5 Great Tips for Home Schooling Preschoolers

Preschoolers are a handful, but they don't have to be a headache when its time to educate them. Here are 5 tips to effectively teach your little one so they gain a love for learning and you can maintain your sanity.

Have a schedule: Set specific times for all things including meals, outdoor activities and school time. Schedules can help produce a good mood for both you and your child as well as ease stress. Be sure to set daily school hours and be consistent. You can also make a child version of a school schedule and hang it on the wall for your child to interact with. Remember, children need predictability and consistency to learn.

Set Up Routines: A schedule is having a set time for everything. A routine is how you go about your daily schedule. Children don't really have a grasp of time. You won't see a preschooler, looking at a watch saying "It's almost 8p.m., I have to go to bed soon." Children are more in tuned with routines. For an example: You may wake your child at 8 a.m. as part of your schedule, but it is routine for your child to get up, use the bathroom, wash hands and go to the table for breakfast. Routines help a child know what to expect. It helps them feel safe and secure, making it easier for them to learn.

Create a School Space: This should be fun. Creating a specific area in the home for school can help your child focus on their educational task and know when its time for school. You can make the area engaging by putting up learning posters, hanging up their art work and a daily picture schedule they can interact with.

Make Clear Expectations: When children don't know what is expected of them, they will just do whatever comes natural to them. Consistently and constantly talk to your child about school. Let them know what to expect and what will be expected of them. For example: You may tell your child, "We have school after breakfast. Make sure you listen to mommy and your teacher. School is only for a little while. Once we are done with school, then you can go play with your toys."

Opportunities for Movement: Children need to move their bodies, be sure to give them plenty of opportunities to do so. Music, dancing or singing before starting school can get them warmed up for the day and prepare their brain for learning. Playing stop and go games such as dance freeze, red light, green light is not only fun, but also teaches your child self-regulation skills.

Bonus Tip: Make learning playful and meaningful. Kids do not enjoy learning things that have no value or meaning to them. They may not care about what sound the letter A makes until they see the letter in their name. Their name holds value and meaning. Provide fun, playful experiences for your child to gain skills from and enjoy. Instead of doing a work sheet where they circle colors, let them play and sort colorful objects around the house. Instead of counting objects on a print out, let them count real objects. "How many blocks did you use to build that bridge? How many of the blocks are red? How many are blue?"

Your child can learn a lot from helping with laundry. Have them identify colors in clothes, sort dark and lights and help do a little folding. In one laundry activity, your child is building confidence, establishing a healthy relationship with you, identifying colors, and developing fine motor skills. Learning from home has tremendous benefits, but perhaps the biggest benefit, is the close bond you build in the process.