Home » Education & Career » Homeschooling Toddlers » Living And Learning Joyfully Together

Living And Learning Joyfully Together

© Susan Franklin

Welcome to "Learning At Home." This topic is about learning and livng joyfully with your own children. I've had way over ten years working outside the home at jobs I've loved and a few I didn't. Teaching my children at home is the best thing I have ever done. Here's why.

A few weeks ago my daughter, who was not quite two, was sitting with me on the sofa. We were watching Barney and enjoying suckers. (It has taken me a few years to accept this as my relaxation time). She noticed that I had finished my sucker. I was holding the sucker stick in one hand and balancing a cookbook with the other hand. She grabbed the stick out of my hand, held her sucker out to me with a "Hammh." This means "here." I held her sucker while climbed off the sofa and walked to the kitchen where she placed my used sucker stick on the counter. She practically strutted back to me with her head and chest held high, feeling little taller. She climbed up next to me, held out her hand and said, "Hammh" again, asking for her sucker. She proceeded to watch the rest of her Barney video. I was filled with wonder that this tiny person saw I had a need and met the need. Now I could use both hands to hold my book.

Her older brother has been the same way. When he sees I need something, he helps me. I pray God will keep his heart so tender.

What do these incidents have to do with home preschooling? I used to think it would be about books and schedules, which we do manage to incorporate occasionally. But I've found that home preschool is more about living and learning joyfully with young children. About building strong relationships and the freedom to learn in a safe, relaxed environment at a pace comfortable to the child and within the family's routine. We have given our home school a name and a motto. Our name is Picket Fence Play House. I wanted a name that bespoke active learning because my aim is to keep the learning activities as multi-sensory as possible. Our motto, "Teaching the child, not the book" was chosen to help keep our focus on teaching and training our children in methods and with studies that are suitable or appropriate for each child as God designed him, with his own unique learning style and interests. I plan to guide them through a somewhat structured program during the early years to prepare for the time where they can gradually make more of the choices, within limits, wherever their fascinations take them.

The copyright of the article Living And Learning Joyfully Together in Homeschooling Toddlers is owned by Susan Franklin. Permission to republish Living And Learning Joyfully Together in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.