How To Start Your Homeschool Preschool and the Early Years
Each and every stage of homeschooling looks different and is equally rewarding. Homeschooling the preschool and early elementary years can feel less stressful because they are so young and it’s harder to mess up. Our homeschool journey started during the preschool years and keeping it simple is key!
What does homeschool look like for preschool?
We spend time on learning to read, early math and writing skills. All of these more formal activities were done at the child’s pace and didn’t last very long each day. But those little bits of time each day added up to a lot in the end and all of my children were ahead by grade level standards very quickly.
We always have included screentime in our homeschool. For many years the kids watched PBS Kids shows on TV while I drank my coffee and did chores. We have also used many apps to make learning fun and begin to introduce technology as a tool to our kids.
After the kids watched a few episodes of PBS Kids we would move to our learning space and do some activities. Usually we would read a story and do some reading, writing and math activities. It never lasted more than an hour. We would also visit parks many times a week to play and explore nature. When we were out running errands I would start intentional conversations about counting and colors to keep the learning going all day. Learning can become a way of life when you homeschool, and if you keep it going it is still that way with teens!.
The most important subjects in the early homeschool years
There are so many subjects that our kids need to learn, such as history, art, science, literature, foreign language, writing, math, and reading. When our students are little, however, we need to focus on teaching only 3 primary subjects: reading, handwriting and math. The rest of the subjects will take care of themselves through play, outside activities and reading together.
Reading-
It’s important to choose an engaging systematic program to teach phonics and reading. There are many choices out there which are great. The most important part is picking one and following it. My three students each learned to read with a different program and are all avid readers now. There isn’t a magic program.
Math-
Early math activities can happen at any time. Counting, colors, shapes and groupings are all things you can do out loud with your child while you carry out daily chores and activities. Including some formal math like the activities in Homeschool+ can help you monitor what your child is learning.
Handwriting-
Doing pre-writing activities during the preschool years and teaching our kids to write are the building blocks to helping them learn to write compositions later. Handwriting and Writing composition are two sets of skills, and the latter will come after the handwriting skills are built.
Including Technology in your homeschool with littles
I have always used technology as a tool in our homeschool. Watching videos with the kids and intentionally using high quality apps helps to keep learning interesting. I also use my google apps to stay organized and plan activities.
One technology tool I wish I had when my kids were younger was Homeschool+. It includes mastery learning in Reading and Math with lesson planning and offline activities to connect other learning to what they did online. There is a third track of online learning activities which covers a variety of subject content including art, social studies and science. These activities are great for when your child wants to keep going at the computer or they need extra practice for reading.
When we were using Homeschool+, it was in beta and new features were being added regularly. We used it on the computer as a web-based program. An app version is in the works and will be great for letting kids learn anywhere. We did a lot of waiting for siblings at therapy appointments when they were little so having quality learning apps was important for me.
If you are looking for new online learning options for your young students be sure to check out Homeschool+ and see if it’s the right fit for you with a free trial!