Teaching preschool, kindergarten and younger!

Teaching preschool, kindergarten and younger!

You don’t have to buy a curriculum to teach your preschool-kindergartners, use what you have at home
There’s letter of the week, and there’s starfall.com

You can read to them, teach them songs, dance with them, play, read poems to them, teach and show them that learning is fun!! enjoyable!

Do arts and crafts with them (I did this with my kids at 4 and 5 they learned so much, and that’s all we did! Read and arts and crafts!)

I buy this at ikea

Handwriting- let the kids paint on large paper, paint pictures, color, draw large letters of theirs names and let them paint them! Let them use a stick and write in the dirt, in the sand, etc
Phonics- (if they are ready, don’t force them!) do the sites above, refrig magnets letter on a metal cookie sheet, teach her the sounds of her name if it’s easy! Using index cards start with simple letters, write d on one card a on another and d on another one, m, o, same way! Just simple stuff at first, put ABC's on the wall, when the kids learn a sound look for items in the house that start with it,etc but make sure they want to learn to read and don’t force it. When they read their first word make a big deal out of it! Be encouraging!

1,2,3,4

math- count bugs, buttons, silverware, socks, rocks, let them see that each item has a number(that will help the kids later in math)  Show subtraction  by gathering 2 rocks and take 1 away and now there’s 1 left! simple things, put numbers on the wall, colors,  as they start to learn counting, gather items together found in house or outside and let them count them.

Science- nature walks(even if you don’t have a yard, take a walk on the sidewalk)!! bring a drawing pad, and crayons, look for bugs, animals leaves, rocks to draw and talk about , and when you get home look them up on Internet and check out some library books, let the kids dig holes, teach them to feed your animal, look for birds, watch the clouds, look at the stars at night,

Map of the hood!

History- talk about your family with the kids, draw them a simple map of where you live, then follow it by walking!

well those are some ideas that I did with my kids, and it didn’t cost hardly anything, so you don’t need a curriculum to teach your kids!

All the above only takes about an hour or 2 a day and that’s all they need, since its                                                                        one on one!

Help for children 3-5 for reading readiness!

Here's some ideas I've tried with my kids and others to help them learn to read, or get ready for reading. These activities help the eyes get accustomed to seeing difference in color and shapes, like they would in learning phonics and letter or numbers.

1. Teach the child colors, use nature, or put up colored shapes on your walls.

2. Make some dot to dot pictures for the child to do, they are a lot of fun. The child can then color them in with the colors you call out! They will also learn some numbers! Also make a game by using little cars to go from number to number

3.Have the child copy a sequence of colors that you make, example : draw with a crayon three different colors on a piece of paper, next have the child pick out the right crayon colors and do the same thing. Use socks, blocks, marbles, buttons, etc.

4. Make a poster or scrap book of each color, let the child color pictures of that color or cut out pictures and place them on the poster or in the scrap book.

5. Draw the child some shapes like square, triangel, circle, rectangle etc. Let the child identify them with words or another object of the same shape.

6. Make some easy puzzles with different shapes and let the child put them together.

7. Once you've gone over different shapes with child ask him to visulize in his mind the shape and then draw it on a piece of paper, once the chilld can do this you can add color to the object your telling him to draw.

8. Put a bunch of colored objects on a tray or table and ask the child to pick out the colors you call out, this works for shapes also.

9. Hiding objects around the house while child is watching and then doing another type of lesson for 10 min. When done with that lesson ask the child to find what you have hidden. Also can have the child hide the objects. Do another type lesson and have him find the objects when done.

10. Placing 4 or 5 objects on a counter, ask child to look the other way while you take an object away. Then ask child what object is missing. You can make a game out of this and both of you can play it!.

What to Teach your Little Ones, before they sit down and do school!!!!

What to teach your little ones! Before they sit down and do school work!! (months-4)

Teaching children with joy will enable the kids to love learning!!! Have fun teaching them, don’t make it an effort! If they don’t want to do it, then stop and do something else.

When the kids are younger (months – 4), they have a very short attention span.
Here are some of the things I would do with my kids when they were younger; I guess you call them pre-schoolers.
We’d dance, sing, run, and jump! memorize
Go on nature hikes, count bugs, rock, flowers, berries, etc! They learned to count, add and subtract this way (no paper and pencil involved) and it was fun.

Be sure to always read to your child, they do enjoy it, and if they are able, have them tell you about the story you just read them.

Let them help you cook! My kids loved mixing and washing the dishes.
Play games with them!!! one of our favorite ones was the Concentration game(I call it that) I’d make up on recipe cards 2 matches of something, could be pictures, letters, colors, numbers, flowers, etc. and then we’d lay them out on the floor, and the kids would take turns finding matches. They sure loved that game! We continued to use this format even with our times tables as the kids grew older.

Just sitting a child down on a big piece of paper and giving them a crayon then letting them color and scribble is very helpful. Not forcing them to do anything, just letting them feel free to scribble. Eventually you can show them what the first letter of their name is and let them draw it, then the second etc.

Digging was other things the kids loved to do when young; they’d help me plant and dig my garden. Great for eye and hand coordination!! Then counting the worms we found! Making sure they don’t eat them of course!!

Another good thing for hand eye coordination is using a play hammer and those bolt things, and when they get older getting them a real hammer and nails, I think that’s what made my sons handwriting so good, pounding all those nails in wood when he was younger. He could print or do cursive better than the girls.

You can teach them letters or numbers in sand or dirt, finger paint, etc!!
Coloring on large pieces of paper they loved, I’d draw a large circle or something big and they’d color inside it! Or outside it! Haha
Teaching them to write their name on a large piece of paper was fun. They loved to print big.

Letting them cut or tear pieces of paper up and using the cut up or torn paper for making one of those hanging Chinese fish things. Or just gluing the pieces of paper inside something I made out of hard stock.

Another thing I’d always taught the kids was about chores, all the kids had their own squirt bottles and rags, while they were younger all they’d get in the bottle was water. Everyday they would have their chores to do. Like cleaning the frig, they’d squirt it and wipe it down, or the washer, or some other area that could handle water.
Their chores for the day would be to clean their room, make their bed, and use their squirt bottle. Of course they weren’t the best at it, but they were learning that we all had chores to do everyday to keep a house running.

debbie