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StefA
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So, this might be a ridiculous question, but I am a worry wort (and not very organized), so I was thinking- how do you "start" school when you are first beginning with a new child. Right now my oldest homeschooler is only preschool age, so while we do some things with starfall and brightly beaming resources, it is very laid back. What I mean is I don't have a specific time of the day set for "schooling" and other times for "chores" and other time for "play." So when my son hits school age, am I just going to say, "Okay it's time for school?" I want to make learning enjoyable for him and just a part of every day life, but at the same time we have to meet the state's requirements for educational standards, so I also have to ensure he gets certain things done by certain points, right? So, how do you all "do" school, and how did you start it/introduce it to each child?
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JodieLyn
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Keep it simple.. you don't have to tell the child that we start at X time and now it's time to sit down and do this or that.
You can simply get out things to work on right after a natural break.. like after breakfast.. and sit together and do stuff. That way you're not pulling them away from other stuff. Kids love routine.. you do this a bit and he'll soon be reminding you that you're supposed to be doing this right after breakfast 
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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StefA
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Thanks Jodie! I am not a very organized person, and some days I just feel like relaxing and not doing anything. I guess I have to discipline myself, too. 
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ekbell
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StefA wrote:
| Thanks Jodie! I am not a very organized person, and some days I just feel like relaxing and not doing anything. I guess I have to discipline myself, too. |
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As someone who's much the same way, you can do it!
I admit that the only routine I've managed to successfully get down has been the
prayer-breakfast-walk-lessons routine
for school days but it's one I have down pat. It does help that the children also have it down pat.
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StefA
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ekbell wrote:
StefA wrote:
| Thanks Jodie! I am not a very organized person, and some days I just feel like relaxing and not doing anything. I guess I have to discipline myself, too. |
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As someone who's much the same way, you can do it!
I admit that the only routine I've managed to successfully get down has been the
prayer-breakfast-walk-lessons routine
for school days but it's one I have down pat. It does help that the children also have it down pat. |
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I guess I still have a little bit of time to prepare for it, huh? 
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guitarnan
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And, while you're gently working into that learning-mode time, train yourself now to keep records (in a planner, weekly log sheets or on a computer) of what your child works on (lessons, field trips, activities, projects, sports) during the week.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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dakotamidnight
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ekbell wrote:
StefA wrote:
| Thanks Jodie! I am not a very organized person, and some days I just feel like relaxing and not doing anything. I guess I have to discipline myself, too. |
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As someone who's much the same way, you can do it!
I admit that the only routine I've managed to successfully get down has been the
prayer-breakfast-walk-lessons routine
for school days but it's one I have down pat. It does help that the children also have it down pat. |
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Do you find the morning walk helps?
We aren't starting until this fall, but I'm debating the morning walk for us. We live in town a block from the public schools, so I am iffy on it.
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StefA
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guitarnan wrote:
| And, while you're gently working into that learning-mode time, train yourself now to keep records (in a planner, weekly log sheets or on a computer) of what your child works on (lessons, field trips, activities, projects, sports) during the week. |
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Do you know of anywhere I can get log sheets already prepared online?
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Mary K
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I think DonnaYoung.org might have log sheets to print out.
I would also recommend checking your state regs. about what age your child needs to be before beginning their education. This will save you from unnecessary paperwork and allow you to ease slowly into a homeschooling life style.
God bless,
Mary-NY (where school doesn't have to start until 6 years old).
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StefA
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Mary K wrote:
I think DonnaYoung.org might have log sheets to print out.
I would also recommend checking your state regs. about what age your child needs to be before beginning their education. This will save you from unnecessary paperwork and allow you to ease slowly into a homeschooling life style.
God bless,
Mary-NY (where school doesn't have to start until 6 years old). |
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We're in Vermont, and it's 6 years old here, too. I know for at least the first few years we actually have to almost "apply" to homeschool, meaning we have to fill out this form with what our curriculum is going to be for each subject. This is the packet right here: http://education.vermont.gov/new/pdfdoc/pgm_homestudy/forms_ 11/educ_homestudy_packet_11.pdf (The teacher assessment thing is optional and I'm not sure why it's in the paperwork for the beginning of the year.)
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Mackfam
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Stef -
In preschool I don't plan or even anticipate too much - we just work together very naturally, as Jodie and others have said, right after natural *pegs* of our day -
breakfast --> work together then they play or work independently (either Montessori activities or educational games/activities) and then time outdoors.
lunch --> read picture book together then quiet time.
afternoon --> snack and juice, another book and more time outdoors.
Because I have older children now, I do put my preschool work on my lesson plans, or at least show that I will be working with my preschooler while child A does this and child B does this.
Planning can be fun and helpful to start finding your niche in planning (how you like to plan - journal, listmaking, checkbox, formats, etc.), especially if you like to plan themes of picture books and have a nice list to pull from your library and coordinate your art, poetry, and music around your themes. But, remember to be flexible, too! I enjoy setting out picture books in themes, but a lot of times, we're just very natural. I love preschoolers!!!!!
Here are some online printables for you to check out:
** Mary K mentioned Donna Young - she has a whole site full of printables
** A favorite of mine are the home learning notes from Small Meadow Press.
** The Tanglewood corebook is a neat planner that is well suited to planning ideas and books in a Charlotte Mason style. It's very inexpensive. You download the entire file/book and print only what you need.
As far as getting organized, worrying about planning, etc. I can relate. If I could go back and talk to myself when I had only a preschooler, I'd tell myself to relax and inhale every precious moment with my preschooler. The planning and organizing comes when it is needed - which for us is generally after that child is reading. Before the child is a reader, we just spend LOTS of time reading together (this is the core of our day - picture books), taking nature walks, memorizing poetry, working on some art projects, music, learning manners and developing good habits. There, you have my preschool curriculum in a nutshell.
You can find some great booklists and ideas for preschool at Ambleside Online and Mater Amabilis
Charlotte Mason's thoughts on early education:
Charlotte Mason, volume 1,p. 96 wrote:
| ". . . the chief function of the child--his business in the world during the first six or seven years of his life--is to find out all he can, about whatever comes under his notice, by means of his five senses; that he has an insatiable appetite for knowledge got in this way; and that, therefore, the endeavour of his parents should be to put him in the way of making acquaintance freely with Nature and natural objects." |
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and
Charlotte Mason, Volume 1, p.194 wrote:
| "The details of family living will give him the repose of an ordered life; but, for the rest, he should have more free-growing time than is possible in the most charming school. |
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The following quote really struck me. Miss Mason is talking about Helen Keller and her teacher Miss Sullivan, about Miss Sullivan's reflections and philosophy of education as she approached Helen as a *person* made in the image and likeness of God, rather than an experiment or phenomenon. This quote, though taken from Charlotte Mason, vol 1, p. 195, is quoting Miss Sullivan:
Miss Sullivan (emphasis mine) wrote:
| "I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built up on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think, whereas if the child is left to himself he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things, and combine his impressions for himself instead of sitting indoors at a little round table..." |
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To me, this sums up a great way "to start"! In the hopes that I'm not wearing out my welcome - I'll leave you with a great scope and sequence to shoot for by age 6!
"A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six"
(Charlotte Mason, adapted by Karen Andreola)
Quote:
1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns
2. to recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm
3. to add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters
4. to read--what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child
5. to copy in print-hand from a book
6. to know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows
7. to describe the boundries of their own home
8. to describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach
9. to tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early English, and 3 from early Roman history (my note here, we may want to substitute early American for early English!)
10. to be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views
11. to mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.
12. to do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees
13. to know 6 birds by song, colour and shape
14. to send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed
15. to tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.
16. to name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences
17. to sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song
18. to keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations. |
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So...encourage lots of play and exploration outside, provide time and space for the child to work, investigate, and read LOTS! Approaching early/preschool days in this way we have transitioned naturally into more formal work when it is time. Hope this helps!
__________________
Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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LeeAnn
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I would start by making a schedule or routine for yourself, then extend that to the family...maybe set an expectation that after morning prayer and breakfast every day you'll be spending a little time doing something educational...whether it's reading, writing, going for a walk, whatever. Getting yourself into a routine of daily prayer and necessary work will go a long way towards figuring out when the best time will be to work with your child on school stuff.
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my four children are 17, 15, 11 & 8 - all now attend public school - we read many 4Real recommended books at home
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ekbell
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dakotamidnight wrote:
ekbell wrote:
As someone who's much the same way, you can do it!
I admit that the only routine I've managed to successfully get down has been the
prayer-breakfast-walk-lessons routine
for school days but it's one I have down pat. It does help that the children also have it down pat. |
|
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Do you find the morning walk helps?
We aren't starting until this fall, but I'm debating the morning walk for us. We live in town a block from the public schools, so I am iffy on it. |
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Actually the morning walk is for me 
It's my time of recollection and mental preparation before the work of the day starts.
(my husband is home mornings and working evenings)
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MamaFence
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I loved reading all the things that work for "starting out" and creating a routine. More mental notes being taken here!
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krygerzoo
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Good for you for deciding when they are so young! :)
If I had to over - I wish I'd read: Elizabeth Foss "Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home" and "The Gentle Art of Learning" by Karen Andreola.
I use "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Seigfried Engelmann and Math-U-See Primer. The best nature books are by Millicent Selsam.
Have fun and don't stress over the schedule. Don't make it be like 'school'.... that is a great blessing in having them learn at home!
Enjoy!
__________________
Peace, Katherine
wife to David '89, mom to +Kaden Michael (8/15/94-5/10/05), DD'97, DS'99, DD'01, DS'05, (+baby'08), DS'09, (+baby'12) & DD '13
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SallyT
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My last preschooler is now a first-grader (sniff!). And many of the things I can think of to do with preschoolers are things I *wish* I'd done in a more intentional way. When my older children were that age, they went to preschool -- useful in hindsight, because they both had good experiences, and I think I learned a thing or two as well about preschool -- and when my younger two were that age, they largely coasted while I worked with the olders, so that many of my "preschool strategies" were really "keeping the preschoolers out of our hair" strategies, rather than "we're doing homeschool preschool strategies," if you see what I mean!
Still . . .
It helps to think in terms of goals, rather than tasks, or even skills (as in "what should my preschooler be doing by the age of . . . ").
The best preschool experiences my older kids had were geared towards life-learning, for example -- from picking up toys and sharing to simple cooking. So as you're thinking in terms of developing a gentle routine, consider building in "life-skills learning" in the mornings, a.k.a. simple chores like bedmaking (I don't give my kids sheets until they can handle making them up -- preschoolers get duvets that are easy to straighten), dishwashing (we use metal enamelware plates for breakfast and lunch -- very kidproof to wash), sweeping, etc. If you can manage half an hour after breakfast, either before or after prayers -- and I find sticking to even simple routines hard, too, so believe me, that "if you can manage" is not meant to be condescending! -- then you've actually built in some very effective learning time: living on a routine, following directions, contributing to the running of the family, mastery over chaos (my family is *so* still working on that last one . . . ). You're also laying down habits that will make homeschooling much easier down the road, when you possibly have more children to manage and stuff that really does need to be done academically. Kids who are used to pitching in and taking responsibility are a Godsend.
You can also be thinking about how to shape the ways that they learn through play, just by what you make available to them to play with, including yourself. Even now I still informally rotate toys for imaginative play around the house, putting them away as people get bored with them and bringing them out later: wooden blocks, little plastic animals, Playmobil, lego, tiny dolls, coloring pages and crayons, etc. I've always pushed my younger kids to spend time playing quietly on their own, because I needed them to in order to work with olders; this isn't a bad habit to encourage even if you don't *have* to. I also work from home as a writer, so pretty much daily we have some time during which children must be doing something non-disruptive and on their own, and while I sometimes feel guilty about it, I think it's useful for them to learn to rely on the riches of their own imaginations, rather than *always* turning to me to give them something to do and do it with them. At any rate, "quiet play time while Mommy is doing X (paying bills, answering letters, reading, preparing something to do together, whatever)" might be another good block of time to build into your morning or afternoon.
On the other hand, there's plenty to do together, and that's wonderful. My youngers have loved gardening and having their own small flower/vegetable gardens. We've spent a lot of time in the back yard watching birds and bees -- you can put up bird feeders, bird nesting boxes or bottles, find birdsongs online and identify them in the backyard, and on and on. All my children have loved cooking from an early age -- a preschooler can make jello or a cake from a mix with minimal supervision (not that I especially love either jello or cake mixes, but the results are very gratifying to small children!).
You can also be priming them for more formal learning by reading aloud and loving books together and making that a central part of your routine, during the day and at bedtime. You can count together, and you can notice that when you slice a cucumber and then dice the slice into quarters, you can put the four parts together to make a whole again (we did that yesterday -- an instant, impromptu fraction lesson for my 6-year-old). You can work on fine motor skills by cutting with scissors, coloring, drawing, and -- my oldest child's favorite preschool memory -- making "gak" with cornstarch and water: it feels silky and wonderful, and kids love to squoosh it around with their fingers, though it can be quite a mess . . . You can let them play with water in the tub or sink, pouring it into different-sized containers, floating boats and testing out different ways of making them go. (and you can seek out museums with hands-on exhibits and crafts and things, so that absolutely all of this does not have to happen in your home every single day!).
And you can go to Mass a lot!
Anyway, my own take on preschool is that it's a time to a) start developing general habits and abilities which will serve both the preschooler and the family well over time, but also to b) inspire wonder and curiosity about the world, because those things drive all learning. It's a lovely time, because nobody is expecting you yet to be doing a whole school experience -- and if they are, you can say, "Well, kids in preschool cook and garden and clean up and sing songs and play with Play-Doh, and that's what we do."
And I love that CM list! Now I'm looking at my 6-year-old and thinking, how many of those things can you do? A lot, though not all of it . . . At any rate, I have found that even doing much of the above as a kind of default mode, my younger children have taken up more formal work quite easily and naturally.
Got to go read to the six-year-old, who's sick on the couch . . . I hope this long diatribe is helpful.
Sally
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JennGM
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SallyT wrote:
| Got to go read to the six-year-old, who's sick on the couch . . . I hope this long diatribe is helpful. |
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Hope the little one feels better soon. Thanks for the diatribe! It's helpful for me, too.
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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SallyT
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Thanks! She's actually not that sick -- I think it was a case of too many sweeties and cups of sugary punch at the Boy Scout Court of Honor last night. An episode in the night cost her a playdate today, just to be on the safe side, so she's been more down about that than anything! But now she's happily amusing herself with a dolls' tea party . . . apparently that part of the preschool training went okay.
Sally
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: How do you start?
