Looking for help: Plan for teaching my preschooler at home

[nikluv4]

My son is 4 years old (turned Nov 30) and is ready for VPK this upcoming August.  However, hubby and myself would like to attempt to give him a home education for as long as possible.  I have done a fair amount of research and can't find what i am looking for.  Maybe someone on here can help me??

I am looking for some type of road map.  I am not sure how to go about implementing a structured routine & a curriculum to follow.  Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

[Mommy22boys]

There are a ton of free preschool activities online.  progressive phonics is a good sight for reading, apples4theteacher.com has lots of fun printables, the lessons plan page is great for science.

Worldbook's website has a guideline for pre-k thru 12th grade.

I wish I could offer more, but my 4yo learns along side my 7 yo so I don't use too many pre-k specific programs.

[KickButtMama]

I understand. When I set out to plan and organize for homeschool, there was a whole lot of info that was useless to me.

For preschool. I suggest starting with Letter of the Week. Which has a well defined outline. If your child is more advanced, I suggest getting the book What Your Preschooler Should Know.

Some online resources for an outline:

http://homeschooling.families.com/blog/what-your-preschooler-should-know-part-i

if you're planning on sending your child to public school for preschool http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/925089/what_your_preschooler_should_know_before.html?cat=4

 

[nikluv4]

Information overload :D  thank you kindly - i am a researching fool today.

What do u all know/think about mother goose time?  Is it worth the cost??

[KickButtMama]

Quoting nikluv4:

Information overload :D  thank you kindly - i am a researching fool today.

What do u all know/think about mother goose time?  Is it worth the cost??

I personally don't think anything for preschool is worth the cost as there are so many free resources available, and preschoolers learn through hands on activities that tend to be best made toward the individuals wants and learning style. But that's just my opinion. I usually recommend not purchasing any specific curriculums prior to second grade.

[Lindseyfam5]

Quoting KickButtMama:

 

Quoting nikluv4:

Information overload :D  thank you kindly - i am a researching fool today.

What do u all know/think about mother goose time?  Is it worth the cost??

I personally don't think anything for preschool is worth the cost as there are so many free resources available, and preschoolers learn through hands on activities that tend to be best made toward the individuals wants and learning style. But that's just my opinion. I usually recommend not purchasing any specific curriculums prior to second grade.

Your right!  I was looking for something that would suit my 4yr old and my 3yr old and I think I am just going to stick with the hooked on phonics program I have already been doing and expand on that by incorporating letter of the week :D

Thanks for the great suggestions.

[stampingdimples]

I have a mother goose time for sale!  I bought it for my nanny jobs but then was done and didn't use much.  If you are looking for this I would love to sell it.  I do have enough for at least 9-11 kids.  I think it is very good just ran out of the kids to do it with.  I forgot I had it for our son wo I have only use one or two things out of it.  Let me know if you are interested in it and what would you have to pay for it for yourself new. 

Quoting nikluv4:

Information overload :D  thank you kindly - i am a researching fool today.

What do u all know/think about mother goose time?  Is it worth the cost??

[luvmycutebaby]

Here's a great link for home preschooling resources! Most of them are FREE! :)

[grass_tiger]

Hi, I did Mother Goose Time for about a year. I LOVED the crafts and many of the activities. It was great for us because I just didn't have to go download stuff or go buy stuff to put together craftsand there was great variety . I did try www.letteroftheweek.com, and after three weeks found it way too difficult. I'm disabled and things just didn't get done, so MGT was useful to me. BUT...

The downside of MGT was 1) the cost 2) it is meant for a preschool, not homeschool.

If you only have one child there are perhaps 40% of the activities you can't do--you need more kids. That isn't a great problem because there are SO many activities listed, but some days it seemed most things couldn't be done and some days we had more than enough. Eventually, we just did what we liked, and I put away the things we didn't do for another time. I still have the boxes and still have crafts we haven't done yet, and am glad to have them.

So, it was great for the crafts and having everything we needed right there. But, really, if you don't mind driving for supplies and downloading activities, there really isn't anything there you can't put together yourself. www.letteroftheweek.com is great if you can get the materials for crafts and make trips to the library.

Just FYI, there are other curriculum out there that could help you with structure and preparation for school and all... Each has it's own slant. Some are more workbook based, some are religious some aren't, etc.

If you decide to look at other things here are some links:

https://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/CatalogSearch.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

http://www.abchomepreschool.com/

http://www.covenanthome.com/catalog/87

http://www.educationallearninggames.com/preschool-science-kits.asp (science kits for four year olds!)

http://www.funshineexpress.com/

http://www.aophomeschooling.com/horizons/preschool/

http://www.kinderbach.com/  (online, video-based piano/music lessons for 2 to 8 year olds--my daughter loves this and she's learning to read music in a fun way!)

http://www.kumonbooks.com/catalog/catalog_workbooks-preschool.aspx (I think these are available on Amazon.com in 4 for he price of 3 specialsd)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EHQU1W/ref=cm_pdp_dvds_itm_img_1

http://www.amazon.com/MightyMind-LEI-40100-Regular-Edition/dp/B00000K3XI/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1236574360&sr=8-1

http://www.movingbeyondthepage.com/curriculumPreschool.asp

http://www.amazon.com/Preschool-Letters-Numbers-Shapes-Colors/dp/B001ICUVPI/ref=pd_cp_d_3?pf_rd_p=413864101&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B001ACI5BI&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=11NGS1N2SSHKMD3MXK7D

http://www.rodandstaffbooks.com/list/Rod_and_Staff_Preschool/ (these are amish and very well done...but they are workbooks)

http://www.professortoto.com/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159160236X/ref=yml_dp (this is a wondeful supplement--one activity per week from birth to five years)

http://www.sonlight.com/curriculum.html

http://www.starfall.com/  --- another wonderful FREE site.

http://www.timberdoodle.com/Complete_Homeschool_Curriculum_Packages_s/363.htm

http://www.time4learning.com/preschool-games.shtml (it's online, but my daugher loves it and is learning a lot).

http://www.aophomeschooling.com/weaver/overview.php (this is VERY religeous--christian)

Or, in the end you can just create your own based on these curriculum standards that apply all accross the US: http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?curriculum/kindergarten  You can see what your child is expected to know for Kindergarten.

Can you tell I LOVE resources? :)

These are worth looking at, but certainly won't all be worth consideration to you, depending on what you want.

Have fun!!!

P.S. Sorry, I tried to go back and link them, but my internet connection appears to be too slow presently.

[azmom2boys]

I did not use formal curriculum w/my boys until they were 5 or ready for K. We read lots of story books, science books, history books, phonics readers. We learned yhrough play by building things, role playing toys (dr kits etc). We did lots of arts projects. We cooked and gardened and I taught them things as I went along.  We went on lots of field trips to zoo, science center, nature reserve, plays. I took a few select classes like music at park and rec. I took my kids to playdats.  I did buy some preschool - K workbooks at Costco and did a few pages a day.  I wrote a book on all the things you can do to maximize your preschoolers intellect. My kids now 3rd and K are doing wonderfully.

Renee, author of

http://www.thesmarterpreschooer.com/

 

[marisab]

My qeustion is my son is turning 3 so well be starting preschool and he is special needsand a slow learner with possible mild autism (still testing) is there anything i can us eto prepare him???