Preschool Homeschool | October Lessons and Activities

Hello!

October's the third month of our interest-led approach in our homeschool journey. This means that our lessons and activities revolved around the interests of our son. In our case, his interests change every day so I opted not to plan ahead and just went with the flow. This approach is working for us so I guess will stick with it for the meantime. You can read about our August and September activities here.



Phonics and Reading

This month, we reviewed the sounds that the letters A to P makes. I was delighted to know that Little V still remembers each sound. Yay! Because of his accomplishment in our review, we proceeded and lightly explored the sounds of letters Q to Z. We did not use any books or worksheets for this instead, we discussed them whenever we come across a word that has the beginning sound of Q to Z. For example, while putting on his socks one afternoon, I told him that the beginning sound for the word "sock" has the "s" sound and that correspond to the letter S. We plan to further examine the letters Q to Z this November and December.

activities for young kids, phonetics
Reviewing the letter sounds using this basket printable from thisreadingmama.com

In order to reinforce our lessons on sight words, I created small cards of six sight words, placed magnetic strips on these, and mounted them right below our weather chart. I just want to make sure he sees them every now and then and be reminded. My son sometimes would call my attention and ask me how those words are read. I'll change these once he has mastered reading them.




Science and Geography

Quite frankly, with the zillion questions that Little V asks me about the world, our bodies, insects, animals, seasons, and places I can't recall the exact lessons we have discussed. Maybe next time I should jot them down in a notebook. What do you think?





Math and Fine Motor

Little V continues to amaze us with his ideas and block creations. I always enjoy creating houses and cars with him. These activities has helped him in his fine motor. He's getting better at his grip of the pen and begins to show steadiness while cutting paper.

Baby Bus app for kids

When my tablet was still working, I downloaded some Baby Bus applications for my son. With these applications, our lessons on shapes, alphabet, counting, and antonyms were reinforced. So when I finally decided to get a smartphone for myself, Baby Bus was one of the first apps I downloaded.

Right now, my son's working on the apps about counting, pairs, and puzzles. I am not worried about his screen time because we started limiting him to it when he was only 2. He only works on them at a max of 10 minutes at a time, and returns my phone to me without me having to remind him.




Arts

homeschool preschool ideas

In one of the bookstores near our place we found (above photo) an activity set with crystals for just Php10 ($0.22). I've seen these at a mall previously but never bothered to examine them because I know that my son would not have the needed attention span to complete this activity. True enough, with the set we bought, I finished what he started.

Corduroy is still one of his favorite books. One day we decide to make a bed for his teddy bear he named, Corduroy. We took out a used shoe box, painted it with tempera paints, then used an old infant pillow as mattress.

Little V's Corduroy. He doesn't have green overalls yet, I don't  know how to sew one.


Out of nowhere, he found an interest in unicorns. He didn't know what they were called and I have no idea what he was referring to so I asked him to describe to me the animal. It turned out to be a unicorn. So our lesson for that day was all about unicorns.

Unicorn printables


On the other hand, I bought a clear book where I can store my son's paintings.




Religion

Another kid app that I downloaded was the Bible App for Kids. I have been wanting to download this for months but since I did not have any smartphone or tablet then, I was only able to get hold of this a few weeks ago. This is a free app and you need to download the chapters/stories. At the moment we have already downloaded two stories: the creation, and the first Christmas. It is interactive and you can also hear a narrative so no need for you to read it to your child. 
Bible App for Kids




Life Lessons

On the last week of October, we taught our son how to properly clean himself while he takes a bath. As of writing, he has been taking a bath all by himself for almost a week now. Oh! My son's growing up too fast!

Another life lesson we focused on this month is about returning items he used at public play areas. At home we are still working on him putting away his toys after play time - he prefers that I clean up with him. We had to explain and remind him that the toys he used at the play gyms should be returned to where he got them so that other kids can also play with those.

Little V returning the lego set he used at a play area inside a lounge of a mall



These are some of the lessons and activities we covered for the month of October. Most of the time we let him play which is really good for him.

He'll turn four in a few months and every single day he is getting better in his vocabulary. In fact, he now talks in English even if we use Filipino as our primary language at home. As much as I would like to limit his TV time for an hour or two a day, he's learning a lot through Disney Channel so I let him watch as I supervise and answer his questions (it also gives me free time to do chores..yeah, I'm guilty!)


Do you have any activities to recommend that we should try? 

Comments

  1. Hi kat,

    I just want to ask when we can start homeschooling? I mean what age? My son is now 1.9 years old. Is it too early?

    TIA.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Jen! :) Thank you for dropping by and for your question. I'm not an expert in early child development but let me answer based on our experience. :)

      It's never too early to homeschool a child. In fact, you're already probably doing it now.

      What would you like your son to learn at his age? For us, we focus on life lessons and character-building. We are taking it slowly on academics since he's only 3; but it really depends on how ready your child is. When my son was 1.9, he has mastered identifying the letters (upper case only) of the alphabet - I learned later that it's better to start with the lower case. He's also able to identify colors and shapes. For phonics, we only started on it last June. There are other kids at the same age with my son who are great readers already; it really boils down on the readiness of the child and the best people to assess it are the parents. I hope this helps :)

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  2. I like how you do the interest-led approach, Kat. Unicorns kung unicorns! Rio's interests have been consistent so far kaya trains kung trains pa rin kami madalas. I think The Learning Basket has an upcoming workshop on Preschool Homeschool. Very helpful ito for Mommy Jen who is contemplating about homeschooling. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Nadia :) Oo nga pala TLB has an upcoming workshop!

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    2. Jen, check out The Learning Basket. They have an upcoming workshop ob preschool homeschool. Thanks to Nanay Nadia for reminding me :)

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  3. Great work Kat! Love the fun lessons! What is your favorite restaurant? Remember to add it to your Besty List! http://www.thebesty.com/petitemommasworld

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