What We Do For Preschool

Monkey just past 2, so we're extremely informal about our "preschool." Still, in my mind it is preschool, and will gradually become more formal as he gets older. We're setting up for a Classical Education, so the things we do are done with that in the back of my mind. This is a selection of some of our favorite things we've done over the past year or more. I also complied a list of skills that preschool children might learn to do.


READING

I'm taking the 1000 Good Books list and I'm turning it into a Google Document to track how many of them we have read. We're just starting to work our way through the picture books recommended. We're slowly working our way through A Swiss Family Robinson for our read-aloud. We use Happy Phonics for our "formal" phonics instruction, but it's really not very formal.

Bebop Express is a recent favorite book from the library.
He also loves Starfall.com, which I let him do in small bursts.
Monkey has started looking for letters in books.
We read lots of picture books.
Sometimes Monkey reads more independently.



CALENDAR

We put up the date daily and we look for various countries on the world map.
This is also a good time to review letter sounds and play with rhyming and blending.



ART

Most recently, we played with tinfoil as suggested in First Art.

Right now he loves to cut paper, which works well with my desire to scrapbook: he's doing it like Mama.
Monkey loves to paint.
We did some squishy toe-painting. (I should've stripped him to his diaper.)
He also likes crayons.



SCIENCE

Our most recent nature study: playing in snow and following rabbit tracks.

We did some color bombs.
We've done some moon & star gazing.
We met some chickens and horses.
We tried the Great Backyard Bird Count, visited a wetlands preserve.
We made cornstarch glop.



FUN STUFF

We got together with friends and built a castle.
I made a felt-board & some felts.
Monkey loves digging and helped plant the seeds,
We've tried a couple of children's museums.
Monkey is also regularly my great kitchen helper. I borrow from the ideas used in Montessori schools and let Monkey use real stuff and do for himself whenever possible.


CHARLOTTE MASON

I work on applying Miss Mason's ideas about getting outside.
We are using this for scripture memorization.
Check out our Nature Study.



MUSIC

Monkey loves music and is interested in playing the piano, which I encourage.
He also participates in the "listening music" I do with my piano students.