Question:
i want to homeschool my son, he's 3 now...how do/will i transition him from free play (almost all the time) to?
?
2009-05-06 13:50:36 UTC
sitting down and doing worksheets or lessons?
i feel so lost!
do you buy a book with a curriculum or just choose subjects and start basic?
Thirteen answers:
Kathleen
2009-05-06 18:00:30 UTC
Charity Christian Academy has a great preschool program for 3 year olds. They encourage reading to preschool children, lots of hands-on activities, and very small amounts of workbook activities because often little children do not have good fine motor control and too much written work can frustrate them until their little bodies mature enough to gain better fine motor control.



Storybooks

· 101 Favorite Stories from the Bible

· 20th Century Children’s Book Treasury

· The Bee Tree

· Go, Dog, Go

· Horton Hatches the Egg

· Learning Our Letters

· Peter’s Sailboat

· God’s Miracle – a Raindrop

· God’s Miracle – a Seed

· A Truck and a Tricycle



Music

· Nursery Songbook and Sing, Little Children, Sing CD Set



Hands-On Activities

· Alphabet and Number Puzzle Set with Lesson Guide (Critical Thinking)

· Lauri Toddler Tote (Rainbow Resource Center)

· Numberland Express Puzzle (Rainbow Resource Center)



Workbooks

· About Three

· Bigger Steps

· Child Art (Abeka)

· Arts and Crafts with Amber Lamb (Abeka)

· Mathematical Reasoning Age 3: Beginning (Critical Thinking)

· Letters and Sounds (Abeka)

· Numbers and Skills with Button Bear (Abeka)





One mistake some parents make is that they want to teach their little ones numbers and letters, completely forgetting how important it is to teach them colors, shapes, cutting, and other preschool skills.
Rosie_0801
2009-05-08 05:56:15 UTC
He's too young for formal work unless he's asking for it, and worksheets are not the only way to learn. In fact, they're rarely the best way. Why not consider more gentle and hands on curriculum? Don't make the mistake of thinking that something has to be dry or too hard in order to be rigorous. At age three, he's probably too young for English work, but for maths, consider Math on the Level. It goes from Pre-K (learning numbers and shapes) right through to the end of year 8, pre-algebra.

For the future, I suggest you do a bit of research on homeschooling methods and see if any of those strike your fancy. Then you'll know what to research further. Join online message boards and see what other people use, and that'll give you some hints. You need to discover your own educational philosophies before you can find appropriate resources to use.
The OTHER Boelyn Chic
2009-05-07 02:53:32 UTC
Generally you buy a curriculum. However children learn by play for several more years. You can't expect him to be doing worksheets at age 5. I have found Literature based curriculum's to work the best for us.Go to either one of these websites and check out their preschool curriculum's. You can also go to their forums for advice.

www.sonlight.com

www.winterpromise.com

Rod and Staff have some good preschool workbooks you might want to check them out.



A good book to get is Ruth Beechick's The Three R's. It will tell you how to teach and the different stages kids go through at each age.



Also try googling homeschool preschool curriculum. Good luck!
Mawia
2009-05-06 23:27:07 UTC
Good for you, deciding to home school your child.



If you are going to home school, there is no need to start with any formal lessons of any sort until about age 6 or 7, possibly 8. Free play is far more important than any schooling and if you wait that long, you will have your child all caught up to peers by age 10.



I would make some suggestions:

- get rid of your television

- read a couple of books out loud to your child every day

- make every opportunity a learning opportunity for numbers, associations, letters, words, colours, logos, songs, etc.

- take you child on holidays and field trips and excursions every opportunity you get.

- if possible, spend long periods of time immersed in a second language like Spanish or French or Chinese.

- start you child on music lessons



I wish you all the best, you have chosen a noble path.
Julie S
2009-05-08 21:57:11 UTC
The way I started was making regular trips to the library and checking out picture/story books on all subjects. I read to my children almost every day from these books. Just looking through the books available at the library should spark your interest and give you ideas of things your child would be interested in.





For instance, get a book on insects. After reading it (and looking at pictures of common insects) you can point insects out to your son when you see them. You may be surprised that he will probably be pointing bugs out to you and remembering their names. "Look, Mom...there is a praying mantis!"



Get books about history, science, art, music,....but all on his level and with lots of beautiful pictures. Over time, you can increase the amount of time spent on reading. But remember to keep learning sessions short while interest is high. This is the starting place.



Also, at the library, get a couple of books from adult nonfiction on teaching activities for preschool children. You will find loads of information on fun ways of teaching. I advise you to make early homeschooling just part of your routine, spending time together learning about interesting things.



Just relax. There is no one way to learn. The schools have to accommodate a classroom full of children; you only have one and you can individualize your child's learning.



Most new homeschool Moms feel that they need a curriculum from kindergarten-on. The reason is that they want to be sure that they teach the right things. But, honestly, you don't need a curriculum for kindergarten or first grade. Just continuing to read aloud books together and learning from the real world is more than adequate. His time for play is very important! His "school" time should be short in kindergarten and first grade, etc.



You have time to look into a reading program since he is only 3 now. There are many products available that will help you teach your child to read. One you might like to look into is: Sing Spell Read and Write. There are many others.



I have 4 boys. I let them have regular breaks from schoolwork. The older they get, the less breaks they need. You will get a feel for the needs of your son when you start doing "seat" work.



(BTW, none of my boys learned to read before age 7. Two of my sons have graduated college with engineering degrees)
>(^._.^)<
2009-05-07 00:17:40 UTC
In North America, we are all so conditioned to think that the only way our children will learn is by worksheets, workbooks, and texts. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. A few wise comments suggested removing the TV and reading to your child, along with looking into the theories of John Holt (unschooling), Maria Montessori, and Rudolf Steiner (Waldorf). I would also encourage reading about Jean Piaget.
?
2009-05-08 03:46:55 UTC
at 3yrs he's still in the play mode. You can definitely begin, print off a letter A and let him color it. That could be your learning for the day. Do a whole week of A activities. Eat apples, read A books. By the time he is ready for K you will have done enough research to find what fits with him.
Dylan, Ethan, Lillian,Aydan
2009-05-07 02:55:57 UTC
I am also looking into homeschooling my children..we have a 3 and 2 year old..I am going to first send them to our Christian preschool we have in town than possibly home school them too..everyone keeps telling me that sonlight is one of the best homeschooling programs...www.sonlight.com I ordered a booklet (free) to see about them...

I start with basics now take them to see (trips, vacations) educational things to learn and experience things now..I am going to start them in books later but first teach them the basics..good luck!
hsfromthestart
2009-05-07 02:12:04 UTC
Three, especially for a boy, is probably too young for doing worksheets. We started with other sorts of lessons.



Such as sitting together while I read stories. (Stories can help motivate them to want to read, introduce pre-reading skills like recognizing rhyming words, and can teach concepts too--especially if you read from a wide variety of books including nonfiction ones.) I found that if I read to him about castles and knights, he'd then spend time pretending to be a knight and seemed to learn better by acting it out. Or I'd read to him about fire fighters and he play act at being one of those.



Doing crafts. Painting, playing with clay, coloring, drawing, cutting and pasting, stringing beads, etc. These are not only fun, but also build fine motor skills to help ready him for writing. And they can help him learn to follow directions.



Doing science. Plant seeds and take of them to learn how they grow--if you're lucky, you might get them to reach harvest and he can learn where some of his food comes from. Collect seeds or leaves and compare them with each other to learn about botany. Try mixing jars of colored water to learn how colors combine. Get inexpensive science kits and build models of things like the heart or the skeleton or a mummy or whatever--they can be great fun, and help build knowledge that will help in learning more advanced material later on.



Disguised learning. Watch some fun videos. "Leap Frog" and "Between the Lions" are great series for building phonics skills. "The Magic School Bus" and "Bill Nye, the Science Guy" are fun science series. There are lots of others out there. And lots of libraries lend out copies of them. Watching some fun things like that will help him to learn, without it seeming like learning.



Exploring the world around him. Go on nature walks. Take time to watch the ants at work or to figure out where the bird you see flying about has his nest. Search for rainbows after the rain. And talk about what you see. Take him on errands with you and talk about the people you meet, places you go, and what they are for.



Anything you can do at this point is educational. But keep it fun. You don't want him dreading the idea of lessons. If you are going to homeschool him, you'll most likely be able to get all of the subjects done in an hour or 2 when he's school age. It's faster because there's less wasted time. So, don't worry about training him to sit still for hours at a time.



If you want some ideas on what to do, try http://www.worldbook.com under parent resources look for "typical course of study". You can start with their preschool list of skills that kids at that age are learning. But remember, at this age, *anything* you teach him is new to him. You don't need a formal curriculum. Just keep exposing him to new ideas, keep him mentally stimulated, and read to him a lot. Reading to him is the best thing that you can do to jumpstart his education.
Glee
2009-05-06 21:34:59 UTC
Consider looking into unschooling, Montessori and Waldorf schooling. The theories blend together well and allow you to adjust his environment to fit his curiosity. Let him lead you from there. It will be years before he needs any kind of worksheet or formal lesson.
marion.ofsherwood
2009-05-07 16:41:35 UTC
lol he's only 3!!! hahaaaaaa, i cant believe ur serious!!!

Let him free play for 3 or 4 more years and then start with the lessons!

Let the child be a child, for goodness sake.
Z
2009-05-06 21:17:25 UTC
I don't know much about homeschooling (more like nothing), but I'd start with introducing 'lessons' with toys. Slowly increase with the lessons, after he gets more into the learning, you may want to purchase workbooks and such. In my opinion Hooked on Phonics is a good place to start. They have learning material for you children.



To engage him in the learning play with him at first first, be his friend, his play-date, if you will. After a day or to start to introduce the learning.



As he gets older, you may (will) want to get more help. Info on homeschooling below.
soosyjo
2009-05-06 22:25:18 UTC
maybe start off with like 10 minutes of school then a recess then 15 minutes of school then recess then 20 minutes of school then a recess,etc.


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