Educating my almost 3 year old

One of my friends recently asked me what I was doing educationally with Karis since we aren't planning to send her to preschool at all. So I thought I might as well blog about it :)

Honestly, I'm not all that worried about formal teaching at this age. My main goal every day is to read a ton of books, have a lot of time to play outside, and have her help me do everything around the house. She has managed to easily learn all the basics (colors, numbers, shapes, alphabet, etc) without having to sit down and "do school-work." However, we do have a specific time each day while Karlie is napping that is "Mama-Karis time" that she really looks forward to and I try to plan something to do with her during that time. Here are some of things we are doing (I usually just pick one to do after reading Bible Stories before starting our library books.)

I think reading as much as possible is the key at this age, so I love the Before Five in a Row book by Lambert because it helps me think of activities and discussions to have about the books we are reading. It is kinda pricey, so I would recommend just borrowing it from the library and jotting down some ideas or making copies. All of the books it uses are at our library. I might actually buy the Five in a Row book next year when she is ready for it because it has recipes and maps and other stuff that I will probably do with each of our kids and want to have on hand. 

I've also started making a little "preschool binder" for Karis with sections on Character Training and Manners, Bible Verses (to memorize), All About Me and My Family (she loved picking out pictures to tape in!), Letters, and Numbers, etc for coloring and reading. I'm just printing out sheets I find online. She has really enjoyed doing that with me. 

Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by Oberlander is a book that I got when Karis was born and it has weekly developmental activities from birth to age 5. I haven't done a ton with it since Karlie was born, but I looked at it again recently and think I will start doing one activity a week from it with Karis

When she is closer to 4, I plan to teach her to start sounding out words using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading by Wise. Her book, The Well-Trained Mind was really intriguing to me and I am currently thinking I will try to give my girls a classical education. We'll probably home-school unless Mark ends up teaching at a good private school where we could get a discount :)

I've heard really good things about ABC Jesus Loves Me, so I'm thinking about using some of their curriculum some in the fall.