Hello! Today, we are going to be talking about teaching in the early years. I know as a parent I often discount the preschool years because they seem so young. I have questioned how important it is to be intentionally teaching them. I also feel like there is the other side of this coin where I am determined to raise a small genius, so I attempt to cram everything into their heads.

I think the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle of those two places. So, relax and grab a cup of coffee (or your favorite drink), and let´s see if we can figure this out.

I want to share with you some tips about preschooling the easy way. I like to think of preschool as the beginning of a journey toward a lifetime of learning. Preschool is where it all starts, and it is the perfect time to give our children the gift of learning.

Let me introduce myself to you! My name is Kaycee Hobbs, and I am the proud mother of seven beautiful children! My husband and I fostered for several years before we “retired” so not only are we raising our children, but we have fostered several too. I wouldn´t trade these experiences for all the money in the world because they have taught me to be a better mom and person. I have learned so much on this journey and I am thrilled I get to share it with you all.

As you can imagine all those kiddos are very busy little bees and so I am often scrambling to get everything done. I don´t know about you but sometimes I feel very overwhelmed and tired. I really want to make sure that my children are getting all their needs met and learning everything they need to learn.

Let me tell you about our preschooler! Her name is Georgie Lou. She is a spunky, vibrant three-year-old who seems to already know it all. Let me share a little bit of her story… We had been foster parents for about ten years when we informed our agency that we were done. We were waiting on the adoption court date for our sixth child, Nikki, and then we were going to close our license.

Well, God had other plans because, within just a few days of our notification, we received a phone call. They told us that Nikki´s biological sister had been born and needed a home. Would we be willing to do it? I mean, how could we say no? So, we told them YES and I am so glad we did! She is the pride and joy of our family and not one of us can imagine life without her.

This brings us to our topic! I want to share with you some tips that I have learned to help keep me balanced while teaching our preschoolers. Because I have seven children, I have learned a trick or two so we can make this as easy as possible.

Goals of Preschool

Create the Love of Learning

My number one goal for my preschool-aged child is to develop their lifelong love of learning. I want them to find learning to be fun and motivating. I want them to see that when you love to learn you can take yourself to places that you have never been while doing things that you would have never thought you would do.

I don´t want to make their learning time such drudgery as I attempt to cram their heads full of facts. These early years are the time to show them that this is just the beginning of the rest of their lives.

Explore their Curiosity

I want them to ask questions about what is in their little heads so we can explore those answers together. I want them to able to experience new things through their five senses. I want to create memories as we attempt to figure out their interests. This is just the beginning of an amazing journey where we get to see what these beautiful little people are going to turn out to be.

Academics

Now, I would be lying to you if I told you that academics didn´t matter. That is simply not true! We want to teach them their ABC´s and 123´s because that is especially important. However, we must do it in a way that creates the love of learning and allows them to explore curiosities. It all about how we do it!

What do Preschool-Aged Children Need?

Consistency

When we brought our first son, Sam, home from the adoption agency I was so nervous! Like any new mother, I was determined to be perfect and do ALL the right things. While those intentions are very honorable, I soon learned they are unrealistic.

My honorable intentions soon became a heavy load of regret and discouragement because whatever I tried; I could not be perfect. I know, I know! Even now as I write this, I cringe at how ridiculous it sounds. This concept applies to our children´s education too.

There are days when we hit the academics one hundred percent and then there are days where we fail because things went the opposite direction. Over the years, I have learned it´s about consistency. It´s teaching them whenever the moment presents itself and during bursts of time throughout the day.

Intentional Teaching

What in the world does that mean? Well, I explain it better in this video but let´s go ahead and break it down a little bit here.

I don´t know about you guys but I struggle with editing myself. I have all these big plans, then I go to implement them, and it all falls apart because I was not intentional enough. The word intentional means to do something on purpose or to be deliberate.

When I am teaching our preschoolers, I want to focus on the things that matter most. I want to teach with a purpose. Imagine you are going on a trip and you are only able to take one suitcase. As you begin to pack, you gather everything you could possibly think of. It soon becomes very apparent that you don´t have enough room in your suitcase and you must make some choices. So, you begin to choose the items you cannot live without and things begin to fit much easier in that suitcase.

It is the same way with our children´s education! When we teach them what they really need to know, we no longer have to cram it all it. We can teach with purpose knowing we are doing what is best for our child.

Do you want to know a little secret? When we teach intentionally, we develop confidence in ourselves because we know we have a plan and while it will change, we´ve got this!

Experiences

Preschoolers need to experience what they are learning through their five senses and their play. They do not need a bunch of worksheets!

Preschoolers need to be messy… wait, did I lose you on that one? Yep, they need to be messy so they can see how things feel. They need to play games to learn things. This is the time when those memories start, and you can make the most of them!

What Should I Be Teaching My Preschooler?

We have talked about being intentional about what we teach so that brings us to the question, what does my preschool-aged child need to know? Here is a list that I use:

1. Alphabet
2. Colors
3. Numbers
4. Opposites
5. Shapes
6. Size
7. Body Parts
8. Fine Motor Skills
9. Night and Day
10. Emotions

These are the area of academics that I focus on during their preschool years.

You can download this list as a FREE Printable at the end of this post HERE.

How Many Hours of Instruction Does My Preschool-Aged Child Need?

Believe it or not, your preschool child does not need long hours of teaching every day. I like to teach in bursts of time. What is a burst of time? Well, for that age level, I plan to teach her in intervals of fifteen to thirty minutes once or twice daily.

It really depends on what we have going on that day and how much she can ingest. As she gets older and more interested, I will increase it. At this age, it is OK to follow your child´s lead! I let her determine when she is ready in her development to spend more time on her schoolwork.

You can teach them during the morning, afternoon, or evening time. It needs to happen whenever it is most convenient for your family. You can set a specific time that you work together daily or can set a reminder on your phone to do your teaching.

The key to success is not to be doing the same thing for the entire learning time. You need to mix things up quite a bit. In fact, if they can’t sit still, then plan a learning game outside to give them the opportunity to run off some of those wiggles. Get them up and moving while they are learning is the perfect way to engage them and make those lessons stick!

The Secret Ingredient to Preschool Success

If you do nothing else at all, read to your child! Did you know what about 85% of brain development happens in the first five years? I was stunned when I learned this and then it all made sense to me. When we read to our child in those early years, we are influencing their journey toward lifelong learners.

Think of it this way… Let´s say I wanted to plant a garden. I would simply run to my local store and purchase a variety of garden plants of all the veggies and fruits we love. I would come home and dig some random holes to plop them into. Do you think I would have a garden that would give us what we need to feed our family?

Absolutely not! If I want a garden that will be successful, I need to find the best spot for us to plant our garden, plan what I want to put into our garden, prepare the ground, and THEN buy the plants. After I have planted it, I will need to continue to care for them by watering and weeding it.

It´s the same idea with our children! We need to prepare their brains for lifelong learning and the secret ingredient is reading!

The foundation of every lesson is a good book! It really doesn´t matter what age my child is, whenever I am building their lessons, I am starting with a book. This gives them the chance to learn it and then build upon it with other activities.

Georgie Lou´s Preschool Library

Would you like to see the books I have chosen for Georgie Lou´s Preschool Library? She begs me to read these books to her!

Free Preschool Activity Guide

After I read the book to her, I like to do an activity that goes along with the book. This helps her concentrate and be able to act out what she has learned. The Preschool Activity Guide helps me do those activities. I do not have to try and think of something in the moment, I can just refer to my activity guide!

The Preschool Activity Guide has 15 activities that will get the child up and moving while they learn the topic you are teaching. You will notice that the topics that a preschooler should know are represented in the preschool library I have chosen.

If you order any of the books from Georgie Lou´s Preschool Library from The Hobbs Crew, we will send you a FREE Preschool Activity Guide. Hooray!!

Where do I start?

When we are starting something new it is often overwhelming! Maybe this is your first child and like me, you want to do everything perfectly. Or maybe this is your second, third, or fourth child, and at the beginning of the day, you have BIG plans which come to a screeching halt because you have zero energy to implement them. I know what comes next because I have experienced it, the dreaded guilt! I feel like a failure because it is bedtime and I realize I forgot to “school” one of the children!

These reasons are why I came up with the idea to put a Preschool Homeschool Learning Kit together! If I did all my thinking and planning ahead of time, I would be a lot more successful and consistent. Our youngest daughter would not get the short end of the stick every day because I ran out of time.

The Preschool Learning Kit

I have created a method that I have used with our last three children where I create a learning kit. With a little planning, I have filled a tote box with everything I need to teach our preschooler. Now, it´s not just a stack of worksheets and some pencils but instead, it´s an activity box where we can sit down, have some fun together, and engage in a lesson.

Not only am I more consistent, but I am also teaching her through play and hands-on activities which engages multiple areas of her brain. This method refines her skills and increases her retention.

Would you like a step by step tutorial on how to build a preschool learning kit for your child?

In the beginning, I like to sit down and make an individualized plan for our preschool-aged child. I like to think about what they like to do, what their current favorite characters are, and what our goals for them are in the future. I use these thoughts as the inspiration for their learning kit.

Would you like a preschool experience that is customized to your child´s specific needs and challenges?

I mentioned that we are a foster and adoptive family. When we started our journey, we knew we would have to face a lot of special needs along the way and we were exactly right! When I have a child with a special need or a learning challenge then I like to take those things into consideration too.

I want to think of ways to help them learn and grow while overcoming their obstacles. I have learned over the years if I can build this into their daily work or routine, I see progress more quickly!

How about letting them learn about the things they love and are into?

If I pull out a princess coloring page and call Georgie Lou over to join me, can you guess what happens? She gets really excited when she sees a princess! She loves them! Let´s just say I use this opportunity to teach her about her colors as we work together creating the most beautiful princess picture she has ever seen.

What has happened here? I have engaged her with something I know she loves! If I had tried this particular example with our son, Alex, I could guarantee you it would not have ended the same way.

When we teach to the interest of our child, we are connecting with them and in the end, it will give us the result we are looking for… They will learn!

The Preschool Adventure Course

I would like to share with you all the details about the Preschool Adventure Course! I created this course for parents and educators to use so they could build a preschool curriculum just for their child.

In this course, we will build a preschool curriculum that is customized to your child, their needs, and learning style. I have broken this down into 5 easy steps:

1. We will brainstorm about all your child´s favorite things! We will set goals for the year.
2. We are going to search for FREE ideas and activities that will capture your child´s attention. I will show you where to find some of the best FREE preschool products out there.
3. We will figure out what items we need to stock our learning activity kit with. I will share an awesome trick that I use so that I can keep using the activities over and over again until the child has mastered the concept.
4. We will organize all our supplies and activities in our learning kit. I will share with you my trick for keeping it organized all year long!
5. The MOST valuable step in this entire course! How to create a lesson plan in a way that will engage your child in their learning time. I have a special recipe I have created in my ten plus years of homeschooling and I will share it with you! No more BORING lessons but instead an engaging experience with all their favorite things.

Bonus: Free Printable Pack

The Free Printable Pack will guide you through the steps of creating the ultimate learning activity box for YOUR child.

Bonus: Motor Skill Activity List

I will include a list of motor skills that I use to create learning games for our children. If I see that they are bored or need to get those wiggles out, I will call an impromptu game. This list helps me not have a brain freeze as I try to think of something fun to do at a moment´s notice.

Two Ways to Participate in The Preschool Adventure Course

The Preschool Adventure Course: Facebook Edition

Once you have purchased the course, you will be invited into a Facebook group where you will have access to me as your Tour Guide or coach. I will be available to brainstorm about your specific child during the Preschool Adventure Course.

Now Enrolling to begin on Monday, 10/12/20!

The Facebook Group will remain open indefinitely so you can go refer to course as much as you need too. During the week of Monday, 9/14/20- Friday, 9/18/20, I will be available in the Facebook Group to answer any questions and brainstorm about your child´s kit.

The Preschool Adventure Course: Email Edition

Once you have purchased the course, you will receive the first email the following business day. I will contact you to schedule your one on one consultation where we will be able to brainstorm about your specific child. I will be available to provide any support and guidance via email during the Preschool Adventure Course. If you have questions, just ask away!

Would you like to embark on this adventure with me?

I would love to have you join us! Thank YOU for reading! I hope this article helped you relax and have fun with your little one! They grow so fast!

FREE Printable: What Should I Be Teaching My Preschooler?

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Enter in your first name and email address and it will “unlock” the PDF for you to download directly from this website. If you have any issues, please reach out to us at thehobbscrew@gmail.com.