Preschool- @ home!

I love the month of August, and not just because it’s my birthday month! I get excited about something else that happens in August. I can’t wait for the time of year when I can walk through the school supplies aisles at Target! Fresh pencils. Cute lunch boxes. Bottles of Elmer’s glue. Clean, crisp calendars. Sharpies. Crayons. Just listing these gets me so ready for school to start. As a former elementary teacher turned stay-at-home mom with no school-aged kids, I can’t help but pick up a few of these items even though I don’t need them. The back-to-school season is definitely here and I have some new goals!

This school year I have great intentions of having structured learning time with my three-year old while we’re at home. She is not enrolled in full-time preschool, so I need to fill in the gaps by planning fun, hands-on learning experiences for her. It won’t be long and she will be walking into her Kindergarten classroom {insert tears!}. I want to take advantage of our time together at home and be intentional about getting her as prepared as possible for that day. So, today I thought I would share three key things I’ve found that have made it easier to plan structured learning times for my preschooler.

1. Set a time. Pick a time of day and how many days you want and put it on the calendar like an appointment. We are going to do two days a week for now since she is at Mother’s Day Out two days. It doesn’t have to be a long stretch of time- 30 minutes a day is a great start.

2.  Pick a theme for the week. I usually go with a letter of the alphabet, then plan all of our activities around that letter. So, if I chose the letter B, we’d pick out books from the library that started with a B. We would talk about the color blue. We would eat blueberries and bananas for a snack. We would make a bear craft, and so on. There are many blogs and websites that have great themed packets where all of the lessons are there for you. Two great sites to get you started are 1+1+1=1 Website and The Oopsey Daisy Blog- Mommy School.

3. Do hands-on activities! We all know how busy-bodied preschoolers are, and they will learn so much more by “doing”. Make some spaghetti noodles and work with them to form letters and numbers. Spread shaving cream over a cookie sheet and have them write in it with their fingers. Sort different colors of Fruit Loops in an old egg carton. Make simple crafts. Again, the internet is full of ideas. Have you been on Pinterest lately? I searched ‘preschool activity’ and had over 4,000 ideas at my fingertips. Here’s one I want to do with Chloe in October to learn about mixing colors:

I plan on having a lot of fun with Chloe this school year! Preschoolers learn by everything they do, and I am excited to guide her experiences with a few fun, hands-on learning times each week. I would love to hear your ideas and resources for teaching preschoolers at home!