So many moms email asking how they can possibly teach their kids and keep it all together, but I promise – you are the PERFECT person for this job and you will do great! The second biggest question – how long should teaching preschool take? To answer those questions I have 3 Tips for a Smooth Preschool Year along with a few resources that will be helpful to you as you plan your preschool or kindergarten time.
1. Read. A lot!
Now is the time to instill that love for the written word in your children’s hearts and nothing will do that more quickly than snuggling up together to read (and re-read) those amazing books. Trips to the library or your home book basket will provide hours of education alone!
Within the pages of those books you will find ways to talk about science facts, letters, count animals together, look at repeating patterns, and so much more. We loved the format of Before Five in a Row and worked on so many literature units with our children – all based on what they wanted to read and learn about.
Your child will learn so much too just by the inflections in your voice as you read, watching you trail your finger across the page of a book, seeing how the pages of a book go in a certain direction – the list goes on and on. Books can be full of fun and learning, so take a field trip to the library often!
2. Play and make memories.
Shimmering Water and Bead Blocks shown above (love them!!)
You know how goofy your kids can be? Get silly with them. Get messy. Let them get messy and try not to stress about what the clean up will look like. Don’t be afraid to be a part of what they are doing and fully embrace the moment along with them. Build that castle or fort. Pile the blocks as high as you possibly can.
Be an active part of what is happening in front of you and love every wonderful moment of it. These moments are going to pass by all too quickly. Sometimes it takes just an extra ten minutes to make a special memory with our kids and our other tasks can wait.
3. Don’t overplan.
This can be SO hard not to do, especially when you have 500 great ideas that you’ve seen on Pinterest! But really, this age is so much more about actively doing while learning. That doesn’t mean that sitting down to work on a tracing activity or other worksheet is wrong at all. Just remember that attention spans are short at this age (and that’s normal).
Keep it simple as much for your sake so that you don’t burn out only a few months into the school year. (p.s. taking breaks is ok too!) Ideas are great, but not if they push you over the proverbial edge.
That’s not to say that you can’t have a plan in place. Over the years I used some basic preschool planning forms that helped me remember to add in different learning ideas like music, movement, and so much more when we were learning. Overall our days were fairly short with our younger children (think an hour to an hour and a half), but we always were able to squeeze lots of learning in together in that time frame.
One of my biggest fears when we first started homeschooling was messing up my children’s early childhood years – and I was a preschool teacher before becoming a mom!
Take a deep breath. Relax – I promise you’ve got this! The preschool and kindergarten years are amazing and wonderful – and you can really do it!
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