How and Why We Home Preschool

Because I'm a stay-at-home mom, people often ask me if I plan on homeschooling, or if we will send Pumpkin to preschool. While we haven’t made any decisions about kindergarten and beyond (we’ve got time!), our plan for the time being is to do home preschool, or as we call it, “mommy preschool.” I’m going to start with why and how we home preschool, and over the next few days and weeks, I’ll share some of my preschool “lesson plans” with you. (I’m laughing at the term “lesson plans” because you can hardly call them that!)

Why

1. Pumpkin is not even two yet, so you might be wondering why this is even an issue. But if you’ve spent any time around her, you probably know that she is as sharp as a whip. She’s basically a walking sponge (a very cute sponge) and loves to learn. In fact, I’ve noticed that she gets bored (and mischievous) without a little extra stimulation.
2. Preschool is not cheap. In most preschools, kids are not simply being babysat. There are rigorous state standards for education, health, and safety that must be met, and I’ve worked with some skilled early childhood educators who go above and beyond those standards. But, there is a price for that, and we just can't afford that right now.
3. I enjoy it. Though my degree is in social work, most of my jobs have been in the education field, in some variation. For me, this is less of a chore, and more of a fun activity.
4. As Pumpkin’s teacher, I have the ability to tailor her education to her personality, strengths, weaknesses, interests, learning style etc. in a way that isn’t as easy in a school setting.

How

1. I start by picking a theme. I like to pick themes that I feel would be of interest to Pumpkin, or are relevant to the season, current events, or upcoming activities.
2. I plan activities, books, videos, and outings that are relevant to the theme. Pinterest is a great place to go for ideas. We also rely heavily on the library for books. I don’t like to overuse video clips, but they can be really helpful for showing things that are not found locally (honestly, how else are we going to learn what noise a baby tapir makes?). YouTube can be a powerful learning tool, but it’s important to remember that kids should be supervised, because they have a knack for finding things that shouldn’t be found.
3. We go at our own pace. We generally do one theme for about two weeks, but we may go shorter or longer depending on Pumpkin’s interest level. If we come across an activity or concept that is too advanced for her, we don’t stress about it. We either take our time with it, or just move on. Similarly, if we have a really busy week, I don’t worry about preschool activities.
4. We PLAY! Pumpkin is still really young, so our lessons are not very academic. We focus on gross and fine motor skills, imagination, reading, and so on. The beauty of home preschool is that it’s not school, so we have the freedom to make it a casual, fun learning experience!

So there you have it! This is why and how we’ve chosen to home preschool for the time being. We’re not completely set in our ways, because life often brings changes that are outside our control, and our decisions will always be based on our children’s personalities and needs.

Click HERE for our preschool unit on birds!