Pre-school "home schooling"

duffmaker · September 2013

Hey ladies, it's been a REALLY long time since I've visited this board but I had a question (and I thought TB gods added a homeschooling board, but I'm not seeing it?).

Is anyone skipping/has anyone skipped pre-school (and/or Kindergarten) and just "taught" their kiddos at home? Can you offer up any advice? Good books, blogs or any other resources to look into.

M will be 2 in December so it's definitely early to be thinking about this, but it has been on my mind. Her and S are only 18 months apart though, so it might be tough putting the necessary effort in. Do you think it would be? We will most likely be in the city still when she would start pre-school and I would prefer to take the money we would put into a good Montessori pre-school tuition toward buying our family home. Does that make sense at all? I mean, if I can apply the same principles day-to-day, take some time each day for "learning", and find a play group/co-op to meet with once or twice a week... I don't see why I can't skip traditional pre-school all together. On the off chance we're still in the city, or at least not settled in a district that we approve of, when it comes time for kindergarten... I may even look into home-schooling for that too until we settle into our family home, in the school district the kids will graduate from.

duffmaker · September 2013

Oh and another question... do I need to be certified or anything like that in order to legally home school my kids for pre-school and kindergarten?

LatteLady5 · September 2013

You'll find many on this board who are passionately anti-homeschooling and/or pro preschool. Here is a link to the homeschooling board. https://forums.thebump.com/categories/homeschooling There are several regs who are pretty helpful.

Each state has different homeschooling regulations but the majority of children are not required to attend preK. Most formal schooling doesn't legally need to start until age 6. Check out the HSLD site for state by state recommendations to be sure.

DD is almost 2 and we do about 15-30 minutes a day of "schooling." She loves letter and numbers so I just kind of went with that. She knows her ABC's and the sounds A and B make and can pick them out on paper. We're going to do C next week. We do coloring (err, scribbling) sheets and sing the ABC song together and watch clips via youtube of educational stuff. We also do the letters and numbers in ASL so she's learning that too. She loves watching other kids sign and sing.

I don't think at that age any formal schooling is necessary. There are tons of great blogs out there for "tot school" and plenty of online curricula available but at 2 I don't think anything incredibly structured/formal is necessary. Most learning happens through play and exploring anyhow. Is there something your son is into that you can make lessons around? Colors, numbers, letters etc.? Library story hour and play group are also a good way to get him out and in situations where he can interact with other kids.

duffmaker · September 2013

Thanks!!

I have scoffed at homeschooling in the past, but just pre-school/kindergarten... I would rather keep her in play groups for social interaction and "learn" at home if it means owning our home and getting the kids into a great school district quicker. KWIM?

LatteLady5 · September 2013

clizh said:

Thanks!!

I have scoffed at homeschooling in the past, but just pre-school/kindergarten... I would rather keep her in play groups for social interaction and "learn" at home if it means owning our home and getting the kids into a great school district quicker. KWIM?

I know what you're saying. We plan to home school so I'm in the minority over here

I was definitely a scoffer in the past and totally against it until I actually did some research. I don't think everybody should homeschool by any means but it's our plan for now.

duffmaker · September 2013

LatteLady5 said:

clizh said:

Thanks!!

I have scoffed at homeschooling in the past, but just pre-school/kindergarten... I would rather keep her in play groups for social interaction and "learn" at home if it means owning our home and getting the kids into a great school district quicker. KWIM?

I know what you're saying. We plan to home school so I'm in the minority over here I was definitely a scoffer in the past and totally against it until I actually did some research. I don't think everybody should homeschool by any means but it's our plan for now.

I was looking for a thumbs up but couldn't find one

dang new format! But :thumbs up:!

duffmaker · September 2013

Thanks that does give me some ideas

nosoup4u · September 2013

Compulsory schooling usually starts at 6-7, so chances are good that your be fine w keeping her at home.

As she gets older, follow her lead about the things she's interested in. Check out books from the library about the subjects she likes, answer (and research) endless questions about said subjects, offer her authentic learning opportunities. You can set up a simple visual art studio at home for her to start making art, simple musical instruments, writing tools, math manipulatives, etc. Finding a play group would be great, too.

DS1 became very interested in the world around him around 4 or 5, it really kicks in around then, and they will let you know what sort of things they want to learn more about!

jk382 · September 2013

sing4mysavior said:

We actually don't plan to homeschool, but I do come up with some activities each week--if we get to all of them cool, if we don't, no big deal. Our categories are (and examples bc this is "C" week: Bible: creation Art: coffee filter art Math: classifying Pom poms Science: hot/cold Language: cat in the hat, very hungry caterpillar, etc etc Music: classical/country (play in background during their play time), watch/learn about clarinet Service/outing: just story time and play group this week Adaptive: clothes--helping mommy do and put away laundry Social/pretend: camping (set up tent in living room and have a pretend campout) I plan something for each category each week based on our letter of the week. HTH some.

Those are great ideas! I don't usually post on this board (just lurk), but I am interested in doing more formal activities with my son. How do you come up with those great ideas? Do you have any online resources that you can recommend?

kcisthebombdotcom · September 2013

There's really little benefit to doing preschool at home. Rote memorization shouldn't be the focus of early learning. The benefit of preschool is to learn to listen to other adults outside of family, learn classroom rules and get socialization with peers without that safety net of mom (or another family member). You can't replicate that at home. In terms of homeschooling preschool/kindie I think it's a terrible idea. I'm not opposed to homeschooling when done right but I think you should choose to do it all or nothing. When your kid walks into first grade with peers who have 1-4 years of classroom experience under their belts theres a certain expectation and your child is going to struggle.

If you're looking for ways to enhance your child's learning give them loads of unstructured, child directed play. I know the current trend is teaching your kids numbers and letters the second they expel from the womb but that isn't the best for their overall cognitive and emotional development. See below. https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/119/1/182.full

Andrewsgal · September 2013

KC_13 said:
There's really little benefit to doing preschool at home. Rote memorization shouldn't be the focus of early learning. The benefit of preschool is to learn to listen to other adults outside of family, learn classroom rules and get socialization with peers without that safety net of mom (or another family member). You can't replicate that at home. In terms of homeschooling preschool/kindie I think it's a terrible idea. I'm not opposed to homeschooling when done right but I think you should choose to do it all or nothing. When your kid walks into first grade with peers who have 1-4 years of classroom experience under their belts theres a certain expectation and your child is going to struggle.

If you're looking for ways to enhance your child's learning give them loads of unstructured, child directed play. I know the current trend is teaching your kids numbers and letters the second they expel from the womb but that isn't the best for their overall cognitive and emotional development. See below.
https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/119/1/182.full

I agree. There really is no point. You can't teach routines, procedures, cooperative learning. Etc. if you were planning to HS for the long term then great but if not I think you are doing a huge disservice.

Cherryblossoms07 · September 2013

I tot school my kids, even though DD still goes to preschool. I got a ton of ideas on-line. I found a few preschool theme schedules on-line (sorry I no longer have them) and then just changed them a little to meet my kids' interests. There are a ton of ideas on Pinterest as well. There is a school/education tab where you can find a lot of ideas and helpful people to follow. I organize tot school around a book - we read a book and do a corresponding activity/craft. I started it because I thought my daughter was getting bored at home and kept it up because DD and DS love it. Today we are reading Harry the Dirty Dog (D week). The kids are going to pudding paint a dog, eat dirt cups, and DD and I will work on opposites.

https://preschoolalphabet.blogspot.com/
https://katherinemaries.com/ - Not a homeschooling site but she has some cute ideas for play once and awhile.
https://creativepreschoolresources.com/
https://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com

pitterpatter129 · September 2013

Something I recently learned on the Bump -- not all states have all day 4 yr old programs or even Kinder for free for every kid in the public schools... I think if I had to pay for private preschool, I might homeschool too.

There are tons of fun preschool ideas on pinterest and you can buy books at a "teacher" store. I love the Mailbox magazine for classroom ideas. I agree with some of the pp that a big part of preschool is socialization. Our preK programs now really focus on pre-reading skills though. They leave knowing all the letter sounds and reading and writing short words. I'll send mine to the public school because I'd be scared they'd miss out on too much. We had three first graders start last year that were home schooled for PreK and K and they were very much behind academically. So, that's my only experience with the subject...

barnwife · September 2013

We plan to HS. We had/have no plans for formal curriculum until at least age 5. We do attend library storytime almost every week. (Well, since DS2 is only a week old, we didn't go this week.)

That being said, I recently found a Bible based preschool curriculum. I like the idea of focusing on a different Bible story every week. The curriculum is called God's Little Explorers and is mostly free online (there is a paid version). I will be using some of the ideas. I am not worried about the letter/shapes section as I don't believe a kid needs to know those as soon as they pop out of the womb. But I do like the idea of having a basic outline to follow as we start to teach our children more about our faith.

Love My Lil Princess 509 · September 2013

The term home schooling usually refers to actual "school" kids attend at 5-6 years old. Pre-school is just that, before real school. I know times have changed but not a single person I know went to pre-school. At 4-5, I still had trouble spelling my name, started k at 5 and was one of the smartest kids in my grade. When I here people using the term school for 2 year olds, I dunno. Socializing, um yea. I'm sure your kid will be just fine that going to pre-school or gasp not knowing the whole alphabet before pre-k. I don't plan on sending any of our kids to pre-school until pre-k at age 4. If I do return to work before then, she may go only bc I won't be home to watch her.

nosoup4u · September 2013

KC_13 said:
If you're looking for ways to enhance your child's learning give them loads of unstructured, child directed play. I know the current trend is teaching your kids numbers and letters the second they expel from the womb but that isn't the best for their overall cognitive and emotional development. See below. https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/119/1/182.full

Excellent! Made me laugh, too

I think being ready for first grade is different than being ready for kindergarten. I can usually tell the kindergarteners who haven't been in preschool the first month school starts. But they catch up/get used to school fairly quickly, but it really depends on the individual kid's personality (if they are a rule-follower by nature, how active they are, etc.).

kcisthebombdotcom · September 2013

Love My Lil Princess 509 said:

The term home schooling usually refers to actual "school" kids attend at 5-6 years old. Pre-school is just that, before real school. I know times have changed but not a single person I know went to pre-school. At 4-5, I still had trouble spelling my name, started k at 5 and was one of the smartest kids in my grade. When I here people using the term school for 2 year olds, I dunno. Socializing, um yea. I'm sure your kid will be just fine that going to pre-school or gasp not knowing the whole alphabet before pre-k. I don't plan on sending any of our kids to pre-school until pre-k at age 4. If I do return to work before then, she may go only bc I won't be home to watch her.

The point of preschool has nothing to do with learning abcs. The reality is decades of research show preschool brings cognitive and social benefits for kids. Most quality preschools are child led, play based and let kids explore their natural interests--while a benefit of schooling is learning the rote memorization stuff it isnt the main objective. More importantly the child is being observed by someone who is an expert on early childhood development. if your child is struggling with something like gross or fine motor issues a parent could easily miss it but a teacher wouldn't. Identification of these issues before school counts can be very helpful since we know its much each to teach/change a three year old vs a six year old.
When it comes to something as important as education I think setting up kids for the best start possible is incredibly important. If families simply don't have the financial means to do preschool that's one thing and I don't think it's necessarily setting their child for a life of mediocrity. If one has the resources I can't understand why you wouldn't send your child.

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