Four Plus an Angel by Jessica Watson

Life after loss with autism, preemies and a rainbow baby

  • About Me
  • Hire me
  • Our Autism
  • Hadley’s Story
You are here: Home / Homeschool / Homeschool preschool

Homeschool preschool

By Jessica

This is my second year of homeschool preschool. After completing one year with McKenna who believes she should actually be teaching me, I’m expecting this year to go much more smoothly with my youngest. Sawyer tends to be a little more easy going than his sister who has been wearing the same rotation of dark pink (and only dark pink) dresses since last winter and he also still thinks I know a thing or two. With one year complete and another underway, the number one tip I would give to someone new to homeschooling preschool is:

Use what your child knows

Since Sawyer is my newest little one in preschool and he happens to be in love with Thomas the Train, we’ve been incorporating trains into his learning from the day he began. We’ve counted with trains and sang songs with trains and read books with trains and pretty much worn our own train track into the carpet of the house. Here are a few of our favorite activities to sneak in some learning with Thomas the Train:

homeschool activities with trains

T is for…

1. Help your child make the shape of a T with his trains, arranging them in a line horizontally and then a line vertically.

2. As you make the T also repeat the sound that a T makes.

3. Explain that T is for train and then help your child think of more letters that begin with T. As they master the T sound, ask them to think of a letter that begins with T for every train they place into the T formation. Once they have mastered the T sound you can also use the trains or train tracks to make other letters and go over their sounds as well.

lining up trains

Parking Patterns

1. Talk about patterns with your child, if you are just beginning to introduce patterns try something simple like red/blue/red/blue.

2. Help your child make a pattern with their trains, if you don’t have enough trains for a pattern you can cut them out of construction paper and have your child arrange them on a table.

3. As your child masters their understanding of a pattern try making it more complicated or introduce different types of patterns like train/caboose/train/caboose. You can also try this with train tracks too, alternating the types of tracks you connect.

reading a book

Tell me a story

1. Pick your child’s favorite book about trains and let him or her tell YOU the story.

2. Encourage your child to look at the pictures and make up a story about what is happening.

3. If you pick a book that your child is familiar with like mine is with Thomas and Friends you can start introducing book-related words like “characters,” explaining that Thomas is a character in the book and asking who the other characters are in the story.

4. This is also a good time to introduce the beginning, middle and end of the story. If your child is like mine and you’ve read the book over and over and over again they will have a much easier time learning these concepts.

Thomas Says

1. Let your child be Thomas (a cute Thomas t-shirt helps), standing in the front of a line. Stand behind him or her, making the rest of the train, if you can recruit a few siblings it’s even better.

2. Chugga-chugga choo-choo through the house and let your child point to objects and tell you what they are.

3. If you are working on a certain letter let them lead you through the house finding things that begin with that letter. If you are teaching colors, name a color and ask your child to take the “train” to something that color. You can really get creative with whatever you are currently teaching and let your child take the lead in learning.

No matter what you decide to do with your kids, if you keep in mind what their favorite things are and incorporate them into learning, the day will be much more fun for you both!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Mattel. The opinions and text are all mine.

If you liked this post stop by my facebook page for more.
If you liked this post stop by my facebook page for more.

Comments

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments

Filed Under: Crafts, Recipes and How To's, Homeschool


Comments

  1. Greta @gfunkified says

    October 1, 2013 at 7:35 pm

    He is so cute, and your girl sounds A LOT like one (or two) of mine. These are great activities to try!

  2. Bad Parenting Moments says

    September 28, 2013 at 5:12 pm

    You have more patience than all the trains on Sodor Island. Happy homeschool is going so well.

    • Jessica says

      September 30, 2013 at 6:46 am

      I’m searching online today for how to homeschool the stubborn books or maybe a how to get your daughter to do something other than write M’s with a pink marker. Other than that it’s going great.

  3. Kimberly says

    September 27, 2013 at 5:58 am

    These are great tips and kudos to you for having patience! I couldn’t do it. I find that since my son is in a class of 30, I need to help a lot more at home. I love these tips. Thanks!

    • Jessica says

      September 30, 2013 at 6:47 am

      My daughter is working hard to use up my patience each day. It’s kind of like marathon training, hopefully I gain more instead of lose it all.

Follow me

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Buy my book!

About me

Jessica Watson

I'm Jessica, 40-something mom to five, four in my arms and one in my heart.

On any given day you will find me taxi-ing teenagers, mopping up our latest "art project" and trying to remember when I turned the crock pot on… all the while, looking for the closest Starbucks drive thru.

Get Four Plus an Angel by email

* indicates required

Click for more about…

autism tab

grief tab

teen parenthood

Favorite Posts

  • A musical life
  • Always be you
  • It's not permanent
  • My One
  • The Stone

@fourplusanangel on Instagram

Is your house getting quiet as your kids get older Is your house getting quiet as your kids get older? Get a teen who rescues animals. Our house guests just keep getting more interesting. 
.
.
.
.
#devotedbarn #rescuepig #olivetherescuepig #animalrescue #friendsnotfood #pigsofinstagram #neveradullmoment
Finally don’t have to worry about looking at the Finally don’t have to worry about looking at the right spot in a selfie.
.
.
.
.
.
#skiiing #maskup #puremichigan #getoutside #isuckatselfies #familyskiing #motherhoodunplugged #pineknob #parentingteens
Love the first good snow, and not just because it Love the first good snow, and not just because it seems to insulate the noise level of my boys when we bring them to the barn.
.
.
.
.
.
#horsesofinstagram #willowtreestables #firstsnow #puremichigan #boymom #motherhoodunplugged #barnlife
We decorated really early this year but I’m alre We decorated really early this year but I’m already finding myself disappointed that soon the decorations will come down. I love the softness of a home decorated for the holidays and coffee in front of a tree every morning.

I wish this year could be more “normal” but I’m not mad about the extra time I’ve had with kids who are at an age where they’d be more than happy to leave us for long stretches of time.

I’d love to shrink them into elf costumes and Christmas countdowns and easy surprises.

#parkerpretends #parkerpretendsforchristmas  #costumer #holidays #christmas #parentingteens #motherhoodunplugged #tbt
She would live in a barn. For real. . . . . . #mc She would live in a barn. 
For real.
.
.
.
.
.
#mckennakaren #farmgirl #barnchores #momlife #horsegirl #motherhoodunplugged
We changed up our nails in support of @trevormicha We changed up our nails in support of @trevormichae1 today. 
As a mom I want to thank you Trevor for leading the way for us. We need to see you ahead of us and happy.

Hoping our manicuring sessions last long past when we can head back out into the world post pandemic.

Love my brave boy and am pretty impressed by his polishing skills. One more thing he can do for me when I’m old and even less coordinated than I am now.
.
.
#teamtrevor #genderstereotypes #colorstreet #motherhoodunplugged #motherhoodrising
Follow on Instagram

My recent pins

Follow Me on Pinterest

Posts by month

The BEST options for your blog!

Copyright © 2021 · WordPress · Log in