The Preschool Approach At Home

The Preschool Approach At Home

While recently doing some research on the preschool learning and preschool homeschool curriculum, and what type of preschool activities would create a positive self motivation preschool learning environment for the homeschool, I came across some ideas that are so simple it was almost embarrassing that I had to discover this through my ‘research’ time.

When one preschool teacher was asked ‘what is the one preschool teaching tool or tools in your classroom that you could not do without? She answered real life stuff. Pots and pans, staplers, hole punchers, anything around the house that will provide real life experiences for preschool activities.

Think about it…. Every thing you need for your homeschool preschool is just around the corner at a yard sale! If your going to teach preschool homeschool your classroom should be set up like a real life home. Imagine that. A real life home environment for the preschool child, and you did it. Can you teach that way? Of course, you can.

You probably already have, and do allow your child time to play, read, run outdoors, and discover the world on their travels. And you do so in a loving environment.

What you provide will far exceed what is provided for in a public preschool learning environment.

You are the best teacher the child will ever have and your home is the best leaning environment for the preschooler. You certainly don’t need to spend vast amounts of money equipping your home for preschool activities. As mentioned earlier, thrift stores and yard sales can provide more than you could ever use.

Also remember, real life experiences. Let the child help you bake, do laundry, and other household experiences. They all offer visual, hands on, and subtle problem solving. And you thought homeschool preschool would require a classroom setting.

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Preschool Crafts - Dinosaur, Eggs, And Elephant Crafts To Teach The Letters "D" And "E"

Preschool Crafts - Dinosaur, Eggs, And Elephant Crafts To Teach The Letters "D" And "E"

Get Crafty!

One of the best parts of a preschooler's day is arts and crafts time. Preschool crafts allow children an opportunity to express their individuality and creativity as well as teaching discipline, basic color theory, and fine motor skills. Since the possibilities are nearly endless where preschool craft are concerned, especially when approaching a topic as broad as the alphabet, here are a few simple ideas for the letters D and E.

When Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth...

Children are fascinated by the idea of gigantic, hulking beasts called dinosaurs roaming the earth before humans even existed. This provides a wealth of crafting possibilities, such as this Dinosaur Travel Book.

Each child is given the task of creating at least 3 pictures of where they would go and what they would do if they were a dinosaur. Encourage children to depict many different kinds of dinosaurs, and show them pictures of dinosaurs to help get the creative juices flowing.

Children may use whatever artistic means are at their disposal, from crayons to markers to finger paint. After their pictures are completed, punch three holes in the side of each picture and join the pictures with string to form a book.

Since fossils are the only clue as to how the dinosaurs lived, try this craft called Dinosaur Skeletons. This craft requires construction paper, dried pasta, popsicles sticks, and glue. Give each child a piece of construction paper and a selection of pasta and popsicle sticks to recreate their dinosaur skeleton. Once they are satisfied with the skeleton, they can glue it to the construction paper and decorate it with markers or crayons.

Fresh as a Daisy

Next, here's a craft that requires paper plates, construction paper, paint and glue. Children will be creating daisies using the paper plates as the centers. To begin, have the children paint the paper plates yellow. Next, have them trace the petals onto pieces of construction paper. Each child will need between 8 and 12 petals to complete their flower. After all the petals are cut out, glue or staple them to the edges of the paper plate.

Hatching Eggs and Fancy Elephants

This craft, called "What's in an Egg" has children use their imaginations to decide what they wish could hatch out of an egg. Once they've come up with a good idea, they are to draw a picture of it on a piece of construction paper. Try to keep the drawings fairly small as they'll be placed into plastic eggs. Children can go around the room and show others what hatches out of their eggs.

Children love dressing up and wearing masks, so why not let them create their own? Here's a quick and easy way to create elephant masks using only construction paper, toilet paper tubes, and paper plates. To begin, children will paint their paper plates gray and cut them in half to make the ears. Next, cut the construction paper in half and staple it together, forming a band that will fit on a child's forehead. Now, staple the ears to the side of the band. Finally, to make the truck, paint the toilet paper tubes gray, cut them in half, and staple them to the top of the band to resemble the elephant's trunk.

These preschool crafts provide a stepping stone for you to use to spark your imagination in teaching any of the letters of the alphabet or teaching theme units.

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Making ESL Learning Fun for Preschool Children

Making ESL Learning Fun for Preschool Children

The right ESL pre-k teaching tools can make learning easier and more fun. Take, for example, the research work of Dr. Howard Gardner who came up with the theory of multiple intelligences. This essentially rules out the idea that the best way for children to learn is by sitting at a table doing "desk work". Instead, Gardner pinpoints different "intelligences" which are essentially learning styles. Everyone has a specific intelligence (or a few specific intelligences) that defines how he or she learns best. This means that in order to reach all the children in a classroom, different learning methods must be made available to them. The multiple intelligences are

* Linguistic intelligence: Learning and using spoken and written language

* Logical-mathematical intelligence: Logically analysing problems, detecting patterns, reasoning.

* Musical intelligence: Performing, composing, and appreciating musical patterns.

* Bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence: Using the whole body or parts of the body to solve problems.

* Spatial intelligence: Recognizing patterns of wide space and confined areas.

* Interpersonal intelligence: Effectively working with others.

* Intrapersonal intelligence: Understanding self and feelings.

By using games and other activities in your classroom, you'll be able to create a class period that explores various intelligences and reaches a variety of children instead of just the linguistic learners.

Additionally, it's important to remember that preschoolers simply learn best through play. Just think about how preschoolers learn to count. They may count how many cars they have lined up or how many blocks they've stacked.

Here is an example of how to transform a mundane activity into an exciting game that stimulates the children's imagination and encourages better retention of vocabulary. Imagine you are teaching colours. Tell your children they are pirates who have lost their treasure overboard and they must dive down and retrieve it. Spread coloured objects or cards around the floor. Demonstrate by taking in a big breath, hold your breath and dive down and pick up one of the coloured objects, then come up for air and ask the children to name the colour, or you name it, depending on whether you are doing a speaking or listening activity. Then tell the children which colours to dive down and collect. You could make it even more dramatic by dimming the lights when the children dive down and turning them up when they surface. The children can then sort the different coloured treasure by stowing it safely in treasure chests (boxes or bags - one for each colour).

Any paediatrician will tell you that the best way to encourage a large vocabulary in your children is to read to them everyday. For young children learning English you need super simple stories, and in an ideal world, stories that reinforce the language and vocabulary you are teaching in class. You can access a free ESL preschool story with games in the resource box below the article.

As well as using games and stories you'll need to take into consideration a few other things:

* Preschool children have small attention spans so change your activities every five minutes or so because if they go longer than that, they'll start getting restless and you'll spend more time trying to keep their attention than actually doing the activity.

* Teach a small amount of language in any given session. For this age group, try to introduce three words at a time and then add to the list as you see the children understand the meaning of the words you've already introduced.

* Engage the children on multiple levels. This includes using fine and large motor movement, singing, talking, listening and looking. For example, you could have a game where the children need to move around the room to stand next to a picture or object of the word they heard you say.

* Competition in the preschool classroom causes undo stress on the children. Avoid playing games or doing activities that have winners and losers. Either have the class work together to "win" as a group or do not distinguish between winning and losing. On the same note, be sure to be supportive and encouraging to all of the learners in your class.

* Preschool children can get very excitable so vary excitable games with quiet ones to balance out the energy level in the classroom.

* Preschoolers are very visual. Bring in real objects whenever possible. When it is not possible, find colourful and vivid pictures.

* Preschooler children usually are not yet reading and writing (at least not to large extent) in their own language, so don't expect them to do it in a second language. At this age, you can expect them to listen and understand first. After a while, they will begin speaking individual words and short phrases.

* Themes work well in the preschool classroom. Focus your vocabulary learning on groups of similar types of words such as foods, colours, numbers, animals, families and body parts. You can work in short phrases that are relevant to your theme.

* Be well prepared, plan more than you think you will use and move seamlessly from one game or activity to another. Use colouring or similar quiet activities when the children need some downtime.

* Repeat, review and revise. You need to frequently review the vocabulary that you've previously taught them or they will quickly forget it.

* If you have a particularly naughty or rough student in the class, keep him or her close to you. Ask him or her to be your special helper and be sure to give a lot of praise when you see him or her behaving appropriately.

Above all, just remember what you liked to do in school. If you were bored, you probably didn't get much out of the class and the same is true for preschool and pre-k children. For free games and an illustrated story written for ESL preschoolers, visit the link in the box below the article. Help them have fun and before they know it, they'll be learning!

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How To Choose a Preschool

How To Choose a Preschool

Choosing a preschool for your child requires knowing what you want in a preschool and then asking questions to see if the schools in your town match what you are looking for.

There are many philosophies on working with toddlers. Some programs offer academic curriculums and some don’t. Some offer a pre reading program and some don’t. Some offer a lot of social opportunities and some don’t.

So what questions can you ask to see if the program offered is a match for you?

Let’s start with the hours of the school. Some schools open as early as 7:00 a.m. for before school care and some school open at 9:00 a.m. when the preschool day begins. If you need to be at work at 8:00 a.m. then you’ll first need to narrow your choices to those schools that offer before school care.

It is my suggestion that you visit the school without your child. Speak to the director of the school and ask what the best time of day is to visit. You’ll learn more by visiting during indoor time versus outdoor time.

Most schools have a rough time schedule of what the kids do while at school. Does this time table fit what you hoped to have for your child? My children went to two different schools. My older daughter needed more structure. At the school she went to, the kids moved from class to class. One class was manipulatives such as puzzles, while another room had dress up clothes and yet another room held art supplies. Finally, the last room was what I called the academic room. You could find letters and numbers and books in this room. This system worked wonderfully for her.

My other daughter went to a school where academics were non existent, but socialization was constant. This very much fit the child she was and met both her needs and my needs.

So, it’s very possible to find a good school with a great program, but have it not be the right fit for your child.

I also suggest meeting with a kindergarten teacher when making your choice to find out what the kindergarten teacher at YOUR school hopes to see when your child enters the kindergarten classroom on day one.

Here are some questions you can ask when visiting:

1. Do you teach reading and writing at all? Please remember, there is not a right or wrong answer. You, as a parent need to know whether this is important to you. As I mentioned, for one of my daughters it was quite important and for the other child, it was not at all on my list of what was important.

2. What is the adult/child ratio the school tries to maintain? Every state dictates what the state requires, but all schools have their own set of guidelines within the state system. My older daughter was in a school that did not use teacher’s aides. However they kept the classes small. My younger daughter was in a school that utilized teacher’s aides and so the ratio was very small like 3:1, even though the state allowed a much higher ratio. With more children in the class, there is also more opportunity for playmates.

3. What is the sick child policy? Every school has a different sick child policy. As a mom, I did not want my kids around sick kids all the time. On the other hand, I knew if my child had a runny nose, I’d probably be called to come pick her up.

4. How often are new toys bought and how often are old toys thrown out? This was important to me, both because of safety but also the longer a toy is in circulation the more germs live on it. At some point, the dirt just doesn’t wash off anymore. Also, times change and new toys come out on the market. In addition, when dealing with items like puzzles, pieces will disappear. I wanted my child to be able to complete the puzzle, not have one piece missing.

5. What is the communication system between the school and the parent? Some schools send home a monthly calendar of the upcoming month, while some schools send out a letter on Friday that sums up the week in review. Most schools have conferences. Moms like to hear how wonderful their preschooler is. If the school detects what they believe might be a problem such as hearing, speech, sight, or even a behavioral problem, what is their method of informing you?

6. How are the children separated? Is it by age? Are there multiage classrooms? Does the system this school uses for developing classes meet your needs and the needs of your child? Every child is different. My older daughter did best with kids her own age. My younger daughter did great with kids of many ages.

7. What are the food rules at this school? Do children bring their own lunch? Are snacks served? Is the school peanut free? Some preschools choose to be peanut free to accommodate children who have peanut allergies. Are hot lunches served? If so, ask for a month long menu to see what foods are offered.

Without your child, it’s important for you to observe a class. Do the children interact with each other and with the adults? Do the children play both alone and with others? Are you seeing activities and toys that allow the child to be unique and creative? Or is every child told to make the same color flower? Children are children. If you see two kids argue, how does the teacher solve the problem? How large are the classrooms? Is there enough space for different children to be playing with different items? For example is there space for two girls to play dress up while two boys build a train track? Where are the bathrooms in relation to the classroom?

Plan to visit the school during drop off time. Are kids eagerly running to their classrooms or are most kids unhappy to be there?
If you feel the school matches what you want, ask if you can bring your child for one day. Most schools will allow a test day. If your child is happy, you’ve just found the right school to enroll your child in.

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Encourage Children to Pray in Preschool Sunday School

Encourage Children to Pray in Preschool Sunday School

Do you know some adults who have a hard time praying in church or at a Bible study? Sometimes this is because they are new Christians and that is understandable. Other times it stems from the fact that they never really learned how to pray properly or are just embarrassed that they will not say the right things. Why not teach children how to pray as early as preschool in your Sunday school class? Growing up with prayer makes it much easier to transition this habit into adulthood.

The first thing that needs to be said about this subject is you should never force a child to pray. It is a skill that develops over time and at one's own pace. Prayer helps develop a personal relationship with God, and even if a child won't say a prayer out loud, you can feel comfortable knowing that she is praying silently to Him.

Take the time to explain to your Sunday school class about the importance of prayer. Sure they are little kids, but they understand much more than they are willing to let on. You can challenge their understanding of prayer by asking thoughtful questions to see who can give the right answers.

Once you explain the importance of prayer, move on to teaching your class the Lord's Prayer, and how Jesus gave us this prayer as an example. It is based on the acronym ACTS (A - adoration, C - confession, T - Thanksgiving, S - Supplication). Have parents continue this teaching at home by handing out suggested activities they can do with their children to encourage them to learn the Lord's Prayer. Have small prizes available for each child that can repeat the prayer to you in class as an incentive to learn.

Prayer calendars are a great way to encourage preschoolers to pray. You can find these calendars at Christian bookstores or online. They make a great gift from you to your class, and each day of the year has a suggested theme or subject to pray about. Preschoolers will be excited about seeing what prayer the next day brings, and getting their family to pray with them each day.

Prayer walks around your church from time-to-time will give preschoolers a chance to leave the classroom and hit certain spots around the church where you stop and pray. For example, you might stop at the preacher's door and pray for him, or stop in the sanctuary and pray for the whole congregation. Give children the opportunity to offer a prayer out loud, if they want, and have them take turns at each stop along the way.

You are not trying to create prayer warriors at this stage of the game. But, your constant influence in these little lives will make prayer something they will never forget about. As these preschoolers grow older, they will always remember the teacher that taught them about prayer, and they will pray for you with thanks. You just never how many lives you actually touch, even the smallest ones. Prayer is important.

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The Creative Use Of A Preschool Party Game

The Creative Use Of A Preschool Party Game

Hosting a children’s party is always an undertaking – keeping the attention of a roomful of kids can be difficult, but with planning and organization it can be done, resulting in an enjoyable and memorable event. However, holding a party for preschool aged children has its own set of challenges, as the attention span of this younger set is short and fickle. A moment of activity-free downtime can result in a party gone awry - including temper tantrums, meltdowns, and general chaos. And once this happens, it’s even more difficult to win your tiny audience back. Luckily, with the use of a well-timed preschool party game you can keep control of your party guests and ensure an organized and enjoyable celebration.

First and foremost, a party held for this age group should be no more than one and a half hours in length; any longer and you run the risk of dwindling attention spans. Using this one and a half hour format, plan your party in blocks of fifteen minutes – a long enough time to accomplish an activity and a short enough time to keep party guests interested and motivated. The use of a preschool party game begins right when your first guest arrives.

As children arrive, direct them to a table that is set aside exclusively to engage the interest of children prior to the official start to the party. This table should offer a low-key preschool party game that will hold attention but not prematurely elevate the energy levels of the children; a coloring activity or simple craft will suffice.

When everyone has arrived, you should immediately begin the main activities for your party. Choose a preschool party game for every fifteen minutes such as pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, musical chairs, or a preschool party game that goes along with the theme of your child’s party. Keep it to a maximum of three games.

Following this you may want to serve your food; little ones don’t hold out long for cake and ice cream; followed by a preschool party game craft. Keep instructions clear and materials simple to encourage as much independent participation as possible.

Following the opening of presents, you may want to end the party with an active preschool party game that gives children the opportunity to release some energy – such as freeze dance, where kids dance to music you supply and then must freeze when you turn the music off. Anyone still moving is out of the game.

The use of a creative preschool party game during appropriate times will ensure a successful party where children are engaged, interested, and having fun!

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The Use Of Preschool Games In And Out Of A Classroom

The Use Of Preschool Games In And Out Of A Classroom

For children under the age of five - or for those who have not yet started Kindergarten – a preschool program is an introduction to the classroom environment, where students have the opportunity to learn imperative social and educational lessons in a structured but informal environment. Research has shown us that a love for learning fostered in the preschool – through a comfortable, nurturing environment and guided by skilled teachers – can do much to ensure a lifetime of successful schooling. And because research has also shown that children of this age learn best through the process of play, preschool curriculums tend to be play based, including the use of preschool games.

There are a variety of ways to institute preschool games into the learning environment. Skilled preschool teachers are adept at presenting lessons in an enjoyable, participatory way that motivates children in a non-intimidating fashion. Some preschool games include the use of letter and number games to introduce language and mathematics, drawing to promote fine motor skills, physical play to encourage the development of gross motor skills, and games focused around books to help foster a love of reading. Savvy preschool programs also incorporate the use of computer games to help spark interest and teach fundamentals.

Aside from academic lessons, preschool games offer an opportunity for children to learn the all-important social lessons that come with working in a group. Children participate in taking turns, following directions, working together, and respecting each other’s time to speak; there is also, of course, the ultimate benefit of children gaining a sense of accomplishment and self-confidence when completing a task.

Preschool games can be used out of the classroom as well. For children in this age group, a selection of preschool games used during a party will not only keep the interest of party guests but provide an educational experience as well.

The use of preschool games in the daily lives of children can help build a foundation of poise, analytical thought, and creativity – important lessons not to be overlooked.

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