Baby Homeschooling

When looking through the archive of the local mom forum, homeschooling for preschool and earlier was met with some contention.  Several posters asked, "Isn't this just parenting at that age?"  Yes.  Yes, it is.  It is parenting with the intention to educate and parenting with a child's potential in mind.  Even if parents don't consider themselves homeschooling their child this early, they may in fact still be approaching life at home with education in mind.  Parents can actually do nothing extra, and children will naturally develop and learn what they need to learn right now.  There's no pressure at this age.  But, the goal is to already be in a routine by the time it matters.  That we might already know some of our options and we're not going into homeschooling from scratch.  That we don't miss opportunities for growth when she wants them.  We will know our child's likes and dislikes better.  We will know how she learns the most effectively.

My nephew spent a lot of time with my mom, who used that time to teach him the basics.  He went into kindergarten knowing so much that the teacher set him up with first grade materials at home so that he wouldn't get bored.  His parents decided to not skip him ahead, because they were worried about his overall maturity level. Since we already know we are going to homeschool, it will only take a little extra effort to get started at this age.

How do you homeschool a baby, you ask? Simple! By exposing him/her to different things, such as different music, stories, poems, nursery rhymes, people, places, textures, games, sights, sounds, foreign languages, sign language, etc. Brightly Beaming Baby has a mock up curriculum for year one and year two, from which I pulled some ideas into our own.

Here are some ideas for this age:

1. Show baby hand signs
2. Play different music
3. Dance to different music with her and for her
4. Create time for her to spend on her tummy, sitting up assisted and unassisted, and standing assisted
5. Play games, such as peek a boo, itsy bitsy spider, and others.
6. Read stories to her
7. Read nursery rhymes to her
8. Read poems to her
9. Gymboree class
10. Baby yoga class
11. Swimming class
12. Music class
13. Play dates
14. Sing songs, especially educational songs that she can eventually sing with us (such as ABC's, the 50 state song, etc)
15. Provide something with different textures on it
16. Play music or speak in a foreign language often
17. Story time at the library
18. Name and describe things for her 
19. Get baby outside as much as possible by taking walks, sitting on the porch, and laying on a blanket at the park or in the backyard

Something like reading to her can be done every day, but we're staggering out the various class options.  Right now, we're just doing two classes/activities outside the house beyond the occasional play date. I also have a plan to put the alphabet, numbers, and maps on the walls of one of the rooms in the house shortly.   My mom said that my nephew, Isaiah, loved to play with the magnetic letters on the fridge, too.