I'm still thinking about homeschooling today, for Tuesday's Time To. This week I thought we would look at some of the teaching opportunities you'll encounter in the early years of homeschool when it's a ...
Time To Plant ...
There are so many ways to bring the natural world into your classroom - or your classroom into the natural world! When your children are small, they will be fascinated with watching the turning of the seasons outside, the process of growth when a seed is planted, and the fun that can be had when the plant is grown and ready to harvest. We covered so many different aspects of learning through using the natural resources outside our window. We planted cress seeds when the cubs were very small, and then as they got older (and more patient!) we grew radishes, sunflowers, pumpkins and tomatoes. We also incorporated the way the plants outside were affected by the changing seasons into our lessons. It's wonderful to see the fascination and pleasure your children will have for their lessons when you bring practical elements like this into your teaching.
Time To Heal ...
Another opportunity to teach comes from examining our own bodies, how they work - and how we can keep them healthy. As well as using trips to the dentist and doctors as "field trips", we also looked at the ways we can take care of ourselves and stay well - through eating the right food, keeping active, and being safe. There's no need to get too scientific with small children. One game we played was guessing which foods would be good for us, and which were not so good, using flashcards and card games with pictures of food on them. We had a pretend "shop" and "cafe" as well, where we could learn about serving wholesome meals - and how to "pay" for them too!
Time To Laugh ...
Of course, school can't always be fun. There is the serious business of learning to be taken care of. But it does pay to be lighthearted as well. We told funny stories, memory games and had fun with lots of physical activity too. Children learn best when they are relaxed and enjoying themselves, and the time goes much faster too! There's no need for school to be always serious - as long as you have your children's attention, they will learn.
Time To Embrace ...
When your children are at the preschool stage, it isn't necessary to make school too formal. What you want to do is to get them to embrace wholeheartedly the concept of learning, and the best way to do this is to show your own enthusiasm for it. There are times when school is going to be less exciting - that's part of the process of learning and becoming a mature adult - accepting that tasks must be completed even when they are not very captivating. But your children need to be able to understand this concept long before you reach the stage where they are having to learn topics that they find less interesting in school. While they are still small, set an example to them about embracing their duties with a willing, joyful heart. Smile and sing as you do your chores, and take every opportunity to do tasks you don't particularly enjoy with enthusiam and competence - if your tinies can see you do this, it will come far more naturally to them to do the same, when it is their turn.
Time To Keep ...
When your children are small, a lot of their educational activities will involve drawing, painting, making and creating things. This is how they begin to develop dexterity, concentration, imagination and resourcefulness. And it results in some wonderful "works of art" that, in our experience, you'll want to treasure! One way we found of keeping hold of our children's favourite creations was to use a large photo album. Small children also love to see their work decorating your home - but you don't need to let it overtake the whole house! A designated area (perhaps the door of the fridge) is great, or you can do what we did - and put the pictures and drawings on the inside of cupboard doors! That way everyone could still see them - but the house still looked tidy! Some people also like to take photographs of their children's artwork, which is a great way to keep on top of it all as the creations mount up!
Time To Sew ...
With really small children, lacing cards (small cards with outlines of simple images that are punched so that a coloured lace can be threaded through them) are a wonderful way to develop their fine motor skills in readiness for writing. Little Bear in particular loved these, and was soon ready to progress to "proper" sewing with a piece of felt and a blunt darning needle. For small children who are at the stage where they want to try sewing properly, when you thread the needle, fasten the thread at the needle end and tie a knot in the other end so that they can't pull the thread off the needle or the end of it through the fabric. Felt is great for beginners as it is easy to hold, doesn't fray, and is robust enough to stand a bit of mistreatment by small fingers! Little boys will also enjoy attempting sewing - though in our experience, don't expect them to stick with it for as long as their sisters will! While Little Bear was stitching, I would often set up a miniature carpentry project for Cubby Bear, using a left over piece of soft wood from Papa Bear's work box, some nails and a small hammer. He loved just banging the nails into the wood, pulling them out and starting over again!
Time To Speak ...
Learning poems, passages of Scripture and times tables verbally by memory is a valuable element to early years learning. Even when your children are very small, you can teach them to recite the alphabet, the months of the year and the books of the Bible, by making them into songs. Somehow it is easier to remember them when they are sung rather than spoken. Later on when they can learn short poems and key passages of Scripture, and if you teach them to recite their times tables from memory, they will find it much easier when they come to work on their number projects. We also enjoy reading aloud as a family, and still do this together even now. I'll write in more detail about the methods we used to teach our children to read in another post.
Time To Love ...
What subjects did you love best at school? Which didn't you like so much? It's all too easy to translate your feelings for certain subjects over to your children, but be wary of doing so! I really disliked maths when I was a child. I struggled with it enormously. For Papa Bear, it was reading. We knew when we had children that we intended to homeschool them, so while they were still really young, we made an effort to try to learn these subjects thoroughly so that when the time came to teach them to our children, we could inspire them with our own enthusiasm. As it turned out, fortunately, because I love reading and writing, and Papa Bear loves anything to do with numbers (he is the king of Sudoku), it didn't matter too much that we weren't very strong in other areas! A joint effort was all that was needed - and it worked, too! Now we all enjoy reading - and doing the Sudoku in the newspaper every evening!
Time Of Peace ...
Teaching your children to sit still and listen is a fundamental aspect of early years schooling. I wrote yesterday about how we were able to train our children to be able to do this through having had them sit with us in Church from the earliest age. But you can also practise this at home. I would suggest using play opportunities as the reward. Start by telling the children that they are to sit very still and quietly for a set period of time (be realistic - if you have a two year old jumping-bean of a boy, a minute will seem like a long time to being with!). If they are able to do this, then they are rewarded with the chance to play with something special (we use to keep certain toys back, to use as rewards for this sort of exercise. For us, this was far more effective than negative discpline, such as physical punishments, or verbal reprimands. We rewarded good behaviour instead and truly, it has been extremely effective, as our wonderful two grown children can now testify). Gradually increase the time that they sit still, and then introduce small activties for them to do while they are sitting quietly (at this point, the play opportunities need not be used as a reward, but if appropriate, could be used as the activity instead). We found that using suitable picture books was really useful for this stage. We had some beautiful "pop-up" books that the cubs were only allowed to look at when they were sitting nicely, and the appeal of these special books was enough to encourage them to sit! Soon enough they would willingly and without effort sit quietly - becuase they were so absorbed in what they were doing.
It all takes a little planning - and some trial and error, too, to homeschool successfully. We've looked at the early years in this post and yesterday's, and it has brought back some lovely memories for us - and some not so lovely ones, too! Yes, we didn't do it perfectly - but we did it well enough, and all learned a lot, as we did so. You won't get it right all the time, no one can. But if you do it with a willing heart - and an open mind to learn and keep on learning yourself, then your children will be blessed by your efforts, and you will be rewarded by their enthusiasm for all that you teach them.
