Why is Preschool Even Necessary in a Homeschool Family?

We homeschool our three boys.  The older two boys are only two years apart and Peter, the middle child, never saw any reason why he should not do what his older brother was doing.  So the two boys are at approximately the same grade level on many things.  I can pretty much teach the same thing to both boys with only slight adaptations for attention span.  You would think, that because I am only teaching children at two different grade levels (older boys and preschool) that finding time to schedule in preschool would be easy, but it is NOT.  I can't imagine, how a homeschooling Mom could do preschool and multiple other levels of teaching at once. When I get overwhelmed preschool is typically the first thing dropped from our schedule, I mean, is preschool really necessary?

Preschool is necessary and for me the number one reason is - time. One on one time with my child.

I am so fortunate to receive Mother Goose Time in exchange for writing about our experiences.  However, even if I had to pay for Mother Goose Time, I would somehow find it in my budget to buy at least ONE box and here is why. 

My kids have never been ones to sit on my lap and enjoy a book, they were too busy for that sort of thing.  And we all know all the studies that show how important reading with your child is to their development.  Much of what I have heard from those studies is that it's not necessarily the reading part but the time of closeness with your child while building vocabulary.  This is where Mother Goose Time saved us - quality time together exploring, learning and building vocabulary.

When you buy your first box of Mother Goose Time you get a Welcome Kit with all you need to set up a stellar Circle Time display.  Every morning you can spend time with your child discussing the weather and what clothes they should wear, putting up the calendar piece, singing about the days of the week and the months of the year.

Just a walk down memory lane.  This is when Lachlan was little and we were having some fun with Mother Goose Time.

Then you get to dive into the Daily Discovery Bags.  There are 20 in each box meant to last you one month.  But you really can pick any topic you think your kids would be interested in and take as long as you want to work through it.  The calendar pieces can be used over and over again if you adhere them with poster tack so you can make the 20 Discovery Bags stretch as long as it works for you.

Each box introduces three letters, two numbers, a shape and a color.  So in your box you will have activities that really hone in on those things each month.  What this means is that if you just buy one box, you won't get the complete set of alphabet letters, and numbers.  But you can always buy a set of flashcards if that is important to you and use some of the teaching techniques you will learn from MGT to introduce the other letters and numbers.  This year though, you will get all the colors and shapes which came in the Welcome Kit.  You also get an alphabet strip to put on your Circle Time display. 

Tiny Peter learning about Alligators and the letter A.

But I personally, wouldn't be too worried about the letters.  There is so much more to preschool than learning your ABCs and 123s.  In fact, many homeschoolers choose to homeschool just to allow their children to be able to slow down in those areas and just enjoy being a kid and exploring.  That's what Mother Goose Time is so good at!!  They cover so many amazing and wonderful topics, far MORE than just letters and numbers. They follow all the current best practices and are constantly doing their research.  With this curriculum everything is explored through a multi-sensory approach full of fun and play. 

Learning about Vibration Pollination.

Now back to the goal of time with our kiddos.  We all want to spend quality time with all of our children, but it can be hard with so many demands on us as educators, homemakers, wives and mothers.  This is why, when the moment comes and you can grab a Discovery Bag and explore with your little one, Mother Goose Time will instantly be worth it's weight in gold.

I am speaking from personal experience here.  Life has been busy and hectic lately, who am I kidding, it always is.  We have been diligent at getting school done with the older boys but not very good at preschool with Adam.  But on this day, Adam hopped up at the table as his brothers were working on school and asked to do something too.  It was easy, I pulled out Day 1's Discovery Bag from the Weather All Around Us theme.

We jumped right into the Make & Play craft with the goal of making a sun.  Everyone became interested in the craft, some might say distracted.  But it was good for us to work on a project like this together and we still got all the other school done too.  Peter and Lachlan heard we were making a sun and had to make a re-creation of the solar eclipse which is still fresh in our minds.

 Adam colored his "sun" blue and then I showed him the technique they used on the example of using the small souffle cup as a stamp.

 Lachlan made a sun on one side and the moon on the other.

 Adam grabbed the large souffle cup and cut the edges.  He really enjoyed exploring every detail of the materials that were provided for us.

As they were working I got out the Circle Time display and got it all updated.  I grabbed the first letter from this month which was in Day 2's bag and put it up.

Then I made my letter station on the fridge.  This is the letter magnet set by Leap Frog and the Muscle Movement cards from Fundanoodle.  Adam loves to explore this station and really enjoys learning his letters.  I put up a new letter every few weeks following the MGT schedule, but you can easily do this on your own.  If he pushes on the magnet it sings a song that helps him learn the sound that each letter makes.  Then, if he wants to take the time he can trace the letter C.

 After that I said today's date and we counted to 9.

 At this point Adam went to the bathroom and I thought he just had to go potty.  But it turns out that what he was doing was washing the blue off of the souffle cup because he didn't want it to be blue anymore.  He came back to the dining room in tears that he had ruined his paper.  Poor guy.

Thankfully I had another large souffle cup that I was able to trim down to be small like he wanted.  Then he colored it red instead of blue.  He looked up to give me a nice smile but he was not going to stop coloring for nothing.

 The older boys were now done with their MGT craft and back to business.  They put their reading glasses on to get started and Adam decided he wanted reading glasses too.

He was doing his reading after all!  This I Can Read book was in last months box.  We love all of these little readers which have repetitive phrases easy for little ones to pick up and they each include some of the most commonly used words that the kids can pick up as site words, long before we realize they have the ability.

To make Adam feel happy and included, we got out an old pair of sunglasses and popped out the dark lenses.  I think it worked.

 Next he hopped up on my lap to read his book.  He grabbed a word pointer and he found the word "is" as we read through the book, which we did at least three times.  After the first time he would hush me as I tried to read and said "no, I read it."  Okay Dude, go for it.

When he reads it, the words aren't always perfect, but he tells one heck of a story and that is such an important part of the process of reading.

The last thing I did was to write his name on the provided nametag, in a thick yellow marker.  Then I left it at his spot at the table with a thin red marker sitting next to it.  He knows what his job is now, because we have done this a few times.  He follows the yellow lines with his red marker as best as he can.

If this was my one box of Mother Goose Time that I could fit in the budget, I would write his name in yellow, then laminate it and he could practice writing his name everyday using a dry erase marker.

Later Adam asked for another nametag and he drew a perfect square and then rectangle.  Inside the rectangle he drew a bunch of lines which he explained to me as "all of my family standing up!"

We had so much fun!  And it took me about 2 seconds to prepare.  Well I guess I haven't ever timed myself to find out how long it takes to cut open a Discovery Bag, but I think you get the idea.

Preschool is necessary for so many reasons but for me the most valuable of these is this quality time I get to spend with my children!  That's what being a Mom with a Dandelion in Her Hair is all about.  And I just have to give you a quick recap on me.  I am not a crafty person, I am not an amazing homemaker that makes all the other Moms jealous, my house is not spotless, my children are not always clean or dressed, I do not spend hours a day planning lessons.  With out Mother Goose Time, the reality is, my poor little man would be left out.  I wouldn't have the time to collect all the resources to do these things with my kids.  I mean, where does one purchase a souffle cup anyways??

Adam's souffle cup sun!

Mother Goose Time to the Rescue!! - Preschool Fun For the Summer

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August is a superhero theme with Mother Goose Time.  Who doesn't love superheros?  But as always, there is not only a ton of fun but a ton of learning and amazing opportunities to spend valuable time with your children.  If you have little ones at home, even if it's just for the summer months, I can not recommend enough that you purchase one of the summer time boxes from MGT.  They are typically review boxes that cover all the letters, numbers and shapes.

My boys have never been ones to sit down in my lap and read a book.  We never have been able to spend time like that together.   But you will read article after article about how valuable reading with your child is to their later success in school and life in general.  I felt like we were failing our boys, yet trying to get them to curl up for a story was torture.  For us, Mother Goose Time is how we spent that quality time together.  It's how we spent time talking, introducing new vocabulary, spending face to face quality time and learning.

I don't get money for saying this, there is no commission.  I do get our curriculum for free in exchange for sharing our stories, but I would still tell everyone I know, even if I paid for it out of pocket.  I am just passionate about the difference it has made in my family and I want that for others.

So with out further ado, here is what we have done so far with the superhero theme, or at least what I have photographed.  This was a combination of Day 1, Superhero Symbol and Day 2, Glasses.

This lesson was called Super Vision and I remember it distinctly from three years ago.  It was like a magic trick to them then and again this year.  First we each had some red cellophane which we explored looking through.

Then we made these paddles.  I had to help Adam out quite a bit, it was hard to cut cellophane, but he helped me glue it in and tear the tape.  I didn't give them the cards with the pictures until all of them had the color paddles ready.  I wanted them to all be surprised at the same time.  They were in total shock when an image appeared.

 Lucy and Peter decided to make their own drawings with red scribbles over the top.

It didn't work quite as well, but I loved that this project got them started and launched them into creativity.  It also made them do some serious problem solving when it didn't work as they had hoped.  Maybe it was because the birds weren't blue, they were more purple.  So he tried again.

In this months box we got magnet wands for each child!!!  This was an activity from Day 1 that I just hadn't gotten to.  I cut out the shapes, added paper clips and gave Adam a magnet wand to go fishing.

He would pick up a shape and place it on the shield. Which revealed a secret message when all shapes were in place.  But it was hard, really hard to get them all lined up.

We also experimented with how strong the magnet was and found out how many shapes it could hold at once.  Turns out it can hold them all!

Peter continued to stay very focused and made a pretty cool drawing.

He pointed out that when he held the color paddle over the red sun the center part disappeared and only the outside rays could be seen.

At this point they were ready to move on.  I set up the new theme poster on the wall under our palm tree from the Alphabet Island theme and waited for a good opportunity to explore it with Adam or whoever may be interested.

What's great is that I took no time to prepare and I didn't have it all planned out and scheduled to a T.  We were there at the table, eating lunch and cooling off.  I asked if they wanted to learn about superhero vision and make a color paddle and everyone cheered.  I cut open the bag, popped out the cut outs, handed out the supplies and we were having fun creating in a matter of minutes, if that.

What we didn't get to I keep in the back of my mind for another spontaneous and fun moment or I just open another bag and we continue on with something new.  So easy!

Camping with Mother Goose Time

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This is such an awesome theme from Mother Goose Time!  We are learning all about camping, and guess what?  We are going camping in two weeks.  Day one we learned all about backpacks.  What kid doesn't love a backpack.

We got our My Little Journals in day ones box this month and Adam wanted to draw a picture on it right away.  He drew a backpack, which actually really resembled the shape of a backpack.  

 As always, my big 8 year old even joined in.  He drew a quick face on his backpack.

Then I had him write his last name on the name tag and practice spelling it out loud.  We have a LONG last name.  Other eight year olds may already have theirs memorized, but I have been afraid to tackle ours.

Peter, who is 6, traced and cut out hands for his backpack craft which he ended up turning into a puppet.

Adam, who is 3, has gotten really good at cutting so I gave him the alphabet cards that we were supposed to cut and put in our backpacks.  But this time he decided to try to cut them all together at once.  When I stopped him, he was heart broken and mad.  It took us a while to recover.  I really should know better by now.  I just really have a hard time seeing the beautiful Mother Goose Time tools get destroyed.   But I know the heart of the CEO of MGT and she would be genuinely happy for a child to just enjoy and be happy creating and learning however they see fit.  And cutting three pieces of card stock at once sure would build hand strength!

 When he had finished cutting his letters he put them all in his backpack.

 Peter's puppet just got out of the pool and is wrapped in a green towel.

 He put on his backpack . . .

 and herded chickens out of our house.

When he was in the backyard I took one of the extra name tags and wrote Adam's first and middle name on it with a red marker.  He had already written his "name" on one at the start of the day.  But his name as written by him is a bunch of zigzags.  I asked him to follow the lines of his name and he sat down and made sure to get them all.

 I took a video of him hard at work.  I love watching him concentrate.

And here is my table after they have all cleared out.  My coffee, which is now cold.  The egg we collected from the coop, papers everywhere.

Not to mention soggy cereal that never got finished.  I don't know why I keep doing this. I always jump into Mother Goose Time when we are at the table for breakfast.  It really works the best for us because with out the idea of food being served, my boys wouldn't stop long enough to come to the table.  But so much wasted cereal . . .

Mother Goose Time really can be done anywhere, I just need to get better about bringing it to them.

I put the Look & Find Glasses in Adam's backpack and set his backpack under the theme poster which I have taped on the wall this time.

 I put Adam's two name tags that he did this month on the back of our display board where you can see the progress he has made through out the year.

And then I cleaned up our table leaving just a few of the items they had been working on at their place setting so they can pick it up again at lunch or the next time they run by the table and it happens to catch their eye.  I also left the teacher guide out in my spot so that I could glance at it easily.  I often like to use the discussion questions as conversation starters through out the day.

We pretty quickly moved through this day of lessons and there is so much more that we could do.  We really could dive into each day of lessons for a few actual days.  I just keep telling myself, doing something is better than nothing.

Random Mother Goose Time and Experience God Learning

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Although my follow through of Mother Goose Time lessons may be random, what they teach and how they teach it is not.  That I know for sure.

We have implemented the new 10 drawer system which has lead to bits and pieces of Mother Goose Time done here and there.  I don't see that as a negative though because it has given my 3 year old much more choice and freedom in how he wants to do "school".   He is able to initiate school time which has lead to some really amazing time together.  So this post is going to include random MGT and Experience God activities we have done here and there.

First up is an Experience God lesson.  We have taken a long break from Experience God because I just didn't feel like I was using it to it's full potential.  What we did instead was read little daily devotionals from the Jesus is Calling book or spent some time memorizing scriptures from our Awana book.  Although these are great and quick options, Experience God really makes things interactive and brings a whole new level to biblical truths.  This month is called "God is Eternal" and in week one we are learning that God Always Was, Is and Will Be.  All three boys were sitting at the counter eating breakfast and I was across from them, I thought it was perfect time to pull out the tri-fold paper I had pre-folded.  I painted a pattern on the center section, then folded one side in and then the other.  Then I showed them that the shape was the same in all three sections and I pointed to them and called the first section, "yesterday", middle section "today" and the right section "forever".  Each day has a little blue box with a simple synopsis of the lesson.  "God never changes.  We can trust him to always love us."  Then I added, He is the same yesterday, today and always.

And then we went to the beach for our anniversary with a plus one and ate gelato.

Now onto day 1 learning about islands. We actually completed most of this days lessons.  First Adam got to explore the new foam letters and numbers.  I sent numbers one through six with him to the bathroom sink.