At four years old, she should be spending no more than an hour or so a day on any sort of seated work. And that's only if she really likes worksheets and the like. Otherwise, 100% of her learning should come from playtime. That's not to say that you can't structure some educational type games, but they should be play and not "school time."
Agreed. We did things like make patterns with LEGO bricks and reading together, playing with playdoh, counting games, stuff like that.
Play, play and play! When it comes to academics, keep them lessons short. I would spend no longer than 15 minutes at a time, unless the child is having a blast and wants to keep it up. Kind of take their lead. And above all, READ, READ, and then READ some more!!!
My son is 4 and we are doing pre-school this year I think the maximum time we spend on anything is 20 minutes and then he goes and runs around the house and then we do art work. He's not apt to sit there for long periods of time he doesn't have the attention span as well as he gets bored but he'll ask all week long to do his school work. I keep a folder of printables that we use for his school work and so far he's enjoying it and retaining it.
I love the idea of sorting with legos...by color, size, and shape...and counting. Try spending time singing educational songs as well to build memorization of basic skills and also bring some movement into the day!
Then that seems to be the right balance for her! Those are the two things you need to watch out for. Just make sure you "keep it fun"!
On my familyd website, I have a yearly blog. I think the first "homeschool confidential" tells what we did around that age. Pretty much we just had a "What your preschooler needs to know" Activity book from Kmart (cost: $3.95 10 yrs ago) and a bunch of online activities from preschool websites (we did "themes" or units as I now know they are called). Then we signed up for a sports camp for 3-4 yr olds at the rec center, and went to the library once a week for storytime and to check out books. Plus we did a lot of fun crafts related to our "theme." That was the sum total of our preschool homeschool. At this age, they should be learning some basic number sense, their abc with sounds, and then anything else that interests your child. IMHO - Don't push! There will be plenty of time for that when they are older!!!! Good luck!
