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Pre-K Reading Readiness

 

 

In my last article, A Day in the Schoolroom, I pretty much covered our startup routine of pledge, prayer, charts, calendar time, etc.  I also described our Religion program simply and fairly completely.  So it seems the first subject to cover in detail is Reading; what are we doing to get a 4 year old ready to read?

 

Well, of course, we read!  Poetry by Robert Louis Stephenson, A Child's Garden of Verses is still one of the best.  Mother Goose, and other classic children's poetry.  Stories - fairy tales, Aesop's Fables, Three Bears, Three Pigs, etc.  Books of his choice - Disney Golden Books, Dr. Suess, Children's Bible Stories, The Little Engine That Could.  Books of mom's choice - James Herriot's children's stories like The Market Square Dog, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, The Book of Virtues.

 

 

He has become proficient at sewing cards, left-to-right activities ("reading" colors/shapes placed left to right, etc.), letter recognition, and "reading" to mom (telling the story by the pictures).  We rhyme words - what rhymes with vine, cat, book, etc.  We work on sequence, mom says three words and li'l homesteader repeats them back.  We clap  to word patterns, one clap for each syllable we speak - syl-la-ble - 3 claps.

 

He has begun on his own to write letters, so now he has a new notebook, and every day he copies his name and the date on a new page.  This month we will be starting a phonics program and he will be copying simple words, as we work on them, into his notebook.

 

 

So how do we fit all this into one day?  We don't.  It goes kind of like this:  Monday - poetry, short story, copy name and date, review alphabet, manipulative activity (sewing card, letter puzzle, etc.); Tuesday - coloring letter worksheets; Wednesday - poetry, copy name and date, rhyming words, read mom a story; Thursday - short story, word sequences, clapping patterns, storytime. 

 

And now he makes mom read all the street signs as we're driving along.

 

Thanks,

Mrs. D

 

Copyright (c) 2008 by Robyn Dolan

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A Day in the Schoolroom

 

Here we are again, starting a new school year.  As last year wound down, Mrs. D decided she needed some time to digest what she had learned about Li'l Homesteader and about teaching.  Primarily, that this boy, like his older brothers, is a hands on learner, with a short attention span.  This means that there is a lot of activity in the schoolroom, with a minimum of seatwork.  Puzzles are employed daily, interactive charts are popular, and many lessons are made into "games" with mom.  We abide by Charlotte Mason's recommendation of hours of outdoor activity daily whenever possible.  

 

Mrs. D is formulating her own lesson plans this year, drawing from several sources.  Still using Ann Ward's "Learning at Home, Preschool and Kindergarten", and CORE Knowledge's "What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know", we are also incorporating Li'l Homesteader's catechism lessons into our curriculum.  We'll start with an overview of our schoolweek this month, and get into detail on how we're working on various subjects in upcoming months.

 

 

We start the day with prayer, usually one he is learning for catechism, then the Pledge of Allegiance with Li'l Homesteader holding the flag.  We move on to calendar time and charts, which include drills of months, days of week, counting to 30 (or whatever number of days is in the current month) with number recognition, deciding on today's weather by going outside and observing, predicting tomorrows weather; tracing the letter of the day, and pointing to and saying each letter of the alphabet, learning the vowels and their sounds.

 

Religion is next, reviewing his catechism lessons and reading Bible stories, stories of saints, and making little books about the basic tenets of our faith.

 

Reading readiness consists of the letter of the week (tracing, finding, making its sound) currently working our way through the alphabet, poetry, stories, puzzles, sewing cards, stringing beads (hand/eye coordination), clapping patterns (a favorite), rhyming words, etc.

 

Art and music are daily subjects here, Li'l Homesteader loves to paint and play his guitar and sing.

 

 

Arithmetic is progressing well.  He knows his colors and shapes and is working on counting to 100.  He is developing a concept of addition and subtraction as he counts his fingers or toys in various combinations.

 

Science is planting a seed and watching it grow,then picking the flower or eating the corn; tossing a rock and watching the ripples; mixing up a batter, cutting out shapes, baking and eating the cookies.

 

History, geography and community are learned in our frequent travels and outings by car, bus and train, around the state and to other states, our errands around town, field trips to museums and parks and fairs and shows.

 

We feel that it is also important to train him in habits, values and character, personal health, safety and manners.

 

 

Physical education would seem to be unnecessary for a four year old boy, but besides hours of outdoor activity there are certain activities that help to increase a body's coordination and flexibility, so some organized exercise is taught.  Somersaults, balancing, jumping back and forth over a line...needless to say, this also keeps Mrs. D in shape, though teaching somersaults by example nearly resulted in some pulled muscles - must learn where to draw the line.

 

Storytime is held daily and we go on frequent nature walks, a la Charlotte Mason.  Mrs. D considers foreign languages important, so we have a monthly rotation of basics in Spanish, French and American Sign Language.

 

 

Numerous educational games and skills are studied on computer as well, to develop those skills and because they hold Li'l Homesteader's attention, but that time is limited, as well as TV time, even with educational videos, as Mrs. D has observed that the screen, while holding li'l guy's attention, also seems to shorten his attention span when overdone.

 

Let us clarify, before the reader becomes overwhelmed by all this activity, we are teaching preschool here.  Some of the subjects are only taught once or twice a week, and only 10 minutes are spent on each subject when the lesson involves sitting still and listening.  As much as possible is covered during daily activities so that "classroom" time is short and efficient.  Time to get on to this week's lesson plan.

 

Thanks,

Mrs. D

 

Copyright (c) 2007 by Robyn Dolan

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What Lesson Plan?

 

A what?  What exactly is a lesson plan?  This is preschool, for heaven's sake! No matter, there are certain goals we want to accomplish this year, so how to go about it one bite at a time?

 

Mrs. D learned in homeschooling her older children that she has two primary (and unfortunately critical) weaknesses.  Lesson planning and record keeping.  How to chop that big goal into 35 weekly bites and each of those 35 bites into 4 or 5 nibbles.  Then how do we show the world (and the grandparents) that we actually did it.  With her now young adult children, Mrs. D invested hundreds of dollars in curriculums and tuition to a private school that offered a homeschool program.  This resulted in an environment where one child thrived and the other two did only slightly better than they had in school.  In efforts to save money and find a way to help the boys learn better, we began to "shop" around.  Thanks to the greater availability of the internet, we began to find other sources for learning materials and styles.  We experimented with unschooling and finally adopted a fairly middle of the road approach.  All this was for the middle and high school years.

Now with a preschooler on board, it would seem there are a plethora of materials available.  Just walk down the school supplies section of any Wal-Mart.  The children's programming on PBS would seem to offer much of what a preschooler needs to learn - if you want your child in front of the TV all day.  Numerous videos, dvds and computer programs are available, all with the same drawback - they don't give the child hands on experience in his day to day environment. 

 

Mrs. D starts googling.  www.handsonhomeschooling.com provides a Three Years Skills Checklist of core academics, support courses, electives and growth & development. As with most things, when the student is ready, the teacher appears.  Charlotte Mason has been highly touted in certain homeschool circles, and even just halfway through her first volume, Home Education, her philosophy of practice, discipline and fresh air makes so much sense that it's amazing these basics so quickly get lost!  A friend who is a tutor pointed us toward "What Your Kindergartener Needs To Know",  which offers a framework of activities and suggestions for additional resources at the Kindergarten level in Language and Literature, History and Geography, Art, Music, Mathematics, and Science.  By far, Mrs. D's favorite resource for now was passed along by another homeschooling mom whose children had grown out of it - "Learning at Home: Preschool & Kindergarten" by Ann Ward.  We checked and this book is still available from several sources.  Ann Ward has a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and several years experience in teaching in elementary schools, business experience in banking and direct sales, and real world experience in homeschooling her own children.  Now she has Mrs. D's attention. 

Mrs. Ward wrote this book, as well as 2 other volumes for first and second grade, while schooling her own children, with the insight that there might be those of us who do not have her professional experience in lesson planning and record keeping.  This book offers a sample daily schedule, profiles the 3, 4, and 5 year old, gives daily lesson plans for 36 weeks for preschool and kindergarten, and suggests additional resources, emphasizing the use of the library.  Subjects covered are Bible concepts, reading readiness, arithmetic readiness, science, geography, community, character building, personal health & safety, manners, art, music, physical education skills, memory verses, stories and weekly field trips.  Wow.  Just take us by the hand and lead us along.  Of course there is plenty of room for variation.  We just started using this book, which assumes a fall start date, so instead of making Grandparents Day cards for art, we made a Nativity Scene magnet.  And instead of the recommended reading, we have been using Robert Louis Stevens "A Child's Garden of Verses" and other library books.  Each day starts with a prayer, the pledge of allegiance (with "one nation under God" included!) and calendar time, where we learn the months, days, numbers and concepts of today, yesterday and tomorrow.  A ten minute play period breaks up the first 45 minutes of lessons, and phys ed refreshes the second session.  This is just about right for li'l homesteader's attention span, and the projects leave physical proof of what he's learning.  For record keeping, you can write right in the book or copy the lesson plans, as we do, and date and make notations on the copies which we keep in our permanent record book.  

 

Homeschooling  is a wonderful way to educate children, however, keeping records and achieving or exceeding certain goals which are in common with the public education system are necessary not only in helping our children to make it out "on their own", but also to protect our freedom to homeschool by showing that we are doing "a good job" of it.  Thanks to homeschooling groups on the internet and in our own communities, we don't have to go it alone.

 

For additional info on the resources cited here:

www.handsonhomeschooling.com

www.coreknowledge.org/bookstore/index.php

www.homeschooldiscount.com/home2/NPpreschool.htm

www.homeschoolhighlights.com

www.charlottemason.com

 

 

Thanks,

Mrs. D

 

Copyright (c) 2006 by Robyn Dolan

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Hornbooks vs. the computer

 

In her last article on homeschooling, Mrs. D was discussing toddlers and sign language.  When Homestead Baby began talking, sign language and other foreign languages were put on the back burner.  Now that he is talking quite well and quite often, sign language and spanish are making a comeback.  As he has just turned 3, we are now having some "school time" every day in addition to all the unstructured learning we do.  Homestead Baby loves school time, because we have a special box of really cool stuff that we use only at school time. 

 

One of the tools we use is a children's V-Tech Desk Pro computer.  Now this is not something Mrs. D would have purposely invested in, but Uncle City Slicker was using it with his son and was so impressed that he got Homestead Baby one.  We have to admit, it is truly amazing.  This model is supposed to be for ages 7 and up, but Homestead Baby(HB) learned very quickly where the on button was and the rest is history.  No matter what he does, something happens, but nothing gets messed up.  And believe it, HB likes to push buttons and make things happen. 

 

Desk Pro has a standard keyboard and mouse and 3 CD's with even more activities on them.  We're still exploring what the main drive will do.  As it is designed for older children, it doesn't help with alphabet or counting.  It does have some great games. 

 

In "Math and Logic", there is a balloon pop that HB particularly enjoys.  It did not take him long to learn to hover the mouse over the balloon and pop it.  We also discovered an Art Studio where he can draw pictures (scribbles) with the mouse and then choose a "stamp", his favorite is the truck, and stamp his picture.  He can also choose a border for it.  Mom has to get into each different section for him, but he has the drawing and stamping down.  Then there is Spanish.  The activity we are working on is words.  The screen shows an english word and its spanish translation and we try to find the object itself, or a picture of it to supplement. 

 

As HB gets older, there are many more activities to supplement his learning such as "Spelling Snake", "Word Scramble", "Math Snake", "World Trivia", "Science Solver", "Typing Tutor" and dozens more.  The computer stores a progress report and has an auto shutoff feature to conserve the 4 AA batteries. 

 

 

On the low tech end of the spectrum, and this is almost always Mrs. D's preference, a friend gave HB a set of Hornbooks.  They are 2 small wooden paddles with Raggedy Ann and Andy hand painted on one side, and the alphabet in upper and lower case and vowels on the reverse side of Raggedy Andy and the numbers 1-100 on the reverse side of Raggedy Ann. These hornbooks were a precursor of flash cards used for alphabet and number recognition.  Numerous games can be played using the paddles including counting by 1's, 2's, 3's, 5's, 10's, etc.  They can also be used to practice copying the numbers and letters with pencil and paper, and even learning them in sign language.

 

Hornbooks originated in the 16th century when paper was expensive.  There were many variations, but the most common was a single sheet of paper with the alphabet in upper and lower case, phonics letter groupings (ba, ca, etc.) and The Lord's Prayer, glued to a wooden paddle and then covered with a thin sheet of cow's horn.  This enabled young (and older) children to learn the alphabet, letter and number recognition and beginning reading without the use of alot of paper.  Usually there was a string through the handle of the paddle so that it could be worn at the waist and studied frequently during the day (and to prevent its becoming lost). 

 

HB's hornbooks are finished with a clear varnish rather than horn, but it is interesting to note how the original horn covering was manufactured.  Cows' horns were soaked for several weeks in cold water to separate the outer and inner parts.  The inner section was heated in boiling water, then over an open fire.  It was carefully cut and pressed flat.  Now it could be separated into many layers which were cleaned and polished to a clear gloss, then trimmed to fit the horn book.

 

The upshot of all this is, while the computer is nice at times, HB has come farther with his ABC's and numbers, even working on starting to write them, since we started with the hornbooks than he has watching Sesame Street or playing with flash cards.  Hmmm....

 

Resources for this article:

www.vtechkids.com

www.cedu.niu.edu/blackwell/books.html

www.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia - the rest of the url is complicated, so go here, search hornbooks, go to children's literature, and it will be in a small article that includes 16th century literature.

 

Mrs. D

 

(c) Copyright 2006 by Robyn Dolan

 

Homeschooling the Homestead Toddler

 

Well, the goat herd is recovering nicely from last year's dog attacks.  New babies are joining the herd, and mommas are in milk.  Soon we will be offering goat's milk soap in the store again.

 

This month I would like to talk about homeschooling.  Although I have spent several years homeschooling my older children through parts of junior high and high school, I now find myself the teacher of an almost 2 year old.  I thought we would not be schooling too much this year, but the little guy is so interested in everything (read - into - everything).  One of the great things about homeschooling is you learn the educational value of every day activities.  As Mrs. D feeds the stock, Homestead Baby offers a handful of hay to the horses, who tentatively accept.  He works on his hand/eye coordination while we wash dishes, he pouring water into various containers as I work around him.  Snow is eagerly scooped into buckets, and anything in a bucket (including fresh milk) is enthusiatically dumped out.  Crayons are eaten but markers, ah yes, paint everything including, occasionally, the marker board. 

 

Book addict that she is, Mrs. D is grateful for the public library.  Somehow, she cannot walk in without walking out with at least a dozen books and videos.  There is a children's activity area full of puzzles which Homestead Baby has enjoyed since he could walk.  Preschool offerings at many libraries include books on tape with read along book, board books, videos including Blue's Clues, Sesame Street, foriegn language for children, ABC's, 123's, colors and shapes.  Many also have a story hour.

 

Sign language is also a very practical addition to a preschool curriculum.  This can be started as early as 7-8 months of age.  Early signs often include eat, milk, more, done and thank you.  The value of sign language in communicating with a child who cannot yet speak is immeasurable.  Homestead Baby started his sign language at about 14 months old and grew quite proficient although now he often stubbornly refuses to use it in favor of trying very hard to speak his mind.

 

Many resources are available to homeschoolers of preschool age children.  The public library is always a good place to start.  Next check for programs like Blue's Clues and Sesame Street on television.  Some of Mrs. D's favorites on the internet are:  www.signingbaby.com sign language, www.preschooleducation.com activities, www.preschoolerstoday.com articles.

 

Thanks,

Mrs. D 

 

(c) Copyright 2005 by Robyn Dolan

 

Disclaimer:  All information is provided for entertainment purposes only.  Mrs. D's Homestead and Robyn Dolan are not liable for any misuse or consequenses resulting from use of this information.

 


 


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