Many people ask my daughter if she is in preschool and I love it when she proudly says, “I am in mommy school.” You see as a work at home mom and former teacher I decided that it wasn’t worth it to send my children to preschool, unless I eventually see the need. Yes, they do miss out on a bit of socialization, but we try to make up for that by spending time with friends and making it to different community programs.
I decided to compile a list of things that I do with my child that others who want to preschool at home or just want some extra things to do with your preschooler.
- Introduce letters based on things that are important to your child. We started learning letters and letter sound by introducing the letters that had the most value to my child. The letters in her name were first and then the letters in the names of all of her family members. This was so much more meaningful to her and made it easier for her to learn them. By doing it this way we put more value into what she was learning.
- Phonics Dance. This is something that I had from my teaching days, but am sure a quick google search and you can find it too. I started out with the intention of doing these with my four now five-year-old, but my three-year-old has now picked up many of the chants and is quickly learning her letters as well.
- Calendar time. This I do mostly because my children love it. You can easily make a calendar of your own or grab one from the dollar store. My children love to put up the number, find the patterns I make, and check the weather. We add in other daily tasks like identifying letters counting by ten, and singing songs.
- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons: now I started this when I thought my daughter was starting to show interest in reading and it might not be for every preschool child, but I wanted to share because I am a HUGE fan! I used this with my son when he suddenly was having trouble reading and I quickly got him on grade level. I am now doing this with my daughter and she is quickly learning to read. Some days we take and break and sometimes we split up the lessons. I by no means expect her to read before kindergarten but this book teaches the skills that are needed to learn to read.
