Starting to Homeschool My 4 1/2 Year Old.....Help

Especially with a child that age, I would take an "unschooling" approach. (I do not have any particular references, google it.)

I think of unschooling as being what good parenting looks like. Take your child with you as you go places and talk about what you see, hear etc. Go to the park. Go to the library. Visit museum-- even museums you may think of as being for adults.

Even at home, be engaged. Dance together, read together. Follow the child's interests and some of yours. Play with blocks, bake cookies. Watch the nature channel, or the science channel...

My daughter found a beautiful mountain meadow of flowers with her 3-year-old, so they got a flower identification book at the library and learned that they were "marsh marigolds".

Say "I'm going to read my book. Would you like to get your book and read too?" or "I want to write grandma a letter, do you want to write one too?" "We need to do the laundry today. Will you put all of the white clothes in the washing machine while I separate the other loads?"

Math is very natural in the kitchen. "Look, the pizza had 8 pieces. I had 2 and you had two, let's count how many are left!" and "Look! I think we still have 1/2 a pizza for tomorrow." Look at kids cookbooks (with lots of pictures) and decide together what to fix for lunch or dinner.

Most children who have not been to school have learned many things and enjoy learning more!

Hi there!
I home school 2 boys (5 and 11), with the little one there is a lot to do but it has to be little by little. Most of children at this age, don't have a huge attention span, so whatever you want to teach him start with minutes, just minutes.
Coloring, Drawing letters/numbers to cut and paste on a leaf paper, building legos, reading a LOT different stories. Take him to the library and have him to choose the books he wants to "read" with you. While reading point with your finger the words you are reading and have him to look at it. Go to the playground or park and count leaves, count rocks, etc. At home you can sit down together and count cheerios, draw stars or use stickers to count adn even add!
You may or not may spend money on it. You don't have to. At home you have all the possible resources to start teaching your little one. The more your kid makes things on his own, the more he will learn (cardboard houses, construction paper, etc...)
Ever single minute at home and outdoors is a teaching experience for him. He is little and eager to learn, enjoy it and do not push him or try to place a class setting for him yet....Warm him up and you will see wonderful results!
A nice experience with my little one that I would like to share with you is that he sits down with us (my older kid and myself) on the table while we are reading history and religion, he listens very carefully and enjoys it! and he has been learning so many interesting things about history....This doesn't mean that you have to do it, I am just showing you that little ones are like sponges, they learn fast and well.
Websites: www.starfall.com, www.abchomepreschool.com, etc.
there are plenty of resources online and at the library, but your imagination can make wonders!
Have a great day!

I didn't homeschool my kids but wanted to give you a heads up. There were so many kids who had been homeschooled for elementary school and then went to our Christian high school. They were all very advanced academically but almost all were socially awkward.

Be sure to find what activities he enjoys and get him into group settings with other children from other families. Join with other homeschooled kids and go on outings. Give him opportunities to play with kids when you are not around.

Enjoy! What a great gift you are giving your son!

read.. read read.. go the library.. look in the nonfiction section and get sciency books,, bugs, spiders, animals, weather, space, moon, there are preschool books on these topics..

pick up some good workbooks -- I like schoolzone.

I would highly recommend.. getting her around other kids at least 3 or 4 days a week.. dance class, soccer, library story time.. playgroups.. she needs to socialize with kids her age.

Some of the websites we use for games and activities are:

Starfall.com
Time4learning.com - love this one!
PBSkids.org
Jumpstart.com

I would suggest that you look into swim lessons or sports or some weekly group type activities to help build his social skills too.

If you are looking for more professional help you should look into Desiderataschool.com

In addition to reading stories, workouts, bible stories, natural learning, we are starting thelearningboxpreschool.com. It's only about $10 a month per kid. It is a GREAT curriculum! Everything is included. It's great.

I see you are in Cedar Park. There is a wonderful group on Bigtent.com called Tiny Texas Homeschoolers. A lot of us are in the Cedar Park / Leander / NW Austin area. Check us out!

I've got a four year old and he loves starfall.com, story time at the library, helping me grocery shop, etc. We mainly unschool, but have some workbooks that he likes to do every now and then.

Happy Schooling!