I have recently committed myself to embarking on a terrifying, but exciting journey. A journey that preys on my insecurities, yet promises to bring forth wonderful results if planned well. My journey?….homeschooling. 🙂
I won’t go into all the reasons that my husband and I have chosen to become a homeschooling family. (I’ll save that for a later time.) My goal today is to give some fun ideas for those of you who already share in the homeschooling experience, or are ready to give it a try.
My newfound passion and excitement that I have for homeschooling has surprised me more than it has anyone else. The idea of homeschooling always seemed so tedious, so constraining, so anti-fun. Well, as I have happily found out, the opposite has proven to be true!!
My 3 ½ year-old son, Rudy, is my test subject. Knowing practically nothing, we decided about a year ago to give homeschooling a shot. My objectives at the time were to get across some basic pre-schooling ideas and to be consistent and repetitive with it. The “basics” that I decided to hone in on were colors, shapes, numbers, ABC’s, and Scripture memory.
So now, one year later, Rudy loves our morning school time (the other kiddos aren’t up yet when we have school!) and he has flourished in our home school setting! His joy is founded in becoming self-assured in our many school activities, and my joy is founded in spending precious hours each week watching my son learn and love to learn.
I have changed and adapted and re-adapted over the past year, constantly evaluating and trying to find the teaching style that best fits my very ambitious, rambunctious 3 ½ year-old. I believe that this is the true key to successful pre-school homeschooling – that your model of teaching incorporates and champions the unique personality and strengths/weaknesses of your child.
We are on a 3-day-a-week schedule, each session lasting from 8:00 in the morning until about 9:00. I’m going to share with you my basic structure, and then give you one specific example of an activity that we do.
We operate on a “Centers” model, meaning we physically move around the kitchen and den to different learning centers that I have set up. The movement and quick change keeps my son more engaged and interested. So, briefly, here are the centers that I prepare for each morning:
- Bible story and song
- Exercises
- Scripture memory
- Challenging game
- Craft
- Letters
I am so excited to be sharing this with you, and can’t wait to go into detail into the planning of each center! This time around, though, I am simply going to share with you one of Rudy’s favorite “Challenging Games” (Center 4):
Copy the Castle – this game brings out the engineer in my son!
What you need: A large set of blocks in all shapes, sizes, and colors
Set up: Before your child enters the room, build a structure with the blocks. A castle or tower always works well. You probably want to build something fairly simple to start out with. For every block that you use, set aside a pile of those exact blocks for your child to use.
Mommy built a simple castle for Rudy to copy.
Game: Show your child what you built, and then show him his own pile of duplicate blocks. Have him concentrate on the way that you built yours, and guide him as he “copies” the structure that you built. I always give Rudy a starter block to help him find a point of reference.
Mommy has built her castle and given Rudy a starter block as a point of reference.
Mommy’s castle on the left, and Rudy’s completed castle on the right. Engineer in the making? 🙂
Even though this is just a simple, made-up game, I have seen my son’s little brain be challenged and worked in a very healthy way! His concentration, ability to balance blocks, and dexterity are all being developed…simply by playing a fun game!
This is a topic that I look forward to revisiting over and over again. For those of you who try out this game, I would love to hear some feedback! Enjoy!
