This was our first week of doing preschool activities at home. I could write a novel (or at least a short story) about my thoughts on public school vs. homeschool but to sum up I’ll just say I’m entirely split down the middle. I think they both have benefits and downsides.
Regardless of what I end up doing, I wanted to start her on some ‘school’ like things at home, so if I do homeschool, it won’t be a huge change in pace. I’ve planned out the month with a very basic ‘curriculum’ consisting of age appropriate (and attention span appropriate) activities. It’s been going really well!
Shape tracing! She loves to do her worksheets.
This week’s focus is writing and letter practice, and learning the days of the week. Lots of letter, number, and shape tracing along with one big activity each day. She has this ‘My First Calendar’ that we’ve done daily since she received it for her birthday, and she adores it! She’s well on her way to recognizing the day’s of the week (we identify them by first letter) and she is so excited to be able to change the season to spring soon!
Our days of the week activity was really simple – I’m all about simple and cheap! During nap time I cut out some cardboard rectangles on which I wrote the days of the week. Her task was to put them in order (we started with Monday since it’s the day her calendar starts on). She did great!
Thursday we did our biggest activity of the week. Matching uppercase and lowercase letters. This was another simple and cheap project to make!
Using my 1″ circle puncher, I made 52 circles, and wrote the uppercase and lowercase letters on them. Then I hot glued them onto felt. I only used red as I have copious amounts of these red pieces for some reason! Then I cut them out.
The felt board is from a dinosaur felt game her grandma bought her, but making a felt board for this would be so easy – hot glue a big piece of felt to a big piece of cardboard and voila! (The easel is mine that my grandfather made for me.) Her task was to match the lower case letters with their uppercase counterpart. Or as she called it, matching the baby letters with their mommys and daddys. Since she knows all her uppercase letters, learning the lowercase is priority for now. She knows about 1/3 of the lowercase, most obviously the ones that look the same!
However, with all the activities, nothing is pushed. I don’t force her to continue if it’s clear she’s not into it. She is only three, and has plenty of time for school. Most session take about 20 minutes, and so far she has been loving them! Next week we tackle writing numbers, counting to twenty, and maybe some super simple basic math using Goldfish. I think she’ll like that one!
Do you homeschool? What are your thoughts on homeschool vs. public/private school?
-Kayly
anopensketchbook.wordpress.com 
I love these! The felt board is a huge hit in our home. I never thought to use cardstock over the felt instead of cutting felt shapes! Genius!!!!! (And so much easier!)
We plan to home school for so many reasons. The main reason is creating a curriculum that goes at his pace, and allowing him to dive deeper into the subjects that interest him.
This looks like so much fun! Truthfully after working in the public school system, I’m definitely considering home school unless I find a fantastic small private school.
We’ve looked at private schools but the only ones around us are outrageously expensive. The public school system here is one of the best in the state, but I’m still on the fence.
Honestly, I think the home school / public school decision has to be made individually for each kid and family. I love, love, love home school for Grace, but some kids really thrive in public school. Grace is a big-time introvert who really does best academically when allowed to chase her own interests at her own pace, so home school is great for her. I taught in public school for 7 years (8th grade), and seeing what those kids had to deal with from day to day (the testing, being treated like infants, the testing, the bullying, the testing, the peer pressure, the rigid scheduling, socialization with only one age group, and, oh yeah, the testing) didn’t seem like the best option to me. But, like I said, some people really do well in that environment.
Totally agree! I loved school growing up, despite being shy. It will definitely be something we decide on together, and based on what we think will be best for our daughter. I absolutely agree that it is completely individually based, as I know some kids who struggled tremendously with a standard school environment.