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Yesterday, Cohen and I dove into our first day of our homeschooling adventure! I was very prepared {and very excited!}, having put everything together the night before! I would like to share with you all how I plan to teach my 4-year-old son K-4 Preschool at home.. 
This year is really not ‘school’ exactly… We are only doing our ‘school time’ an hour or so while Eli is napping and we’re really only focusing on reading and handwriting practice activities. This helps me to be able to focus 100% on Cohen and be able to give him the attention he needs to truly learn. This year, I will be doing 4-day school weeks, Tuesday through Friday, to ease us both into the routine. If it goes well, I may add in Saturday but I’m waiting to see how it goes.. (Hubby has Sunday and Monday off so that’s why we’re not schooling Mondays)
My main focus for Cohen is teaching him letters and phonics out of The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading. This is a wonderful classical-style teaching book that focuses on learning the sounds that each letter makes and being able to recognize them. The book is split up into short, 10-minute lessons, featuring a different letter each day. The first 5 lessons are the vowels (using the short-vowel sounds) and then it moves through all of the consonants.
Our current ‘schedule’:
- First, I read the lesson to him. The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading is a very interactive book, having the child repeating you and staying engaged so it’s pretty easy to keep their interest.. {He’s already getting better (our 2nd day in) at paying attention and being quiet at this part. It is very short so he knows if he listens to the lesson, he gets to play with the fun things afterwards!} And let me tell you.. If my active, 4-year-old can do this, your child can too!
- Next, we dig into the Activity Pack I’ve made up for that day. I did these myself, just collecting activities and learning tools that correspond to the day’s featured letter. Each weekend, I will be making up the Activity Bags for the following week. I’m hoping this will help me stay on top of things.. But again, we’ll see! (The picture below was our Lesson 1 Activity Pack, featuring the vowel A.)
My current teaching aids:
- The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading
- Melissa and Doug Magnetic Wooden Alphabet (including upper and lowercase letters)
I am also adding two or three tracing worksheets into each day’s Activity Bag. These are out of the Big Preschool Workbook and even after a couple days of doing them, he’s getting better at controlling his pen/marker, making his way through the mazes on the pages! This is very important for handwriting practice! He thinks they’re fun and he has no idea they’re actually helping him learn the art of handwriting! Score one for mom! Our first handwriting goal is to have him write his own name! (I know most kids already can do this by 4 but he’s a bit slow in his handwriting skills..)
- Lastly, we have some free-play/drawing time while I read him a chapter of Charlotte’s Web. Yes, this chapter book is pretty far beyond his learning range right now but I think that it is important to read to your kids, even outside their comfort zone! Cohen will stop and ask me what a certain word means so I know that he really is actually listening, even while he is drawing.. We’re doing a chapter each day so this one will last us a little while. I’m not sure which book we’ll do next! Any ideas?!
Yep, he actually made those two ‘H’ ‘s himself! What a great start!
So that is all we do but he loves it and is disappointed when it ends! I am greatly looking forward to the months and years to come in teaching him and his siblings and watching them learn and grow. It is truly a blessing and I am so glad that I have decided to school at home (for now, anyway..we’ll see how it goes..)!
Do you school your little one(s) at home? What is/was your favorite learning tool for teaching Preschool??
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We are reading Charlotte’s right now! Great choice. Looks like you’ve got everything organized really well.
Good luck on your homeschooling adventure! I was never brave enough to try that:)
You look totally organized! I love all the pics! We are starting our homeschool adventures too with my 4 year old and my 3 year old will be having some learning adventures of her own too!
Nothing specifically set and no programs, but I have started a short daily ‘school’ with my 3½yr old. Right now we are working on writing letters. She knows all the letters of the alphabet (only mixing up V and Y occasionally) so now we’re working on writing them. We also spend time counting things (lately its been money and learning about which coins are which) and getting up to 20. And we count our fingers and toes in Spanish. We spend about 30min-1hr a day on our “school.” She loves it, and I figured it will help her in Kindergarten when she starts in 2 years, and it makes her feel closer to her brother (who is 6 and gone all day in 1st grade)
That is so awesome you are homeschooling!
I don’t know where you find the time!! My son is working on tracing at Pre-k too!
I did homeschool preschool with my son who is not in Kindergarten. Now I do “learning time” for 15-20 minutes with my 2 year old. I know you’re just in your first week, but don’t worry too much if Cohen can’t or doesn’t seem to catch on with the writing stuff. I used to teach preschool and noticed that about 1/3 of my students (mostly boys) just weren’t ready at 4 to write and color (inside the lines). My own son had trouble, and, though we practiced, I didn’t push it or get frustrated when it looked terrible (his writing is blossoming now).
The most effective way I’ve found to teach writing is to begin with name writing like you are. Get a piece of kindergarten lined paper and a yellow marker (not highlighter). You write his name on the paper and then walk him through tracing over your yellow with the proper strokes.
Have fun with preschool, it is so rewarding!!!
Prep and lesson planning are the two things I struggle to stay on top of as a teacher! Looks like you have a great system going!
How organized. Looks like he’s loving it! I love BOB books also!
this is great… even for a child who is in preschool to get some extra work in at home. Thanks for sharing and for the ideas!
These is awesome! My mom did something similar with us and we were very far ahead when we went to public school!
Good luck on homeschooling! I am going to have to get the ordinary parents guide to teaching reading. Your setup sounds super easy! Hopefully my son will enjoy learning like your son is!
That is great you are homeschooling! I love the idea of having each days agenda already prepped in the baggy. I just learned of BOB Books & hope to get a set to use with my daughter.
It looks like Cohen is enjoying school
I just love his curls!!
this is so precious. my mom homeschooled me until 2nd grade. i loved every day of it. she was an excellent teacher. this brings back such good memories.
Enjoy it. We’re homeschoolers and I miss the simple preschool days
This makes me sad I cant be a SAHM ,I wish I could do these things with Christian when he gets older. Guess I will have the weekends and after work!
You are doing a wonderful job with Cohen! I helped by granddaughter homeschool for 2nd grade and we were kept quite busy with an online program that gave us books and lesson plans. It kept us busy for close to 5 hours a day!
I also homeschooled my son- he started school in K but went there really advanced- he knew everything but fortunately they did the one thing that I did not- they taught cursive writing. That kept him busy for the whole year and now he has beautiful handwriting.
I’m a couple of years behind you, but we already “homeschool” in the sense that we use a lot of teachable moments in our daily lives, play with him, and read together. Kiddo is 27 months and has already shocked us more than once by doing things like identifying numerals or letters by sounds on signs around us. It’s amazing how much we can learn just by playing, so that one hour may feel like it isn’t enough “school” sometimes, but I bet it is doing a great job packing a punch, especially since he can play the rest of the day and weave in some of the ideas he’s thinking and learning about.
I love that you’re reading Charlotte’s Web to a 4 year old! What about Just-So Stories? I only pray I can be that organized when I start doing a more formal school time in a couple of years. 
That’s really cool, how has it been going since you started? I’m enjoying your blog very much.
You are so organized. I had to take a break from our preschool at Christmas and I have not gotten “officially” back on track with the baby – HOW do you do it!? Also where did you get those felt letters??
Thanks, Julie! Those awesome felt letters are from Dani Jo Designs on Etsy! They’re definitely worth the $!