Megan's Preschool Curriculum - The First Year

Preschool.  I have several theories about preschool.  First, I have read and researched quite a bit about preschool...  Early starting , late starting, no preschool, workbook activities, lots of things.  At the moment my two year old is pushing beads around her Christmas present with her big sister.  Excuse me a moment while I load this picture for you to see.

A moment after I got this picture on the computer, this same two year old came over to me panting and barking.  She had transformed herself into a puppy, crawling around on the floor.  I love her imagination.

My older two girls didn't go to preschool.  I worked a lot, and they usually went to a babysitter when they were young.  I did read to them at home and we played a lot together.  Their father was military, so we often had a lot of time alone together when he was gone.  I took them with me lots of places.  We went to parks and zoos and libraries.  We watched movies and listened to music.  We worked on stuff for school, but I don't think it was necessarily a structured program.  Both girls were tested before they began school to see if they were ready.  Both, one outgoing and one shy, did just fine.  One daughter was nearly six when she began Kindergarten.  The other daughter had just turned five.  Both girls have had their ups and downs in school, but they both tend to do well.  The oldest is a semester away from graduating, and the next one will graduate next year.

My step-daughter attended Head Start.  I used to volunteer a lot in her class.  I must say that, while I liked the teachers, I thought the program was lame.  It was play time all the time.  Oh, there were the routines like wash hands and serve your own snack and take a nap, but I thought it academically pathetic.  She would receive packets that we were to do at home that were nothing more than reading a couple pages in a book to her.  My step-daughter did horrible in school when she began.  She was no where near ready, even though she was almost six when she began Kindergarten.  All she had done for years was play, play, play and maybe color a picture of a letter or something.  I don't even remember much reading to the students in class.  The stuff they said to do at  home between parent and child was very limited.  I wish I had known more then.

My next daughter, Laura, went to preschool for two years.  Unlike Head Start, this preschool did work on academics.   However, what I discovered was that Laura wasn't much more advanced than my older two girls had been when they started school.  She started preschool at three and, honestly, still was a super shy and quiet little child in Kindergarten.  I remember her kindergarten teacher thinking she didn't know stuff, but she would tell me at home.  She was just too shy to talk in front of many people.  So much for the socialization of preschools and public schools.  I think my daughter would have been more confident and sure of herself in her own home.  She has blossomed in the last year and a half of being homeschooled in the shyness department.

Now, the time has come to begin planning for Megan.  Since I seem to have had experience with every area in the spectrum, I am going to use that experience with my daughter.  Every child is different, and each one of my kids is an individual.  But I think the key word in preschool is balance.

I don't want to push my kid too early.   That seems to be a major concern of some specialists, while others have lots of ideas to start this early or that early.  I'm a fan of starting a little later, when they might get it, than to start too early.   I plan to do a little of everything, and a lot of a couple things.

Megan is two.  My plan for the rest of this school year is to experiment and get her ready for a more challenging program in the next year or two.  I have a growing list of activities I think we'll do together.  Most important on that list is reading to her.  Bible stories, picture books, story books, and whatever else I can find to get those little neurons firing in her brain. I have a selection of books that we will read over and over, as this helps them as much or more than reading new books all the time.  We will read new books too.  The library is going to be our new best friend.  Story time for her begins in April when she turns three.  I can't afford an expensive curriculum.  I don't think I need one to help my two year old learn.  She's learning all the time.

The internet is loaded with wonderful ideas for fun learning activities.  Most of those activities just involve parents being a little creative and encouraging play and imagination in their child.  Here are some of the ideas I enjoyed:  Play dressup, make tents in the living room, color with sidewalk chalk outside(as soon as weather permits), have different shoe boxes for each day of the week with different activities inside so the child doesn't get bored, theme weeks such as transportation week or manners week, play with bubbles, and best of all, go outside as much as possible.

Will I use workbooks?  Yes, but not seriously or religiously at two.  A coloring page with the letter A or the number 5 isn't going to kill her love of reading or math.  I will use lots of different things.  If a workbook page is a tool I'm using as we are learning something specific, I am not going to say no.  I'm not grading my two year old on neatness or correctness.  I plan to have her paint and glue noodles to papers.  The Kumon books look wonderful and are full of activities.  I think workbooks are fine, if they are used to supplement what you are working on and not be your whole curriculum. 

Will I use a structured preschool program later?  Probably.  Most of the quality Christian programs I've seen out there are for short bursts of time with lots of activities and reading.  I don't think I will actually begin them until Megan is older and I know she is ready.  Core of any program I use or design is the Bible and reading aloud to my child.  Without those two things, the program has no meaning to me.

Will I put my daughter in a preschool?  Maybe.  There is a small, Christian, wonderful preschool about a block away.  Two days a week Megan could go for a couple hours.  If I have the finances, I might consider it.  Not because I think she will just receive this outstanding education that I couldn't give her at home, but because those hours would be uninterrupted time to work with my other children.  I don't think she'll need it as she will be in the library reading program and summer programs and, possibly, soccer. 

Reading the suggestions online gave me a lot of confidence that I can successfully teach my child and get her ready for more advanced skills.  As I was reading these articles and even a couple blogs, I realized that I have a lot of experience with different preschool options.  From none to lots, from effective to ineffective, I have thought about those experiences.  I have a clearer picture in my head now of how I want to teach my soon to be preschooler.