Learning Moments in Preschool Homeschool

I’m excited to share our home learning journey with you! We’ve always planned on homeschooling, and now that our son is over 2 1/2 and asking to do some structured learning, I think he’s ready to start preschool homeschool. So I’m jumping in!

I’ll be structuring my learning moments in. 3 different ways: guided learning, independent play, and treasure chest.

What are ‘Learning Moments?’

A Learning Moment consists of an activity that should occupy your child for 10-15 minutes. They may play with the activity much longer, but at the preschool age, 10-15 minutes is the goal. My general idea is this:

• 2-3 years old: 10 minutes per activity
• 3-4 years old: 10-15 minutes per activity
• 4-5 years old: 15-20 minutes per activity

Since Camden is 2 1/2, we’re pretty heavily in the 10 minute range. I’ll give ideas to extend the learning moments to last a few more minutes for the other age ranges, too.

There are 3 types of Learning Moments that I’m going to use this year: Guided, Independent, and Treasure Chest.

The Independent Learning Moment

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘔𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 is exactly what it sounds like: an activity that your child can engage in/with independently.

Some ideas of Independent Learning Moments might be:
– sensory bins
– building blocks
– puzzles
-magnet boards
– painting
– coloring
– scissor skills

The idea of an independent learning moment is to help foster in your child a sense of wonder and discovery. These activities often work on the senses or motor skills or imaginative play, as opposed to more formal skills (like numbers, alphabet, literacy) which are done under the Guided Learning Moments.

Independent Learning Moments are the easiest to implement but still an incredibly important part of the home learning process!

The Guided Learning Moment

This is the learning activity each day where you’re really going to be with your child and guide them toward the knowledge they need to learn. This is the space and time to focus on the alphabet, literacy, numbers, counting, colors, shapes, etc.

Some examples of Guided Learning Moments could include:
– counting objects
– color sort
– letter match
– reading an alphabet book
– finding certain numbers of things
– using an alphabet board or chart
– reading a book and doing an activity or craft to go along

Guided Learning Moments are the ones that will feel the most ‘school-like.’ You’ll need to carve out a small section of time each day – however many days of the week you choose to ‘school’ – to do one of these activities. The best part, though, is that they’re almost always reusable. So once you prepare anything you need for the activity and learning, you’ll be able to store it and pull it out to use, and it will be ready to go! 

The Treasure Chest Learning Moment

This Learning Moment is a moment of joy and discovery. Each day the treasure chest is out – you can call yours a Magic Box or Box o’Fun or whatever; it can be a chest or shoe box or whatever you’d like – your child will open it to discover an activity or toy to use that day!
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You can put things in the treasure chest that also cover either a Guided or Independent Learning Moment; they don’t have to be always separate.
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The treasure chest could contain things like:
– paint to signify painting that day
– dot markers for a coloring day
– your child’s toy cars and a paper roll up track you drew
– a book and the activity to go with it
– 2 types of blocks combined together in some way
– a clue to solve to figure out what errand you’re going to run today

I used a treasure chest that I found at Michaels, but you can find them all over Amazon too. But you could use any fun container you can find. If it’s a shoebox, let your child decorate the shoebox with paper, stickers and markers. A mailbox would be exciting, too!

What’s Next in Our Preschool Homeschool Journey? 

Now that I’ve covered the structure of the Learning Moments, next up I’ll be sharing how I plan to schedule, arrange, and prepare for my weekly learning moments. Plus, I’ve started an Instagram account dedicated specifically to our home learning adventures – Home Learning with Lisa. If you follow me over there, I’m going to be sharing daily learning moments in one of the three categories – independent, guided and treasure chest. 

Over here on the blog, I’ll be trying to provide weekly and biweekly round-ups of the activities we’ve been doing. There will be a ‘home learning’ tab on the main page of Biscuits and Grading for easy access to all the posts and information.