Preschool for Westley

Westley and I started doing preschool at home on September 4th. Our first day consisted of lessons in math, science, social studies, and reading & phonics.

I first had Westley put together his giant Alphabet train floor puzzle. He has done it so many times, but I think this was the first time that he did it without me giving him hints as to what letter came next. Every time he asked for help, I had him sing the alphabet song to the letter he had just finished and then find out what was next. Then he had to locate the letter from the puzzle pieces himself. After that, we did a phonics review of the letter sounds with a Hooked on Phonics CD and flash cards that I purchased earlier this year.

Math came next. I had purchased a Saxon Math homeschool program. It's actually for kindergarten, but it starts out so basic that I thought I'd give it a try. The first part of the first lesson was on the calendar. We talked about the calendar and how it tells us the month, day of the week, and the year and also the date. We filled out the first few days of September in his student notebook calendar, colored a green/orange AB pattern on the days, and filled in the numbers up through the 4th. I think the calendar is a very abstract thing for a 4-year-old, though, and it may be a while before he gets it. After the calendar, the lesson was on pattern blocks. He had only ever looked at the pattern blocks in their packaging when the math program arrived in the mail, so he'd never used them before. I was proud that the first design he made was so symmetrical!

Science came next. We have been talking about the human body since he asked about it last Sunday. This week we are studying the main parts (arms, legs, head, feet, eyes, mouth, etc.), the five senses, and the skeletal and circulatory systems. We will also touch on the other main systems (nervous, digestive, etc.), but only briefly. So on the first day, we put together a puzzle of the body. On the second day, we put together a skeleton while we named the different bones.

We did social studies next. We talked about Labor Day and all the different jobs people can have. We then put together a Labor Day alphabet book using a print shop computer program I have.

All in all, a good day, and Westley is still excited. All this morning he kept asking if we were doing school again, and was quite excited when I told him we would be. We will do it Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday each week.