Occasionally I have tried to start a fun new lesson or activity with my little one only to be met with groaning, complaining and frustration. This response totally takes the wind out of my sails. So I learned how to engage my child better. Especially when they are preschool age and easily distractible.
The best way to get your preschooler excited about learning at home is to be engaging, vary your approaches to learning and customize your lesson plan to their interests and skill level. Engaging will stay take work, but be more effective.
Home can be distracting, with tv, toys and family members. Let’s get your preschooler engaged and ready to learn at home.
Be Engaging
Kids can be easily distracted (understatement of the year). Which means you need to go over and above to grab their attention and keep it. To keep your child engaged in your lesson make it fun. Act out directions or stories, use voices and hand gestures to bring their attention in. Don’t be afraid of getting a little goofy or quirky. Kids love variety and won’t judge your behavior so don’t be self conscious.
The attention span of a preschooler is often short. Have you heard about Goldfish and their 5 second attention spans? I usually think my son is right on par with a goldfish. He finishes a task and then wants a new one almost as soon as I am done explaining the first. With this in mind plan to keep your lessons short. If you have a big topic to tackle, plan to break the plan up into smaller chunks that builds. You can spread out smaller plans throughout the day or over a few days. When planning to do smaller plans on the same day break them up with small activities to keep them interested.
A great way to break up a tedious topic or something requiring more thought is to use movement. Get the wiggles out by engaging their bodies, hands and feet. For younger ones hand clapping and foot stomping are simple tasks they already love doing. As your child gets older you can have them follow a simple rhythm or song as they clap and stomp around. If you have more than one student have them do movements with a partner to build social skills.
After I help my kids get moving and burn off a little energy I warm up their thinking with simple questions that are easily solved. For younger kids I have them find a few shapes in the room, look for 5 different things that are red or sing the alphabet. If your student is a little older you can haven them write their name in a few different colors, practice drawing their favorite animal or make a self portrait. This helps them transition from moving to being still and thinking.
If you notice you are loosing their attention mid lesson feel free to pause the lesson and return after more movement or thinking questions. Sometimes taking a break is needed on both sides and that is ok. Thats what is great about planning lessons on your own time and catering your plans around your child.
There is a sweet spot in teaching when your student is ready and eager to learn. This is my favorite time to teach something new because often times they learn even more than I intend. Getting to the sweet spot where they can pay attention and absorb what they are learning takes a little navigating and it seems it’s never exactly the same. There is usually a little variation in each approach. Kids like to keep us on our toes!
Vary Your Approach
As I mentioned the same tactics to get your child engaged wont always work every time. One day my son will happily color a picture while I get his letters or number activities ready. The next day he wants nothing to do with crayons and the sight of a coloring book makes him cry. This is when changing things up and even having some back up ideas ready comes in handy.
If attention starts to wander mid lesson introduce a question related to the topic that will help bring them back in. If working with numbers ask which is their favorite and why. If working with letters ask them to help you sound out a family members name. Use their imagination to trigger another part of their thinking other than what they are working on. These small breaks help keep them focused.
When I sense my daughter is getting frustrated in a lesson I try to change gears and have her rattle off a few things I know she will get correct. What is the second letter of the alphabet? What is one plus one? All kids love to have the right answer, and this helps them boos their confidence. I try to avoid frustration at all costs. Frustration will not be good for the teacher or the student.
Whenever possible make a lesson hands on.
Make Lessons Fun
Whenever possible make a lesson hands on. When teaching about money break out the biggie bank and handle actual coins. Count them, sort them, inspect the different images on them. Experiencing something they are learning about in their hands goes much further than looking at images on paper.
Give your child a choice when at all possible. This goes a long way to help with headstrong children who need to have some control on their environment. A simple “would you rather use a crayon or a marker?” can make a stubborn child cave a little. My daughter and I are usually battling for control of a situation. When I allow her to pick her materials for her tasks she goes all out and gets organized, and then is ready to learn and use what she has selected. I always give at least two options (that I am ok with) and as her decision making has progressed I can give more than two options.
Make a game out of what you are teaching. My daughter would eventually learn her sight words if we just read through the list a few times a day, but it would be tedious. She really grasped sight words when we made learning them fun. We made note cards and played memory with them, we hid notecards in different areas of the house and read them when found and even made up silly songs about each word. Those fun activities made learning how to read words more fun and memorable.
If possible create fun competition. Be careful that it stays fun and doesn’t lead to anxiety over wining or losing. My daughter loves to win and will thrive under a little competition. But if it gets stressful she panics and shuts down. We have found setting a stopwatch and timing an activity and then repeating to see if she can beat her self is a great way to gauge progress. This can be done with having her count to a certain number, or write a list of letters. Keep in mind this technique will not work with all children. My son is much more relaxed in his behavior and would never be interested in timing himself. Most often he tries to see how slowly he can accomplish a task!! Something my daughter would never enjoy doing.
Provide real experiences as often as possible. Are you leaning about plants? Try planting some and watching the process. Are you talking about bugs or animals this week? Find a local farm or zoo and go look at the insects and animals. Go for a walk in your neighborhood and look for bugs on plants. Your child is bound to remember the name of that bug next time they see it because they studied it and saw it in real life.
Color is another thing that makes learning fun. Whenever possible use flash cards that are bright and books that are illustrated. Color is much more exciting than black and white worksheets.
Customize Lessons for Interests and Skill
The best part of teaching your preschooler at home is being able to build your lessons around your child. You want to engage them with their interests and build their leaning accordingly. In our home schooling adventures I have realized my son isn’t a huge fan of worksheets. He enjoys building, manipulating and creating. So I adapt lesson plans to fit his needs. My daughter, on the other hand loves worksheets, and gets a little anxious with building or manipulating if she doesn’t have an example to follow. After you get to know your child’s learning habits you can get more customized.
Offer guidance when needed. I will admit I struggle to not give the answers some times. It gets easier to correct this habit with time, but be mindful. When my daughter is writing or practicing numbers and needs a little assistance I want her to know she can ask for help. I always try subtle hints first and she usually surprises me with her own answers and thoughts. (One of my favorite parts of teaching).
Lastly don’t forget to let your children rest. I try to teach different subjects for 10-20 minutes per day. Some days will be more than others if we are really in a good groove, some will be less if we are struggling. Remember that learning and developing is hard work. Take breaks and enjoy this time with your child.