Homeschool Preschool

Well I do preschooling in my child care business....not so sure you would call that home schooling or not....The first one to go through my preschool program was my own son. I think I started a little on the late end with him but I had only started my child care business just as he was turning 3. I took him in for a early childhood screening in September 2006(provided free by our school district, we live in Brandon school district) that showed me were I really needed to work on. I took him back in for the same screening in Sept 2007 and they informed me that in most areas he was at a 6yr old level....

Now, as far as an actual curriculum well I do not use one....I simply started buying games and books that we could play and read together. I used the fisher price "doodle Pro" as a writing space for him...We now use a "write and re-use" book to teach him how to write his letters and also in the back of the book is some "beginning sounds", "ending sounds". (the book is put out by "school zone" and I picked it up at walmart for less than $5. I actually went back and bought 3 more so I would have them for when my daughter as well as some of my child care children are ready for them. I use a lot of flash cards, puzzles, reading, music, and dramatic play...I recently attended a child care conference fall of 2007 and heard from all of the speakers (Speakers: Jeff A Johnson, Gera Jacobs, Ed.D. Early Childhood and Elementary Education Department of Curriculum and Instruction University of South Dakota) that children learn best through play. That is when I desided to make some adjustments...we no longer do "worksheets". Gera advised that asking children between the ages of 2-5 to sit down and complete worksheets was asking to much from them at that age...now everyone's child is different so if your child will sit then I do think they can be beneficial to the child...but in my profession not every child is the same and I have to say some of the children in my care don't even sit long enough to hear a book be read to them....but then some do....you have to use your better judgement....one thing I did hear and thought was very interesting was that ...when reading a book and the toddler gets up and starts playing DON'T STOP READING...they are still getting something out of it...ALL of my children in my care LOVE books....I have some songs we sing that teaches the days of weeks, months of years, and so on...I have also utilize the LeapFrog leapster handheld w/cartridges as well as the LeapFrog DVD set which includes: Letter Factory, Talking Words Factory, Code Word Caper, Math Circus, and Learn to Read at the Storybook Factory....During the evening I advised my son he could not watch regular TV until he had watched some of Leap....We all got to where we would sing the songs off the DVD's without even turning the DVD on!

The final thing that Jeff A Johnson stated in the conference was how he has a friend who teaches kindergarten and I guess she was telling him that what they teach our kindergarteners today in the first 9weeks of school, is what they used to teach our children in the last 9weeks of 1st grade 20yrs ago. He was saying sometimes we need to allow our children to be children and that they will get enough schooling when they get into school. NOW don't get me wrong, I do beleive preschool is IMPORTANT, I was just stating what had been stated in the conference.

If you would like to chat more about this feel free to pm me...and most of all I hope I have NOT offended anyone on this site
God Bless
God's Grace changes every thing, God's Mercy is all that we need, cause when we're up when we're down God's Love is all around us!

I homeschool my children they are ages 5, 3, and 4 months. I can't say I really start "preschool" at any one age. I really look for the readiness of my children and what their interest are. I think hands on learning the is best, so we go on field trip with our homeschool group, go to the library, zoo etc. I also try to make the most of teachable moments. Instead of planning a great lesson, I wait for a time when my DDs are ready. For example we had a great educational moment at 7 p.m. tonight. (not when you would think of doing school) I was able to see that my daughter could write her ABCs with a little help my other DD could sing the alphabet song. They had out a notebook and I was writing the words, then I asked my 5 DD to write. She was enjoying learning and was proud of what she could do. Not worry about what she could not do.
I have a file cabinet full of early childhood curriculum, I don't use. Why should I go though all that work of finding an activity, making copies etc. When we have great life experience around us. When we need to find out more about something, we look it up on the computer or get books from the library. I am able to spending so much time answering her question and going into more dept on what is important to her then you could ever do in a school setting. As for curriculum type stuff, I like to make sure that my kids have art supplies. I also like education games, that we can play together. We also have a place in our home to work on the gross motor skill specially on these cold SD days. We have some easy reader book and have checked out some really great ones from the library. I have bought the simple homework helper workbooks. When she asks we work on them. I look at the Kindergarten state standards every once and a while to double check we are moving in the right direction.
As far as educational theory (it's been a while but I did get a degree in early childhood and special education). I like Erickson, Attachment partnering is my partnering model.
This way many be not enough structure for some families, but I am really amazed what my dds are learning with out formal instruction and they love to learn.
I wanted to add one more comment, I have been looking into homeschooling for a while. There are a few theory about waiting to teach reading until latter like when your child starts loosing his or her baby teeth. The one that comes to my mind is Waldorf ( it would be worth goggling). They do not introduce print till 7 or 8. I think there is something to be said for waiting to teach children to read until their brains are ready. I started teaching my dd to read then I stopped now we work on reading at her pace.