Once I began having children, slipping into my role as "Teacher-Mommy" was natural.
From the time my oldest turned 17 months, I was already chanting the ABCs, days of the week and months of the year to her.
We homeschooled in English, Spanish and Chinese. Two Chinese dialects, in fact - both Mandarin and Cantonese. My children can understand and speak all four languages now.
We began using online technology, since I am always incorporating technology into my classroom, as well as purchased curriculum. I tweaked and adapted it based on my children's needs, interests and age-level appropriateness.
I became a professional Homeschool blogger as I documented my own children's milestones. My blog, Learning With Mom, is a proud Campaign Pulse Partner for "Read Aloud 15 Minutes."
(Click on THIS LINK and choose "NEW YORK." Scroll down to the "BROOKLYN" sub-heading to find "Learning With Mom" listed.)
The following artifacts are samples of school done at home as I taught my children in much the same way I would teach any PreK or Kindergarten class.
I used a Letter of the Week curriculum I liked for its activities and aesthetic qualities.
Click on the image below for a Sample Lesson Plan:
There is an average of 15 activities per letter. Every page needs to be printed, laminated, cut and sorted. I used a Pocket Chart to organize the activities for the week. Below are snapshots of my lesson prep and our pocket chart activities for Letter "T for Turtle."
They began each day with their Daily Learning Notebook. It was a mix of "Calendar time" combined with "Morning Meeting" as they recorded each day's date, time, weather, etc. while discussing the day's agenda.
They engaged in Fingerplays and other music/movement activities before settling down to do Letter activities. They had their own "spots" to sit on and their own trays which contained one activity to work on at a time. I used the trays for four primary reasons:
- as an organizational tool for their work
- as a support for their focus and concentration
- as a classroom management tool - everyone respects one another's personal work space
- and as a way to focus on one skill at a time
The curriculum included a Performance Assessment of Preschool Skills that could be taken in the Fall and in the Spring. The following artifact is my oldest daughter's assessment.
They traced letters, numbers and sight words:
They matched colors, letters and made patterns:
They practiced fine motor skills, such as cutting:
They sorted shapes and sizes:
They distinguished between upper and lowercase letters:
They matched sounds to letters:
They learned to categorize:
They counted objects:
They put puzzles together:
They learned about the Water Cycle:
They read lots and lots of books.
As a result of our homeschooling endeavors this past year, my girls are more than academically prepared to enter PreK and Kindergarten this Fall.
