How to start the Robinson Curriculum (RC) from the beginning? Today I am sharing my approach with my 4 year old. The goal is to train him towards the RC mode of education. We're going to introduce flashcards and the beginnings of the 3 R's. Come along as I plan for preschool.
Where to start? What are my goals? What skills do I want him to encounter this year? What activities will facilitate these? What kind of schedule will I use? These are the questions I asked myself and I let rattle around in my head all year. If you are planning along with me here stop and ask yourself those questions. Write down your answers. Now, continue on to subjects/goals and resources.
As with all things in life, I recommend SHOPPING YOUR HOUSE before buying anything new. So that's what I've done. I've included links to as much as I could. Products from Amazon are affiliate links, so I'll earn a small commission if you buy through them. A lot of them would also make great birthday and Christmas presents for kids in your life. I am that lady that gifts quality literature at my kids' friends' birthdays.
At the end I'll provide an example weekly schedule. I keep each child's daily/weekly resources in baskets, one for each student, and one for myself too. I'll also recap the planning sequence if you still need to pull together your plan.
Let's unpack Beau's preschool basket and see what I've got in there and what goal category each item falls under for him. Not EVERYTHING can fit in his weekly basket at once so I do plan to pull what we need for each week over the weekend and keep everything else in it's home. How to decide what goes in there? Refer back to your goals. Here are mine.
Goal 1: Alphabet Recognition & Song I love to start with flashcards here as they will be a recurring feature of the curriculum. I've curated a few more items to reinforce the ABC's.
Use with cookies,
playdough or Kinetic Sand.
I know the sheet cake pan isn't exactly intuitive to need for school but I use it A LOT. Obviously it doesn't fit in his basket though.
Goal 2: 1-12 Recognition & Counting Again I'm starting with flashcards and a few basic counting activity supplies.
Goal 3: Attention Span-Read Alouds I'm aiming toward the habit of reading everyday for school. We already read a family story before bed but I want to make the connection of reading during the day as well. My plan is to do this through read aloud time just for him during the school day. I'm a sucker for good illustrations, vocabulary, and solid moral lessons in my children's literature. Here are some of my favorites.
Collier's Junior Classics Set (I found a used, older set: my preference)
Mother Goose (I couldn't find the exact one I have but there are tons out there.)
Goal 4: Fine Motor Skills & Hand Eye Coordination I like to make sure he has plenty to keep him occupied while I work with his older brothers so I chose some items from this category for that purpose and some small items (now that he's old enough not to choke on them) for him to do whatever with.
Magnetic Tiles (family favorite)
Imagination Magnets (family favorite)
Puzzles (endless options)
Beads
Paperclips
String
Paper
Pens, Crayons & Pencils
Goal 5: Clear speech We found with his older brother (who needed some speech therapy) that these books were excellent for point and practice. All my boys have loved them but the multitude of labeled pictures was really helpful to practice enunciation. I'll be doing a bit of this with my preschooler this year as well.
Richard Scarry Books (the Big Books are our favorite)
The plan looks like this. We all have to start somewhere and I'm not a wing it sort of gal so this is my starting point. If you need a six day a week lesson planner I've linked mine. First I made a list of my subject and materials. Then from that I just plugged them into the lesson planner. I don't worry about times because I just start everyone no later than 9am and we get as far as we get depending on the day, especially for preschool age. I'm mostly just training him towards the expectation that he will be doing real schoolwork one day.
Okay, to recap:
Ask yourself the questions. Where to start? What are my goals? What skills do I want him to encounter this year? What activities will facilitate these? What kind of schedule will I use?
List educational goals/focus subjects.
Gather resources. Shop your house.
Delegate resources into goal/subject categories. Fill in any missing materials you may need.
Make a schedule. Get a planner, write in pencil, list out goals/subjects in planner, plunk down resources in daily slots. I recommend giving each child their own week in your planner.
Get to preschool and have fun! Kiss your baby!
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