My Journal, a homeschooling mom: Lesson with a 3.5 years old Part I

I started homeschooling a friend's 3.5 years old dd, XE about a month ago. My friend send XE over whenever we are in SG.

Since a few of you have kids around 3-4 years old, I think you will be interested in what I did with XE and Den. Thus, I decided to share what we did here with you.

2 years is quite a big age gap (Den is 5.5 years old). Sonlight K will be way too difficult for XE, so I decided to reuse some of the Sonlight Pre K materials. I also need to make it more hands on which is really fun for Den. Since we started Sonlight K, other than Science experiments and lapbooking, we did not do as much hands on stuff as we used to.

This is our rough schedule -XE usually arrive around 11am. She will play with Den for 15-30 min. After that, we have lessons together until 1pm. 1-2pm are lunch time, follow by 15-30 min of play time. We have individual study time for around 30 min before XE goes home around 3pm.

We had 5 lessons so far. This is what we had done.

Lesson 1- 24 Aug 2010

1. Bible Lesson: The Lord is my Shepherd Part I – The Good Shepherd

a. Psalm 23– what does a shepherd do?

b. Great dramatization from http://ministry-to-children.com/god-is-our-shepherd-preschool-lesson/:

While reading Ps 23 aloud, I acted as Shepherd and Den and XE as sheeps. First, I walked my sheeps (Den and XE) through the “green pastures,” and let them lied down to rest for awhile. After that I led them to the "quite water" and let them "drank" water.

For the Valley of Death, I lined up a few chairs and put a blanket to cover it. I led them crawl under the chair. We said prayer together using Ps 23.

c. I found a mini book online and printed it out - Den read for XE...dont seems to be able to find the link again...sorry.

d. P&W- Den lead a few songs including the song below:

“One Little Two Little Three Little Sheep”(to the tune of “Ten Little Indians”)

One little, two little, three little sheep

Four little, five little, six little sheep

Seven little, eight little, nine little sheep

Ten sheep loved by the Shepherd

One little, two little, three little children

Four little, five little, six little children

Seven little, eight little, nine little children

Ten children loved by the Jesus

e. Praying

f. Listening

2. Story Time: Three Billy Goat: (most of the idea taken from http://www.lessonpathways.com/)

a. Talk about Goat -show kids real pictures of goats and share some facts about goats before hearing the story (such as where goats usually live, what goats like to eat, body parts such as horns and hooves, what sound they make, etc.).

• Different btw Goat and Sheep http://www.sheep101.info/sheepandgoats.html :

• Look at their tails
o A goat's tail goes up (unless it is sick, frightened, or in distress).
o Sheep tails hang down and are often docked (shortened) for health and sanitary reasons.

• Foraging behavior
o Goats are natural browsers, preferring to eat leaves, twigs, vines, and shrubs. They are very agile and will stand on their hind legs to reach vegetation.
o Sheep are grazers, preferring to eat short, tender grasses and clover. Their dietary preference is forbs (broadleaf weeds) and they like to graze close to the soil surface. Goats like to eat the tops of plants.

• Behavior
o Goats are naturally curious and independent, while sheep tend to be more distant and aloof. Goats will seek shelter more readilty than sheep.
o Sheep have a stronger flocking instinct and become very agitated if they are separated from the rest of the flock.

• Horns
o Most goats naturally have horns. Some goats have beards. Goat horns are more narrow, upright, and less curved than sheep horns.
o Many breeds of sheep are naturally hornless (polled). Some sheep have manes. Sheep tend to curl their horns in loops on the sides of their heads.

b. Introduced the the story , explained that in this story, although goats can be real, there is another character in the story who is not real- a troll (Dont make the troll too scary, young kids might get frighten).

c. Read the story

3. Introduce letter "G"
a. Introduce the sound “G” – Goat, Gruff

b. Printed mini book "G". Den read G book for XE http://www.dltk-teach.com/minibooks/g/index.htm (Im just showing one of the pages here)

c. Watch letter G in Sesame street http://www.lessonpathways.com/Pathways/Detail/11399/letter-of-the-day-game-show

4. Individual Worksheet

a. Den work on

a G maze http://www.printactivities.com/Mazes/LetterMazes/Letter_G_Cap.html
read OA sound in Phonic Picture dictionary
learn to spell Goat, Toad, Road, Coat, Boat, Soap

b. En- color G http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/alphabet-g-coloring-page/

5. Lunch break

6. Retelling the story: Using fingers puppet http://www.dragonsaretooseldom.com/script-billgaotsgruff-patterns.html

7. Craft

Using playdough on pre-printed story related mat. This is my favorite part of the lesson. Check out this wonderful playdough mat here http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/1246-1250/sb1246.html;