Hi everyone! Yesterday I wrote about some practical preschool-age skills that I'm teaching our daughter. Today I'm going to share some "school-ish" things that I'd like to teach her before she turns three years old.


​Colors and Shapes

I didn't have colors or shapes on my preschool list because our daughter already knows them. I found the book below at a garage sale when she was a baby, and it was her favorite for a good year or so.

When she was about 18 months old, she really got into this book. I would say, "Where is the button?" and she would point to the button. Eventually she got to know the shapes, especially the tiny shapes on the border of the left page (below). The first shape she began to recognize was a circle, which she called a "ball". Rectangles and squares were the hardest for her.

It was the same way with colors. I would say, "Where is red?" and she would point to the red squigly. It took a while for her to register the concept of different items being red, but she could name most colors by the time she was two, mostly thanks to this book. I mean, we sure read it often enough! We still sometimes read this book. If I remember correctly, the first colors that she recognized were blue and green. The colors that were most difficult for her were black and brown. Even now she still sometimes gets those two confused.

​We also have a shape puzzle and shape blocks, but her ability to put together the puzzle lagged far behind her ability to simply recognize the shapes and colors.


Numbers

At this point, our daughter knows the idea of one and two. She can't recognize the symbols for one and two, but she does know the difference between one item and two items. My goal for the next six months or so is to get her to recognize the idea of other numbers; for example, that three is more than two and four is more than three. I'm not concerned about her knowing the symbols for each number at this point.

I'm using a few different methods to instill the idea of numbers. I count things aloud as often as possible. We sing a counting song about fingers and toes. I also made dot flash cards to use as a type of game. I have her count out nuts (or candies, or whatever) onto the flash cards, and then she gets to eat them. If any of you have ideas for counting, please let me know!

Alphabet

I started introducing letters shortly before our daughter turned two, since she was very capable of recognizing shapes. She doesn't know any of the letter names, only the sound that the letter makes. Each letter (or, as many as possible) is connected to a person she knows. For example, my letter is "Mmmm for Mama". Right now she can recognize most of the letters and, of course, their sounds. 

I'm not going to attempt to teach reading or writing until she can say all or most of the sounds properly, or when she shows an interest in doing so. I will also hold off on teaching her the names of the letters until she begins reading. For now, she knows that letters make words, and you don't know what a word says unless you can read. I think that is really enough at this age.


Reading

As I said before, I think we are a year or two away from any kind of reading. That being said, I adore reading to our toddler. I've purchased a decent amount of secondhand books and I try to read at least 3-4 books per day. If possible, I try to read books that instill good values or some kind of educational content. 

In the last couple months, I've seen how her little brain sucks up information and spits it back out. Sometimes words, phrases or concepts in our books come out in her play and reasoning. She is learning about all sorts of animals, foods, vocabulary, even abstract ideas like how our earth is suspended in the solar system "where angels and Jesus live". I can't believe how much she understands as a two year old!

One of her favorite books right now is a story called The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown. It's a nonsensical story about two kittens who mix together paint to make different colors. Several weeks ago when I was doing laundry, I poured blue detergent onto a yellow shirt. It made a big green spot on the shirt.

"Mama, that shirt green!" she said.
"You're right," I said. "I poured blue soap on that yellow shirt, and it made..."
"Green! Like the Color Kittens!" she exclaimed.

I love introducing her to new worlds and ideas through books.


Art, History, Science, etc.

I try to make our everyday lives as educational (and fun!) as possible. We definitely don't have a curriculum for anything around here. I really like the idea of Charlotte Mason style education, so I'm trying to incorporate some of that into our day. For example, teaching her the names and/or uses of different plants, pointing out what happens during different seasons, etc.

Last week I bought her a $3.00 paint set. She has already muddied up the colors quite a bit, but I love to see the joy on her face when she paints. I framed one of her pictures and set it on the kids' table in her bedroom.

History is something I love, but I'm not sure our daughter understands the concept of. So for now I'm just introducing her to my favorite historical characters and their stories. The other day we dumped out my change purse and I showed her the pictures on all of the bills and coins, and pointed out how George Washington was on the dollar and the quarter, and how Lincoln was on the $5.00 bill and the penny. 

Science, likewise, is something I don't go out of my way to do. I try to show her how the plants in our garden are progressing, or how we cook something to make it soft. I try to point out if something is melted, frozen, rotted, etc.

In short, academic subjects are not as important to me as instilling the love of learning into our daughter. Whether or not she becomes a great artist, writer or inventor is a choice that I will leave to her. Right now I think the most important thing for us to focus on is building good habits and fellowship in our family.

I hope this has helped or inspired you in some way!
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Til next time,
​-Bethany

Hi everyone! Today I thought I'd share a little bit of what I'm doing for preschool at home for our 2 year old. I know that some of you may not have young children anymore, but these ideas would also be fun for grandchildren. Also, I am not some kind of educational or parenting expert; I'm just sharing what my plans are and some ideas that have worked for us already. Along with that comes a little bit of my parenting philosophy, too. Sorry, can't help it. 


Goal Setting for Kids

About once every six months to a year, I sit down and make a list of what I would like to teach or try with our daughter. I keep these in a notebook so I won't have to do it again with the next kid. Making goals for your child isn't making goals for them... it's making goals for yourself to do WITH them. 

For example, you're not going to write "get (child) to say alphabet". Instead, write "sing the alphabet song every day". The end goal is, of course, to get your kid to say the alphabet. But you can't take it personally if your child doesn't learn as fast as you want them to. The best you can do is teach and reinforce good things every day, and hope they stick. If you force "learning", you run the risk of killing your kid's natural love for learning.

​With all that being said, here is a list of things I would like to finish teaching our daughter before she turns three.

You can see that the goals are at the top. At the bottom I've listed a few activities per day that might help achieve those goals. Some of the activities are just for fun. On the reverse side of the paper, I made a list of things I want to do with her EVERY day.

Of course everyone's set of goals and activities to support those goals will be different. I like to do as little formal schooling as possible, and instead choose games, songs, hands-on activities and TV shows to use for learning. These things can be integrated into your regular daily schedule without adding a lot of burden.


Practical Skills

During the morning I try to focus on practical skills (some that we've slacked off on) including getting dressed, cleaning and cooking. Getting dressed and cleaning are actually more about habits than skill. We also get the mail and feed our chickens together before lunch. Sometimes I read a book to her before lunch, but since the weather is warming up we have been spending more time outside.

1. Getting Dressed: This takes a lot of patience for me. It is pretty much watching her struggle for a bit, helping as little as possible, and then congratulating her when she finally gets dressed. The reward is watching an episode of "Barney & Friends" (available on Amazon Prime) while I comb her hair. If you have any ideas on educational TV shows, let me know!

2. Cleaning: Another area I've slacked off on. I've trained our daughter to clean up her own spills, but I have not been very good at having her pick up toys. What helps the most with toys is having a designated basket or box for each kind of toy. We sing the clean up song to help things go faster. Ultimately, I would love to have her clean up her toys by herself, like she does after a bath. But we're not there yet.

Making the bed— There is a bedding product out there called "Beddy's" that is basically a combination sleeping bag and fitted sheet. Very simple and easy to use for small children. Toddler bedding sells for $129 per set though, so I probably won't be buying it. Until I figure out how to make a set at home, I will be making a simple duvet and duvet cover for the toddler bed. I hope that eliminating a sheet will simplify bed-making a bit.

3. Cooking: I try to let our daughter help me make lunch. Most of the time she just helps me pour things into the Instant Pot. I keep several spouted glass cups around so she can pour water, rice, eggs, chopped vegetables, etc. If there is something very soft (banana, avocado), I let her cut it with a child-safe chopping tool.

Right now we're working on spreading peanut butter, mayonnaise and butter. This task will be perfect for summer, when we do have a lot of sandwiches.
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Free Grocery Toys

Our daughter's latest imaginary game has been "going to the grocery store". She loves pushing around her little pink grocery cart (or carrying around small reusable Walmart bags), filling it with canned goods and peanut butter jars from our pantry. Instead of throwing away food packaging, I've been stuffing bags and boxes with newspaper, taping them shut and using the finished product to fill her own little pantry.

These "new" toys are free, so if they get broken or damaged, we are literally out $0.00. 

In the next few days I will post part two of this series, which will be less about practical skills and more of your traditional "academic" preschool activities.

Til next time,
​-Bethany