The following is a lightly edited version of a summary document I wrote for myself, to get my own ideas clear on how to teach my little boy, age 3 years 3 months. I’m posting this to get feedback but also to see how other people who are “actively teaching” their preschoolers are organizing their time. Also, bear in mind that this is just my latest version…I’ve changed my approach 3-4 times in the last year as I explore what’s best to do. Next month we might be doing something else (although I hope not, thinking through all this stuff is hard work!).
My strategy for teaching my boy changes regularly as I think through (what I call) the philosophy of education. I often lose track of what practical suggestions I make, so this will be the single central document in which my current strategy is contained. I will write it in such a way that someone could replicate, or at least make some sense of, what I am doing.
- Prepare a list of broad subjects and prioritize them (roughly).
Currently, the subjects I have divided the subjects I am teaching my boy as follows (these are the headings in a “Curriculum and Progress†document): Language Arts; Mathematics; Social Studies (includes History and Geography); Science; Art and Music; and Practical Skills and Exercise and Fun. This is also approximately the priority in which I place these things, although Exercise and Fun is to be done every day.
I don’t currently have any plan about precisely how often, or when, to teach what subjects. But, generally speaking, I do two or three (or more) “sessions†on different aspects of Language Arts daily; Math once a day; Social Studies once a day; Science about every other day (but since we started Chemistry for Every Kid, two or three times a day); Art and Music about every other day; and Practical Skills somewhat less often.
- List projects under each subject, and update the list of projects weekly.
A “project†can be otherwise described as a topic or focus. I won’t list my actual projects here, except to give an example, as follows. Under Language Arts I currently have the following: Read lots of casual storybooks; Read and get to appreciate chapter books and “literatureâ€; Get familiar with poetry; Vocabulary Project; Learning to read independently; and Penmanship.
Generally, I think of our educational tasks as falling under some specific project or other. When we read a book, for example, it is usually with the purpose of pursuing some goal associated with a project.
While there need not be a lot of change from week to week, I should still review the list of projects weekly. There are some projects that are either on hold or have nothing going on under them. In these cases, I should either add something, or remove the project (perhaps into a separate document or section).
- Create a simple list of topics.
In order to know “where I’m going†and have a reasonable idea of which topics to take up next—for example, topics to look for books about—I have made a list of topics, arranged by subject. There need not be a lot of detail at first, but as I go through my books, presentations, etc., everything should eventually have a “home.†For each topic, I will have goals briefly stated such as “introduced,†“well covered,†and “covered in depth,†or for long, important books (others are not in the topic list), “started,†“halfway,†and “finished.â€
Next, I identified which topics I have started seriously on and which I intend to continue teaching seriously. I decided that there are rather too many of these. So—over however many months, at my boy’s pace—finish with those topics, and don’t start any new ones until I have come down to a number of topics that I’m more comfortable with. The list should still be plenty big so as to accommodate my boy’s changeable tastes; if he seems to be bored with everything, then regardless, it’s time to start some new topics.
- Do a weekly review.
4a. Review and update the topic list.
The topic list becomes my basic “assignment guide†as well as record-keeping tool. Do not put a lot of detail in terms of specific books (unless they are really long and meaty books) or presentations. Instead, make a vague, personal, “global assessment†of where my boy is. If it seems to you that reading a certain two books constitutes “covered in depth,†for example, then so it is.
4b. For each project, plan to get books and other materials weekly (Fridays), at least.
Since it is possible to get through some projects relatively quickly, and since my boy is constantly making progress, I should keep the various tasks under the projects updated, to make sure that we’re always prepared to do “the next thing.†That means updating the progress of various projects but also adding to the projects.
Updating materials will require that I sometimes think through the next topics.
But what does take a lot of thought is developing a fairly clear idea of the direction we’re traveling in, and how to get there.
4c. Determine what books you are working through.
It is a bad idea to try to read through too many longer books at one time. So, list the books you’re currently working on. Use this list of books when making your weekly plan. Keep the list limited; if we have too many, try not to add new books until an old book is removed from the list.
Don’t bother trying to read a long, slightly-advanced nonfiction book that my boy will be bored by; prepare to read it first by reading simpler books, and looking at presentations, on the same subject.
4d. Every week, print out and then follow a checklist.
Every week, prepare some sort of checklist of tasks (or, in some cases, task types) for the coming week. The intention here is not to direct specific studies at specific times, but to make sure that we do cover a full range of topics over the course of a week.