter page (I found colouring pages and such on Pinterest, one for everyday)

- painting

- play-dough with play-dough mats. (I printed off colouring pages I thought would work well with play-dough, and then laminated them for mats.) (will post play-dough recipe on a future post.)

- lacing cards. (I printed off some pictures I liked, laminated them and hole punched them)

- magnetic toys (of any kind! this one is a puzzle I made from a free download I found on Pinterest.)

- preschool/kindergarten home workbooks from the Dollar Store

- stamping

-puzzles

 - learning everyday stuff (like, how to set a table with fun place-mats!)

- Bible stories in books and audio as well as lots of other story books.

...amongst other things. Lots of simple fun stuff that they can learn with and they don't even know they're learning.

The best part for me, was that most of it was free on-line, cheap at the Dollar Store, or stuff I have around the house.

I've looked into different methods of teaching alphabet letters/ sounds. I can testify that traditional methods do not always work. Each one of us has a different learning style. Traditional schooling only caters to one, maybe two of four learning styles. You can read more on this from a book Focus on the Family put out called "The Way They Learn" by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias.

Having grown up through homeschool, I often had people tell me, "You can't read because you're homeschooled" !!!!!!! Seriously??? These people are some of the most mislead about homeschooling. Struggling through school has nothing to do with public vis. homeschool.  Kids struggle regardless of what type of school they are in. The plus for homeschool is that the parents can up and change their method of teaching to cater to their child’s needs/learning style, where in the public school often what happens is struggling students fall behind or are just pushed through the system, often graduating with very poor reading/writing and other skills.

So, that all said, one of the reason's I choose to homeschool, is because I can teach my children in their learning style.

And...I as a mom get to have the fun of watching the light-bulb come on as they begin to grasp and learn!!! 

Stay posted for more updates on our homeschool adventures!

S.L. Kliever