I’ve been asked before how I teach my littles. And when I start. Well.. I have no hard and fast rules. And they’ve changed often. But there are a few constants I follow. I don’t start until they really want to start. With MyOldest that was really, really late. As in, I was still pushing him to do any kind of work after I had enrolled him (and then brought him home from) public school. Granted, we put him in kindergarten at the young age of 4. He just wasn’t ready. A year later he was barely ready. But because he’s the first and I was determined that he would look good in homeschooling for my sake I continued to push (I’m sure I still am and will regret this as well when I look back in a few years). But that’s a different post. With MyMiddlest I pushed less, but still didn’t really know what I was doing, what to look for. By the time MyPrincess let me know she was ready, I was a little more prepared. First of all, let me say, just because she joined us at the table at the age of 2 does not mean your toddler is ready. My first two were not. She just was. And I’m sure that’s because she watched her two older brothers “do school” and she wanted to be a part of it. So, I figured out how to include her. And the other day when BigMan was begging to “do my school” (for weeksnow, by the way), I realized he really is ready to officially join us. Yes, I know he’s 2 1/2. I would never suggest your children should be “doing school” before they are potty trained, but hey, who am I to hold back a child begging to do school work. Little does he know, he’ll be begging to not do school before too long! So, while winging it with his work the other day I thought I’d let you in on what I do.
I found one of ThePrincess’s worksheets on opposites. I cut it up a bit to make it easier. I usually hit the basics and things I know they’ll want to do. I draw colored lines and tell him to cut on them.
I let him cut them with no expectations of how he should cut at all. No matter how it looks – it’s a “GREAT JOB!”
Then I explained that one was up and one was down. I asked him which was which.
Then I drew squares on the worksheet for him to glue within. And explained again which side was up and which was down.
And let him stick the picture on. This age is all about following directions, knowing colors, learning opposites, building fine motor skills (cutting, gluing, picking up little pictures), and having fun. With the emphasis on fun. If he doesn’t want to do something we don’t do it. He can wander in and out as often as he wants. With no pressure what so ever.
Here’s another worksheet I made up on the fly. Simple shapes. I said things like, “Point to the little circle, find the blue crayon, color the little circle blue. Are you sure that’s blue? You’re right, it’s that one instead. Great job!!” And then I showed him what “tracing” was and asked him to “trace the black circle.”
He was so excited to be a part of the school day!
I say again, MyOldest wasn’t even ready for this level at the age of 4. MyMiddlest wasn’t really either. They just weren’t. And your little ones may not be either. This is just if you have a little one begging to do table work – it’s to give you an idea of how I get started. If yours are not asking to be a part of school time, then just let them be kids, let them play, enjoy those carefree days, and don’t worry!
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