Welcome to Preschooling at Home

The unfortunate truth is that working moms often miss seeing much of their younger children's development (first steps, first words, new discoveries, etc.) Homeschooling, especially as children get older, allows moms more time to interact and get to know their children better. Many working moms are tired from their workday, and the few concentrated hours in the evenings, when energy and emotional levels are low, are not ideal times for interaction.  J. Michael Smith, President HSLDA

  Lesson Plan for Preschool and Early Grades

A Multi-Sensory Approach to Teaching the Alphabet

Submitted by Kathleen Wild

Click Here to print in Word

 Materials:

1. Dry beans or rice or colored sand.

2. Card stock paper for the alphabet letters A-Z.  You will need double the paper if you are working on upper and lower case alphabets.

3. Elmers Glue

4. One #2 pencil

5. 6 feet to 12 feet piece of clothes line.

6. Duck Tape to attach the clothes line to the wall in any appropriate room, or thumb tacks.

7. Spring loaded wooden clothes pins.  You will need one clothes pin per upper and lower case letter.

 Directions: 

1. Cut the card stock into 6 inch by 6 inch cards allowing one card per upper case letter and one piece for each lower case letter.

2. Now have you and your preschooler print each letter as big as possible on the 6x6 card stock paper

3. Now the fun begins! Using the Elmers Glue, trace over one letter at a time.

4. Now your child can place the rice or the dried beans or colored sand of your choice on top of the glue for the letter A and so on.  Let dry for 5 minutes sitting each letter on the table. 

5. Now find an appropriate room and hang up a temporary clothes line using your clothes line and the duck tape to secure your line to a wall.  You may also use thumb tacks if you have a wooden area to attach it to.

6. After you have allowed the letter to dry for about five minutes, secure the letter to the clothes line using one or two clothes pins and allow to dry for 10 more minutes.

7. Continue this process until all letters are completed.

Suggestions:  You can also make numbers with this process as well.

 You may want to store the cards in an 8x12 envelope or in a plastic container. Have your child say the letter and touch and trace the bean or rice or sand letters with their fingers. Then have your child try to print the letter on paper using a pencil. This is a multi-sensory approach to teaching.  The child will trace the letters or numbers, using a pencil then feel the letters or numbers with their index finger.  The final approach is to print the letter on paper. 

Published at www.PreschoolingAtHome.org

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From Agape Press News Briefs April 19, 2006

...An Australian childcare advocate is changing his tune following a negative study on the impact of daycare. Australian psychologist Steve Biddulph, a former advocate of daycare and other childcare options, conducted a study, which revealed that daycare slows the development of the brain in young children. Denise Kanter of the Morningstar Education Network says the psychologist found from his own neurobiological research evidence that "clearly -- in his words -- suggests that at least during the first two years of life, the brain develops ... at its optimum when it's [receiving] one-to-one care with a loving caretaker, such as a mother, father, or grandparent." According to Kanter, Biddulph's studies challenge the pro-daycare "propaganda" that has been prominent for decades of the childcare debate. "For years we have said daycare's okay and preschool is okay, and as they're doing more research into the actual brain development, they're finding the opposite is true," the Morningstar spokeswoman notes. Unfortunately, she points out, the public has been hearing that daycare is okay for the last 30 years, and the tide of public opinion is often difficult to turn. "So it's going to take some time to reach parents and show them the new technology -- that we can actually see what's happening within the brain and the development of that brain, and that daycares and preschools are not places for optimum development of children," Kanter says. [Bill Fancher] Source Link