Spilled milk. Not something I would usually cry over, but lately, I've been strung a little tight. Having just moved and with my little girl (8mos) beside herself lately, I would be lying if I said my stress levels weren't through the roof! I was starting to feel pretty short tempered, and out of control. My anxiety was getting the best of me, which meant my kiddos were getting the worst of me. My little girl was demanding near constant attention, and I was feeling like my toddler was not getting the attention he needed as a result. Something needed to change. Thus began my new adventure, preschooling my toddler at home.
I find organization and planning very cathartic. So when I needed something to help turn my mood around and get my anxiety under control, I did something that may seem counter-intuitive to some. I decided to build a preschool curriculum for my 3 year old. Having never tried anything like this before it was a lot of work, but 4 weeks in and I am very glad I started this. I am managing my anxiety and stress much better, but the biggest improvement has been the amount of quality one on one time spent with my toddler.
As he is only 3 I'm not really strict on the way we learn, nor do I expect him to pick up on concepts right away. I do not have unreasonable expectations. In fact most of what we do is done through play. But I have become much more intentional about making time to play, and it has had a wonderful effect on us both! I thought I would share a bit about the process of making my curriculum, and likely follow up with some of the activities we do each week in subsequent posts. I am certainly not an expert, and I am really just feeling my way through this process.
Setting up
The first thing I did was come up with a list of skills, both educational and general life skills that I wanted to work on. Then I came up with a second list, with more general skills, that I wanted to use to help learn all the rest. Things like Gross and Fine motor skills.
Then I went through and drew an agenda for our year with monthly and weekly sections. This obviously could have been bought, but I had a spare notebook, and I found the repetition involved rather relaxing.
I came up with a theme for each week, as well as assigning a letter, number, colour, and shape to focus on. I plan out the main pieces for each theme about a month in advance. The activities are usually worked out a week or two before we actually get to that theme.
I keep a little sheet protector for each week of the month to come with colouring pages, and activity sheets that focus on the letters, numbers, colours and shapes we will be working on and then I sort out any larger activities closer to the date.
We don't always get through all the pages, but that's ok, they are there and easy to grab if we need some quiet colourig time throughout the week. Any we don't use I just save to use later on.
Teaching Time
When I started this I think I was envisioning a solid routine with table time after breakfast, then outdoor time. Crafting after lunch, and then a nap. I don't know who I was kidding, with a baby to wrangle as well, and the chaotic schedule we are currently keeping, that was never going to happen.
What I have found instead is learning plan that is a integrated into our real lives, so much so that it barely seems like learning at all. But it is learning, already there are clear improvements in his skills and I'm seeing improvements in his mood and our relationship as well. Now there wasn't really anything wrong with our relationship before, but it does seem a little closer and more fun than it used to be.
I have learned that a little preparation goes a long way. I keep a homeschooling bin within reach now. A few things I always keep in it are, crayons, flashcards, books on shapes and colours, an alphabet colouring book. I also have a few things that I swap out every week, such as the colouring and worksheets for that weeks theme, playdough in whatever colour we are learning that week and any reading books that fit our theme as well. Then I add items that we will use for any crafts or activities we have planned for that week.
It's super handy to have it all at the ready, and is also within his reach so he can play with any of the materials whenever he would like. Setting it up like this allows me to be able to quickly dive into something whenever he is interested, or any time of day that works as I never need to run around getting supplies.
What I've learned
I have loved this new experiment, I do feel like it is helping me get a little closer to the mom that I want to be. I love crafting and playing with my kids. But I do have a tendency to get hung up on the work of having a family, and miss out on some of the fun. This has brought a lot of the fun back for me. I'm looking forward to sharing some of our themes with you in later posts. Maybe a few updates on how things are going as well!
Until next time, be safe and be kind.
Homeschooling needs our effort certainly but also the best possible attitude and creativity with lots and lots of patience. It is a great experience that you show us today about those homeschooling advances. Congratulations
Thank you! Creativity and patience are definitely necessities! If you don't have them to start you will likely develop them as you go! 😀
What you're doing here is really inspiring, well done. Brings back memories of my Mum teaching me words with flashcards while I was a small child. Glad to hear the experiment is going well so far 🙂
Thank you! So far so good!
Congratulations, I love the strategy of planning by colors, I tell you that since I was a child I learned the use of different colors in my agenda and notebooks and even today as an adult it gives me excellent results. It is not easy to educate at home, however when you take it as a wonderful challenge you manage to grow and establish a connection and incredible links with the children. Thank you for sharing
Colour coding the agenda really helped me keep the themes separate as well, which has been very useful. As a bonus it keeps things feeling a little more playful, which is a good reminder that the best learning often comes through play!
Great job, you did well in managing such things. I too sometimes am being short-tempered when my five years old son demands near-constant attention (nagging me most of the time) just like what you have experienced.
Also, I am glad that you are able to manage your stress. As stress can cause serious illnesses.
Have a nice day ahead.
Thank you, time will tell if it was worth the effort I suppose. Life will always have its stressful seasons. Sometimes we handle them well and sometimes not. All we can do is keep trying.🙂
You're welcomr. You are right, all we can do is keep trying.
hehehe I can't help but think "All battle plans fail upon first contact with the enemy." To which the general reply is "but x isn't my enemy" but that's not the point of the statement. the point is "Be ready to get flexible and adapt when things don't work."
Don't give up if your son isn't grooving on the program, modify it as needed to suit both your needs.
PS, you're going to blow away his first few teachers if you can accomplish that tasklist!
lol, oh I don't think we will actually accomplish the whole list! A bit of a foundation can't hurt though. I am pretty impressed with how many more words he's gotten since we started. That being said he thinks his middle name is "turtle" so we still have some work to do, lol.
Homeschooling a toddler is not as easy as it looks but it seems like you are doing a great job at it. It was a mess when I was starting out, I had no idea how to integrate learning in our playtime until I found our groove. I was not as systematic as you, this community helped a lot in my learning process.
It is true that while homeschooling our kids is helpful for them especially when it is started during the early years, but it is more helpful to us, parents. It makes our relationship with our little ones even stronger, and we learn a lot about them and about ourselves.
I agree, toddlers are naturally learning all the time, I think in the preschool ages homeschooling probably teaches the parents more than the kiddos!
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