So it has been decided that I will start some preschool teaching with Claire. I'm really excited, and a little nervous about this. Our plan is for me to homeschool her as well, but for now, we want to get into the preschool stuff and kind of warm each of us up to the idea of it all.
Last week my husband and I decided that we would use our office space for our little classroom. I am going to get working on making a bulletin board, laminated pictures and learning tools for the walls, putting up a whiteboard or chalk board, and getting things organized and set up. The excitement is bubbling inside of me! I have always wanted to be a teacher. Without finishing my last year of high school or going to college, obviously that will not be happening in a school setting with other people's children, but it can happen at home with my own!
Surfing the internet has given me a multitude of resources to look through. I started out with a google search for "cut and paste printables" and found tons of stuff! I did print some off today, such as number, letter, and shape printables. For these, the child cuts them out and then pastes them onto the "puzzle board" (boxes lined up side by side) in order (they are printed out of order). You can check out these and other great printables for preschool here. Claire started on her numbers one today but wasn't in the mood to finish, so she just coloured the numbers. I took the "puzzle board" pieces and cut the strips of them out and pasted them onto a coloured sheet of construction paper so that when she has finished pasting them in order, I can laminate them and use them as a teaching tool later on with her and my son.
(I was not paid nor given anything to write this, I just found this website and thought I would share the resource!)
I can't wait to get really involved in this! I think we will officially start "school" March 1, provided that I have gathered enough teaching tools and activities to do with her, and that the office is ready to go as well, although, I guess the kitchen table could suffice if need be.
We are also starting a reading program called Stepping Stones Together . We will be doing weekly reviews on this program starting sometime this week. Please check back to see how we are progressing!
If you are also doing preschool or homeschooling older children, please leave me a comment with any resources that you have found. Teaching tools, curriculum, activities, ideas, routines, etc, would be greatly welcomed! It would be great to see what others have tried and found to work!
I participate in tot school on Mondays where you do a post about what you did in tot school the week before. I've been enjoying it and when you start, you should join in each week and link up your post. {Also a fantastic way to get ideas from other moms!}
ReplyDeleteI posted about a reading curriculum and an online printable letters one we've been enjoying. You buy the lesson book and can check out the required reading from the library. It's been fun so far. When we officially start JK, I think we will switch to something else but it works for now.
Our school room is the dining room table for now but imagine that will evolve as our homeschool progresses.
It's an exciting journey we are embarking on and frightening too. I always wanted to be a teacher and played school with my uncooperative younger sibblings all the time. Now I really get to do it...YIKES!
I'm so excited that you're doing this too! Thanks for letting me know about it. I will definitely follow along... My son and I have been at it for a while now, but I've only started dedicating posts to it for two weeks now... Getting everything down in writing helps to sort through the process a little bit. I'm so glad I started doing it -- and I can't wait to check out that tot school link as soon as we get back from running errands today :-)
ReplyDelete