Moms Homeschooling preschoolers..I Need Ideas!!

There is a video series that my hubby and I bought for our now 3 year old when she was about 18 months old. I found it at the library and liked it so much that we bought the whole series. It is called Preschool Prep. Their website is preschoolprepco.com. I call it the Meet The... series. They have Meet the shapes, Meet the numbers, ..colors, ..letters, and sight words. Each DVD is only 15 dollars. My oldest will be 3 this month and she knows her letters, numbers (1-10), colors and many of the sight words. With her watching the videos starting at 6 months, my 16 month old can count to 10, recognizes her letters, knows her shapes and many of her colors.

The videos are very entertaining and have a lot of re-watchablity. I highly recommend these videos to everyone. The earlier you start them watching the younger they learn.

You should be able to find one or two at your local library. That way you can check them out before buying them.

Best of luck with homeschooling. We plan to do the same with our kids. :o)

-M.

Hi N.,

I too am home schooling my kids. My son is 4 this year (my daughter is 12 months). Last year when he was 3 I used Before Five in a Row. There is an entire Five in a Row series written and it is all great. It is not expensive at all. You use the library to get the books to go with the curriculum. You can google it and find the website.

Have fun and enjoy your time teaching your kids! You are the best teacher for them! :)

L.

A must buy is: "What Your Pre-Schooler Needs to Know" by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

I have supplemented all four of my children's education with the series of these books. Mr. Hirsch has an amazing , refreshing view of education. His "Core Curriculum" schools are all over the country now but none near us, sadly.

My current 3 year old already writes all of her letters, her name, her classmates names and is starting to blend words. She loves learning! I am not one of those pushy parents but if you see your child eager to do something, it is smart to follow her/his lead and teach them!

I congratulate you on recognizing your child's desire to learn! The window from 3 to 6 years old is the most important in a good foundation for education. Read, read, read to them! True World Change begins with Educated Children!
Have fun!
S.

i don't know about your kids, but mine absolutely love Little Einsteins! So i bought my eldest this little einstein laptop from walmart for about 26bucks. she already knew how to recite the alphabet and a number of shapes. but within two weeks of having it, she was able to recognize most of the alphabet. the game has letter recognition, match capitalized and lowercase letters, counting, a letter bridge( a,b,c,_,e), and a number of other games including shapes and music. having worked at a doctors office briefly i was amazed that my four year old recognized letters where other kids her age couldn't! the thing eats batteries but it's money well spent. my other two, aged 2 and 1 fight over it as well, they just want to "play", i literally have to seperate them somedays and make them take turns "playing", but really, i couldn't be happier with the knowledge they've all gained. my one year old is even beginning to say simple sentences because whe like to hear the letters pronounced on the game. hope this helps, good luck!

Kudos to you! I am not organized enough nor disciplined enough to home school. We live in the SW Metro area have several friends who home school. This is what they've told me:

Call your local School District. They should be able to give you a set curriculum for home schooling AND the names of others in your area who home school. There is a whole network of home schooling parents plus activities to give your children access to extra curricular activities as well.

Good Luck!

Kids are sponges and there is no particular order to which they learn. Your local library is the best thing at this age. Multisensory learning is the best. What ever you do keep it fun , keep it active, whole body moveing, keep it hands on.
As a homeschooling parent you are more of a facilitator. For example, put on a CD of fun music,get out the multi colored wooden beads and string them, or the playdough and roll snakes and turn the snakes into shapes, or the big blocks your little girl will just start to know and recognize the shapes by doing these things. Also join a homeschooloing group in your area. Depending on the group they will meet weekly or monthly have field trips, share books and ideas an opurtunity to network, develop friendships for you and your daughter

Hi N.,
There are as many ways to do homeschool as there are kids in the world. I've homeschooled my four children for over 11 years now (my oldest in now in college and doing well--yay!). It's wonderful that your daughter is so excited about learning. Your biggest challenge will be helping her maintain that love for learning. The best way to do that is to find out what her learning style is and not try to force things on her. Some children thrive on workbooks, most do not. Young children need very little "sit-down" learning. They do best, I think, with a lot of experiential learning (being read to, field trips, nature walks, helping in the kitchen, etc).
Joining a local homeschooling group is a great idea for you as well as for her. You will find the support and ideas of the other moms to be very useful. And the group will provide your daughter some socialization with kids of various ages (which I think is more "normal" than socializing with only kids of the same age). A group also provides opportunities for field trips and other activities that are difficult to do on your own.
As far as purchasing a curriculum: I recommend that you do not buy anything yet. Between the library and the internet you can get tons of information and resources. Until you have a good idea what works well for your daughter, it's best to save your money. And even then, there will be times when stuff you buy just doesn't work out. So keep it simple.
Good luck with this great adventure for your family!
B.

I am a preschool teacher, and teach 3 to 4 year olds. We don't have a real curriculum that drives our program, but we have goals and testing we do with each child that points us in the right direction. IIt is perfect time to teach shapes and colors and numbers 1-10. If you go on the internet, you can find some CDs that ahve good songs by: Greg and Steve, The Learning station, Dr. Jean. You can cut out shapes yourself, and play matching games with them, eventually having them learn the names as they play. There are tons of resources on the web of games or things you can do at home. The mailbox (a magazine) has many things too. Just try and make learning into a game, and have fun with it. Some of the best teaching tools are things you already have around your house...learn numbers by following recipies, learn letters by helping them write their names to begin with. Help them learn to draw circles, squares, and +, afterwhich it is easier to write their names. Just be creative and have fun. Good luck!

Since I homeschooled all 3 of my kids at different grade levels, plus now my grandson, I had the opportunity to test drive about 20 different brands out there : ). If you are serious about wanting to homeschool on through the grades, then I would start out with this: Preschool-3rd grade: Go to a "Borders" bookstore or look online for McGraw Hill Publishing "Spectrum" series and get the papreback workbooks for preschool and Kindergarten,(also look at the Test Prep workbooks also-you can make sure your child is staying at or above grade level along the way from 1st grade on) then move to the phonics and math books, when they reach 1st grade level, expand to the reading and reading comprehension and language books, in 2nd grade, add on the writing and spelling, and look for the "Master Skills" series by American Publishing and switch to anything you can find from them. At 3rd grade, consider switching over to a computer-based curriculum-take a look online at www.aop.com and look at their "switched-on-schoolhouse" which I highly recommend for 3rd grade through high school.

Don't let someone scare you into thinking you are holding your child back by teaching them yourself. I've known plenty of kids on both sides of the fence and the only ones who were truly behind got zero teaching from their parents. This proves to me that a mother is best teacher to her children, whether she's supplimenting or fully teaching at home. I found lots of great preschool curriculum online. One of the ones I really liked was ABC Home Preschool. It's all on CD rom to print, or in book form. There are great workbooks by BrainQuest for every level, including preschool. You'll help her out so much by being a part of her learning.

http://www.first-school.ws/preschool/printable-activities...

This is a great site that I use to print worksheets from. My daughter is 3 1/2 and we have just been working at home also. I went to wal-mart and got some alphabet and number flash cards and some cheap workbooks to help her with learning to write her letters also. It's important to remember that at this stage it's all about practice. Our preschoolers are not just learning how to write the letters, but how to hold a pencil/crayon and how to gain the fine motor skills needed to make the correct marks, so don't look for perfection on the first page.

Oh, and my daughter LOVES Sesame Street! It's on everyday at 9AM on PBS 6. I know it's TV, but the kids love it and it's just the right amount of repetitive for them.

Hope this helps! Have fun!

Just wanted to thank you and your husband for the work and sacrifices your family has made for our country. Thank You!!!!

Hey N.,
I'm a homeschooling mom of several years. I school 6 children. My oldest is 15 and will enter college next year. I think it is great that you would like to do some things with your 3 yr. old. There are tons of different options. Abeka books has a great pre-school curriculum(abeka.com) and we love Sonlight for history and reading.(sonlight.com) Happy schooling. S.

Go to Sams, they have a lot of curriculum books age appropriate. I still buy them yearly so we can do stuff at home along with what is being learned in class. My kids think doing the workbooks with me is a game and fun. Also Target in the book section has books, ABCs, Numbers and so on to help.

If I can suggest, though some are anti preschool on here, even at her age if she is such a sponge she may really love preschool outside of the home, learning with her peers as well as getting the full spectrum of a classroom may really spark her learning. I am a big advocate of preschool as I have seen what a head start it has given both of my kids. I have a second grader that is at almost a fourth grade reading level due to her start in preschool.

Kids tend to really learn a lot better without it being mom teaching or in their own home. Kids need to social skills along with the academic to really be well rounded. Even one day a week outside of the home environment in a class setting can really help. I think we can give them the foundation but unless you have a full teaching degree letting her go to preschool is a gift not a bad thing.

There are a lot of games you can buy too, to help with her mental awareness, like matching games and so forth.

Hi N.--
This might already be posted, but I like Barbara Curtis' books, and if you are going to continue homeschooling she might be a good resource. I have "Mommy, Teach Me!" and "Mommy, Teach Me To Read," both of which are helpful as I am figuring out how to enjoy days with my 3 1/2 year old.

Good luck!

Hi N.,
I've been homeschooling for 11 years and have 6 children. I want to encourage you in your endeavors to homeschool your daughter. At this point, just read to her, play games with her (matching, counting with cheerios, etc.), introduce colors in whatever you happen to have (her toys, etc.). You don't need any sort of curriculum!! Really. You have what you need already. As your daughter grows, you will have plenty of opportunity to buy her curriculum. Trust me. LOL For now, keep it simple, short, and fun.
Blessings,
Tonya

We do Bob Jones videos and love it. I'm not sure what they have for preschool. We did K-5 at age 4. It was challenging and our son did lag a bit in places, but the challenge has been great for him. There is a series of books at the library something to the effect of Everything Your Kindergartener Needs To Know. They have them for every grade, at least elementary. GL! It will be great! We love homeschooling and are so glad to have the opportunity to have some much quality time together.

See if you can find a local homeschooling group to find other moms who are homeschooling their children the same age.

We love the www.starfall.com and Bob Books (www.bobbooks.com) for reading.

If you google "Printables" (www.google.com/search?q=printables) you can find all sorts of great activity pages to print out at home. Also you can pick up age-appropriate activity books at the dollar store.

Field trips are great learning experiences. The zoo, nature centers, museums are great places to visit and learn.

And the library - let her pick out books and show her how to check them out.

Cooking or baking together is a great way to learn about measuring and temperature.

Also doing crafty stuff like playdoh or painting or just drawing with crayons really helps with motor skills.

We're a Montessori family and love the curriculum. Some great books you can get from the library about Montessori at home:
How To Raise An Amazing Child the Montessori Way by Tim Seldin
Teaching Montessori in the Home: Pre-School Years: The Pre-School Years by Elizabeth G. Hainstock
Teach Me to Do It Myself: Montessori Activities for You and Your Child by Maja Pitamic

You can visit a Montessori classroom to see how it's arranged and what they offer (www.d11.org/buenavista/)

And if you search online you can find lots of moms who make their own Montessori materials at home.

Enjoy this time together!

Hi N.,
I just read your question and I know you've got some great answers already but I thought I'd add my two-cents worth. I have four children, all of whom I taught at home during the pre-school years. We had great success with a program that you can find at youcanteach.com. This is a very loose pre-school 'curriculum' that helps introduce letters and letter sounds through play and experimentation. It would be worth your time to glance at it anyway, and see if it is something you could use with your girls.
In this program, you introduce one letter each week and then do activities that focus on words beginning with that letter. For example, when we did the letter M, we read the books Molly Lou Mellon, and Five Little Monkeys; we ate macaroni and cheese, marshmallows, and muffins; we played marching band, and treasure map...you get the idea. My children have loved doing this and they were all reading long before they started kindergarten, so I feel like it has been successful. Good luck! You are in such a great time of life and it will absolutely fly!!!