Preschool Goals

Probably not what you think.  Charlotte Mason-based, mostly, with some adjustments for our multicultural family.  Ok, so CM advocated delaying formal academics (reading/writing/arithmatic) until around age 6 or 7, which works out beautifully, bc both my kids' birthdays fall late enough in the year that they are not required to "do Kindergarten" until shortly before the will turn 6.  That said, I still wanted to gather some CM-inspired activities to give us things to do during the day, always with the understanding that they'll be free to go off and pursue their own interests unencumbered by me or a preset curriculum.  But we'll have a loose curriculum to come back to when they start to get bored or restless.

That said, one interesting thing I just read about CM "year 0" (based on the free online CM curriculum, Ambleside, which refers to all the years prior to start of official academics, so preschool included) is to focus these years on, first and foremost, spending free time outdoors.  Then, it's a good idea to incorporate the so-called "extras", what perhaps might be "electives" in formal school, but what I'd instead call "non-academic" interests and activities, bc "extras" makes it sound unnecessary, and I think everything my kids study should be "elected" by them to some degree.

Ok, so CM includes the following as these non-academic "subjects" that we can work into our preschool time:  art appreciation, classical music, hymn study, folk songs, tea time, handicrafts, foreign language, and play card/board games.

We recently had a flop with our attempt at art study, so I'm going to shelf that idea for another year or so, or at least until I am able to acquire an art book or art postcards to use for this purpose.  That said, CM includes sculpture and architecture here, not just painting, which I think is great.  However, the particular list of art seems very heavily Western, and I'd much rather include art expressions from around the world.  For the time being, I think we may want to consider an art museum, especially if it features one of the art pieces we did have a chance to study already.  And I'll keep an eye out for any festivals or events that may feature traditional art.

Similarly with classical music.  Skipping ahead to tea time, this may be a good time to put on the classical music for now, because I can't just have it on all day (any background sounds annoy me!)

Hymn study I'd like to base from my prayer book, in Polish.  There are hymns in there that lift my spirits that I'd welcome incorporating into our regular daily life.  So far, we sing Jeremy Camp's "Give Me Jesus" most mornings (it starts, "in the morning..."), and Natalia's even asked to sing it to visitors at our home!  So I think this will be a good idea, perhaps a new hymn every month, focusing on just the first verse for now.

Folk songs I don't really know what is meant by this, and I'm not really very keen on incorporating it at this time.

Tea time sounds like a variation of what I remember growing up with, which we called "kawka" (little coffee).  The idea is to take a quiet time each day, ideally mid-afternoon, for some fancy tea and a bit of snacks (practice care of delicate items, manners), and play some classical music, read a verse from the Bible, or a poem, something short and sweet for us for now.  And just hang out screen-free until our snack and tea is finished.  Sounds like a great way to sneak in a bit of possible "memory work" and of course exposure to classical music.

Handicrafts a la CM really spark my interest.  I'm not a very crafty person, but I have been trying to incorporate at least one craft every week for Natalia.  The CM approach would be to focus not on doing arts and crafts as an end in themselves, but as a way to work on a skill that can continue to be useful in adulthood, in particular something that can be useful in fixing things around the house or creating gifts for others.  A lot of what was listed is currently over my head, and most of it is probably too advanced for a three year old (like knitting).  But we can definitely make Christmas ornaments this year, and I'm really excited about that!  I like the idea of these creations being useful, not just something we display on the fridge until the next week's project replaces it.  I'll have to think of what else we can do now, but many things come rushing back from my own childhood, so I'm excited to ask my mom for ideas!  Doll/puppet making, knitting, napkin folding, woodworking, needlepoint, Christmas ornaments, these are all things I remember from childhood, and how sad I've forgotten most of these skills, but look forward to regaining them with my kids!

Foreign language in our home is ASL, and for now we are working with the free Youtube videos of Signing Time.  We are going to be budgeting in purchasing the full episodes of Signing Time to base our further study of ASL.  Formal study of Polish will begin probably next year for Natalia, when we plan to start her in Saturday Polish school.  Still not sure if this is something that will be a long-term commitment or not.  Also don't know if Spanish will find a formal expression somewhere.  For now, daily communication, books, and occasional shows in our languages provide the informal language learning environment that we prefer.

Playing card/board games is something else that I need to look into.  I'm not much into games, but I do remember playing Yahtzee with my parents when my mom was expecting my sister (so I was 9).  I enjoy playing Uno, I've played Operation, Monopoly, and Master Mind (we do have this game, but it's way too advanced right now for Natalia).  I suppose the point of these games is to work on teamwork/cooperation (if the right games are chosen), as well as pre-literacy & pre-numeracy skills?  I'll keep my eye out for these, but nothing formal is currently in the works.

However, these are the "extras" that CM offers.  There is one thing that is most definitely to be encouraged to the exclusion of all other things if need be (even reading!), during these preschool years, and that's time spent outdoors.  This is going to be a big challenge for us.  We live in a climate where the 3-4 month summers are very hot and humid, definitely not conducive to daily nature walks.  And when it starts to get more bearable as the evening dawns, the mosquitos come out.  So really, the only decent time to be outside most summers is at night.  I suppose early mornings, too, but we are night owls, and I do not see us rising early enough to beat the heat of the morning sun!

Yesterday we went for a late night walk.  I believe it was 8:45pm when we headed out.  The sun was long gone, the stars were out, and with flashlight in hand, we walked for a good half hour before spending an additional 10-15 minutes outside our house observing a slug.  It was an amazing walk, what I think is the very goal of nature study.  I hope that as the summer ends, the days will become more conducive to daily walks, which I think are the easiest and most natural (sic!) way to do nature study.  Right now, we're sort of struggling to find nature inside - with our nature corner, with pointing out clouds through the window, with visits to the pet store or just caring for our dog.

There's been no bird watching since we made it a point to look for them, even though there were lots of birds in our yard when we first moved here.  Perhaps cutting most of our trees was a contributing factor, perhaps it's the time of year.  Hopefully next year, bird watching will be a solid nature study for the ugly summer months.  But I like the idea of late night walks outside, except that Oscar needs to get to bed by a reasonable hour, and I don't feel comfortable meandering outside that late without his company. But we do have a fenced in yard!  So I'm going to try to start spending time outside as part of our wind-down time once the sun has set and most mosquitos are gone.  We can swing in the hammock and watch the stars!  We can eat our kolacja (supper) on the deck.  But CM would have kids this age outside for 4-6 hours DAILY!  This is simply never going to happen in our climate, though I am willing to try during the milder months of the year.

So to recap, #1 priority: get outdoors at some point during the day or night, every day. Start with 30 minutes daily, work up to an hour daily.
2. Start the tradition of tea time in the afternoon, with exposure to classical music, reading a poem, reading a Bible verse, setting and clearing the table, and having some tea and snacks in a fancy way.
3. Start singing my favorite Polish hymns, one per month, one verse only for now.
4. Get ideas for useful handicrafts from my mom, look online for age-appropriate ideas, and focus on these instead of generic arts and crafts.
5. Budget for an art book and/or art postcards; budget for Signing Time episodes.
6. Look into preschool games that we can incorporate into our preschool.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention THE most important goal right now, and that is working on Natalia's independent play.  We have been working on this this week, and I'll be reporting on it in our weekly preschool recap.