We finished our letter-a-week series this summer. L really enjoyed school time, but my enthusiasm kind of petered out in the summer. We took some time off for summer, but since this fall is going to be so busy, I really want to make school time with my kids a priority. I'm eager to get back into a little morning home school routine. (Who knew I needed routine so much?)
I'm going to take advantage of some of the great ideas by others in the craft community. We'll focus on natural science and art activities, but I'm also excited to start working on reading using Bob Books
. With the heat, we've stayed indoors this summer, so I plan to do plenty of outside projects in the fall.
Below is a loose plan of what we're doing this fall (I may not get to all of it). Most of the crafty links come via Crafty Crow, projects in red are from Preschool Art
, and I'll be using my Nature Walk coloring pages as they relate to what we're doing. I've also been using a lot of constructive play ideas from The Creative Family. I have enough ideas to do 1 or 2 projects each week, with daily reading, coloring, and constructive play time. I have no idea if this is an ambitious or lazy plan, so we'll see how it goes. And this is a total spoiler for blog posts in the months ahead. :)August/September: Bugs and Plants
- Identify and frame the pressed flowers we collected this year
- Set up a permanent Nature Shelf
- Butterfly life cycle coloring page
- Observe at our Butterfly Feeder,
- then create a Paper Butterfly collection
- Make Rock Bugs
- Plant small plants for gifts
- Make Leaf Pictures
- Nature Walk coloring pages of bugs and plants
- Make Sunbonnets, p. 193
- Make a Sunflower Sun Dial to show how the sun relates to time
- This awesome Hour glass project to talk about measuring time
- Draw Shadows, p. 235
- Make Sand Candles to light at dinner
- Make Tin Can Lanterns to enjoy all fall
- Stargazing with Constellation Cards
- Negative Space Drawings, p. 100
November: Water and Wind
- Solids, Liquids, and Gases coloring page and game, by me
- Brick Making and Building, p. 244 - 245
- Peanut Butter Play Dough, p. 46
- Paper Boats from Whip up Action pack
- Baths and Washing Harry the Dirty Dog
- A found object Wind Chime
- Making wind visible with Giant Bubbles
- Paper Bag Kite, p. 251
December: Colors and the holidays
- Reading with Scrappy Collage Letters
- Mostly for me, because I love Thaumatropes
- Probably dangerous, but Homemade finger paint
- Weave with yarn and fabric scraps, p. 88
- Make gifts and thank you cards
- Give away some of our excess toys
What do you do with your preschoolers at home?
If you work real hard on the brick making unit you can cut down on building costs. Child labor could be very helpful. ;)
ReplyDeleteWow! You have such good ideas for what to teach and how to do it. My husband and I want to homeschool, and our only child (so far) is 9 months old. Do you have a curriculum idea starter you follow, or did you create all of this yourself? Neither my hubby or me were homeschooled, so I'm anxious about knowing what age-appropriate and fun lessons to find in a natural setting because I'm not sure I'm knowledgeable enough to figure it out. I'd love some suggestions for resources. A couple other friends have pointed me to good things, but the more I can collect the better! :)
ReplyDeleteNicoll - I am using preschool as a time to experiment with lesson planning to see how much I want to do this - seems like there's less chance of messing up at this age. :)
ReplyDeleteI looked on Crafty Crow and in the art book I mentioned for outdoors/nature activities and then just divided them up into logical groups. I was definitely looking for an easy plan, because I'm too busy to do much else now.
Crafty Crow also has a series called something like, "A book and a craft" that you could make a whole preschool plan around if you wanted to incorporate more reading.
There are so many different styles, and it can be overwhelming trying to figure out how to start. I would read a book about Charlotte Mason's methods first. It helps you understand the framework for homeschooling and what is most important (like living books, spending time in nature, and constructive play time).
Thanks, Laura! This encourages me very much. Good idea to practice with the pre-school age. :)
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