Tommy and I started homeschooling today. Lest you think I’m a crazy intense homeschool mom, let me reassure you that we’re just getting our feet wet. Back in Chicago, I got asked several times a week where Tommy was going to preschool this fall. I’m not really ready for him to go to preschool (he’s just 3 for crying outloud!), so I decided we’d work up to doing maybe 20 minutes a day of “school” this fall so that I could get an idea of whether homeschooling will work for him. I was thinking special art projects, a bit of pre-phonics, Bible memory (which we’re already doing), and some French (though he wants to learn Greek…weird kid). My mom sent Tommy a letter this week where she had him find all 26 letters of the alphabet to win a sticker prize, and he LOVED looking for the letters! So I thought I’d make up a couple “worksheets” where he could do the same thing and color on them and feel grown-up. This is what we did today. He read off all the letters to me, then I had him circle all the As with a red crayon and the Bs with a green crayon. Then he was done. Five or ten minutes, but he LOVED doing “school” with me, and now I can tell people, “Preschool? Oh, we’re doing that at home.”
Great activity! I’ll have to save this idea for next year when E is ready for such a project.
(My two cents: Preschool is glorified daycare in most cases. Tommy is probably learning more in that twenty minutes than most kids learn all day in preschool.)
That’s the exact thing Aidan and I are doing! He thinks “school” is a game, so as long as he is willing to sit and learn with mommy, I’m all for it!