The Preschool Homeschool

I have to be honest and say that I wince every time I hear a homeschooling family talking about how much money they spent on a preschool curriculum. I know of one family who purchased every single preschool offering put out by Abeka, just because it was there. She spent quite a lot to teach a child who learns best through playing. I am of the mind set that each person does things in their own way, and that includes homeschooling. That doesn’t mean I don’t have an opinion about it.

The public education system has made parents believe that a preschool education ultimately determines which university your child attends. Of course, they want to be the ones to educate your child and increase their public funding. Private daycares will tout their curriculum offerings, hoping you’ll fork over the weekly tuition to ‘educate’ your preschooler. I live in a town where we have a place called The Early Childhood Center. It’s a public preschool for 3 and 4 year olds, and it’s almost expected by the community that a preschooler attend this place. I would need 6 hands and 6 feet to count the number of times I’ve been asked if Avlyn is going to school.

I believe that a preschooler learns best without a curriculum. They don’t need a set number of workbook pages, reading books, and oral quizzes to learn. They do need to play educational games such as alphabet and number bingo, take frequent trips to the library for storytime and to check out books, visit socially with other preschoolers on occasion, take advantage of sports activities geared towards their age group, learn how to use a computer by playing on websites such as Starfall and PBS Kids,practice handwriting skills with fun worksheets and dry erase boards, grow artisitically by painting, coloring, gluing and sculpting with dough, and learning about the world by spending tons of time outside.

This doesn’t mean you don’t plan lessons or buy preschooling products for your child. It just means you don’t expect them to act like elementary school kids when they’re preschoolers. All the so called experts and educators seem to forget that the prefix “PRE” comes before the school, meaning that these kids are in the preschool time of their life. They have plenty of years ahead of them to study for tests, memorize facts and complete drill practice.

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