Reading Together- Homeschool Preschool Ideas

As I shared in my last post, over the month of March I will be giving you many ideas to get started doing homeschool preschool in your home. The ideas I am giving you this week focus on activities to do with your child while you read aloud together. Consider putting some of these into your calendar. Continue to follow along with me through the month of March for more ideas!

Read 20 Minutes a Day

The children’s reading foundation recommends reading with your child at least 20 minutes per day, ages birth and up. I remember reading with my oldest when she was a newborn. We would lay on the floor together and I would hold the book up and read to her, it was a wonderful way to bond!

Take the Reading Pledge

Use Local Resources

Where we live now we have access to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. The Imagination Library sends us 1 book for each registered child ages birth through 5 EVERY month! My children LOVE getting a book every month in the mail. This is a free program, but is not available everywhere. See if your town has access to the imagination library. One thing I love about many (but not all) of the books that come from the imagination library is that they have questions and activities to go with each book on the inside flap, these help us teach our children reading comprehension.

Here are some more reading ideas for you to work on this week:

As You Read:

• Let your child pick the book off the shelf, if they want to read it over and over again try these ideas:
  • read the same book different ways, one time make all the voices different, one time just look at the pictures, one time talk about the feelings or what everyone is doing
• Ask your child about the cover of the book
  • have them identify the cover
  • ask them where the author is (read it to them)
  • ask them where the title is (read it to them)
• Before reading a book, ask your child what they think the book will be about by looking at the cover
• While reading together, clap the syllables of a few words or pictures
• Point to a picture in a book, work with your child to come up with rhyming words (remember, nonsensical words are okay)
• Talk about how the characters in the story feel
• Relate any activities your child has experienced with the story

Relate To The Story:

• Do something related to the story
  • After the book Blueberries for Sal, go pick blueberries together, or can blueberries, or make blueberry jam
  • After the book I am Bunny, talk about what season it is, go and do what bunny does in that season
• Act out the Story
  • After the story, put on a play, acting out what happened in the story
• Draw a picture of what happened in the story, let your child draw whatever they want, do not direct it
  • after they draw, ask them what character they liked best, have them draw the character
• Make food relating to the book

Make it Fun:

• Talk to your child about being their own author, make a book out of paper and have them illustrate a page or 2 each day,  ask them what they drew and narrate the book for them
  • read the story together when it is finished
  • We usually use something like this:

• Start a chapter book at meal time or bedtime
• Get some non-fiction books from the library
• Focus on some books that relate to something your child enjoys (horses, tea, tractors, dogs etc.)
• Try to find an interactive book at the library
  • One of our favorites:

The Treasure Tree

One of my absolute favorite books (and the kids’ favorite) was a gift from a dear friend of ours, The Treasure Tree. The Treasure Tree is all about understanding who God created you to be and how your uniqueness is important.

About the Book

There are 4 friends in the book, 1 representing a different personality. These friends go on an adventure together throughout the book, they learn that it takes all of them, each different, to accomplish their goals.

I believe that our personalities are tendencies that God has created us with, then with experience and nurturing different tendencies may come out in our lives as we grow, learn, and change. It is fun to see what the personalities each of my children have a tendency towards. Understanding who God created them to be also helps me lead and teach them and give them grace.

You can read more in-depth about the 4 animal personalities on the Smalley Personality Inventory. You can also take a free online test on the Smalley Institute Website.

Application

This book is a great introduction to helping your child understand their personality tendencies. You can talk about the strengths and weaknesses of each character. Ask them which character they like best, which one they relate to or think they are most like and why. Talk about their siblings or yourself, ask them who they think you are most like. This discussion can be a great starting point for learning that God made everyone different and discussing how we can all work together towards God’s goal to accomplish something great.

Using Drive Time

If you have children, you are in the car at some point. I often am driving my children to preschool, the library, the church, ballet, or other gatherings and activities. I use “drive time” as a time to teach and connect with my children. Here are some ideas to maximize your drive time:

1. Listen to an Audio Book- our library has picture books accompanied with the audio version, these are only ~15-20 minutes long if you listen to the book read twice. I let each child pick out a picture book/audio set at the library, then we take turns listening to them in the car. When we listen to their book they get to hold the picture book. If your children are older consider a longer audio book that or show, like Adventures in Odyssey.
2. Memorize Bible Verses- Everyone in our family loves Seeds Family Worship music. Seeds Family Worship takes bible verses and has put them into song form, this aids in memorization. Songs are much easier to memorize than just text. There are so many seeds of worship themes, you can pick one to accompany with a spiritual trait your family is working on. The great thing about the CDs is they come with 2 copies, 1 for you and 1 to share. We have 2 of their cds in our car that we rotate through.
3. Use drive time as prayer time. This can be done in so many ways. If your children are too young to pray, use it as a time to pray out loud, they will hear you and learn to pray by example as they grow. If your children are older, ask them how you can pray for them today. If your children are old enough to pray, ask them if they would like to pray. If your children are telling you about something in their day, whether a praise or a concern say “lets pray about this” or “lets praise God for this”. Suggest you praise and acknowledge who God is through prayer. You could keep a list of attributes or names of God to pray through with your children.
4. Play the High/Low game- This game is also great to play at meal time. Each person takes turns sharing a “high” (something they liked) from their day and a “low” (something they didn’t like). Use this time to build conversation. A great conversation builder: “tell me more”.

Passing Down Family Liturgy

I remember singing the doxology at family gatherings, I loved to listen to everyone sing the praise to God together. I often hear other biblical passages or spiritual writings that I wish I knew by heart. I decided that I wanted to also teach them to my children.

I started typing up the writings that I wanted to pass down. I then printed and laminated them and keep them on a ring so I can flip through them at meal time. Often times at dinner, instead of praying we will read one of these writings together, or just listen while one person reads. This also gives us an opportunity to talk about the rich spiritual theology in the writings.

Our collection will grow with time. So far we have:

• The doxology
• The Lord’s prayer (broken down in segments)
• The Niceen Creed
• A prayer of turning to God in Obedience
• How to Pray for someone to Follow Jesus
• Psalm 136 (this one is fun, the kids say “His Love Endures Forever” after every line)

This also works great in conjunction with teaching your children how to pray.

Teaching Your Children to Pray

Prayer is definitely a weakness of mine. I tend to be in communication here and there with the Creator, but to actually sit down and dwell in His presence and have intimate communication is not something I do frequently. As my children begin to follow Christ (two have decided to follow Christ), I endeavor to teach them how to pray, as I also continue to focus on improving this area of my life.

Here are some strategies I have started using in my home:

The Lord’s Prayer

As I shared in another post, one of the writings we read at dinner is the Lord’s prayer. The purpose isn’t just memorizing a section of scripture to repeat in some ritual, the purpose is to teach the parts of prayer. If you break down the Lord’s prayer it is rich with so much purpose behind each phrase. Sometimes we do just say the prayer, other times we say the idea behind each phrase and make up our own prayer, following Jesus’ example, and sometimes we just pick one part of the Lord’s prayer and pray over that area. Here is how we broke it down:

• “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name” – Praise God for who he is, acknowledge one of His many names
• “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” – Pray for God’s will in all areas of your life
• “Give us this day our daily bread” – identify your needs and ask God to provide for them
• “Forgive us our debts” – Ask God to forgive you for your sins  (identify specifics)
• “as we also forgive our debtors” – Ask God to help you to forgive others (identify specifics)
• “and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” – Ask God to give you the strength and wisdom to avoid what is tempting you and overcome that temptation

Care for Those Who are Missing or Hurting

At every meal I ask the children “who is missing”, then I ask who wants to pray for that person. This teaches the children to care for others and notice when they are gone. Praying for the missing person teaches them that we can lift them up in prayer to The One who can watch over that person.

Encouraging Each Other

Another part of prayer is encouraging each other in prayer. Every morning at breakfast I ask my children how I can pray for them today. My daughter is in Kindergarten now and asks that I pray for her safety at school. Sometimes she will ask for other things as well. My middle child usually copies whatever her sister says, sometimes he asks that we also pray for the dog. I give every child a chance to pray over their request in addition to me praying. valuable

12 Days of Christmas and Epiphany

Now that baby Jesus had been born, tomorrow starts the journey of the wise men. In our home they will be traveling 12 Days and we will celebrate their arrival on epiphany.

During each day of their journey we will also learn more about Christ through the 12 names of Jesus ornaments and the book, What Nick and Holly Found in Grandpa’s Attic. This will be our 12 Days of Christmas this year.

Each day at supper (with daddy), we will read one page from our book and hang the corresponding ornament on our table top tree. I love this burlap wrapped tree, I hardly

Fox and Geese

One of my favorite childhood memories is playing fox and geese as a family during the winter. This last winter we taught our children this game. My (then) 4 year old LOVED it. We would turn on our outside lights and play almost every night after daddy got home.

How to Play

Make the track

Fox and Geese is like playing tag, but on a track. To make the track one person makes a large circle in the snow (everyone follows to help make the track visible). The bigger the circle the more you will run. Then starting on one side you cross the middle of the circle cutting it in half, do this again the other way, creating a large x in your circle. We always only did two diameter lines, you can add more if you want, creating more “spokes” in the large wheel (your circle).

Rules of Play

One person is the “fox”, the fox must start the game on the circle. All the “Geese” (everyone else) gather in the middle of the x (where all the spokes cross), this is the safety spot, the fox can’t tag (eat) any geese in this spot.
The fox starts the game by saying “scatter geese” all geese must then run from their safety spot, everyone must stay on the track at all times, no running off or cutting corners. One special rule is that once a goose starts down a path, they can’t turn around until they reach an intersection (we don’t use this role with our little ones). After the Geese have ran from the safety spot, they can return to it and safety at any time. If all geese gather in safety in the middle, the fox again calls “scatter geese”.

When the fox tags a goose they become the new fox and the fox is now a goose. All geese gather in the middle and play starts over.

Christmas Traditions

During October and November I shared a variety of Christmas traditions we have loved in our home. You will find all these posted on the blog. Here is a list of what I shared:

1. Christmas Around the World- Book and Map Activities
2. 12 Days of Christmas Celebration- Following Christmas, Names of Jesus 
3. Travelling Wise men- Fun game teaching about the Wise men travelling to find Jesus
4. Advent Calendar Ideas- We do themed days throughout all of December
5. Searching for Salvation- Hide and seek with a gift
6. Christmas Family Devotional- we will be doing this devotional with Daddy in the evenings
7. Making an Advent Wreath– a fairly new tradition for us
8. Decorating Party- Have the family join in on the decorating fun, even the little ones!

I hope your Christmas season if off to a great start!