We Attempt Pre-K: Day One
Here we go? I have no idea if we will keep up with doing some pre-k at home this year, but I guess we might as well try. I have very little clue of what we are doing and don’t have too much of a plan or clear picture. I am seriously flying by the seat of my pants.
I have science and Language Arts curriculums from the Good and Beautiful, but it doesn’t give any pace to work by. So, how I fit it all together will feel like a crapshoot, and I am uncertain of my ability to keep making even simple lesson plans for language arts, science, math, arts and crafts.
I have a vague vision of pulling this all together for this year, but we will see! Clancy is really excited, so excited that we went ahead and started today rather than in two weeks(the week after Labor Day). So there goes my two weeks of planning that I thought I would have to get a head start and plan at least a few months of lessons.
It is basic stuff, but I would like to plan things so our lessons build on each other, especially for science, which he can absorb and benefit from learning at his age. Language Arts is not the focus, but we will be working through the alphabet and practicing and identifying letters. Math will be simple counting and is SO easy to sprinkle into all the other lessons.
Our first day looked like this:
Once we got Livia down for a nap, we collected the school supplies we needed. I had Clancy warm up by practicing holding his dry-erase pen while doing a search and find. Then we sang the alphabet song and introduced the letter Aa by tracing them. We worked on identifying the uppercase and lowercase A’s by covering them with cereal. After that, we counted alligators, introducing numbers 1-5. Then we finished by filling in the letters Aa however he wanted. After he picked up and put away his books, I sent him outside for 15 minutes of recess. Then, he came in from recess to a cashew yogurt snack, and we discussed the lesson.
What did he like best? Filling in the letter Aa.
What did he not like? That Livi was napping.
Then he went off to play, and I tried to write down where I struggled. I found it difficult to try and make it fun while keeping him from going ahead in the lessons. It was frustrating that he intentionally wanted to form the letters in all different ways after he did it ‘right’ a time or two. He also got to the point where he wanted to hold the pen or markers incorrectly. By the time we got to fill in the Aa, I was at my threshold and had difficulty being patient and ‘fun.’ He did NOT want to stay in the lines, and I was determined for him to keep it together and accomplish the task or to put it away and finish it the next day during school time.
Every time he started doing things intentionally wrong, I would suggest we be done with school for the day and that he could have independent drawing time to draw how he wanted, trying to enforce that there is a time or project to follow the rules and then when he can be more unruly. He would get SO frantic and want to keep doing schoolwork. It didn’t feel like the ‘right’ way to encourage him to do the assignment asked.
So, who knows! The rest of this week’s curriculum is geared towards science(parts of a plant), crafts(using parts of plants), and math(counting).
Already, I am getting a feel for his attention span and how much time the curriculum I planned will take. I hope to closely document my efforts, which means I have some Canva creating to do, so I have custom blank lesson plans that are just right for planning and documenting.
I have been waiting for Clancy to be old enough to attempt homeschooling. While I am fairly confident we will NOT be compatible and able to tolerate each other, I am excited to try Pre-K. We live rurally, and the preschool options are slim here; They are daycares, basically. He will have a climbing class twice a week all Fall, and he has had nanny camp twice a week all summer which gives him amazing experiences with kids and doing all kinds of activities. Still, we could stand to be more intentional with our time together at home especially when Clancy is always SO excited to do schoolwork! The challenge will be us working together, me being positive, and Clancy following the lesson plan halfway respectfully, haha!
