Besides simply living life and learning
naturally as we go through our day, we
want to spend time every day reading to
our children. If you decide to do some
formal schooling with your preschooler,
set aside some time daily to do so. Spend
a minimal amount of time in formal
schooling and a greater amount of time
engaging in real life stuff—all the while
discussing, answering questions, pointing things out, etc.
“Okay,” you say, “but my preschooler is
into everything.” What about that? I have
been there, and when my homeschooling
life was at its worst, it was because I was
not being realistic. Homeschooling materials can be teacher-intensive or offer
more independent learning. If our ideal
is to spend hours every day enjoying
the one-on-one time with our school-age children, there may be a huge gap
between our ideal and what realistically
can work in the family. Certainly, we
need to give each of our children some
individual attention with their schooling.
In the past, I have aimed too high with
teacher-intensive materials, and because
the plans were too out of reach, I failed
miserably in reaching our goals.
Once a child is reading quite well, he
can learn quite a lot on his own. An armful
of books from the library (about the subjects we’ve chosen) and discussions while
cooking dinner or running errands offer
great opportunities for learning. When
teaching a child to read, I’ve found that
consistency is the most important thing—
if I could find only ten minutes a day, then
ten minutes it was. In fact, with such short
lessons, there was always enthusiasm. The
goal was accomplished, and the reading
suddenly took off—all without spending a
ton of money on a program laden with all
kinds of bells and whistles.
Realistically, our preschooler cannot
be set aside for hours while we homeschool the other children. Our older
children can learn independently. One
inexpensive resource that I have found
very helpful is the book Learn This! by
Charles Gulotta. This book identifies
some well-defined goals for our children
to work toward.
Prayerfully, we can find just what
suits our family for our given situation,
which is ever changing. Adjusting our
expectations will resolve a great deal of
the frustration we contend with. I highly
recommend reading The Three R’s by
Ruth Beechick and Better Late Than
Early by Raymond Moore and Dorothy
Moore.
Deb Turner and her husband, Craig, live
in central New York. They have five children, four grandchildren, and have home-schooled since 1987. With three children
grown, there are still two school-aged
children in their home. Deb enjoys history,
gardening, and sewing, and she is actively
involved in her church, where her husband
is an elder. Visit her blog, Homeschooling
from the Heart, at www.Homeschool
Blogger.com/pattycake and her website
at
www.TheGenericHomeschooler.com.
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