What Does a Pre-K Day at Home Actually Look Like?

If you’re teaching your child at home, you’ve probably wondered…

What should a pre-K day actually look like?

Am I doing enough?

How long should we be learning each day?

In this episode, we take the pressure off and walk through what a realistic, developmentally appropriate pre-K day looks like at home.

You’ll learn:

•how much time to spend on learning (it’s less than you think)

•a simple daily structure you can follow

•what to focus on—and what you can let go of

•how to work with your child’s attention span

•and why play is still one of the most important parts of the day

If you’ve been feeling unsure or overwhelmed, this episode will give you a clear and simple way to approach pre-K at home.

If you want to see more of what this looks like I have a free week of my Pre-K Learning Club Subscription available to you! Just click the link below:

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hey friend! Welcome to the Pre-K Learning Club podcast. I'm Vee, a former kindergarten and current pre-K teacher with nearly 20 years in the classroom, and I'm here to help you teach your preschooler at home without the overwhelm. Think simple activities, real life learning, and lots of encouragement. I'm so glad you're here. Today I want to talk about something that I know a lot of parents wonder about, especially if you're teaching your child at home, and that is what should a pre-K day actually look like? Because when you start thinking about teaching your child at home, it can feel a little overwhelming. You might wonder, how long should we be doing school? I know that other kids I see go all day. What should we be doing each day to fill that day? And am I doing enough? And I want to take a lot of that pressure off right away because a pre-K day does not need to look like a full school day. In the preschool years, learning should be short and focused. Most of the learning we do can happen in about 15 to 25 minutes total. That's it. It doesn't need to be hours of sitting at a table. In fact, that's not developmentally appropriate for this age. Young children learn best in small chunks. And let me just pause and explain something real quick here. In my classroom, the reason why my students go all day is because we have a whole morning meeting where we all have to like share and talk and go to the bathroom together and you know review some things, and that takes a good half an hour. And then because I have 16 students, I have to keep 16 students engaged. So I have four different rotations where really the work that we need to get done, you know, maybe only like 10 to 12 minutes of work, but I have to spread it over a 45-minute chunk of time. And so some of the stations are going to be independent stations where they're playing, and then there might be some focus stations. So that just takes a lot longer. Then we have like 15 minutes of recess, and then we have 15 minutes of snack, and then we do some more rotations to do our math, which again could be just like 10 minutes of work, but I spread it out over four rotations to take up that 35 minutes, and then they go out to recess again, and then there's lunch, and then there's rest time, and then there's, you know, so it goes like that, and then we might have a whole group time. And so really the work that they need to do is probably 20 to 25 minutes of actual academic schoolwork, and the rest is all stuff that's really good for them, but that you just probably do naturally at home anyway. Okay, so let's get back to what an actual simple daily structure might look like. You can think of it as a very simple rhythm at home. You might start with a quick introduction, for example, a letter, a number, or a quick review. This can take just a minute or two. Then move into one or two short activities. Each activity should only take about five to seven minutes. This fits their attention span and helps them stay engaged. Now, if they want to stay longer and like decorate their paper, that's fine too. But really, to get the work done, it should be about five to seven minute activities. You might include something hands-on, something playful, or maybe a simple paper activity like tracing. That's your learning time. Now, what about the rest of the day? This is really important. The rest of your day should be filled with things like play, outside time, building, drawing, exploring, maybe going to a play place or some kind of outing or a play date. All of those things are still learning and still important. But they don't have to be a rigid schedule. Sometimes we underestimate how much children learn through play, but that is where so much development happens. Another thing I want you to know is that your day does not have to look the same every day. You don't have to do learning at the same time every day. You don't even have to do it every single day. Life happens. You might have other outings, appointments, busy days. You might be running your own business or doing food prep, or you know, you might have a baby or some other smaller children. That's okay. Consistency over time matters more than perfection. And preschoolers have short attention spans. A good rule of thumb is about one to two minutes per year of age. So for a four-year-old, that's about five to eight minutes of focused attention. And honestly, even that is something you build up over time. So when activities are short and manageable, children are much more successful. Another thing I want to say is you don't have to do every activity. If something isn't working that day, you can skip it. If your child is especially engaged in something, you can stay there longer. Follow your child's lead within a simple structure. A gentle reminder for you is if you take one thing away from this episode, let it be this. You don't need to recreate a school day at home. You just need short, meaningful learning moments, consistency over time, and a balance of play and simple skill building. Now, this is exactly why I design learning activities to be short, simple, and manageable for real families. Because pre-K learning doesn't have to feel overwhelming. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast, and I will see you next week. Thanks so much for listening. If this episode was helpful, be sure to follow the podcast so you don't miss a thing. Until next time, you're doing a great job.