Notebooking for Pre-Schoolers

NOTE: Sorry for the late post. The sick tummy thing that has been attacking some of my children caught up with me last night. WOW! It's a powerful one. But I'm starting to regain my strenght. So...

There are dozens and dozens AND DOZENS of activity books out there for pre-school children, not to mention tons of things you can find on the internet. Why do I think I have anything different to offer you? Well, first of all, it isn't that I really have any different content. I mean, coloring is coloring, tracing is tracing, counting is counting....... What I am suggesting is a different approach to doing these things. Instead of buying consumable workbooks or printing lots of coloring and activity pages off the internet, (which your little ones are likely to be bored with soon anyway), I am suggesting taking the homeschool method of notebooking and applying it to keeping pre-schoolers hands and minds busy.

Why the notebooking method? Because it is uses the individuality of each child, their interests and their talents, to showcase the academics and skills they are learning. And instead of a lot of LOOSE pages hanging around which you wind up throwing away, you put these together to MAKE A BOOK of that child's work. This can be done using a three ring binder, three prong folders or report covers, or some type of desk-top binding system.

Why would this work for a pre-schooler? Because children are always learning. And they learn what they live with. [My children hear me say that ALL THE TIME. =)] Do you work at home? Homeschool? Or even just use a journal or organizer for keeping track of your family? Then you already have in place much of the 'notebooking' structure that can assist a child to live and learn in an orderly manner. Spending time with our 'little lambs' is a big part of a mom's day. They need that time and attention. [And have you noticed that when you give them that time, you have more uninterupted time afterwards?] By taking the step into notebooking for your pre-schoolers, you will be spending that time with them and be helping them move into their academic journey in a fun and organized manner. If you don't already do any of those things, stay with me and I will help you through the steps to begin this program with your young child and find a blessing in the journey.

To start you off, I have made some free pages for you. The explanations and links for these are on another page of this blog. Click on the tab above to go there.

Next week : "I want to do school, too!"

Blessings!

This all started when...

...I was searching the internet for schooling materials. Previously I have used traditional methods and materials for teaching some subjects to our children, unit study approaches for others. This was labor intensive and there is a lot of unnecessary 'busy' work involved in the traditional method of schooling, but this is what I had been using and was familiar with.

Then I discovered 'notebooking'. I decided this was a better method for us so I began to aquire these types of materials both through purchase and free offers. Notebooking Pages quickly became a favorite site. [See link at right. They have some free materials, very good collections for purchase and excellent explanations and helps =).] The other day I was checking Debra's blog for new posts when I noticed her reference to Digi Scrap Kits [Also linked at right.] I decided to check out this site and was wowed right away by the graphics produced by Trina Clark and her Friends. I knew many of these would make cute notebooking style 'school' pages for my preschool children. They like to 'do school' the way the older children do and I had been only offering them dot-to-dots, coloring pages and the like. But they really are beginning their academic education at that age so why not offer them something worth while, right? Lots of ideas for the notebooking pages began swimming around in my head. Then I thought; "Maybe other moms would benefit from my ideas, too." So...

I have launched this blog to offer suggestions and free resources for moms to use in occupying their 'little lambs' in a profitable manner. I hope you can find things that are useful to you. Please let me know if you do. And if you have suggestions or requests I would like to hear those, too.

I plan to post each Sunday, so check back often to stay updated!