Looking for Good Homeschooling Material to Order

Hi, good for you.
Three years old is a little young to start homeschooling. Especially, since you have been homeschooling since birth anyway. I think whatyou are asking is how do you prepare her for kindgergarten and be able to tell friends and family that she is learning and doesn't need headstart or preschool.
So from that perspective, I would do a lot of fun field trips to; the grocery store, the zoo,the firestation, the post office, the pet store, the donut shop,the garden center, the park. She is a bit young to include in a homeschool support group. I am not sure of any that would allow her to participate yet, but I may be wrong.
Take her to church so that she can be involved with other children weekly. Find out about the parks and rec. dance, or other physical activity programs for young children. Check out Library story hours, read aloud all the time to her, check out books on all types of subjects. Teach her how to make kool aid and jello. Never alone of course. HAv eher help you do laundry (sorting like colors) and folding, let her help you put theclothes into stacks for the different rooms, help her match socks (math) and count them into pairs. Count everything you come across. I wouldn't pour a lot of money into curriculum or even buy the cute little worksheets that they sell at wal-mart. Spend money on playdoh and art supplies, and then let her use them her way. I would buy dress up clothes, or find your own at garage sales and out of your closet. Let her play pretend. Limit her television and you will have a great start on homeschooling.
K.
A little about me, We have four kids, 18,14,12,9 and a great Husband, 3 dogs and a lot of time spent in the car.

Hi! :) I'm also in the Tulsa area.

What age - This is just my very humble opinion but I don't think formal schooling needs to start until age 4-5 (closer to 5). By that I mean having a set time each day where you sit down and "do school" or worrying about getting through a curriculum. I don't mean never teach them anything or use supplemental materials. Kids love to color and you can find some great coloring pages for ABCs, numbers, etc. Then by just coloring together you can talk about the letter, the sound it makes, what words start with that letter..and so on. But many times at that age they learn so much more through everyday events (with you in the kitchen when you are cooking, taking a walk, etc).

You have been homeschooling her (and your ds) since before birth. When you talk to her, color with her, sing songs, etc., you are teaching her. Little ones soak up SO much! Just enjoy your little ones. There is plenty of time for curriculum and formal learning later on.

There are some preschool materials out there (i.e. Five in a Row) and TONS(!!!!!) of websites with activities.

Laws - You can to go the HSLDA (http://www.hslda.org) to see the laws. This is one of the easiest states to homeschool in. We don't need to report to the superintendent's office, we aren't required to do testing, etc.

Materials - I use a variety of curriculums. The question to ask is "How does my child learn?" Then match the curriculum/materials to that.

Hope that helps some. :)

I am a 36 year old mom of three kids (oldest five) and I was homeschooled myself 5-12, got a bachelors of history and a masters in history, taught school for about five years (govt/economics, history and latin classes)and have worked as a research asst. in law firms until I had children.
There are as many approaches to homeschooling as there are families. You have to decide what you believe to be the best approach.
Basically, I think it depends on whether you believe the public system is bankrupt or not. Some people just bring a public school system into their home, in a sense "overseeing" their kids' education, using a similar structure of subjects, age appropriate guidelines for material etc. OR, if you believe the public school system to be bad for our kids, two other approaches (and there are many more than two) that are a good example of the choices are the "reading" approach (checkout Sonlight website, a "literature rich" curriculum, they do all your lesson planning too; OR Great Books, they also do all the planning of your curriculum) and the trivium approach (basically the classical education structure of Greece and Rome, see Susan Wise Bauer "The Well Trained Mind" and "Designing your own classical curriculum" Laura Berquist. This approach is grammar/history till late elementary, then science and math are also focused on, by highschool they are capable of critical thinking and analyzation in all subject areas).
But these are just examples of the gads of homeschooling theories and resources out there. The best way to sift through it all I think is to find a support group and make some friends who are doing it--ask them questions, look at what they are doing, hear their stories and do your own research.
Personally, I think you should read some Charlotte Mason (she was a British Educator in the last century that began private schoolng with a much different approach to education than England currently had, among her ideas are starting children to read later, and letting children "live" to learn--breaking out of the long hours in a classroom, learning in the woods, one on one with teachers, etc.). She is inspiring.
Our curriculum at this point is numbers and letters (five year old son and two year old daughter together) and we read-read-read, color, do crafts, go to the zoo/parks, talk about and explore anything in life that comes up, at their level. It's very laid back but that is important at the beginning. We probably won't start phonics till my son is six and my daughter is three, and they will do some together. If you read about how our education system started in America, you will realize that the age children learn to read in our country has more to do with the convenience of working parents, and less to do with when children are ready to learn to read, and unfortunately contributes to the high statistics of "special ed" kids, who can't keep up with their "class" because they are not programmable robots. The public system is based on memorization and does not teach kids to think, but to consume, without discerning between needs and wants, and to unquestionably accept the system, sadly perpetuating it--Christians included.
Anyway, I hope my comments aren't too jumbled, but good luck!

Hey J.,

I just read your email, and wanted to let you know that my husband and I were going thru the same thing.(He was raised in public school; I was raised in a Christian school.)
I read him every article that I could find on Public Schools, and most of them aren't that great. I let him know how far ahead of the curve our children are, and told him that they would be digressing to go to public.
I don't know if you are Christian, but the curriculum that I have is "A Beka". My oldest children, ages 3 & 4, are doing the 4-yr-old Kindergarten program together. They love it, and the teacher curriculum tells you exactly how to prepare for the lesson, and exactly what to say.
I compared costs, and this was very efficient for me. It was about $250.00 after ordering second books for my son. I encourage every person that I know to home-school for at least the first few(formative)years.
I hope this helps!

I would like to add that if you think she is ready then go for it. I started with Kindergarten with my son when he was close to 4 and he loved it. There are many wonderful programs to use and I would do some reasearch on the one you pick. Now I use Calvert for his homeschool and they are easy to use and send you everything you need for the courses. You know your child the best and you know when they are ready to start school. I went with my gut and he has really enjoyed it. Good Luck!

Great responses so far! All I have to add is that there are some great local homeschool support groups out there ... check out http://oklahomahomeschooling.org/. I'm a member of OK Homeschool S.C.E.N.E. - http://homeschoolscene.org/ ... we have a pretty active email list you can join, and lots of bloggers to give you ideas of the diverse community.