Preschool Schedule

good wifey

Sun, Apr 15 2012, 11:53 am

While I do agree that chinuch.org is a good place to start, I don't believe a man will sit down with. 2 & 4 year to do 'school'. It's just not a man thing.
I think the kids are old enough to play alone. Do you have legos? Trucks/cars?
Get some giant coloring books, crayons, washable markers, dot to dot sticker books, cheap story books, floor puzzles and play dough.
If you davka want it to be school related, print activity worksheets from chinuch.org for your 4 year old, (I don't think a 2 year old would know the difference) They have a very detailed helpful site.

BinahYeteirah

Sun, Apr 15 2012, 12:31 pm

amother wrote:

OP here-

Does anyone have examples like "we get started at 8am, and abbreviated kids davening takes 30 minutes, and then we go to the park for an hour, and then we have a snack."

You can make any schedule that works for you. Pick a time to begin that fits in with your kids' sleep needs. How long do they usually take to get dressed and have breakfast? Start with that. For kids this age I would only have structured activities for a couple short sessions per day. For example, davening is something I would do for about 5 minutes. Outdoor time each day is great. You have to schedule it when it works for you. If your kids take naps (or one of them does), work around that. Play is the best way for them to learn at this age, so any open-ended activities you have for them are perfect (as mentioned, play dough, coloring, Legos, trucks, puzzles, etc.). Reading aloud is another beneficial thing to do; you can even read books in several languages as appropriate for your family.

If you want a bit of "academic" content, they could do a little aleph-bais (or alphabet, numbers, shapes, or colors, as desired) activity each day. One thing I do with my kids around age 3-4 is make an "Aleph-Bais Book". I have the child decorate a letter each week in different media and bind them together into a book. You can also do other activities related to that letter during the week, as desired.

Whatever you do, keep it relaxed. It is not necessary to have the whole day planned out in detail. If you have some materials ready, it should be easy to get them out as needed as a way to keep them busy without resorting to media such as videos.

Rikola

Sun, Apr 29 2012, 8:07 pm

May I suggest the word "routine" instead of "schedule?" At those ages they still need lots of sleep, snacks and play. And not too much else! Can he hook up with some outside interests like a library story time or playgroup one or 2 times a week? If he finds it too hard to entertain, I suggest putting on some cute music in the background and dumping puzzles on the floor. It's amazing what a little music can do the mood of the room. That said, as an exhausted mom myself, the occasional 30-minute educational video can work restorative wonders and have me back up and running. Smile

Good luck.