Homeschooling a Preschooler: A Survival Guide

It's never too early to expose young children to the joys of learning. Being a former teacher and now a stay-at-home mother, I wanted to introduce some early learning concepts to my 2-year-old. The intent behind this was never to begin the child prodigy in training process but to add to what he was already discovering about the world on his own. Preschool homeschooling doesn't have to be an expensive or very time consuming venture. If you are interested in starting the process of preschool homeschooling with your child, try incorporating some of these activities and ideas with your child during the day.

Feed their natural curiosity.

A majority of learning for a young child is done through play and exploring their environment. Allow them plenty of opportunities for this. One might think that no "real" learning is taking place, but this is an important part of child development. Take them outside as often as possible and allow them to freely play. Playing is essentially a preschoolers "job" in life and playing is actually learning for them at this stage.

Let them learn life skills.

The next time you are sweeping the floor, rinsing dishes, or tidying the house, let your preschooler help. These activities are life skills that will serve them well in the future.

Introduce a letter of the alphabet each week to your child.

Look for things around the home that start with the letter you are focusing on each week. Print out a picture of the letter and let them color it. Provide them with a snack that begins with the letter. The possibilities are endless.

Introduce a number each week to your child.

You may also want to incorporate a number with your weekly studies. You can reinforce the studies of the number in the same way you do with the letter. Your child can count objects in the home, outside, or with small snacks.

Explore in depth with themes.

You may also want to incorporate a theme each week. This can be anything you and your child might want to learn more about. My son loves playing with trains, so one week we focused on trains along with our letter and number. You might want to talk about specific animals, places, or people.

Read often.

Reading to your child and allowing them to look at books at their leisure is a very important first step in introducing a love of reading in your child. Reading to your child daily will enhance their vocabulary, comprehension skills, and model excellent reading habits for them. I usually try to choose books that are about the theme we discuss each week. Books can be expensive, but there are ways to build your child's library without overspending. Your public library is a great free resource for this, and your child would enjoy the trip there to choose books. You can also find children's books at rummage sales and thrift stores.

Let them be creative.

Provide your child with finger paints and crayons and let them create their own works of art. This can help in developing fine motor skills and learning to identify colors.

Finally, just enjoy the time of learning with your child. They may not show much focused interest in what you are trying to accomplish, but you can rest assured that they are indeed picking up new information from you and there is no failure in that.