I am continuing my homeschool series. Earlier I posted about Why I Homeschool, How To Start Homeschooling, and my 7th graders typical day.
Today, I am going to talk about homeschooling my four year old. We try to do lots of fun things for her homeschooling, and just for fun, I will be putting in lots of pictures of our four year old, Lyn and our 2 year old Boo as they are having fun learning. (-:
Homeschooling 4 Year Old - At American History Museum
My second oldest daughter is only four years old. She does not have to be homeschooled until she is seven legally. However, she LOVES to homeschool.
Building A Ramp For Her Ball
She is one of those rare children that has a very long attention span and begs to be schooled all the time. I could homeschool her for eight hours, and she would still want to learn more. I have to make her go play, and when she plays, she picks up a magna doodle and starts writing her letters and words. When I get her to play with blocks, she forms more letters etc.
None of my other children are this motivated, so it is definitely not something that I have done.
Digging for Fossils
Currently, we are working on number recognition, simple addition, handwriting, reading, astronomy, Bible, phonics, and different unit studies.
Playing In the Sandbox
I usually do an hour or two of homeschooling with her in the morning. Then, while my younger children nap, I spend a couple more hours with her.
learning about magnets
Currently my eldest daughter, KB, is studying Astronomy as an elective, and my four year old, Lyn, is studying it with her. They have had the best time learning together and building models together.
I read the science book aloud to both of them, and when I ask questions about what we have gone over, I always let my younger daughter answer first. Then if she doesn’t know the answer (which happens with the harder questions) my eldest daughter answers.
At the aquarium
Since we homeschool, our schedule can be somewhat flexible.
We have Bible Study during the school year on Thursdays, and I usually will only spend about an hour homeschooling my four year old on those days.
I try to take my kids on a field trip at least once a week. This week, we have been to an aquarium and to a science museum. Their fieldtrips really just depend on what they are studying at the time.
Learning About Dinosaurs
We also try to make time to minister to others. I want my kids to grow up knowing how to give to others. I think that it is very important that they participate in service projects. This has been harder the past couple of years with new babies, but we still try to do something for others at least twice a month. As my children get older, this will get easier. If any of you have young kids, and have practical suggestions in this area, I would love to hear them!! It seems like most service projects are during naptime, or it just would not be safe to take so many young children, so we really have to search for ways to serve others.
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Very interesting! I have a soon to be 4 year old, and a soon to be 2 year old, so I am currently mulling schooling choices. I had not thought of Homeschooling.
How do you handle socialization?
While I don’t homeschool, we like to give back in service also. Have you ever looked into nursing homes. Pack up some puzzles that are appropriate for your kids and make arrangements to go interact with the residents. The residents love to help kids. I have also heard of families bringing in craft projects to do with residents. I have never gotten around to delivering baked goodies to the widows in our church, but they love to see my children on Sunday mornings and I just know they would love a social call. I work with special needs kids in public schools and have also thought about having them make cards or bags with small items to take to people who help us out when we don’t ask.
Just some ideas for service projects.
Those are some really great ideas! Thanks so much Kathy!
Amy, that is probably the question that I get asked the most. (-: I am planning on typing up another post, but I did write on a while back with links to sites about research done about this. It actually turns out that most homeschoolers have great socialization skills. There are so many homeschoolers now that my kids have opportunities to do so many activities with others that we couldn’t possibly do them all.
You can check out my earlier post here: http://budgetsavingmom.com/2010/03/19/homeschooling-and-socialization/
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