newbie question:)

[CrnchyMamaCraig]

Hi! I'm new. My name is Hope. I have a four year old DS that's going to be 6 when starting kindergarten. I want to start homeschooling preschool stuff, but I'm a little lost of course....I have a few questions.

First...How long should I be focusing on school work per day? Is it ok to stop and start or should it be a specific continuous time period during the day that we focus on school? DS has a short attention span, and I have little patience right now...I'm 28.5 weeks pregnant and am kind of OCD to boot :/ It's hard for me not to take over and show him how to do everything instead of just letting him do it :x Today we worked for 30 mins on numbers. We looked at numbers and counted them out. Right now he's great with 1-10 and shaky with 11-20. After that he traced the numbers and then he practiced the number one over and over again...tracing a 1 and writing "one". He wasn't really wanting to pay attention some of the time and my patience was wearing thin so after 30 mins we quit. Should break it up throughout the day and do 30 mins here and 30 mins there? He seemed to WANT to do it beforehand and i gave him a reward after we finished (a sticker) to encourage him.

That's another thing that I'm kind of shaky on. I mean maybe this should come naturally, but do you get stern with your kids when they aren't trying their hardest ( or putting any effort into it at all) I want to encourage him but if he's not really putting effort into it, I don't want to pretend like that's ok. How do you deal with it when they aren't paying attention or aren't really putting much effort into their work? Am I taking this too seriously!?

Help is appreciated! thanks!!

[twyliatepeka]

rewards are great! even for they small stuff. you can go as long or as short of a time frame as he needs. heck even 10 mins at a time would be fine  break it up during the day 10mins here & 10 there is that is what feels right for his needs (& yours).

[metooo]

At the preschool level it shouldn't be "school work" He will get more then enough of that when he starts school. lol At this age it should be fun and hands on. Preschool should involve using all the five sense. It should involve area's of growth in a child which include, small motor, gross motor, creative, cognitive, language. Kids need lots of time to process things in there own way. You may see them repeat the same activity over and over and over again.

The best thing you can do is set up his environment and a routine  that is conducive to preschool learning.  if you"re OCD that should be right up your alley too. LOL Toys should be in their own containers. Label containers  with pictures and words. Keep out some art supplies (if he is a wild one just leave out on pack of crayons and some paper to start). Make sure the toys are open ended (lego's , fake food, dress ups, blocks, balls, cars, train sets....). Make sure he is cleaning up toys before moving on the the next thing (this is something important for traditional school, following directions, routines, and steps in a process.) Have a good routine that involves outdoor/active times, free play indoors, story time, and a mom directed activity time.  Limit TV viewing

I have a very small space so I set up a shelf. If I had the space I would set of a whole playroom. it would be awesome! When my son was four, his school involved, larger puzzles, journaling (drawing pictures on plan paper that I date and label for him), pattern blocks, small toys to sort and count, simple lego kits (some of them I printed out from online and just used our legos). We played games like store and used real change. The kids would right price tags and we would practice  counting out the right change. We started with just pennies BTW lol. We would play ball type games and keep score with tally sticks or pennies. We played ABC, go fish, bingo, etc.  Some preschooler really enjoy being given school work. Others  can't stand it. If he doesn't want to do it don't push him! Encourage him to work with clay, paint, draw, cut with scissors or a whole host of other activities that are actually more educational. :) 

This is what we do.   We read every day that I don't blog about and we spend a lot of time discussing things. That is a wonderful way to build knowledge and vocabulary. Some of the things she does may not seem like "school work" But they are all activities that will build on some skill or provide some other knowledge to her. M is eligible to start kindergarten in 2013.

Oh, and if t you do go the worksheet route 30 minutes is a very long time! In K my son spent only about 10-15 minutes or so at a time on seat work then they would move to the carpet or do something else. If you decide you want to require some seat work pick one short page.  The explode the code primers are nice and so is the Kumuon books.  Math is better taught hands on in the younger years. My DD is in 3rd and they still always introduce new concepts with manipulatives rather then worksheets. Worksheets reinforce knowledge your child already has. They don't teach. If you want your child to learn say writing 1's, first you want to look at lots of 1's point them out in relevant places like the grocery store, go on 1 hunts through a book, then try "drawing" some ones in the air, next move to some fun medium to practice, like finger paint, regular paint, build ones out of cereal or blocks,  finally move to tracing. Keep the work sheets short. not 25 ones to trace 5 he does nicely.  now the worksheet is reinforcing what he has already learned and it should be "easy' for him their for more enjoyable. He can show off what he knows.  :) The above would be done over several days/weeks not in one sitting. lol