tbhas6
Senior Member
Posts: 1,146
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Post by tbhas6 on Sept 11, 2007 13:01:30 GMT -5
Hi All,
Last year I was blessed to be able to attend a Homeschooling conference in my area. While there I attended a workshop on schooling older children when you still have toddlers running around. (at the time we were homeschooling ages 15, 6, 3) The speaker had some wonderful advice that has helped our school day run much smoother. I thought I'd pass a few of his ideas on to ya'll.
Young children want to do everything the older ones are doing. So have school with them also. 1. Collect a good sized box and tell your toddler it is his/her school box. In the box place a rug (an old blanket will also suffice), crayons, books, coloring sheets/books, educational toys (building blocks, shape blocks, nesting cups, etc.), and anything else you could use for pre-school time. 2. The items in this box are for school only. Never let the child play with these items outside of school time. 3. We begin with pledges and Bible study as a group. Then the older children move on to independent study time. That's when we have school time with our toddler. Place the child on the rug and have a "reading" lesson (read to your toddler & and identify alaphabet and letter sounds). We have a "math" lesson (counting & shape identification). We have a "penmanship" lesson (coloring). We practice motor skills (stacking, building, etc.). We end with singings songs or reciting nursery poems. 4. During the toddler's nap time. Mom is available for answering questions and assisted studies with the older children.
I hope that some of these ideas will assist some of you in feeling less like a juggling clown and more like a home educator during the school day ... tb
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Post by mamatoarose on Sept 22, 2007 20:08:36 GMT -5
I love the ideas! I have a two year old and we have decided to start a homeschool preschool with her...since her speech is a little delayed(our therapist we seen wanted her to work with her on sounds and words). We understand of course she is only two. So we are shooting for an hour a day with her give or take. She loves to say some of her letter sounds now. So we are starting with the alphabet first. Everyday a different letter...we checked some books out at the library on different animals that begin with the letter(her daddy's idea he loves to learn about bugs and different animals). Our little one loves books. I have some craft ideas for her and such. She is a hands on kind of girl and I picked some age friendly stuff. We also got these Bible study cards through the mail. At first I thought may not sit through the study(she does attend Sunday school and children's church). We got nine for free...the story of Noah. But, she listened through out the story and then we did the puzzle on back(if you set it on the floor it made a pretty good sized puzzle you had to place together). So we decided to send off for the full set. So we are going to try to do a letter a day..with practice with the sound...look at the animal book...maybe a small craft...and then a little Bible study. I am very fortunate that my husband does all his hours at work on the weekends...it's hard and he misses Sundays....but, he is home Monday through Friday. So I will have someone to help with getting our little one use to the idea of being homeschooled and having some fun with it. I know she will eventually have to get use to this idea in the next couple of years. I have been thanking the Lord that I don't have to go into this alone at first since I am nervous. Our first day will be Monday. I am baking her a pencil cake to celebrate for lunch on Monday. I think we can really make this fun for her. I never thought of giving her own school box filled with goodies...I think she will be excited about that. Monday we are learning about A and ants. I have a small craft of binoculars made out of toilet paper rolls(I kind of made this up)..I'm gonna glue them together with hot glue, decorate them(she loves stickers), punch holes in the sides with the hole punch, and then use ribbon so she can hang them around her neck. Then we are going to search for ants made out of a peanut butter clay that you can eat...of course we are having ants for lunch too...the clay. Our Bible study will go with A and we will learn about Adam and Eve. I better go...probably typed way too much.
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tbhas6
Senior Member
Posts: 1,146
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Post by tbhas6 on Sept 23, 2007 17:56:50 GMT -5
Hi Mamatoarose,
It sounds like you and your husband are coming up with GREAT ideas for homeschool. From all ya'lls terrific ideas listed above, I'm sure you guys will be wonderful at homeshcooling. The beauty of beginning early with our younger children is that they never really had a "transition" period into "formal" homeschooling. Since they were always home with me and we homeschooled #3, now in high school, it was just part of growing-up for them.
#1, #2 & #3 started out in public education, with #1 & #2 graduating from public education, and I remember them leaving home to begin Kindergarden - that was a transition! Five years ago we began homeschooing #3 and haven't looked back; we wouldn't have it anyother way. As a matter of fact #3, now a senior, likes it so much that he says he will not marry a girl who doesn't plan to homeschool her children. Our #1 & #2 were very skeptical of our decission to begin homeschooling, but after seeing all the positive results of it they are completely supportive of our decission and thier younger siblings education.
Have a blessed Monday - your 1st day of "pre-school"! tb
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Post by mamatoarose on Sept 29, 2007 21:22:02 GMT -5
I want to say reading your post is very encouraging for me. Thank you for posting it back to me! I love to hear about other moms experiences with homeschooling. It gives me an encouragement of "I can do this". I love about your son...how wise for his age. Here first day went very well and she enjoyed it so much...so did we. She loved the craft and is still carrying it around everywhere looking for stuff. I know when we go into walmart..they are thinking..why in the world does that child have two toilet paper rolls glued together and hanging around her neck?...lol. She has since tore off the stickers we decorated it with. But, at least she loved it and uses it everyday! And we actually got about 45 minutes in. Which was so suprising to me. We did the study of Noah again...since she loves the story and the puzzle. We didn't mind re-studying it with her. I'm an adult and still love to read in the Bible about Noah. I love to see her get so excited. She also loved the pencil cake too. Oh and the ant book I checked out...it was something else. It was really great on pics and reading. But, I am so glad we had some movies due back to the library. When I went to check out another book for myself they asked me about the ant book. I thought it was a 30 day check out. Try 7. Could you imagine that at .25 a day!!
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tbhas6
Senior Member
Posts: 1,146
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Post by tbhas6 on Oct 2, 2007 9:36:36 GMT -5
I am so happy to hear how fun ya'lls first day was. In your reply you mentioned encouragement and "I can do this". Of course you can! We all seem to forget that up until approximately 150 years ago, all most everyone from the beginning of time was homeschooled. I have a list of 100 famous people who were homeschooled at some point or other during thier education. If I can find it I'll post it - hopefully others will be as encouraged by it as I was ... tb
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