It is extremely beneficial to kids to attend preschool before starting kindergarten. However, sometimes doing preschool at home is the best option. The following is a look at the things you should consider when attempting to do preschool at home:
How often: You first should set a schedule for your home preschool. It is best if you determine how many days a week you want to do it. Most preschools have class a minimum of twice a week. Some offer class as often as five times a week, but that is typically for the older aged preschoolers (four and up). So, it is good to evaluate how old your child is, and how often you want and can teach preschool at home.
How long: Next, think about how many hours you can dedicate to a preschool at home on the days you are going to do it. Most preschool age kids struggle with attention span, so it might be good to work your way up to more learning, but keep the hours of preschool the same. For example, you might do preschool from ten to twelve Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The first few weeks you might have a shorter time where you teach letters and numbers, and longer art projects, story time, and play time. However, as your child progresses, you can slowly lengthen the time spent on the more academic things.
What will you teach: Most preschools focus on a couple of basic things, letters and numbers. They want kids to be able to write their names, and count to ten, recite the alphabet, and have some understanding of the sounds each letter makes. You might want to include some science, or math. That is up to you. However, it is probably best to cover the fundamentals first. So, plan out your curriculum. If you are going to teach for 30 weeks, you can do one letter a week, and then spend a few weeks on numbers. Planning out the year or the month is going to make your preschool at home more effective because your child will have a goal to work toward and will progress and build on what they learn.
Make sure as you plan out your lessons for preschool that you keep each activity to ten to fifteen minutes, as that is about how long a preschool age child’s attention span lasts. You can do ten minutes of writing practice, followed by a ten minute art project, followed by fifteen minutes reading time, then ten minutes of letter practice, ten minutes play time, a snack, etc. Increment the day out so that your child gets to learn a lot, but in small portions so that they do not lose interest.
Doing preschool at home is wise because it means not waiting on other kids, being able to progress at your child’s speed, but it takes commitment to do it right.
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