preschool Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau

Jul 05 2012

Accidental learning

There’s a dead bug on the sidewalk. The vacuum cleaner suddenly stops working. The sky looks a little weird today. There’s something growing in the fish tank. The TV anchor says something that doesn’t make sense.

And so it begins. How it ends is anybody’s guess.

When was the last time your kids were drawn in by something they saw? Something they heard? Or something that happened? Whatever it was, do you remember what they did? How they sounded? What they looked like? Pretty excited, were they? Remember how breathless they were, bursting with details? Remember how they talked about it later on, too?

Of course you remember. They do too. That’s the neat thing about accidental learning. It isn’t planned, but grabs their attention. The more engaging, the more it lasts. Chances are, moments like that grab hold onto your kids for a long time.

A friend recently told the story of her kids describing roadkill they’d discovered on the street. Her kids talked about it endlessly at the dinner table — in the most gruesome yet fascinating detail. Another mom told how a child discovered a flaw in some tool he’d been using, and spent the following days and weeks trying to improve it.

Kids get excited about different things. Sometimes we don’t know what those things are going to be. It’s fun to watch and interesting to keep track of.

Our reactions are important to how far the children will take the new learning, too. Blurt out one of those, “I’m busy right now…tell me later” and you’ve squashed all the fun. But give them an, “I wonder if…………….” and you’ll help keep those cognitive engines running a whole lot longer.

Ask, “I wonder if…” kinds of questions to keep the learning going

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Kids know when you approve and when you don’t. Avoiding the can’ts, don’ts (and all of that stuff we say about dirt and germs!) and we show approval of their investigations and support their exploration and activities.

Accidental learning is often the best kind. It’s unexpected and unpredictable. Kids get to decide where to go with it, and it takes them in many different directions. They like it, because they picked it. And when it has run its course, it ends, just as suddenly as it all began — an incredible cycle, really.

Seize every opportunity to support your learners if they accidentally stumble across something that excites them. As long as you remember they’re doing the learning, you can add your enthusiasm and connect them to extra resources, and help turn those accidents into something extraordinary indeed.

To your success,

Games that teach

No question about it, kids love games. That’s why, for many children, turning homeschool lessons into a game is such a great way to learn.

There are two kinds of games that homeschool parents may purchase: games that were designed to teach something (geography, reading, or math, for instance), and games that are just plain fun, but have some educational value besides.

Under the category of games that teach, look for these titles available from my friends over at R.O.C.K. Solid:

As for games that are fun, but end up teaching something valuable, too, consider games such as:

Parent’s Choice winners are always good picks. So are Fat Brain picks and Dr. Toy’s recommendations, too.

But homeschooling families can also make their own games. It doesn’t take long to turn math facts or history trivia into a question and answer game, or a set of science terms into a puzzle or word search. Better yet, get the kids involved and make board games out of simple materials collected from around the house — they’ll learn by creating the game, and over and over again by playing it.

Have any favorite educational games or ideas you’d like to share? Add them to the COMMENT area, below!

Aug 30 2011

Setting up a classroom

Every family is different, thus every homeschool space is different, too. Only you can decide what works best in your home, with your kids, using your specific homeschool tools.

Factor in budget, personal homeschooling philosophy and available living space, and study spaces will vary quite a bit.

When building any classroom or study area, looking at photos is a great way to become inspired. I glean many new ideas by seeing things I had never thought of before!

Lucky for us, the blogging community has come generously to the rescue in this area, providing hundreds of opportunities to see how other families organize and decorate their homeschool spaces.

For instance, here is a photo of a map wall in our home:

I struggled for years to find just the style and size map I was looking for, and discover a convenient way to hang it without the edges curling or destroying our walls. My secret? Duct tape! Now, you can apply my “secret”, too!

Just looking at photos and hearing what works well for other families could be just what you need to come up with a classroom strategy of your own. I love learning from other parents more creative than me!

Parents often ask to see photos of homeschool classrooms, too.

I have created a Pinterest board called, “Homeschool Classroom Spaces“. It’s one of my most popular, and has lots of great ideas to help you get set up.

There are several articles here that will also help:

Creating Workboxes

Curriculum Bins

Storing Homeschool “Stuff”

You can also become inspired by browsing photos of other homeschooler classrooms. Here’s a collection of ideas from other bloggers:

A total homeschool classroom reno using IKEA components, taken from Confessions of a Homeschooler

A classroom with Montessori learning in mind, from Living Montessori NOW

Homeschooling in an apartment, from Chocolate Covered Boy Joy

A dedicated school room with visuals and decorations (including a time line), from Adventures in Homeschooling

Homeschooling in a small space, from Living, Laughing and Loving

A schoolroom before and after, from Method Mom

A boy-themed school area, from It’s a Boy’s Life

An inexpensive classroom solution, from Mrs. Random [Access Me-ness]

A home equipped with goodies in just about every room, from The Joys of Home Educating

Using a long counter for children schooling side-by-side, from The Heartfelt Home

A dedicated classroom with many different kinds of storage solutions, from Vintage Homegrown Family

This family shows how they use the dining and living rooms as homeschool areas, from Dragonfly Days

When creating a classroom, 2 important rules apply: (1) don’t be limited by what you see; and, (2) never feel pressured to duplicate what anyone is doing.

The truth is, homeschool spaces should be uniquely you! You could not function well in someone else’s home, just as they could not function well in yours.

Take these ideas and tips to heart, and see what you come up with this year! If you’d like to share a photo, link or post of your study spaces, I would welcome them as a COMMENT!

Your friends are probably searching for this information, too.

SHARE it with them!

Aug 17 2011

Legal vs. actual homeschool age

Homeschooling laws are generally quite clear. Every state explains, in no uncertain terms, at what age homeschooling may begin.

In some states, the legal homeschooling age might be 5. In other states, it could be 6 or 7.

Some states write the age of eligibility as it relates to some calendar date, like Florida, where children must be 6 years old by February 1 of a given year. In states like Kansas, the range is broader, stating only that children have reached the age of 7 but are still under 18.

It is a parent’s responsibility to know the legal age of commencement and to comply with anything that may be required to begin homeschooling a child in that state. (Don’t know your laws? Read THIS POST.)

On the other hand, when homeschooling actually begins in a given family is a different matter altogether. Though the legal homeschooling age may not be until 5, 6, or 7, parents are certainly not precluded from starting sooner, if it seems like the right thing for that child. Some children (and their parents) are more eager and ready for schooling than others, thus parents needn’t wait until state laws say they can begin.

On the flip side, although states may require homeschool notification or registration by a certain age, there are children who are not ready for formal sit-down instruction yet. Fortunately with homeschooling, there are many relaxed teaching (and lifestyle) models that can be used during those early years, and even longer if the family chooses.

Ultimately, there is no universal right or wrong time to begin homeschooling a child. In fact, this discussion is really about a given family’s philosophy and definition of homeschooling anyway. In a legal sense, homeschooling must begin when state requirements for instruction, record-keeping, evaluations, and anything else say so. In a practical sense, however, homeschooling may begin at any time, and could even be viewed as something that has been taking place all along — since birth or even in the womb. Some people look at it differently from others, making the definition of early learning a very individual thing.

In summary, parents must separate the idea of being their child’s first (and best) teacher with their need to satisy state legal requirements. When the time comes to get legal, parents must absolutely do so. When homeschooling actually begins, however, is entirely up to them.

Aug 04 2011

Think about it: Make your own flashcards

Flashcards aren’t new, that’s for sure. For many, a humble deck of ordinary flashcards is regarded as so boring and antiquated that they are avoided altogether.

But having children make their own has many more benefits over those purchased in any store. Plus, they don’t have to be only about math facts, either. Flashcards can be about anything you want them to be. How about cooking measurements? Plot details from a book? Plants or insects? Commonly misspelled words? Caring for a pet? How about cards with music notes or how to fold laundry? Literally anything at all a child has learned — or a parent would like that child to learn – can appear on a card. Sets can be topic-specific or mixed, too.

Think about it. Taking something learned in homeschool, or anything in life, and putting it down on a flashcard requires many skills. To name a few, kids are asked to:

recall what they learned or look it up again
synthesize, shorten, paraphrase or whatever it takes to fit it on a card
use writing skills to tell about it, adding quiz questions or riddles as desired
draw something about it, if the cards will be illustrated
cut, measure, decorate, laminate or whatever else it takes to make the cards themselves

And those are just a few of the benefits. Even greater benefits come when the cards are shared with others. The creator gets to review everything all over again. The recipient, with any luck a sibling, gets to learn everything, too.

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This post is part of a little series called, “Think about it”, and each post contains a single idea to try this year. Posts are short, so that you can move on to the next quickly. These ideas may inspire you to try something new…or help you realize that something you’re already doing is okay. There will be no particular posting schedule, but you can look for Tags & Titles that begin with the words, “Think about it”.