The second page of the Early Learner Daily Notebook is where we have fun and practice some of those fine motor skills, as well as some more fundamentals.

I carefully evaluated the preschool daily notebook pages  found on other sites and then considered the approach I wanted to take.  I wound up including more things on my pages, and I have more than one option for the second page so we can mix things up a bit.

Wow!  It's been intense around here!
I spent most of June putting together our school lessons, a necessity since we started our school year last week.  In the midst of that, we were having issues with our well which added a few things to my 'to do' list each day.  Thankfully the well is fixed, school has started.......and I'm thrilled with our Daily Notebook system!

I couldn't stop at just the plain and simple.  I found some wonderful graphics on Teachers Pay Teachers and promptly began designing a fun set of pages with a sketchy school theme.  I even made pages for all my younger children . . . Early Learners, Pre 5, Lower Primary, and Upper Primary!  All my kiddos are using these and it is making school so much easier and a lot more fun for us right now!

It was one of those head slapping moments where I asked myself..."Why didn't I think of that??"

You know the old saying "Practice makes perfect."  Here it is Early Learner Notebooking style!

Little bits of information repeated often; one of the easiest and surest ways for little ones to learn something.  I mean, after all, don't we teach them to talk by starting with short words, pertinent to their daily activities that we, and they, can use often??  And then repeat them.....often??  Why not carry that on into the beginning of their academic studies!!  Brilliant! 

So.....I don't know who thought of it first, but as I was surfing the net one day, I bumped into the 'Daily Notebook' idea which uses this principle to reinforce for children various necessaries like writing their name and recoginizing numbers, as well as teaching life long learning habits like observation and evaluation.

A couple of the daily notebook ideas I came across can be found at Confessions of a Homeschooler and Homeschool Creations.

Now, I have to say, although these are very well done, I don't think they work  for preschoolers in the Early Learner category so I went to work and made up some of my own.  I have two versions of the same page to share with you today that I will be using with my 3yo this year.  This is just the basic page we'll start each day with, and then we'll add other pages and activities to incorporate the skills and acedemics I think fit into her level at this point.

I know these are very basic, really plain even.  I'm working on some more that will have a few graphics as well as other pages that will fit the daily notebook theme, but incorporate the other things a preschooler needs to learn and practice. 

Let me know how you use these pages for your Little Lamb and check back to see what else I come up with!

Elizabeth

In the United States, preschool is a level of education that comes before Kindergarten and is commonly refered to as Pre-Kindergarten, or Pre-K.  This is an adequate label for children who are too young for Kindergarten but may be receiving some sort of structured education in a school or day care environment where the ages are mingled together for the day's activities.

For those of us who homeschool, or maybe those who simply choose not to send their children to school until Kindergarten, or even first grade, Pre-K as a level can be a bit too general when it comes to choosing lessons and activities for children who may range in age from 3 (or maybe even 2!) up to 5 years old.  We have the abiity to choose material that is more age and ability appropriate and for this reason I divide the pre-grade school category of children into three sub-groups:

Although preschoolers are all learning the same fundamentals including following directions, fine motor skills and the basic academics of learning the alphabet, numbers and counting, shapes and colors, among other things, what and how much any toddler can do in these areas varies.   The resources I recommend and the materials I create will be classified according to the categories I have listed above.  I think you'll find, like I did, how much easier this method of labeling is for coordinating and scheduling notebooking lessons for your little ones.