…a Homeschool Family with Pre-schoolers
No two school days are exactly alike in our house. With a 7 year old in first grade, a 5 year old in K4 and 3 and 18 month olds underfoot, we adapt each day as needed to get in what we need to while having ample fun and play time. We love field trips and hands-on activities, like trips to the zoo or museum and lots of crafts and art projects, but we also make sure we cover the basics – reading, writing, math, science, history, Bible, Latin. We participate in group educational experiences in programs like Classical Conversations and Monday’s Artists. We take dance, violin and piano lessons. And we do school year-round which means the summer months (when classes are out) look very different from the “school year” months.
On a day where we have no classes outside of the home (a true “home school” day), we get started around 6 AM with morning wake-up snuggles and breakfast. The children play and watch a couple of their favorite shows while everyone is getting going (and mommy is having her coffee). By 9 AM we head down to the classroom and start the little ones playing while my 7 year old starts her workbooks (Explode the Code for language arts and Singapore Math). I help my 5 year old with his reading lessons and answer any questions my 7 year old has afterward, while my 5 year old reads his Bob books to his younger siblings (who are still playing in the floor).
Once my oldest has finished her workbooks, we move onto our Bible story time which I read aloud and we discuss as a group. The younger two often play more than pay attention but that is OK. We work on our Bible memory work – books of the Bible and some verses – before we break for snack time around 10 AM. While the younger 3 children finish their snack and play, my oldest child works on a writing assignment – copy work and writing a friendly letter to a girlfriend which we will mail later. Then as a group we go over our history sentence memory work and timeline cards and I read aloud a story to them that goes along with the lesson. The youngest one usually is still playing. We break for some outside playtime while I make lunch.
After lunch we’ll play a little more and then around 1 PM the little one goes down for her nap. My 3 year old colors or plays quietly while I do science – a lesson and possibly experiment – with the older two and finish up anything we missed in the morning (math for the little one, Latin maybe) but we don’t do every subject everyday either. Then we do an art or craft project where all 3 children can have some fun. I try to tie it into history or science when possible but sometimes we just do whatever they ask for. After art we snuggle up for some read-aloud time – sometimes it is related to something we are studying and sometimes it’s just for fun.
When the baby gets up we all head back outside for playtime for the rest of the day until dad gets home. At dinner the kids recount to dad what we did during the day (which lets me know what really sunk in and what didn’t). My husband says he is getting smarter just by what the kids are teaching him. We enjoy family time and and before bedtime I or my husband reads aloud to our 5 and 3 year olds, and my 7 year old reads aloud to us (or sometimes we read to her). In general I’d say we read a lot, we play a lot and we laugh and snuggle a whole lot. That’s what makes it all worth doing!