Lesson Planning for Home-Schooled Toddlers

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I’ve often thought about home-schooling, except that I’ve never known how one goes about it. And then I read this article that reminded parents that every child starts their lives being home-schooled until they commence kindergarten or playschool – whichever it is that they attend first. Looking back at the activities I have engaged in with Gavin, I’ve realised how true this is.  The primary reason why I overlooked it is because the learning process was so fun, I’d totally forgotten that Gavin was learning.  I guess the best part is that a toddler’s classroom can be anywhere you want it to be.

For instance, here’s a typical day out for the both of us:

We wake up, take a shower and get dressed. Then we have breakfast. Gavin plays with his train set while I prepare the food. After breakfast, we head out to a shopping mall. We’ll wonder around at Gavin’s leisure (unless I have specific things I need to pick up – groceries, etc.) and play catch around the pillars of the mall. We’ll look at all the interesting setups in Center Court and I’ll ask him to identify various objects, like animals.

A Deer:

Two horses:

A squirrel:

An elephant:

Occasionally, when we see words written in capitals, I’ll ask Gavin if he can identify the letters (right now he can identify capital letters but not lower case letters).

We’ll go play at the indoor playground then we’ll read a book or two at the bookshop and maybe get a book if it’s a buying trip. In between, we’ll get something to eat and then we head home for a shower and nap (nowadays Gavin doesn’t really fall asleep in the car).

If we’re at home, we’ll play with his toys, we might colour in some pictures and we’ll run through his flash cards. We’ll watch a couple of Signing Time DVDs, practice singing (also a great activity for the car), read a few more books or make up some stories, play a few puzzles or the “push” game (where Gavin pushes me into his cot or off the bed and I pretend he’s so strong that he can fling me around with one finger) followed by sleep.

I used to wonder if we were engaging in enough educational activities each day for Gavin to be learning, but looking at his development, I guess we are. Educating a toddler is a lot easier than I thought. All you need is activity – as long as you’re doing something, they’re learning.

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• 2 Important Lessons from Parenting
• Selecting a Playschool
• Planning for the Future
• Why Do Toddlers Misbehave? – Part 2
• Toddler Discipline: Cause and Effect in Present Time

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