Letting Go of the Classroom - A guide to preschool set up with Mother Goose Time at Home

Part of the importance of environment with young learners is lots of visual stimulation. Because preschool happens in our home how I draw kids into our learning routine looks a bit different. Back a few years ago when I was homeschooling my oldest I went CRAZY with school room prep. I wanted a classroom in my house. One of my very seasoned homeschool mom friends at the time warned me against this very pitfall of homeschooling and, unless you are a physical sign-out-the-door preschool in a facility apart from your home, to some degree when you use Mother Goose Time at home you are homeschooling.
Your choice to homeschool means that your relying on the warmth and strength of your home to set the stage for learning and NOT a classroom. For some teachers and parents not having the classroom is looked at as strength rather than a weakness. If you are struggling to make a classroom happen in your home and it just doesn't seem to be working for you. I encourage you to look with fresh eyes at your home as a holistic learning environment and perhaps, scrap some of your classroom ideals. Like me, you may find great freedom in this.

Kids need a warm safe environment

The school room works for some families but for many it does not. They are HOME schooling and therefore find themselves time and time again retreating from the school room and into the heart of their home, the kitchen table and living room. I have learned from my past efforts that all the set up in the world creating the perfect school room cannot keep me out of these soulful areas in our house that I spend time in every day. Baking in the kitchen with littles, playing play dough at the kitchen table, snuggling on the couch and reading a book; these are the activities and spaces that we find ourselves in constantly.
Homeschooling and Mother Goose Time need to work for you and how you function in your home meaning my stations look very different than the station set up diagram that come in the set up guide but the foundation and principles behind them remain the same.

Kids need structure and routine

My littles find themselves board when they are given too much free time. These early years are for guiding them in the art of play based learning. A schedule helps with this. We have planned outings each week where we visit our local 'Strong Start Program'
We have a routine of snack time, free play, tidy time, lunch time, learning time and quiet time.
Mother Goose Time preschool happens mostly in the window of learning time with some of our crafts and play based activity creeping into our morning play time.

A Trip out of our house to an early learning program at our local elementary school.

Visual Cues

Up until this year I have not used the circle time activities or display set up. Quite honestly, the program doesn't need it in order to be a success in my home but, I'm finding that, the program HUGELY benefits from it. It is a great visual cue and launching pad that ties everything together. Suddenly the letter of the day, site words, weather, calendar, alphabet and character concepts are all tied together in one neat little spot.

Circle Time Set up

• I laminated ALL the pieces. I have a toddler; this step is necessary for me or stuff will get ripped off and destroyed. Meaning I cut out, laminated and cut out again!
• I painted my white board with regular interior latex paint. I rolled the paint on choosing a fun colour (ok, more like it's the ONLY colour I had around cause I painted the girls' dresser this colour)
• I glued. I used my low melt glue gun then I ran out of glue and switched to white glue. I have to say both of the glues are holding up terribly. If anyone has suggestions here I'm all ears.
• I used the velcro circles, foam circles and clothes pins provided in the welcome kit.

A weeks worth of evenings watching a show while I cut out, laminated, cut out AGAIN and glued like a boss…. ok more like a 'teacher'

The Final Result. Let's hope it holds together all year!

I love that the circle time display was developed to fit onto a tri-fold display board. This means that we can take it anywhere with us that we decide to do school.

Auditory and Sensory Cues

This part of teaching is what I rely so heavily on MGT for. The themed based music and manipulatives provided each month provide the necessary change, auditory development and sensory learning that would take a tonne of work if I were to attempt to put it together myself each month.

Disclosure: I receive Mother Goose Time Curriculum free of charge for educational purposes in return for posting my honest experiences using the curriculum. Photos of children featured on my blog for review of Mother Goose Time are used with signed consent of the child's parents. I welcome any questions or concerns.