The Preschoolers Home Ed Thread

[MathsMadMummy]

Hi all, I thought we could do with a thread for posting activity ideas and so on, for those of us with preschool-age children (whether or not you're planning to HE them officially).

Today I made a papier mache mountain and we talked about the letter sound /m/. This built on /h/ which DD has been obsessed with since seeing a helicopter. We're gradually making a start with Jolly Phonics.

Been a bit lazy with 'learning stuff' lately though, as potty training has been the (very successful) project this week!

Looking forward to hearing what you're all up to with your little ones

The same here fruedian, re blogs, have loads of photos and have been writing it in my head now for some time, but just haven´t got round to getting it out there.

We have been having some theatre/musical moments, after going to a theatre production on Saturday. Special show for children 6 mth to 5 yrs, it was excellent. Ive never seen DD (8 mth) so concentrated. Anyway, DS (3 yrs) has been very inspired and taken to doing impromtu shows around the house and we had a good musical session this morning with a biscuit tin, chop sticks and several rounds of nursery rhymes (old Mc Donald/ Grand old Duke of York/wheels on the bus are current Favs.)

Like the idea of going out with a magnifying glass, and I think DS will like it even more. Shall have to invest.

Unfortunately we don't have a proper (as in fenced-in) garden, but on the weekend we've given our borders a makeover :) got lots of pots and planted some flowers, herbs and fruit/veg. Also got a little bird feeder. DD is very excited about it :)

this is what we use for bug huntin' :)

bookmarking for ideas

also - does anyone have any experience of having to persuade their dp to accept HE? we're several years off school yet, but am reading about HE and I like what I see...

Thankfully my DH is very pro-HE already, we've been talking about it as a possibility since before having our DCs :)

But I think if we do go ahead with it, I think I will have to convince him of the benefits of autonomous learning, which could be tricky! He's more interested in results, testing etc - and so was I, until relatively recently. This very board has really opened my eyes.

There's lots of good books around on HE and related issues - Grace Llewellyn, John Holt, Alan Thomas, John Taylor Gatto - I'm starting to do a lot of reading about it now, and DH has said he'll read them too. I think it's really important to be 'on the same page' when it comes to parenting, and perhaps it's especially important in HE families as the education isn't delegated to the school for much of the day!

Perhaps you could find some good articles and books and leave them around for your DH to pick up?

My DH been very supportive of HE too. It helps that he didn't enjoy school and was refused entry to the grammar based on his 'attitude' (ie he was a teenage boy who wanted to play football not sit in a classroom) but has been very successful professionally despite that. I am however facing very negative attitudes from family and have just put together my reasoning around HE in written notes for them. I will email you them when they are electronic format if you want sheflies?

crumble, so sorry for the late reply, we were away for a while.

Thank you so much that could be very helpful - for both me and dh.

We decided that we will be sending DS to school nursery in September, but he's going to a small, good school for mornings and his bestest little friend will also be going. He's been so enamoured with the idea of school that it seemed a bit mean not to let him try.
I also feel like when if I wanted to HE him in the future I'd have a stronger argument having tried school for him.

September is a way away though, especially in toddler time.

He has recently learned that food turns into poo.

Hi

Not been up to too much as DS as been ill for over a week now . Has meant lots of plastercine time, and the cardboard puppet theatre we made ages ago has finally come to life (been stuck in the corner much ignored by DS up till now). He brought through all his teddies one day and asked if we could do The Grufflo in the theatre, he recieted it by heart. Was great, have since done classics Little Red Riding Hood, Three Pigs, Snow White etc.

Ive also just found out that HE is alegal in Spain (where I live), you can be taken to court and depending on judge forced to send LO to school or not, there has so far been two cases judged against and one for .

Has prompted me to set up the blog as some form of track/evidence of what we do. Once Im able to sort out bilingual English-Spanish part will be up and running so will post a link.

Hi all

Just thought Id share this , really interesting you tube short (10 mins) about how mainstream education kills creativity (in a nutshell, says much more than that)

I sing (in my head) the theme tune to "Olivia" whenever S and I run into one of his little peers named Olivia. I caught myself singing it quietly once but fortunately don't think her mother heard.

DD wanted to do some cutting out today, so we made one of those spiral snake thingies which is now hanging off the curtain rail. It's very jaggedly cut but I'm still proud :)

D'oh, sorry, wrong thread!

I like the spirally snake thingy. We will be baking biscuits today, we´re off to family gathering this weekend (DP has unreasonably large family), so we´re taking biscuits to have with the after dinner coffee.

Have also finally got round to starting a blog re HE for presschool. Its still in its first stages but hope to add in bit by bit.

Just wanted to share a website that we have been using at home, www.starfall.com, it has american accent/pronunciation but my dd really loves playing the games on it and makes me feel better about 'educating' her!

Have heard good things locally about starfall. We are planning on trying reading eggs towards the end of this year. I think DS1 will be ready for some steps in reading then, and DS2 will be easier to manage so I can focus some time with DS1. It had a really good review on the patch of puddles blog.

DS1 has had a good few adventures recently - den building and playing in the woods at national trust places. And we have made some lovely collage dragonflies as presents for grandads on fathers day.

We also love Starfall. We've printed out all the readers and read them all (you can do so at www.starfall.com/n/N-info/onlinebooks.htm?n=downloadcenter). It's excellent that it is free/so reasonable. My DS is going through a book a day and I'm trying to stick to phonic readers after my daughter had a not-so-great experience with the look and say style readers at school. There are other free/v reasonable phonic readers at www.rubyandmax.net.

We also went into the woods yesterday and built a fort - was really good fun. Anyone have any father's day ideas?

Re fathers day, I have bought DH a book from DCs each year with a daddy theme - he has his own daddy book to read then - "Spot loves his Dad" and "Daddies" in previous years. "My Dad" by Anthony Browne is this years offering!

A Dad book is a great idea! I've been meaning to get hold of a copy of of My Dad too.

Giving this a bump.

DS is doing well at nursery. Or becoming institutionalised as I tend to think of it.
I would love to HE but with a new baby, it's all a bit too hectic round here at the minute.

I thought reading back through this thread might give me some ideas and hope for the future.

I imagine others are also seeing a change in their little darlings since the start of term and might benefit from this thread.

I'm new to this thread and finding it a great source of ideas. Love the little bug viewer that somebody recommended.

I have a 22 month old who will be staying at home with me. Looking to this thread for inspiration.

Today was a play dough day, while she isn't too sure what to do with it, she loves identifying what I make and then adding enhancements or dismantling them.
Great recipe on the imagination tree blog for making your own dough. www.theimaginationtree.com/p/play-dough-salt-dough.html

Recently made a postbox for her to play with so that she could do the posting of letters when we are out and about. If it lasts until she starts reading, I can see how it'll be fun for reading and writing, as well as learning about the world.

ooooh, hello!!!

So glad to have found this thread!!!

My ds2 turned 3 in september and is not ready for nursery/pre school so is not going!

Anyway, been a bit worried lately that I dont really do any learning with him at home...we go to the shops, bake, go to the park, visit relatives, he goes to his GPs twice a week and plays with his older brother, but thats about it!
He likes to colour and paint and we watch dvds....he loves things like numberjacks and show me show me which I think are fine as they are educational. He loves his train set and wooden blocks too! He can ride a bike with stabilisers and can ride his scooter. Havent taken him to swimming lessons yet as I want him to be potty trained first. (am thinking next spring)
He also likes jigsaws/puzzles.

We are moving house in 4 weeks - gulp - so dont want to begin anything yet but was wondering if anyone had any advice re what I could start to introduce? He can count to 10, knows some colours and shapes, but no letter or sounds etc

He is also not potty trained yet (am giving it another go at xmas!) but am not pushing it - he will do when he is ready.

I have some BBC fun with phonics dvds and booklets to use (he, like ds1 is a very visual learner so dvds are great for them) Do you think just turned 3 is too young? (I think the packs say from age 4?)

TIA!

Hi all! Just found this thread and thought I'd stick my nose in

We HE my DS (3) and DD (1) and I dont think it's ever too early to start if they are interested. We did flash cards from 4mo with both of them.

They both love them. DS could read at 10mo DD cannot (at 15mo).

Totally depends on the kid IMHO and whilst DS loved the 'whole word' approach, DD isn't getting it, but she does recognise letter sounds.

We've just started using hooked on phonics (only the free videos on YouTube ) and she loves them. I think we'll have more success using this approach with her.

So... In summary, 3 is not too young, as long as you aren't going to obsess over whether they 'get it'. It's never too early to learn, but it's always too early to pile on pressure.

Helloo!

Ha! Thats where it was. I just started a new thread cause I couldn´t find this.

Becaroo YOu are doing Loads already!! Dont underestimate all that your Ds is doing, baking - great for early maths & science and fine motor skills. walks in the park - Excercise and learing about nature, Relatives - Learing about families, Shopping - Real life skills, money,.. The list goes on. Heard of a nursery that showed a video on shopping/going to the market .

Having said all that , I dont think its too early, I´ve just ordered some Jolly Phonics stuff to start with DS (3,5 yrs) and will print off the "my letter book" from Sparkle box.

We´ve been following the 30 day Hands on play challenge (Thats us!) from The Imagination tree and Hands On: as we grow. loving it! Today was, science stuff. We mixed up vinegar, food dye and baking powder for explosions, then made swirly milk patterns with milk, food dye and washing up liquid.

omg most of you.

Listen, I totally get that its hard identifying as a likely homeschooler when your kid is too young really for actual school...and I totally get the need for a support thread for that-but that doesn't mean you should be doing loads of flashcards or "educational" junk with them. That's what the schools get WRONG.

just PLAY (a bit) with them and READ to them. Take them to the shops and the park and make enthusiastic noises when they scribble on bits of paper.

seriously, some of these posts...don't hothouse them. It will do them no good in the long term.

My kids are a little older (well, I do have a 3 year old), and believe me I understand that panic that everything must be educational, and that need to catagorise everything as somehow educational, and even to show that your kid is learning and enjoys learning but...there is no advantage, ABSOLUTELY NONE WHATSOHEVER in your kid learning to read at 10 months. NONE. Except that you've wasted their valuable time.

I could witter on for hours about little kids and reading, but in a nutshell, what is important, IMO, is that once they figure out how to decode words (which even for my obviously dyslexic ds wasn't THAT hard, with proper systematic intervention), what makes them read, what determines how good they are at reading, is not actually how well they can decode a word-either you can or you can't. Its other skills, like vocabulary and concentration and interest that early hothousing with flashcards will not only not help, I reckon it will actually kill.

flashcards should have an "unsuitable for children under 3 years" warning.

Apologies to all you sensible parents on this thread.