Preschool- 3 yrs

I have been wanting to have a separate blog just for our homeschooling endeavors and so HERE IT IS!

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

I have continued to put off "official" schooling for over a year now. Aidan is only just-turned-three and I've found that she hasn't really needed a structured "preschool" session. She tends to pick things up without help... she just might do it two months past the time I thought I'd sit her down and "teach" her. (For examples... colors, shapes, gluing words together)

Schooling now consists of 15-20 minutes of practicing reading almost every day, puzzles, math manipulatives,random worksheets, educational videos, story reading, craft projects, coloring and just basic real-life learning.

Starting in January... I will be making more of an effort to ensure that there will be more structured learning.

Here's my plan:

Aidan will have a folder with a list of things to do/accomplish that week. I will have a set time at least 3 days a week where we "do school" and will hopefully not have too many issues with keeping it at the same time every day. It will be up to Aidan to decide what to work on and in what order. Reading is the only thing I will make sure is done every day.

Ainsley, I plan on using a workbox with. She will have a basket that I will fill with school items only. These will be things she is not allowed to play with at any other times but when school is in session. I plan on changing the items to keep her interested. NOTE: this is only if she is not content to watch an educational video or is not, in general, otherwise occupied.

Thoughts to add to this... we attend playdates on a regular basis... so I may have to give up on the idea of doing it always at a set time. Obviously, until we dive in... it'll be hard knowing how exactly it'll work.

WHAT I PLAN ON USING

MISC.
1) Various workbook and Internet-printed sheets
2) Wipe Board
3) Puzzles
4) Lacing Beads
5) Board Games
6) Educational Videos


READING
1) Alpha Phonics
2) Bob Books
3) Other phonic reader sets I may find
4) Pocket chart card sets
5) "Live" books
6) Sentence Decoding

LITERATURE
My decided theme for Preschool 3 will be Fairy Tales, Fables, Moral stories and Myths. I'll also be adding basic poetry. The only thing we'll be doing with it is reading them and talking about them.

WRITING
1) Tracing Worksheets
2) Sand Letters

MATHEMATICS
1) Unifix cubes
2) Counting Bears
3) Number Chart

SCIENCE
For as long as interest is held... we'll have a theme... be it fish or sunflowers or clouds... and we'll read books from the library on it and probably do a craft on it. I'll be happy if one subject gets done a month.

SKILLS
1) Cutting
2) Lacing
3) Drawing