Homeschool Preschool

Homeschool Preschool?   What is it, you ask?  Thinking about doing it, but don’t how to start?  Let’s give it a whirl!It’s a really simple concept.  You’re probably not aware of how much you are a teacher right now.  If your child is already three or four, do you realize how much you’ve taught them already?  Lots!  Who taught them how to dress, how to wash up, how to take a bath, how to tie their shoes or what was dangerous or safe?  You and your  family, that’s who.  You’ve been teaching every since they can remember.  Why not keep it going?Homeschool preschool will not be that much different from what you’ve already done, you’ll just be more conscious and aware of it.  We’ll begin with reading.  Well, not reading actually.  More like “pre-reading”.  Getting them prepared for the real thing.  You’ll make them aware of words and their meaning in putting together sentences the right way.  You’ll start by talking to them around a half hour a day while going about your daily routines.  And talk to them with grown-up words, not baby talk.  While you’re on a walk with them, driving in the car, doing your shopping or cooking in the kitchen.  All this talking will actually give them a better chance at learning to read.  Kids from silent homes actually struggle more with reading.Then start reading to them, again around a half hour per day.  Start when they’re in the crib if you want to.  They might not understand you, but their little brains are going to want to very fast.  Read from picture books pointing out which pictures go with which words. Graduate to longer books with no pictures.  Give them an old book of yours that they can have as theirs.  Let them have it to play with when they’re alone.  Tape your yourself reading a book and give them a child-proof tape recorder to play it back over and over.  Repetition builds literacy and will save you from going stark raving mad reading “The Little Engine That Could” for the 29th time!Begin asking them questions about the stories when they’re old enough.  Draw them into the story and get them used to listening for the significant items in a story.  Make their minds start to put together explanations for certain occurrences in stories.  Keep their interest up.After they begin to talk well, it’s time for the old alphabet.  Buy them some alphabet blocks and go over and over the letters and their sounds.  Draw with them and draw the letters while naming them and sounding out their sounds.  Begin associating the sounds with words that start with them.  Use their new knowledge of letters at other times, like in the kitchen.  Have them go find a can of corn in the pantry, “I know you can’t read yet, but find me the can that's got a word on it that starts with a “C”, that’s corn”, would be an example.If you can then accomplish the task of teaching the concept of consonants and vowels, you’ve done a great job!See that went pretty well didn’t it?  Go for it!