I so need ideas on what to do with my lil girl . She is rebelling big time on the school stuff. She will not sit for anything and when I ask her to trace letters or something she just refuses. I need something , I really want to make this work ! HELP!!!!!!!!!
A lot of preschool is hands on learning. Have you tried more hands on approaches? I have a number of games we play that I have made. The most recent on is matching the capital letters with the lower case letters. My son loves to cut paper so I draw different lines for him to follow with his scissors. Most of our work is all fun activities to him very little is in his workbook ( which he also loves). Are you making sheets for her or have you bought her her very own workbook? Maybe that will help. I am just throwing things out there, but with home schooling you are not limited to sitting at the table with paper. We have also went on color and letter scaverger hunts where we go for walks and try to find things that are sertain colors or start with a certain letter. Oh, here is another one my son s loves...I made the letters of the alphabet and he jumps on them and says what they are. Most of the things I make I use business card paper that you buy from walmert for printing your own bsuiness cards and clear contact paper or laminate. Another great tool I have been using in our lessons in the new High Five magazine made by highlights but for preschoolers. It has great activites to do in the magazine, plus great cooking activiteis which are great learning opportunities, and great ideas for what I call learning stations (learning with blocks, make beleive, water, etc.). I have also hidden letters/numbers through out the house and he got to find them and tell me what they were. I hope some of these ideas inspire you, it sounds like she may like hands on learning more and if so she will thrive in a home schooling atmosphere once you get it figured out!! You can do it!! Good luck!!
I make suggestions like "Do you want to write a letter to _____" or "Do you want to make a card for ______". The other day, I asked her to write my list for the groceries (I only needed four things). Mine also enjoyed the prek workbook from walmart...we've been through two of them. Try making playbough letters. Letters in cornstarch (which you can make into goop when you are done and that is loooads of fun:) I agree with the previous post and I may steal a n idea or two from her:) Things need to be fun and hands on. They learn through play the best. Hope this helps:)
Thank you so much !!!! We bought her her own little books (just pre-k books found at walmart,dollar store ect) I was letting her work right from the books but that was not working out. So I let her pick out 5 folders (we normally do not do school 5 days a week though) and had her pick out wich one she wanted for each day of the week . I put her activities in the folder ( I pick a night of the week to get lessons together when the girls are sleeping and have them ready to go) then she works right from the folder. I try to get her ecited about "helping Dora find the red socks" or "help scooby find the number 1" and most of the time that works but she will only do 2 or 3 small activities a day. I do let her help me make lunch and dinner ( she is not a morning person LOL) and have her count with me tell me what colors things are, let her count how many cups and plates we will need ect.. I have not thought of walking and having her find stuff ! She LOVES LOVES doing that ! she calls them her treasure hunts. I do need to find more games and such to do I guess I am just a bit overwhelmed with everything (life LOL) to be as creative as I normally am. Thanks so very very much !
It is possible - in fact, it is better - to teach a preschooler and not make it seem like school.
Worksheets are misnamed. They should be called busy work. A child doesn't learn anything by doing worksheets. If they already know the material, then they can do the "worksheet" independently - coloring, cutting, pasting, tracing, etc.... If they don't know the material, then they need your help, and you don't have time to do their work for them!
However, there are fun ways to replace worksheets.
For example, you can spray plain white shaving cream on the table top, and let her trace her letters in the shaving cream. When she is finished, wipe it up with paper towels. Your table top will sparkle, and your kitchen will smell so clean! And she'll have a great memory, and a wonderful sensory experience, and she won't be bored to death.
Preschool at home is better done in short sessions, rather than one long one. Think KISS - Keep It Short, Silly! For example, you could spend five minutes before breakfast doing the calendar. She can learn to count, recognize numbers, skip count, observe the weather, learn new songs, the names of the week, the names of the months, the year, and more, doing a calendar activity. And it only takes 10- 25 minutes daily. End it sooner if she's restless, always quit an activity while she's still having fun - don't wait until she's bored and wants to quit - that's too long. You want her to want to come back tomorrow!
After breakfast, she can do a table top activity while you clean up the kitchen - 10 - 15 minutes, max. Table top games are things with small pieces that shouldn't be dumped in a toy box. This might include doing puzzles, playdough, stringing beads or lacing cards, etc.
Then, she can play independently for an hour or two, while you deal with your work, or older children, etc.
Then, midmorning, come back for a snack and then a math game or activity. Sometimes making snack can be the math activity. Like, dump a handful of teddy grahams on a napkin. How many chocolate bears do you have? How many white bears? How many bears all together? If you have ten bears, and eat two, how many do you have left?
THen, go outdoors for exercise, riding trikes, etc.
Then lunch, nap routines. Read to her before nap - that can be her language arts acitivities. You can point out the words in the book you read. Ask her questions about the pictures.
After nap, some families have a pm snack, some don't. Then outdoor play again, then come in for an art project. This can be related to the theme of the week, or it can just be something free-form,like fingerpainting.
Then dinner, after-dinner routines, and getting ready for bed.
Don't make school something that she has to sit down at a table for an hour with pencil and paper. That isn't school, that's crowd control. Make learning something she does all day, in her everyday interactions with you. You'll have a genius before you know it, and a child who really loves to learn.
Lorelei
i'm about to start homeschooling my 4 and 2 yr old and these are exactly the kind of tips i've been looking for. Thank you!
No reason to make her sit. :) Come up with cute crafts, ideas, etc that she can do while standing up. Don't let her know it's school stuff. Make it all a game. This one is fun: http://randomosityblog.com/2011/08/homeschooling-project-spinning-letters.html
Check out these Tasty Treats from The Stir's partners:
How long is your preschool day?
- sew4fun
on Sep. 29, 2010 at 10:44 PM