April/May
Homeschooling with
Young Children
Diane Hurst
In the field of home education, there
seem to be three camps.
One firmly believes that young children
should not be formally “taught.” Fearful of
stifling their children’s creativity, or pushing
them to achieve before they are ready, they
have decided that academics for children
are “better late than early.”
In another camp are those seemingly
genius parents who raise seemingly genius
children who do amazing things such as
reading at third grade level at age five.
Then there is the camp of the “middle
ground,” where many home educators find
themselves. They teach their children on
a timetable that is similar to that of the
public school system, and their children
may learn faster or slower depending
on each individual child’s abilities. They
feel comfortable with teaching young
children many things, but are somewhat
lacksadaisical about how much, what, and
when their toddlers and preschoolers learn.
In our own family’s many years of
homeschooling, we have found ourselves
most often in this camp of the middle
ground. Our philosophy for schooling
young children is pro-active: we believe
they should be actively taught, and we love
to see them learn new things. What fun to
hear a four-year-old sing the alphabet song!
Or to watch a two or three-year-old paint, or
a five-year-old proudly write his name. But
we are not without reservations—we know
we must teach our young children carefully,
in harmony with their own interests and
readiness.
The way it works in our family is
like this:
Young children are read to regularly from
babyhood, and babies and tots play and are
played with during the day while the other
children are doing schoolwork. Toddler and
preschool activities are an assignment for
one or more of the older children each year,
as a part of their own school schedules.
Activities have been duplo/lego, board
games, I Spy, playing with dolls, building
block towers, etc. I write the activities on
each older child’s weekly assignment page.
The toddler or preschooler knows he will
have this scheduled activity time, for a half
an hour or so, and the rest of the time he
explores/plays on his own.
At about age three the young child starts
to