First Day of Preschool Homeschool- A How-to Guide Part 1

It’s nearing the time for your little one to start preschool! Are you planning to do preschool homeschool? If so, you have come to the right place!

Parents who are not teachers, or who have never homeschooled before, may be nervous and unsure about how to get started. The very first day of your child’s academic career is so important, therefore, you want to get this preschool year started off on the right foot.

I decided to break this first day of preschool guide into two parts. This first part will be about laying the foundation for the whole school year, which will be implemented starting on the first day of school.

The second part of the guide will include specific activities, books, crafts, and an example schedule.

Let’s dive into part uno.

Neutral colored learning space for young child. Includes shelf, desk, chair, and drawers.

This first day will set the tone for the school year.

You want your child to enjoy school and learning, so make time for fun on this first day! At this point, you should have an idea of the curriculum and what you want to work on this school year, but your child may also have some insight into what they would like to learn.

An amazing way to get your child excited for learning and preschool homeschool is to implement a meaningful part of the Responsive Classroom approach called Morning Meeting.

Morning Meeting

The Responsive Classroom approach has four components.

Greeting
Sharing
Activity
Morning Message

Moreover, let’s take a deeper look into each of these components of the Morning Meeting.

Greeting

Obviously, a greeting is a way to greet someone. Of course, you will have already greeted your child upon waking up, but this is just a fun and thoughtful way to welcome them to the school day.

Additionally, this is a perfect time to practice the social skill of looking at someone in the eyes while you greet them. Also, you can familiarize your child with handshaking and using someone’s name when greeting them.

Below are a few examples of greetings you can do on your first day of preschool homeschool.

Good morning- You will simply say, “Good morning, (child’s name)” while shaking their hand and looking them in the eyes. Your preschooler will reciprocate the greeting.
High-Five greeting- This is the same as the basic greeting above, but rather than shaking hands, you will give your child a high-five.
Say hello or good morning in a different language- Use the words and gestures used in other countries to greet your child.

Although it is easy to assume your child will understand how to greet someone properly, it is important to really take the time to teach your child this skill, as well as explicitly teach them how to do the greeting you have chosen for the first day of preschool (and on subsequent days).

Sharing

The sharing component is paramount in the Morning Meeting. This is when your child gets to share what is on their mind and voice their opinion. Likewise, your child will understand that you really care what they have to say when you actively listen to them during this time.

There is a plethora of ideas for sharing during Morning Meeting, not to mention, an infinite number of topics to discuss. Here are a few ideas for the first day of preschool homeschool sharing:

What are you most excited for this year in preschool?
Is there something you like best about our homeschool space?
Tell me one thing that makes you nervous about starting preschool.

You can also share your answers to the questions or your ideas about the topic to build mutual respect in your homeschool setting. Equally important to your child sharing their thoughts, is the strong connection being made between you and your child.

Child and father drawing on chalkboard easel.

Activity

All of the Morning Meeting components can be made fun, but the activity element is the simplest to make lively. This does not need to be a huge production, rather it is a quick task to set an enjoyable tone to the day.

Literally, any activity or task can be done during this time but keeping it simple on the first day of preschool homeschool will be the most effective. Listed below are some examples of Morning Meeting activities you can do on the first day.

Read a book about the first day of preschool.
Learn and sing a new nursery rhyme or song. Click here for the perfect nursery rhyme suggestions!
Shape match game

Even though it is easy to think of activities your child likes to do, it is necessary to plan out these activities. In the spur of the moment, it is more difficult than one would think to come up with a fun and meaningful activity.

Morning Message

The last element of the Morning Meeting is the message. This is a written note about what to expect for the day. Most children do not like the unknown, so the morning message is a way to prepare them and get them excited about the learning day ahead.

Here is an example of a morning message you may want to use on the first day of school:

Good morning,

Today is (date). I am so excited for preschool, and I know you will be too! We will think about our hopes and dreams for preschool and set some homeschool rules together. You will trace your name and we will read a story about ______.

Love,

Mom

Writing the morning message on a whiteboard or paper and using your finger or a pointer to track the words as you read them, will begin your child’s understanding of print concepts.

All in all, your Morning Meeting should last around 15 minutes. Thoughtful planning will make this time of day so meaningful and guide your child to learn social skills, speaking and listening skills, print concepts, listening comprehension, and any other skill you decide to build into this time.

Hopes and Dreams for Preschool Homeschool

What does your child hope to learn in preschool? What do they dream of during this year during preschool homeschool?

Make a list of all of their hopes and dreams and post it on the wall. Additionally, your child can add to this by drawing pictures that represent their preschool hopes and dreams. This concept of listing hopes and dreams is another component borrowed from the Responsive Classroom approach.

Before you expect your child to come up with their hopes and dreams, you will need to explain what you are asking for. To elaborate, children may think that a dream they have is to ride a unicorn, and although it is an awesome dream, it is not something that can be accomplished during preschool homeschool.

The most compelling way to explain this is to model how you come up with your hopes and dreams, and share them with your child. With this in mind, you will want to show how your hopes and dreams relate to teaching and learning.

Examples of parents’ hopes and dreams:

Become confident in planning lessons.
Be consistent and stick to the schedule
Learn the best way to teach _____

If your child needs some guidance about what they can hope and dream about for preschool, you can definitely give them examples.

Listed below are some potential hopes and dreams children may think of:

Write their name
Count to 10
Learn the letters in their name
Discover bugs and learn facts about them
Create an art project
Go to a theatrical or musical performance

As a result of having your child voice what they would like to learn and do during preschool homeschool, you will have a strong idea of themes for the year and what to focus on during lessons.

Girl with pigtails pointing to letters on an alphabet poster.

Set Goals for Preschool Homeschool

Your child’s hopes and dreams for preschool cannot come true immediately. Most dreams take time, work, and dedication. Therefore, it’s important to break down these hopes and dreams into small, attainable goals.

By the same token, multiple goals may need to be made in order to achieve your child’s big hopes and dreams. In that circumstance, brainstorm with your child what they need to do or learn in order to make their dreams come true.

As an illustration of setting goals for writing their name, we will take this skill down to the very basic things your child will need to know in order to achieve this dream. Here is what someone needs to be able to do before they are able to write their name:

Have strong hand muscles from doing fine motor activities.
Be able to properly grip a pencil, crayon, etc.
Develop good control of their writing utensils.
Know how to position their paper for writing and drawing.
Be able to trace and copy basic writing strokes.
Ability to put writing strokes together to form letters.
Trace, and then copy their name.
Write their name independently!

Clearly, even the simplest tasks like writing a name aren’t just as easy as doing the thing. There are equally important minor skills someone needs to have in order to be successful in many activities that are expected of preschool children.

You may not need to write a goal for every single tiny step for each dream, but you should pick and write the ones you and your child see as the most important. Post these in your learning space.

Develop an agreed upon set of expectations.

In order for you and your child to be successful in meeting your goals, you will need some expectations in place for preschool at home. To aid in your success, it is best for you and your child to agree on the expectations.

There are definitely a plethora of expectations you can choose, but it is most effective to have just 3-4 “umbrella” expectations.

Examples of common expectations used in many schools are:

Be respectful
Be responsible
Be safe
Be kind
Do your personal best

Frequently, the rules we put in place for young children fall under one of those overlying themes. It is important to talk about those more specific guidelines, but we want children to remember the expectations. Therefore, if there are too many to remember, the less likely they are to be followed.

Kids often are more than willing to offer suggestions about rules. Take their rules and write them on chart paper or a whiteboard. This will help you see similarities in some of the suggestions, hence making it easier to group them together under the big “umbrella” expectations.

Typically, children will come up with rules such as:

No hitting
No talking
No drawing on the table
No running
No yelling

You will want to rephrase these into their more positive correlated phrases, such as:

Keep your hands to yourself
Stay silent during ______ (whenever you would like your child to just listen)
Crayons/pencils/markers are for drawing on paper
Use walking feet in our learning space
Use a quiet, inside voice during our lessons

Using a positive spin on these rules makes it more likely your child will follow them, because no one likes to feel like they are getting in trouble. Saying a rule or giving a redirection that starts with “no” already puts your child on the defensive before they even hear what you want them to do.
Also, when you use those “no” phrases, your child doesn’t hear that you don’t want them to hit. Instead, they hear you say the word hitting, so that is what they will do. Tell your child what you want them to do, not what you don’t want.

Write and sign the expectation contract.

Once you and your child have agreed on a set of expectations, and come up with some examples of what each one looks like, you both need to “formally” agree through a sort of contract.

You can write or type the expectations on a poster, paper, sticky notes, or whatever works for you. Some people choose to make them pretty with many colors or their classroom theme. Of course, if you want to keep it clean and uncluttered that is just fine too.

Once the expectations are recorded, it is time for everyone to sign the contract. Obviously, many preschoolers are not going to be able to write their name at the beginning of preschool, so you can get creative in how they sign.

Use their thumbprint
Dot their name and have them trace it
Along those lines, write their name with a highlighter and have your child trace it.
Encourage your child to draw a picture of themselves following the expectations
Take a video of you reading the expectations, and let your child offer their verbal agreement

Display the expectations for preschool homeschool and refer to them often.

Hang the written or typed expectations in an area in your learning space where you can easily see them, and they are readily available. This is why many people choose to decorate the poster or paper with the expectations, as it incorporates it into the classroom decor.

If you choose to make a video of the expectations, you can begin each day watching the video and learning to recite the expectations with it. This way it becomes sort of like a pledge or oath, with the intention of your child regularly following the expectations because they are fresh in their mind.

Visual Schedule

Young children thrive having a fairly consistent schedule and routine. That doesn’t mean that each day has to look exactly the same. It is just very helpful for children to know what types of activities they are going to do when.

Some people are most comfortable sticking to a somewhat tight schedule. In this case, they may have a set time for each subject area.

In contrast, other parents prefer a looser routine. For instance, their day may be broken down into seat work, storytime, playtime, etc. They can work on any skill or subject that works with their interests and curriculum during any part of their day.

There is no right or wrong way to schedule your day. Homeschool parents must decide for themselves what will work best for them, their child, and their curriculum.

Whatever style you choose to structure your day, it is most important to be consistent in following the schedule as consistently as you can.

Introduce the schedule to your preschooler.

Once you have developed the schedule or routine that works best, make a visual schedule with pictures.

You may be tempted to type the schedule and print it on a piece of paper. Although, this is often not the best way to present your visual schedule. Inevitably, there will be certain parts of your day that change day to day, or even just every so often.

For that reason, it typically works best to have each part of your day on a separate card, sentence strip, paper, etc. that can easily be switched.

Here are examples of parts of your school day that may change each day:

“Specials” or related arts lessons, including music, art, physical education, emotional regulation, technology, etc.
Field trip days
Indoor play vs. outdoor if the weather is bad
If you need more time one day to assess, finish a project, dive deeper into a topic of interest, etc.

When you have completed your schedule, post it where you and your child can easily see it. Teach your child what the schedule is and how to read it. Explain that the parts of their day are listed in order. Meaning when you finish one activity the photo or illustration right after is what will come next.

Children may be anxious or nervous about starting preschool. The posted visual schedule can calm their nerves and allows them to look forward to what will happen each day.

Find out more about teaching the first day of preschool homeschool!

Part 2 of this guide gives you more information about the types of activities and a sample schedule for you to use on that uber exciting first day.

First Day of Preschool Homeschool- A How-to Guide Part 1