Life of a homeschooling mum is often contradictory, especially when she is schooling very young kids, and independent learning is not always possible. She marvels at how much her kids are doing, and yet feels utterly exhausted by the end of the session. That is me today.
Today’s homeschool session with my 3-year-old twins was an intensive one. They woke up feeling energetic and happy, with a lot of drive to fill our morning with activities. Some activities were child-led, while some were my suggestions. While I am happy and excited by their drive to do more, they often rely on my input to complete their “work”.
We school at home 4 to 5 mornings a week, with a weekly mini excursion to the playgrounds in the neighbourhood. Some days can be intensive like today when they woke up with tons of purpose. On other days, they may wake up whiny or playful. That is when we spend only 15 minutes learning, or I may have to sneak in a couple of activities that they can play and learn at the same time.
Being so young, I don’t think coming up with a study schedule is practical. I let the twins decide on their activities for the day. We have activities books from Kumon and Highlights to guide us, and ensure that we do not miss out on any key concepts that preschoolers should master before attending primary school. I like how Kumon and Highlights clearly define and focus on the skill set the little kids are building on when working on their activity books.
Check out this post – Awesome Activity Books for my 3-year-olds for more details on the books we used or are still using.
Our Flow Today.
9.30 a.m.: Breakfast and Uno at the same time. We typically play UNOs without the symbols such as reverse, skip and draw 2 / 4 to keep the game simple for the twins. The original intent of the game is to encourage them to recognise and sort numbers. We achieved the objective a long while ago. Today, I added +2 and +4 to increase the complexity of the game, and introduce the idea of addition.
Some other mornings, they may add on their Junior Sequence Board Game, or our DYI Bingo boards for rounds of words, numbers, alphabet recognition.
10.00 a.m: Badminton. They can randomly serve and hit and return the shuttle once or twice.
10.30 a.m.: Learning Chinese with Sage Formula. This is our first day using the Sage material. It looks fabulous, and the twins got interesting tracing the strokes, and motivated to read the single words on their own. I will probably write a review of the Sage Formula Series if our experience turns out well.
10.40 a.m.: Maths Activities from Highlights. They are in the mood for cut and paste again. To ensure reusability of the worksheets, we avoid writing on the papers until I get them laminated. Just like the page in the photo below, where the concept of Addition is introduced. We definitely need to go many rounds of practice to get their understanding right.
11.00 a.m.: The pattern worksheets from Highlights (above) inspired them to make patterns using their magnetic tiles. We tried it out together previously. They can now make patterns independently (though not exactly accurate). That is where I sneaked in a break for myself.
11.30 a.m.: Doodling time. At their request, we drew “giraffes”, “elephants”, “snails”. I assisted a little, here and there.
12.15 a.m.: Differentiating skills using the Kumon “Same and Different Book”. I was exhausted by then.
12.30 a.m.: Sage Formula again. The same chapters they read earlier in the morning.
12.40 a.m.: Finally lunch time, my break time.
Ending Notes
If you are contemplating to homeschool your preschoolers, don’t be put off by the amount of work and time we spent today. I started my homeschool journey since the twins were 25 months old, i.e. more than a year ago. We have established a morning rhythm, and the twins know what to expect, despite having no scheduled study plan.
If you wish to try out homeschooling your little ones, start with two 15-minute a day, or even 5-minute blocks of activity that your child likes. Every child is different. You are the parent; you know your child best.
And if anyone is asking how long I wish to school the twins at home, I would say probably for another year at least.
You may be interested in these posts too:
14 Awesome Nursery Maths Activities My Toddlers Love
Magnetic Tiles for Building Numbers
Smart Games my 3-year-olds love
Becoming a Stay-At-Home-Parent
Sage Formula for Preschool Chinese – My First Review and Free Printable Activities
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