When I decided to go ahead and jump into doing preschool at home with Aidan, I really thought I was beginning the first leg of this race that will be homeschool, and that it would look much the same at each age, just getting harder and more involved each year.

I wanted to take the time to research and decide on an educational philosophy, and gave myself the Summer to do so. I already had a good idea of the type of studies I thought would work best for us, just from reading blogs and talking to other homeschooling families.

I was honestly very surprised by how quickly I got overwhelmed with all of my options. Mostly because I thought there would be one or two philosophies that I really liked, and I’d probably disagree with and decide not to use the others. As I researched though, I discovered that, with very few exceptions, each learning and teaching style/philosophy had something interesting and exciting to offer.

By the end of the Summer, I was still rather unsure of exactly how I wanted to proceed. So rather than twiddle my thumbs for another couple of months (or longer!), I decided to just jump in and start doing SOMETHING with Aidan. That’s when we officially started preschool and had Aidan’s preschool party.

While I was trying to get the hang of a daily schedule, I stuck mostly to the Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve (affiliate link) curriculum and various free printables from around the web. Aidan loved having something exciting to look forward to every day. But after just a few weeks, something surprising began to happen.

There were days when we’d hardly begun before Aidan was already saying he “didn’t want to do school” that day. And he started getting picky about which types of worksheet and activities he’d do (he doesn’t like to color for instance). Also, after he got the basic concepts of each activity down (like cutting or writing practice), he’d whiz through them in 30 seconds and look at me like, “now what?”

Suddenly, while I was still trying to figure out what my educational philosophy really was, I was confronted with the reminder that it’s the student that matters. Was he learning? Were we just practicing repetition and routine? Should I make him press through boredom and distractions at this stage?

The things he never balked at, like music and media times, active play, and cooking/preparing food, didn’t feel very “school” like. And since he obviously had the hang of all of the preschool worksheets I could throw at him, I began to wonder again what my purpose in starting this early was. So, back to reading…

First, I did find a helpful list of the things he’s “supposed” to be mastering at each level. While I don’t want to put his development on someone else’s timeline, it’s comforting to have some guidelines. You can find a Typical Course of Study list for each grade at worldbook.com. (Aidan has all but two of the preschool objectives down – and that’s because I haven’t made him memorize our address and phone number yet. He does know where they are written down in the house though.)

The very best book I’ve come across thus far for helping me sort through my thoughts is called Homeschooling Methods: Seasoned Advice on Learning Styles.*

It is written from a Christian perspective – though that’s not obvious looking at the cover unless you are familiar with the editors (I wasn’t). In this book I was delighted to find comprehensive descriptions in the form of easy to ready essays written by prominent people in (and sometimes even the founders of) each homeschool method. It was so much easier to see the similarities and differences of the methods when they were placed side by side!

As I said before, the thing that surprised me most is that I was drawn to certain aspects of almost every single method. I like the order and logic of classical education, the emphasis on literature with charlotte mason style teaching, and I’m also drawn to self-direction of interests and hands on learning that unschooling promotes!

The newest concept for me was the opinion that formal schooling should be put off until as late as 7 or 8 (or even 10 or 12!) years old. The Moore Foundation and others emphasize that children need their early years to learn by experience and in real-life situations. They argue that if we begin formal schooling too early, children (and especially boys) quickly get burned out.

This naturally sparked my interest because of what I was experiencing with Aidan. I also kept coming across the concept of play based learning and articles like this one.

I whole-heartedly agree with the idea of teaching them in ways that are applicable to real life! I want my kids to learn to cook, and garden, and correspond in writing. I look forward to being able to tailor their days to their interests and talents. But I had never heard the argument that delaying school is better for children!

There seems to have been a big push for early education in recent years. This is probably mostly due to the necessity of quality before and after school care for working families. I imagine lots of concerned parents have worked hard to make sure their kids are doing more than watching tv while they have to be apart from them. I do wonder though, if we’ve now swung too far the other way.

In any case, I started watching a little boy at about the time I was trying to figure these things out, and it became more difficult to maintain the schedule I’d set for us. Rob and I agreed to take some time out and stop trying to be formulaic until we had a better plan. He is only three, after all!!

So I just stopped. Stopped planning. Stopped coming up with things to do way in advance. We even stopped most of our craft projects (because I like them more than he does). I just let him play.

We still had a routine, of course. We do the same things – like naps and meals – at roughly the same time every day. But I haven’t tried to fill our time otherwise. It’s been a complete departure from the way I’ve done things the last three years.

Interestingly, I’ve seen his personality shine through in these last few months like never before. He’s started pretend playing and coming up with all kinds of fun “games” for himself and the other two to play. He’s finally gotten interested in music and singing. And he’s eager to do whatever I put in front of him when I occasionally come up with something fun, regardless of whether it’s a worksheet, a craft project, or something more out of the box – even chores!

Now, I know that a lot of this could just be developmental. He may just be reaching these new stages because he’d be ready to no matter how we filled our days. But really, he’s turning four next week, and I feel that he would completely be able to keep up with a kindergarten class.

So, long story short, I don’t know how I feel about preschool.

I don’t know that I would say that it’s inherently bad – especially because most of the little friends Aidan has who go to a preschool are spending a few hours there a few times a week and mostly just having fun. But I am also not convinced that it’s very needed.

And yet, Aidan is asking about school again. Every once in a while we’ll “make a plan” for the day around a theme – last week it was the book “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.” We did some fun activities based on the theme, some worksheets and a movie. And he loved it.

He’s really a smart cookie, and I hear and empathize with the proponents of filling their early days with meaning and learning because they are such sponges. I do think I’m still leaning more toward giving him ME to soak up, and our family, and good stories and lessons about God, than teaching him to read at four (which may happen on it’s own at the rate he devours books!)

Rob and I were recently encouraged by this post on Barebones Homeschooling from Fun In My Backyard (awesome blog!!). I think he and I agree that we will try out a more regular schedule come Fall, if for no other reason that to train ME to stick to one, but we’re going to play this game one day at a time – as if we could do it any other way! :)