If your child isn’t old enough for school yet, do you need to worry about homeschooling? This week on Home School Heartbeat with host Mike Smith, get the scoop on homeschooling a preschooler!
Mike Smith:
This week, my guest is Vicki Bentley. Vicki is HSLDA’s Early Years educational consultant, and a veteran homeschooling mom. Vicki, thanks so much for joining us this week!
Vicki Bentley:
Thanks, Mike, it’s great to be here with you!
Mike:
Vicki, parents of preschool—aged children may be thinking, “Why preschool? Do we really need a plan? Is this really homeschooling?” What do you say?
Vicki:
Well, I like to remind parents that they’ve already been homeschooling their young children—they’ve taught them to talk—to communicate—they’ve taught them a variety of basic skills as well as character lessons. So preschool should just be an expansion of what they are already doing to motivate and stimulate and teach them. Now, in the context of that natural relationship, parents can just be a little bit more purposeful in providing what Renee and Mike Mosiman refer to in their book The Smarter Preschooler as an “intellectually stimulating environment…”—sort of a lifestyle of learning!” Now, a lot of moms feel more comfortable having some specific goals, so I usually encourage them to have age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate expectations. For preschool, an hour of one-on-one structured learning time is usually plenty—even in four 15-minute blocks, say, and then provide lots of intellectually stimulating play!
Mike:
Vicki, thanks for that great perspective on early learning! And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.
