Part II – Starting to Homeschool Your Young Child?

In Part I of Starting to Homeschool Your Young Child, we discussed the negative effects of starting schoolwork too young and instead approaching learning in a more informal fashion.

Today, I would like to offer you a few more ideas as to other ways a child can learn at this young age (3-6 years).  These are only a few suggestions; there are probably many more out there and I’d love to hear your contributions.

Children love to help their mommy’s when they are so very little.  Do not discourage them.  Yes, you could do the job faster and better than your small child but this is a tremendous learning time that pays big dividends for you in later years.  Teach them to iron simple items like cloth napkins and handkerchiefs.  It is very possible for them to do this without getting hurt.  Teach them how to be cautious when using the hot iron.  Do not ever leave them alone, of course, but stay with them being watchful that they don’t get careless.

Cooking, baking and meal preparation are some of the favorite things for a child.  Setting the table, helping unload the dishwasher, cleaning appliance fronts… you get the idea.

Dr. Raymond Moore, that great homeschooling pioneer, wrote this in his book Home Built Discipline:

“Camaraderie and communication in the early years help to guarantee accessibility and loyalty in the crucial teen years.”

Working with your children is a wonderful time to fellowship and form bonds.

Spend time outside.  Take walks and bike rides.  Talk about the flowers, insects and birds.  Drop little tidbits of knowledge you have gained.  Be interested in what you observe and if you have no interest, pretend until it becomes a part of you.  Until you learn to appreciate all the wonders around you.  Your child will also become enthralled with what he sees as you set the example.

We have a friend from South Africa that runs a wildlife rehabilitation center.  You can read their blog here about all the animals they are rescuing.  A few years ago he and his wife came to Arizona and stayed with us for a few days.  This man’s passion and knowledge of wildlife kept us enthralled as he would explain the nature that was around us and that we looked upon as common.   Be excited about what you see and marvel at the detail and intricacies that God has created.

Make crafts together, build puzzles, give your son a good quality wooden train set, let them help fold laundry, plant a small garden or grow something in a container.  Observe a seed sprouting.  Learn Bible songs with actions. Play hopscotch, jump rope or throw a ball back and forth.

These are only a few ideas and they don’t all have to be done with you.  Let the child have some solitude.  You do not need to be playing/working with him every moment of the day.  Their imagination will develop more by themselves than if you plan every minute with some activity.

Let me leave you with a quote of Charlotte Mason’s that I feel fits perfectly into our subject.

“This horse-in-a-mill round of geography and French, history and sums, was no more than playing at education; for who remembers the scraps of knowledge he laboured over as a child? And would not the application of a few hours in later life effect more than a year’s drudgery at any one subject in childhood?”

From Home Education pg.99

Click here to read Part I – Starting to Homeschool Your Young Child?