If you have read any of our other homeschooling articles, you’ll know we are big into classical education. One proponent of the classical method for the preschool years is that the adult is the curriculum. Small children observe everything we do, and they are learning from watching and copying us. So a big part of preschool homeschooling is being conscious of our actions and words as a parent.
But, about a year and a half ago, I discovered Maria Montessori was Catholic, and looked into her educational theories.
So, while the classical method is our main educational model, for the early years, we are incorporating a lot of Maria Montessori’s techniques. First of all, Montessori designed educational materials for the preschool years. Second, she wrote a lot about how preschool aged children learn. You can read more of what I have to say on this in my articles 12 Montessori Principles and Montessori + Byzantine.
Now that you know a bit about what our educational philosophies are, let’s get into what we do during our homeschool day.
Reading Aloud
Reading aloud is an educational priority from the time a baby is a newborn. By reading aloud, we expose our children to language and grammar that might not otherwise come up in conversation. This is why we not only read picture books, but large paperbacks as well. When Little Fox was 2 we listened to the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy on audio-books. I read aloud to her books about how to homeschool, and other non fiction works.
Now I try to get our major read aloud time done during breakfast. I make their breakfast, then read aloud from Tan Book’s history series The Story of Civilization. (Then I have my breakfast after I finish a chapter). We don’t get a chapter in every day, but we usually manage this at least three times in a week. Otherwise I try to do a bit of read aloud time in our homeschooling room, which can be from their books or from mine.
At the very least, we at least read aloud picture books every day at bedtime.
Preschool Math
My next preschool priority is math. I love math, so I really hope my children will love it too. This is one area where I have invested some money to get good Montessori materials rather than DIY. We also have purchased a variety of math picture books. Little Fox particularly loves the Sir Cumference series. While many mathematical concepts are beyond their years, by reading aloud math stories to them, my girls learn to love and enjoy math, rather than be frightened of concepts even when they do not fully understand.
English Language Topics
Reading and Writing skills are the other priority skills for preschool. This is because the study of all other subjects are founded upon the ability to read, and write. Originally we were going to wait until higher ages to focus on writing, but Montessori teaches writing before reading. So now we have something of a combo. Reading and writing are still taught separately. But we are still giving our girls opportunities to practice letters even if they do not know how to pronounce them.
For Little Badger, she is working on pre-writing skills. We are teaching her the correct way to hold a pencil, letting her colour often, and giving her many fine motor activities. She is a bit young for learning to read but she is eager to do her sister’s learning activities so we will do some sandpaper letters.
Little Fox can write many letters, though she can only consistently read b, k, and m. We still do sandpaper letters, though she has aged out of the material. (Probably because I started using the Montessori method “late.” This is still fine, but leaves some skill catch up work). I have laminated letter worksheets which she loves to practice writing with, by using a dry erase marker. Little Badger is allowed to scribble with the dry erase on some worksheets suited to her age range, but we aren’t really doing that kind of academics with the little one yet.
The Other Subjects
All other subjects are done based on the Montessori Method. We have Geography, Science, Sensory, and Practical life. There are some works for these topics on their shelves. I teach them to use these works, and then the children can access them whenever they want throughout homeschool time.
I do not make them do any of these subjects daily. And that is particularly because, in the preschool years, children learn primarily through play. Little Fox and Little Badger are learning to be independent, make choices, and do things on their own. At this point I learn more about their interests and what skills they are ready to work on by observing them than by guiding them to different materials.
The Byzantine Life Homeschool Day
Recently I put together a video of what homeschool time looks like in our family. You can check it out on our Byzantine Life YouTube page here. Not pictured in the video, we also like to start our homeschool day with icon corner time (although sometimes it ends our homeschool period instead).
One final thing we do for homeschool is we start with the youngest child. Once the youngest has some one and one time and becomes absorbed in an activity, I go on to work with the next oldest child.
The Byzantine Life
If you enjoyed this week’s article, you might also be interested in reading about Byzantine + the Montessori Method or Home Educating a 2 Year Old. Or our article about 12 Montessori Principles .
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