Home-Preschool is beginning! I know that my unschooling friends will be scandalized by my eager beaver approach. I don't think children need preschool and I don't even like the name "preschool" so much. (They're not learning at age two or three or four?) However, I do think I face a steep learning curve for learning to have more routine and order in the home: to do my domestic duties while also finding time for lesson planning and teaching. So, I'm taking the plunge now to get the feel of things!
I'm trying a free curriculum by Brightly Beaming Resources, combined with "Chats With God's Little Ones" and other resources for teaching the faith in the domestic church. I'm very interested in a curriculum called Little Saints as well, but decided to wait for now and maybe get it next year (when John is three and four years old), as I hear it is wonderful but requires a lot of work (for the parent).
The curriculum I'm using as a framework starts with a week introducing the alphabet, then teaches one letter per week. It is aimed for three and four year olds and I can tell it is a little advanced for John (but the two-year-old's curriculum was too babyish for him), so I'm making this curriculum simpler for him. I haven't designated what activities I'll be doing on which days, but I think this will take an hour, more or less each day. Also, there should be great flexibility built in. For example, maybe I'll teach a song "officially" during a "lesson" one day, but then we'll just sing it while having fun, driving in the car, playing in the back yard all week. Maybe I'll show John some manipulatives in math "officially" one day, but then I'll show him again with the raisins he is eating for snack.
I'm sure I'll let my blog readers know how home-preschool is going!
Week One (9/07-11/09): Alphabet Introduction Week
Source: http://www.letteroftheweek.com/alphabet_intro_week.html
Reading and Poetry:
Read alphabet books
· "Babar’s ABCs" (requested from library)
· "Curious George Learns the ABCs"
· “A is an Archer” (Oxford Book of Children’s Verse, p. 43)
Activities I Plan To Do:
Alphabet scavenger hunt
Fishing for alphabets
Have an alphabet snack: Alphabits cereal
DVD: “Barney’s Animals’ ABCs” (requested from library)
Show the sign language alphabet
Color in outline of J-O-H-N
ABC puzzles
Music:
Sing ABCs song (idea: check online for any dance; jump around on alphabet mat)
Montessori activities:
Playful Patterns
Religion:
Read "Alphabet of Saints" book
Tuesday 9/8: Celebrate Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary (idea: make birthday card or bake cake)
Practice the Sign of the Cross (“Chats With God’s Little Ones”)
· Day #1 idea: Practice by taking off shirt and using finger paints!
· Day #2: Practice genuflecting
· Day #3: Practice genuflecting with sign of cross
Looks good! I looked at Little Saints too but the intensive parent prep didn't thrill me. I did like the huge book list, though. If you end up using it next year, I'll be closely following along. We started last week and I'm hoping to do a detailed post about the rest of our plans tomorrow or Monday!
ReplyDeleteyou'll also love Elizabeth Foss's serendipity "alphabet path"
ReplyDeletehere is that site: http://ebeth.typepad.com/serendipity/
Good luck, it's always so exciting :)
Scrolling through some old posts and wondering if "Alphabet of Saints" is this one: http://www.neumannpress.com/alofsain.html. Also, did you buy Chats with God's Little Ones directly from OLVS? Feel free to email me!
ReplyDelete