Preschool planning – 3 year old!
For the last few years, I have tried being intentional about reading a lot of books each day and doing things that promote learning in a casual way– like turning everything into a game of “name this color” or “.. letter” or “.. number” etc. My three-year-old loves learning- so that worked when she was younger, but now that she’s getting a little older, I’m realizing that I need to be a little more organized about our daily schedules. I don’t think we need to have so much formal school time that involves sitting and doing worksheets, but I wanted to have a little more guidance on our days. Honestly, at this point, it’s more for guiding me to ensure I’m not missing opportunities for her to learn!
Today I’m sharing the plan for the three-year-old preschool year. Allow me to be vulnerable for a moment before I begin. For the last year and a half, she has been going through cancer treatments. Unfortunately, we have known since December that a cure is no longer a likely option. I have gone back and forth on whether I wanted to start any kind of “formal” schooling knowing that there is so much unknown as far as timelines go. Our goal has been to live life as normally as possible for as long as we can, so for that reason I moved forward with finding a curriculum plan that allows her to be challenged as she needs to be, while also aligning with our goal to make each day fun.
I found the Gentle and Classical Preschool teacher guide (can’t believe they have a digital copy for free!) and really liked the mix between classical and Charlotte Mason learning styles. I was homeschooled with a very traditional curriculum for part of my schooling years. While that worked for me (for middle school and high school), it’s not what is needed at this age. I love the focus on learning through reading. There’s also some memorization, which we have already been introducing as she’s always been a little sponge!
I decided to purchase the full bundle. Right now I’m planning on starting next week, assuming all the books I wanted to get from the library become available. We’ve already started adding the “morning basket” to our routine. I’m also continuing to work on setting up more of a toy rotation so the living room isn’t as toy-cluttered and there is less overwhelm (for all of us!). My goal is to make sure we do some time of building (whether Lego blocks, magnetic tiles, stacking blocks, etc.), imaginative play (dress up, dolls, role play, etc.), arts and crafts, movement (Simon says, yoga, etc.), and household chore introduction.
In the Gentle and Classical materials, author Erin Cox talks about having a rhythm vs a schedule for the younger ages. I really liked this vocabulary shift. Kids thrive with routines so they can know what to expect. We have a lot to surmount because our rhythm lately with the chemotherapy necessitated more “rest time” which turned into a lot of screen time for my three-year-old. My goal is that I can get her involved in selecting what type of activity she wants to do, and then have a plan for what that specific activity is for that day.
My goal is to share the supplemental books and activities we do to complement the G&C curriculum.
