We don't have any official schedule or keep attendance for preschool but I would say we are about half way through the "school year." We have had tons of fun trying what works and learning what doesn't work for us as well. Lincoln is a much different learner that Dylan was. Lincoln is busy, has a short attention span and remembers things from when you didn't think he was even paying attention. Worksheets are part of our daily activities but they aren't the primary focus. Playing, real life situations, experiments and the basic fundamentals rule our day.
We have a basic idea of what we want to do with our day, but rarely do we actually follow it. I actually created it last year when Lincoln was three so I will still be able to follow the same basic plan when Warner (currently two) is ready for preschool. Our schedule is simple and easy to change, broken up into 30 minute chunks for the most part. Anything longer and I completely lose the kids. Lincoln's attention span is actually closer to 15-20 minutes for each activity but 30 is round for a general idea.
7am : Wake Up - well this is when I wake up my school aged child and most of the time they get up then too.
8am: Breakfast and Cartoons
8:30: Circle Time - puppets, story rhymes, songs and/or music
9am: Binder and workbook pages
9:30: Building - Blocks - Puzzles
10 *snack* the best time of the day
10:30: Outside play or gross motor time, sometimes we use our theme of the week to play games
11am: Arts, Craft, or Science
11:30: Pretend Play or Sensory - Lincoln loves to play with his Imaginex "guys" and Warner jus needs to stay busy while I make lunch
Noon: Lunch Break
12:30: Reading
1-3: Rest/Playroom Play
Warner goes down for a nap. During this time Lincoln plays around on ABCmouse.com and watches videos on YouTube. He also can play with Legos, dinosaurs, more imaginex etc. Anything that is quiet-ish.
3:00pm: Dylan gets home from school, everyone has yet another snack and they I try to get them to play outside when the weather is nice.
Science
Science is huge in our house (unfortunately I'm not huge on the science department) so thank you internet. I found this awesome tutorial on "Walking Water" off of Pinterest and it kept the boys' interest all day!
And apparently we love experiments with water. Try this awesome trick where you stab pencils through a baggie of water and nothing leaks out, the kids will be amazed!
Write down the experiments for later research.
Sink and Float is one of Lincoln's favorite experiments. It's almost second nature for him to grab a big bowl whenever I tell him we are going to do some science.
At least they get along some times.
PE
Some times we ride bikes and poke dead snakes with a stick.
Playdoh
Warner was putting playdoh leaves on a tree during the Fall.
Lincoln used plastic vampire teeth from Halloween to pick up little balls of the doh and moved them into the plastic container.
Lunch Time
Lincoln always asks for the same thing for lunch, every day, as long as I have it. Meat. Cheese. Mustard. Bread. Cut in a "t". Make sure you don't cut it at a diagonal and he is happy. Dylan on the other hand takes his lunch to school so I try to throw in some healthy food on the days he brings lunch with him. I love reading the 100 Days of Real Food blog, she always has great lunch ideas made with whole foods. This lunch had sugar snap peas, a power ball, apple slices, a cheese stick and carrot applesauce muffins.
Field Trips
We found a homeschool group founded in our little town on Facebook. We don't do a lot with them (They do have a co-op but I haven't done any of the classes) but we joined in on a field trip to the fire station last month. The boys had a blast checking it out!
Comments
Post a Comment