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My littlest is 3 years old at the moment and he is nearing the age where he can begin to learn many skills to prepare him for reading and writing. You may be interested in how I have done it when my other children were little. My answer for us is to just organically school my little ones.
It basically means, whatever we can do, or are inspired to do, we do it. We do have base curriculum(s) that we work with but we jump off those ideas and don't always stay according to the schedules. After all, my littlest is only three at the moment...
But there are several true things I've invested in my children that have proven to be effective in motor skills and learning to read and write.
Let's start with playing with dough. It can be homemade (which frankly, I hardly have time to make anymore as much fun it is to see your child help make it and then play with it) or store bought. It hasn't mattered which one as long as you are getting them to play with it.
Imagination is key when playing with your child. It is a lot of fun making a farm/house with a pond, fence, walls, windows, doors, and animals. Creating texture in the pond and roads also adds fun and helps the child with learning new words and using their hand muscles and brain for creating fun environments.
When cutting and flattening dough, I find that the longer tools are easier and more fun to work with than the small miniature ones. You want to eliminate as many frustrations as possible when teaching to use different tools they are not used to. For adding texture, the smaller rolling pins seem to be easier.
Sitting down and showing the child that an animal can be made by rolling two or three different size balls together is another way to help them. Making their ears and tails specific to the animal (make a snake and let's use that as a tail, or a snake) is also showing them that there are many creative ways to create something.
I have helped him flatten dough and he has enjoyed cutting it and putting fences up around the property. Connecting the fences together with his little hands is hard, but good to let him figure it out as well. He's asked many times to make houses with him because he has enjoyed it so much.
Another skill I like to add in at this age is cutting with childproof scissors. I like to use other scissors than the one given in this book because it has more quality and once again, let's reduce the frustrations that happen when learning something new. The scissors above are what we use and seems to help with holding the paper while cutting, better than the ones they give in the Melissa and Doug book.
I like to start out holding the paper for them while they cut so they can practice how to hold the scissors and also get a good feeling of cutting.
Eventually, my little one was asking to hold the paper himself. Curves are a bit more difficult but I like to tell them that you want to keep your scissor facing the dotted line as you cut, so that it follows the path you're supposed to go. It takes a lot of practice and sometimes just trying once a day for a little bit is good enough.
You can also cut newspapers, old magazine and show them how you cut as well.
One way to learn letters is to get transparent letters that are plastic that can be stamped in dough or on a light tablet. I think a light tablet is a good investment because not only will they be tracing many things now, but in the future they can also use it for art and tracing buildings, animals, etc. We got ours from Temu but this one seems similar on Amazon. Here are the letters we use.
We also spend a lot of time reading obviously, but we are going through Memoria Press curriculum for preschool and it has been fun to read through the books. I love that the books come in smaller sizes so that the child could hold it and turn the page himself.
We learn sweet little prayers and how to hold our hands and close our eyes. It is very sweet to see my little child try his best to pray.
Everyday, we try to do basic things like what day is it today? And what is the weather like today? I made this bear a long time ago and decided to make him weekday shirts that we take off and put on for each day. He's at times worn the wrong shirt for many days because life can be so crazy and hectic that we don't get to it. But it's ok 😁
We also talk about weather, sing songs, learn nursery rhymes, shapes, counting, and so much more. We use a hodge podge of things but don't overwhelm each other with all the things. We pick and choose because at this age, it's ok to go with the flow and not have too much structure. We are still learning who this child is and what God has gifted him with to do in his life.
If you are using Memoria Press Preschool curriculum, we learn some of these verses and this coloring book I picked up in Pennsylvania is a fun way to learn it. I believe this is Rod and Staff.
Learning how to button, zip, close and open fasteners are also part of practicing fine motor skills and this quiet book has been helpful.
There's so many more things to add, but for now, this is a small glimpse of what we are doing "organically" to schooling my little one. He has plenty of outside time as well.
What are some things that you like to do with your little ones at home? So grateful that we get to make memories in this way with our little ones. Cherish them!
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