Can anyone recommend a preschool program for a little boy who is very noisy, and very much an auditory learner who is not necessarily a mover, but not ready to sit still for more than a few minutes at a time. In other words, he prefers to learn while listening to something and playing something else at the same time. He prefers non-fiction to fiction unless it has to do with superheros. And I don't want to do something with tons of hands-on activities I have to prepare for b/c my oldest needs lots of attention to learn and is very different learning style than he is. He will be a young 4 next year, and that is what I am thinking about. Also, his fine motor skills are lacking, but gross motor skills are great. Thanks for your advice.

ARe you talking about a curriculum? I wouldn't use one at this age. Do a search for keeping a preschooler occupied during school. I would have him play with legos, rotate toys, etc.
Christine

Well, if you plan on doing unit studies about history... My mom has some of the same situation, she has an older child and then a 4 year old. She was looking to get them familiar with history and to get them involved in learning about it. Tapestry of Grace is great for that!

It has the history, which is something you can decide how in depth you want to go and it has beautiful lapbooks and activity books. You can buy the lapbooks as a kit which enables the kid to be active and creative in cutting,gluing, and painting.
And even if Tapestry is not right for you, you can always make lapbooks yourself. My mom has made several, one for weather, and then I helped her make one for dinosaurs.

I hope that helps some.

Actually, we are already doing Tapestry and we do love it!!! I am more interested in what to do with him for Math and LAnguage Arts/Phonics. Any ideas?

If it were me, I would do both of these things informally: talking about the sounds of letters, and counting things together and things like that. I'd just talk to him about the concepts.

I have done workbooks and other programs with a child of that age before, but mostly only when it's connected with a passion. (And when it hasn't been, I've mostly regretted it!) My 7yo started doing math workbooks some time ago - but that's because he loved it so much that he laughed and waved his hands around because it gave him so much joy. That's not typical, and I have one who went the other way, too.

I would suggest the Sing, Spell, Read, and Write PRESCHOOL kit. My kids didn't really want to color too much at that age, so they didn't always do the coloring sheets. BUT, the program teaches letter sounds, colors, shapes, opposites, etc...with fun songs - perfect for auditory learners. It also has neat easy projects and games you can do (or not). There is a great reading list for suggested books to read to them at that age, to correspond with each letter, shape, etc.. I only did about 30 min. a day of these fun activities for my 4 year olds, so they could get used to the idea of school and mommy as teacher. My youngest enjoyed her short time of school while big brother was doing "big school". When she got tired of sitting after 20-30 min, she moved on to play with blocks or playdough, free play, etc... SSRW only teaches them to count to 10, but mine were not ready for more math than that at 4...we just read counting books. There is a song counting to 10 frontwards and backwards.

My kids did enjoy the Handwriting without Tears preschool program at that age, in which you make letters from preshaped wooden pieces and playdough, and then you move to a small chalkboard, etc...That helps them learn to make the correct shape without the stress of paper and pencil yet, lol.
Hope that helps! By the way, after the very relaxed SSRW program, my kids knew their letter sounds by 5 and it made K very easy.

AnnM in Texas

Thanks for the input. I hadn't thought about songs about shapes and opposites and such, but that is a great idea. We do have HWT, which I use with my K, and she likes it a lot. When my son was home, he also joined with us playing with Mat Man and singing and playing with the lines and curves, etc. I will probably use that with him next year too. I think I might do SWR with both of them, and see if my older one is "getting it" or if we need the Barton Reading program (she is probably dyslexic). And my son can do some more tactile things with SWR like sandpaper letters, drawing the letters in sand or salt, etc. to learn the phonograms. We'll see......

The shape songs are tons of fun. You use masking tape inside, or colored chalk outside and make the shapes, and they march around the shape as they sing about it. Ex:

I'm marching, I'm marching, I'm marching around the rectangle
Two long sides, 2 short sides
I'm marching around the rectangle, etc...

I hope you find what you need!

AnnM in Texas

I know you don't want a lot of prep work, but you might take a look at the pre-k materials from Winter Promise.com Some of the resources they use are wonderful and usually take less than 1 hour per day to do the whole program. My 3 yo son loves the Ready to Learn and Journey of Imagination sets that we use (rather loosely) when he wants to do school. You may just look over the recommended books (such as Science Play, Math Play, Alphabet Art, etc.) as our library has most of those available with ideas for enrichment.

We're going to use TOG Yr 1 next year with Animals and their Worlds from Winter Promise next year for the little ones -- letting them sit in on whatever they're interested in with the olders.

Melanie in CO
Kids: 12, 10, 5, and 3