Our Homeschool Day With A Preschooler

Homeschooling three boys is no easy task, and the fact that one is a preschooler makes it tricky. Why is it tricky? Because he does NOT have a long attention span. Not that any of the others’ have a super long span but his is shorter due to his age.

I know now to homeschool the important lessons with individual one on one time at nap time. Forever I tried to do math and science first, but in the end I retreated from this. It was hard when my preschooler wanted my attention after about 10-15 min. Then guilt would creep in, because I just prolonged the inevitable with endless snacks and drinks.

One day before Christmas I decided to quit doing this to my preschooler, myself and the other kids’ so I moved math and science to nap time. It has worked out well. I have 2 hours to give my other two boys. Then when nap time is over….we go outside, no matter what the temp. is because we are ALL tired of being in the house. Fresh air gives us a new perspective and attitude.

The next trick that I tried was to have specific toys for him to play with in his play area. Now, this play area is set with toys and a TV. My preschooler gets learning videos while he plays for a lesson or two by himself. Forty-five minutes is the limit to push with independent play.

I have my older son complete his independent work in that 45 min. I work with my kindergartener on his phonics, lang. arts, and workbook. Last year we decided on Charlotte Mason for lang. arts, and that has made a HUGE difference. My kids LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, the short lessons from Charlotte Mason. It really fits how long at each age they can focus on that subject

After the 45 min. time frame for independent play I send in my eight year old to play with my preschooler. He works with him on puzzles, blocks, shape bean bags or whatever for the next 30 min. This allows me to get through any extra work my kindergartner needs.

I work through 30 min. batches of time with each child. While the kindergartner goes to play with the preschooler we switch to third grade, and I go over to reinforce any lessons my eight year old has accomplished. This one on one time is important to me because it really is one of the reasons that I chose to homeschool. I don’t want them to learn alone, for me it is necessary to make sure they understand what they learned. The remaining 30 min. of school for the morning is review time before we all play with the baby (preschooler).

Sometimes the most important part of homeschooling is realizing when to be flexible, who needs what, and how to accommodate and move forward with our goal.

How many times have you rearranged a schedule to help the homeschool lessons get completed?

Cheers,