Homeschool Pre-K

Going to keep threading on through homeschooling with each of our little learners.  Four, almost five, Claire, is our easiest to school.  She's Pre-K age and obediently completes any task.  She smiles the whole time and LOVES completing each of her baskets. 

My girl is starting to sound out words and is working through her Bob book set. 
At the end of each one, "THE END" is read with a big exclamation point! 
Sometimes we also "row" books from Before Five in a Row. 



As explained here, Claire gets baskets laid out for her each day.  Usually, just 4-5 with a little reading, a little writing, something math and something artsy.  She chooses the order.  Outside of reading books together, these take her around an hour, saving most of the rest of the day for as much playing as she can squeeze in to her awake hours!

Math is usually just IDing or ordering numbers, sorting coins or adding piles of crayons. 



Journaling is one of our favorite dailies.  Her basket always includes her journal, tape, a pencil (She uses these awesome pencils to perfect her grip.) and a big envelope of pictures of fun things we've done. 

She tapes in a picture and then tells me what to write.   At the end, she "reads" it back,  traces and writes a couple of the words and then circles all the sight words she can find.  Both girls have these journals and they are awesome little, keep forever, kind of scrapbooks. 

The most formal thing we do is Handwriting Without Tears. 
I love, love it, and is by far my favorite workbook ever purchased.  We'll be buying more. 

Because our life is full of crazy, we also need some- save momma's sanity- kind of activities.
 Most of these have been holiday gifts,

 like this Melissa and Doug spelling puzzle,

 Tag Readers (Oh, thank you, God, for these!),

 Hot Dots Jr.,

and really good puzzles. (Nope, all our puzzles aren't all educational.  Promise.) 

 If I can't muster up schooling some days, I feel good about pulling out these to "play" with. 

Another DIY is this "How to Draw" binder made with Googled drawing tutorials. 

 When we really are doing school all formal like, Claire works on printable

sight word packs from the 1+1+1=1 blog.   

 Our Ipad has a favorites folder with tons of learning YouTube videos

on rhyming, animals, days of the week, etc. 

 Now, please remember that this is a glossed up look at our school ideals.  Sometimes we watch Sesame Street and call it a day.  I do really love having my girl home.  She did preschool for two years, then we decided to pull her for Pre-K.  Best intentional decision we've made.  It's given us scheduling freedom, easy mornings during a life-changing year, lots of one on one learning together and plenty of time for all kinds of play. 

 

 

Our little Claire Bear might just be the sweetest student ever.  

Schooling Our Newly Home Little Man

So what does homeschool preschool look like with our little man? Hands on, hands on, and more hands on activities.  Puzzles, learning toys, matching, reading, art, gluing anything, tons of playing and some tracing.  Eli Lan Chang is three years old, turning four very soon.  He has been home for three and half months and is not yet talking.  His attention span is extra short, but he's PreK age in the fall with lots of ground to make up. 

 

One thing we've realized is that he is super smart and LOVES "school" time.  When the girls start doing  their work, he points at his little chest with one finger to ask if he gets some too.

 Melt my heart. 

 

To help the newly adoptive mommas that I've been chatting with, here's a glimpse of his preschool.

Sorting is an important skill for his little brain, and it is super easy.  I pull together a bowl of items and he sorts like it is his job.  We've done beans, noodles, cars, crayons, and pom poms.  Here he is using rubber counters handed down to us, which are great for sorting by color as well. 

 



We learned about Hot Dots, Jr. from my buddy Sharon at Growing Whole Hearts.  Thanks to strategic Christmas listing, both he and Claire have learning games using this handheld little pup who barks learning feedback.  Thank you, grandparents! 

 

These Leapfrog letter magnets adorn the side of our fridge.  This whole alphabet activity was a bit hard at first for him, so we started with his name and will also do the names of the whole family with a picture.  Extra bonus?  If he is making me bonkers during meal prep, I send him over to match. 

Thank you to cousin Madeline for the hand-me-down that keeps on giving!

Our Melissa and Doug Shape Sorter was a gift received long ago that I thankfully held on to.  It keeps him busy, for at least three minutes.  :)



more daily sorting

This foam letter puzzle was a thrift store find years ago, and it has been used 3,678 times.  It really helps my tiny people develop an understanding of letter shapes, and is great, much needed fine motor practice. 

 



As I shared about here, Eli traces his name daily.  When we first started, it was evident that he had never held a pencil or crayon.  Now, he's a tracing star!  Here we were using a sheet protector and dry erase marker.

 



Shape tracing using dry erase are fun as well.  Once all over the place, he now stays on the lines. 



 

Another strategic Christmas list item from long ago, was this Melissa and Doug Tangram Puzzle.  This is crazy good fine motor practice, as the shapes don't lock in.  It would have driven him bonkers when first home, but he now will sit and do every single tile.  

 

Since he had no control of his crayon when first home, I had him stick stickers on paper and then circle them.  It gave him a specific task, and this little man with a plan loved that.  

Play doh.  Lots of play doh.  Sticking penne noodles into it is a cheap and fun little add in. 

One of the fave of all our learning/creative toys are the stacker pegs and peg board.  Between he and Evie, this gets played with at least once a day.  It's a great one for little people to work on during schooling or meal prep.  

 

Just home, scissors became his obsession, so I made thin strips with lines (sometimes stickers) on them for him to cut.  He's way over it now, but used to do it with intense concentration.  

Pom poms, cheap trays and tongs are good fine motor practice. 

They get transferred back and forth over and over.

Santa brings learning games as well, and this old one is Eli's favorite. 

We have the Melissa and Doug Button Puzzle and the Animal Pattern Blocks.  

Found somewhere online, little mounds of play doh, spaghetti noodles and Cheerios is another fine motor activity. 

When Sophia was a baby, I found this beautiful matching set at a TJ Maxx and it has been well loved ever since.  The matching is fun and provides language expansion in an non-flash card way.  

 

 Another favored Melissa and Doug toy are these Water Wow sets.  Thanks again to the grandparents and Aunt Janie, these are perfect for entertaining little ones at our steady flow of doctors appointments.  They are way cool, way easy and have held up well. 

Since our little student wants to be like his sibs, he gets a sheet every day too.  He traces and then is learning to color by filling in the shapes. 

 

Teaching and working with his little brain is a hard joy.  With three siblings, I just don't have the one on one time with him that I'd love to have, but thankfully, he learns quickly and is growing in independence. I'm learning to release my expectations, and am standing back in awe at how much his siblings teach him, without me even being in the room.  In just a short time, his skills and mind have advanced so much.  These combined with heart, trust and attachment growth are a beautiful blossoming.  So grateful for the front row seat.  

A few more learning/creative toys we have:

 Melissa and Doug Sequence Sorting Set

Lacing Beads

puzzles

weekly library books

block set

Mr. Potato Head (fine motor and parts of face)

counting bears with cups (sorting & colors)



I've posted here about homeschooling our Pre-K age daughter. 

 

 

Homeschool Day in the Life-ISH (a 6, 4, 3 and 2 year old)

Three years in, I'm still learning every single day. We are navigating every messy and beautiful step of this at home learning journey together.  Homeschooling gives us the chance for our experience and simplicity loving family to do life together in a way that feels intentional and best right now.  We believe that opportunities for learning abound, and we want to be ready to make the most of them. 

 

Rigid schedules are just not this momma's friend.  Yes, I have a weekly plan taped to my fridge, but make me actually follow-it, and I'll break into a sweat! This team mixes up organized planning, non-conforming,  and living in the moment.  Rhythm and routine are much preferable to a schedule.  The times that I am sharing are very much on the "ish" side.  Rarely does the clock drive our day. 

 

We had a nice rhythm going in the fall, with both girls settled into our days, enjoying our learning time. Then in November, as expected, when we travelled to China to adopt Evie and Eli, the homeschooling bottom fell out.  Learning was less workbooks and more real life.  We travelled all of November, slept for the next weeks, holiday-ed and introduced, then started wading through medical appointments and scrambling for our new normal.  Life had been turned upside down in really good and really hard ways, so we spooned ourselves a heavy dose of homeschooling grace. 

 

Now, we are back at, trying to meet the needs of four little people under six, two of which would prefer that we'd switch the family language over to Mandarin.  We try to do all of our schooling in the morning through early afternoon, but sometimes find ourselves schooling on Wednesday nights or Saturday mornings. 

It's messy right now, and all very "ish" in terms of curriculum, routine and rhythm, but good family transitioning is molding hearts, right?  Let's hope so.

So, here is our day, in a very "ish' kind of way...

 Between 6:30 and 7ish, I wake up and mentally organize the day around an afternoon nap that I'll never actually take.  Then I force myself to don tennis shoes and hit the treadmill for 45 minutes of  exercise while I read a book, listen to a podcast or catch up on texts.

 

7:30 Day prep, write, respond to emails. 

8:00-8:30ish Kids start coming downstairs. I know it's going to be a smoother one when the big kids come downstairs dressed with beds made.  The littles' clothes are laid out downstairs the night before.

8:30ish  Breakfast  One of the bigs takes a "breakfast helper" turn, emptying the dishwasher, setting the table, helping cook and pouring drinks.  Good connection and life skills are high value in our home learning. 

9:00-10:00ish  Day Prep: Bath, make beds, get dressed, fuss, play, and prep for learning.  A basket system works for us, laid out across our dining room table. Each big has a side of the table lined with baskets filled with tasks and all the materials that they need for each. 

10-1:30ish Learning Time

Sophia attends a hybrid school with a "creative classical education" curriculum.  T/Th are actual school days, and we are given assignments for the other three days.  Claire does Pre-K with me, using Five in a Row for reading, science & social studies and Explode the Code for phonics.  Both curriculums need to be added to, so we blend them together and add some to it based on interest and need. 

 

We make sure the toys are put away, put on some softer music, grab some books and head to the couch to start with reading.  We'll read the book we are rowing, a nonfiction science/history book and a couple books of their choice.  The littles are usually on and off the couch, alternating between listening and totally distracting us!

During this reading time, I prefer to read more classical literature, but we are very "ish" with that as well, often just pulling in some fun books.   Lots of talking, teaching and question asking goes on from the comfort of our couch. 

After reading, we go in to the dining room table to talk through the baskets I've laid out for them.  The baskets include all their work, journals, workbooks, books to read to me, plus they'll each get a basket with the fun things like the iPad with a timer, Leapfrog Tag Readers, or HotDots.  They both use workbooks, but I try hard to give them as many hands on things as possible.  To please the Montessori learning lover in me, the baskets can be worked through at their own pace in the order of their choosing. 

They mostly work at the kitchen table, but work on the floor as well. 

An occasional addition is a craft basket with some random crafty things to spark some creativity.  I work hard at not controlling what they make and being OK with the ginormous mess. 

While we work, I've set out some things for the little ones to do on the floor such as puzzles, stacker pegs, and lots of Melissa and Doug toys. 

Eli LOVES to learn, so I plan a few things for him to do each week as well.  The little people are uber needy right now, so we are struggling with keeping them occupied.  I deal with my high guilt factor with them by heaping myself up some grace and remembering that they mostly need to play and be loved right now.  In my dreams, I've hired a mother's helper to alternate between kids and dishes!

 

We are in an "ish" year, so remember that these pics are just snapshots of the times when we were rolling with our learning.  There are no pics of times when I hid in the laundry room with a cup of tea, my iPhone and some chocolate!
 
Lunch is typically a nice break for us, before we come back and try hard to finish schoolwork before quiet time from around 2:00-4:00.

The little people sleep, and the big girls play outside, read, color, play or watch a movie during quiet time.  We work our booties off to try and have the house straightened up so that quiet time can be very chill for all of us.  On a dreamy day, I sit on the couch with tea and do some organizing, writing/blogging or emailing.

Sometimes during nap, we work on an art project based on one of our books. 


 4:00-5:00 Errands, playing outside, watch a couple shows and dinner prep.

Mark returns home around 5:30, and we eat by 6:00ish.  :)

Our evenings are filled with playing outside, nursing Evie, crying, cleaning up messes, making lunches, begging for snacks, and playing.

Around 8:00ish, we drag the sometimes resistant little people to the couch for a Bible story and family prayer time.  Perfection is non-existent here, as we are usually pulling Eli and Evie on and off the couch and reminding bigs to not giggle during prayer. 

Once the littlest are in bed, I do a read aloud and have Sophia read to me again. 

Relaxation in sight, Mark and I wearily head downstairs for a couple hours of finishing up the day, catching up and chilling out. 

Our days are "ish" right now, as we keep trying to find that new normal.  We are working to step off the "on a mission to manage it all" pace, and trying to find more time for silly, more time for riding bikes and more time to get out and make up some new memories.
 

We're Going on a Bear Hunt: BFIAR Pre K

We had so much fun reading We're Going on a Bear Hunt!

We read the book every day, did the Homeschool Creations lap book, went on a little nature walk bear hunt, talked about different types of bears and learned about cubs, paws and claws. 


Chocolate pudding made the perfect yummy "mud" to snack on. 

Little hands drew big eyes on bear faces.

Most fun of all was painting the different settings from the book


and then using them as the backdrop for one crazy puppet show for Mamaw and Papaw!

This former teacher momma LOVES curriculum, and it is so fun to read a classic book and then roll with the learning.  Truly, it is a creative outlet for me.  As much as I enjoy it though, I must control my Pinteresting and keep it simple.  It is so, so easy to spin my wheels and overthink things.  What I find most of all is that the most learning happens with a really good book, two little listeners and a blanket to curl up under.  Simple, simple, simple.  Remind me of that when I see you, K?