If you homeschool, a couple of questions

EmmieB

I'm planning to do pre-school as either a co-op or from home and I follow a ton of blogs and I have books and a direction I want to go in and a minor in early childhood education so you think I'd be all over it. Then I was in Office Depot to pick up binders and dividers and pockets etc to organize and I just got overwhelmed and decided I need more information from moms who actually do it.

1) when did you start with "formal" schooling (ie - lesson plans and curriculum)

and

2) how do you have your lessons plans/curriculum organized?

TIA!

ashleywebber

I started officially schooling my son at 4.  I bought up a ton of workbooks (alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes, Bible characters) and photocopied what I wanted him to do.  I organized it into 26 weeks.  We did a letter each week, a number, color, and shape each 2 weeks, and a Bible character story/craft each time we "did school".  I think 3 1/2 to 4 is a good age to start.  I don't think most kids want to sit and "do school" before that age.  Before that we went to storytime, read books, colored, did little crafts, went to the Christian bookstore for story/craft time, and he learned through living so to speak.

When he turns 5 (we are taking a break now since I am having twins soon) in January, we will be starting a whole curriculum including lots of reading, him learning to read (hopefully), handwriting, and math.  We are also going to find some fun projects to work on.

Sweets2005

These two websites have really good planning/organization advice:

https://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/

https://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/

 

 

xnbride

https://www.lessonpathways.com/ is a good site for free curriculum. My son is in p/t preschool but in the afternoons we do learning activities, a craft, "recess," and then another learning activity. It keeps him occupied while I am trying to cook dinner as well.

I got some workbooks from the dollar tree and put them into plastic protectors and he writes on them with dry erase markers that way we can reuse them over and over again. I have folders divided for writing, math, shapes etc.  I also have stamps and flash cards.

I think start small and definitely incorporate incentives. I found the "recess" thing works really great at motivating him to get his work done.

EmmieB

thanks guys!