I am often asked how to structure a preschooler’s school day in the homeschool environment. I always say to keep it simple and go with the flow. If your child wants to do more then do more but if your child wants to stop after a few lessons then stop. Here is a day in the life of my preschooler. We studied simple concepts and related them to each other. We did a lot that day but she was in the mood to keep up on the lessons mostly because the lesson looked a lot like play.
Letter of the Day: A
Number of the Day: 5
Shape of the Day: Star
We had fun fun with A, 5 and stars. First we spent time practicing writing the letter “A” and the number “5”. My daughter traced her hand to show “5” fingers. She practiced her cutting skills by using the cutting activity in her Kumon cutting book on airplanes (a is for airplane). We then moved on to the Kumon pasting book and did the activity that related to the star. A star has five points and if you cut and apple in half you will see a star shape in the center. Connecting the concepts is a way to reinforce the lessons.
Next, she worked on an alphabet dot to dot page of an apple. She colored the apple and practiced writing “A” a bit more. To further study apples, we added in a bit of history about Johnny Appleseed. For geography, my daughter colored the states on a US map where Johnny Appleseed planted apple trees. She can now pick out her state and few others on the map! To further study Johnny Appleseed, the letter “A” and apples we used cards with different types of apples as a memory game.
After that, she pasted together an “A” made from strips of construction paper, on a piece of paper. She then pasted on pictures of apples. To continue to review the concepts we used Play Doh! She made stars, the number 5, the letter “A”, five stars, apples and more out of Play Doh. She was thrilled to see that Play Doh could be a part of school!
Moving on, we studied parts of an apple. We cut inside the apple to reveal the “star” in the center. We counted the seeds. We named the parts of an apple. Then the highlight of the day, we dipped the cut apple into paint to make apple prints.
Finally the day was over yet it left her excited for what the next day would bring.