On Monday I write the verse on the chalkboard while my three-year-old chooses a picture book from the basket in the reading nook. He picks the one with the red barn again. The lamp is on, the stools are pushed in at the big table, and nothing is waiting on me. That is how our toddler week begins, and it is how I would like yours to begin too.
People ask what homeschooling a three-year-old even looks like. For us it looks small. A toddler does not need a schedule, he needs a rhythm he can feel in his body: verse, book, hands busy, outside, rest. Here is the week as we really do it, with my five-year-old working nearby at his own small desk.
Monday: a verse and a book
I say the verse once, slowly, and point to the words on the chalkboard. Then I ask him to say just one word with me. Last week that word was "joy." He does not need to memorize anything. He needs to hear Scripture in his own home in my voice, week after week, and that adds up.
Then we sit in the soft chair and read. Let him choose. A three-year-old who picks the book will sit through it. A three-year-old who is handed one will wriggle.
Tuesday: a pencil, a path and a crayon
Tuesday is pre-writing. I do not teach him letters yet. I let his hand learn to follow a line. We use the animal pages in Follow the Path, our pre-writing tracing worksheets, which have Garden Friends, Farm Friends and Woodland Friends to trace through.
Here is exactly what I say: "Show me with your finger first. Now let's help the bunny get home." Finger first, then a fat crayon. If he scribbles right off the path, I say, "He found a new way home," and we move on. Ten minutes is a good morning. Five is too.
Wednesday: outside with a basket
Midweek we go outdoors. I hand him a small basket and we look for one thing at a time: something smooth, something green, something that crunched. When we come in, everything goes on the nature shelf for the week. The nature-walk basket list is one of the 27 free printables members get, and you can join free to have it. Membership costs nothing, ever.
If you teach at a kitchen table, as we did for two years, a windowsill works just as well as a nature shelf. Clear one end of the table and set the treasures down together.
Thursday: hands in the paint
Thursday is the day for making something. This time of year we use the Fall Handprint Keepsake Bundle. There is a bare watercolor tree for fingerprint leaves, and Psalm 150:6 is printed along the bottom. He presses his thumbs in the paint and we talk about who made the trees.
It is a worksheet and a keepsake in one. I clip the finished page to the wall with the rest of the week's work, and I know I will keep it in a box when he is thirty. If you want more pages like it, the worksheet shop has Toddler sheets, each $4.00, or $2.00 for members.
Friday: rest and a look back
Friday has no new lesson. We walk past the wall where the week's work hangs and I ask, "Which one is your favorite?" He points, and I listen to whatever he says about it. Then we read the Monday book again. Repetition is not boredom to a three-year-old. It is how he knows he is safe and that he has learned something.
What the week asks of you
- A verse you can say aloud, once, without fuss.
- One book basket he can reach himself.
- Ten minutes of hands-on work, and permission to stop at five.
- One walk outside, with a basket.
- A Friday that has no agenda.
A word about the room
The reason this feels unhurried is that the room is ready before the boys wake. Baskets sit at child height in the cubbies, and the chalkboard is written the night before. If you are curious about how I set it up, I wrote about designing your homeschool classroom. But a table and a basket will do. What matters is that you are not hunting for things while a three-year-old watches you.
Some mornings it will not go to plan. He will not sit, I am tired, and we read two books and go outside. That counts. We are not building a transcript at three. We are building a love of being together over good things.
If you want to talk it over with other mamas, the members' forum has rooms by age, and one for the hard days. You can also read more about me and why I teach this way, or look at state requirements and curriculum we trust, since the rules vary from state to state.
So take one day from this week and try it tomorrow. Write a verse, pick a book, and let him lead. As the psalmist says at the end of the whole book of praises, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!" Even the ones who are three, and have paint on their thumbs.
