Preschool Curriculum

I just wanted to add something to the advice you got already. I REALLY recommend buying the Leap Frog Letter Factory. I am a teacher myself, and I do believe in limiting TV, but this movie...I let him watch it as often as he asked to. My friend borrowed it to me first of all. She told me that her daughter learned to identify AND the sounds of each letter in 2 weeks. Honestly, that is ALL it took my son. 2 weeks. And he wasn't even 3. Our youngest was kind of watching it along with him (he's now 23 months), and we didn't know it at the time, but he was picking up letters and sounds, too. He already knows what sounds P, D, M, B, and a few other consonants make. You DO have to reinforce the concepts after your child is done watching. We'll do this as sort of a game. I'll ask him what a letter is...or what sound this letter makes, etc. He's really close to reading right now.

This video is such a great tool for teaching phonics and pre-reading skills, that I just can't say enough good things about it. I think everyone should have this video. They also have a Leap Frog Word Factory, which is the next step in the series and actually teaches reading. I am using these videos along with the BOB series of books (simple, one vowel w/two consonant words) to teach him to read. My goal is to have him reading this year.

Your 2 year old might be a LITTLE young yet, but in about 6 months, I would definitely start with the video. And it's never too early to start with letter recognition.

Also, I wanted to say, if you're doing home preschool, do a lot of art projects with different mediums and supplies. Getting their imaginations moving at this point is critical in their development. Good luck!!

Hi B.,
I'm a former Pre-school teacher and a mother of 4, I feel like I can give you some good insight. At age 2, your daughter does NOT need to be "doing worksheets". Its all about experiencing, experiencing, experiencing. She needs hands on things that require a short attention span. Right now your primary focus is on developing her LOVE for learning not necessarily on learning. Pre-schoolers learn best thru their play not thru structure. Here are some examples: rather than trying to teach her "green", refer to things as the "green grass", "green jello", etc. I see too many enthusiastic and well-meaning parents with their color flashcards, etc. That's a quick way to turn them off to learning. An absolute favorite resource of mine when teaching pre-school is a series of books called "Theme-a-saurus". (Warren Publishing House, Inc.) Check your library; if they don't have it, they could probably get it for you. It takes a theme, such as teddy bears, and has songs, fingerplays, projects, etc to do with that theme. The kids LOVED it and you can incorporate so many things into it and they'll learn without realizing it. Example: collect all the teddy bears in the house and have a tea party. Count the bears and help her determine when you've collected enough chairs for all the bears. (matching/counting) Put all the bears with ribbons around their necks at one table. (sorting) She'll learn so much more while having fun than she will from paperwork. And one last thought, the BEST thing you can do for her is to read to her A LOT!!!! As much as you can tolerate. :) Choose books that match her attention span; even if they are 2 words on a page. Don't be discouraged if she only listens to a few pages or if she pushes pages out of sequence. As she develops, so will her interest and her attention span. When I was teaching, pre-school and into elem years, the best students (academically and could focus well, etc) were usually those who were read to the most.

I hope this helps! Feel free to contact me if you'd like more thoughts.

K.

I think it's great that you're looking to work on that with your daughter! Shameless plug here....but I am an Usborne Books consultant, and I know that we do have lots of books that help with phonics, etc. We also have what we call "10 Terrific Weeks Reading Adventure Programs" which is for preschool on up.

Incidentally, I own a CD-Rom (with books) phonics program for kids 4-6. It's never been used. I'm selling it on craigslist...here's the link if you want to see it: http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/bab/317789773.html

Feel free to ask me if you have any questions, or to check out my website: www.stephsbooks.com

Good luck!

I just recently found some websites where you can print off worksheet-type things, and I plan on using these with my 3 year old very soon!

www.dltk-kids.com
www.donnayoung.org
www.noggin.com

I also just bought the Leap Frog Letter Factory for my daughter's birthday this Friday because I've heard great things about it! Plus it was only $9.99 at Target!

At 2 you can usually start with colors, numbers, letters and shapes and work on a few a day. Like pick 4 for the week and work on those 4 everyday for a week. You basically do this until they know them all or even into kindergarten. (at age 2 they don't usually get it or retain alot of this but the repeative consistancy of it will help and eventually they will have it memorized) My daughter only cared about one letter at age 2 the letter "B" because that's what her name started with she could care less about the other letters.

Then you work writing these around age 4 or so.Then you work on recongnizing one's name,and then you work on writing their first name.

Maybe then learn opposites like tall/short

Read lots of books, do puzzles, have different sensory toys or things like water/sand/finger paint etc.

This is pretty much all they do at daycare centers, and preschools. Along with socialization and following directions stuff like that.

That's all they basically need to have some concept of to have a good start when they start kindergarten.

Once they hit kindergarten they go over all of this again and add in the sounds of letters, which leads to reading, writing. They then learn how to tell time, count numbers, count money things like that.

I tried very hard to have my daughter be ahead and be so smart just like everyone else I wanted my daughter to excel. I've learned one thing don't push they're ready when they're ready and if you make it fun it goes by alot easier. Taking your kids out alot is very very educational in so many ways. I was told by a ECFE teacher that just going to the grocery store is a huge learning opportunity for children.

Have you tried the A Beka Book curriculum? It's a really structured program and there are tools for homeschooling. My church is using that curriculum for the Academy and the stuents are really being enriched. It's an EXCELLANT program! The website is abeka.com. I hope you find what you are looking for.

Hi B., I think I can help you a bit here. I too was looking for curriculums not too long ago. The amount of material out there is surely overwhelming. During all my endless days, nights, weeks, and months, of searching I have weeded through so much material.
I started homeschooling my 7th grader and 6th grader, but now recently my kindergartener. Everywhere I go I keep my eyes open for learning material and that is when I happened upon some fun books.
SO here is my suggestion. Go to K-mart or Wal-Mart and look over in the book area or in the school supply area. There you will find some great workbooks. The best part is that you can look through them and decide what would work with your child the best, unlike an Internet sale. Also you shouldn't be too overwhelmed because the selection is not humongous, but it is a decent selection. The prices are right as well. For your child’s age it should be all about fun. So you really need something age/level appropriate and you will definitely find that there. You will see that all the workbooks are marked by age or grade level. Some are full curriculums while others just cover one or two subjects of interest. There really is a wide array.
If you need more details or any other help just say so and I will be more then happy to oblige