I hope it's okay to post this here...
I am trying to decide what to do with my almost 3yo dd this coming school year in terms of "preschool". My older daughter went to preschool and public school for kindergarten so I've never homeschooled a preschooler.
I am wondering what to teach my "preschooler". She is asking to "do school like big sissy" but I don't want to go overboard. I thought some letter and number recognition would be good....
I plan on using SWR with her in kindergarten or 1st grade. What could I do with her that would be beneficial?
Part of me thinks... relax, let her play but the other part sees all my girlfriends sending their 2 and 3 year olds to preschool...
Any advice?
Janelle

Hi Janelle. I am in the thick of homeschooling with preschoolers. My oldest will be 6 in Aug and going into first grade. We are starting TOG yr 1. My next 3 are boys; 4yrs, 21 mo and 7 mo. What I did with my oldest verses what I do now is only slightly different. I tried to be a bit more formal with her but it had more to do with trying to feel the whole homeschooling thing out.
Two main things we do with our preschoolers: read to them (good classic books), and talk to them (teaching them through everyday activities like baking, counting how many peas they have to eat, asking color questions of what we are eating...)

My next goal is making sure they know all their letter (and numbers) visually and by sound. I loved this little flash card flip ring (from Little Einstein or Leapfrog) that had all the letters, numbers up to 10 or 12, colors and shapes. It was durable and a great distraction to use as we stood in line at the grocery.
One resource I do like is the "Leapfrog" video series. We don't watch lots of TV but these are good reinforcements for the letters and sounds. At 4 I start a phonics program. My goal is to have them doing basic reading by K and to be reading well on their own by first grade. It worked with my first and my 4 yr old is chomping at the bit to do more "school". I don't over stress about it, test the waters to see what they naturally or quickly pickup and encourage them just a little farther.

Finally, teaching them about God and working on character will accomplish more than any "educational" goal. There are lots of great books on this but two favorites of mine are: My ABC Bible Verses by Susan Hunt,and A Child's Book of Character Building by R. Coriell (old book but good). I could say lots about these but I have probably rambled long enough.

Hope this is helpful.

~Joy

The book "The Well Trained Mind" has a lot of suggestions--good ones!--for the preschool years. I would recommend purchasing it or borrowing it from the library.

Also, check out the website www.activitybags.com. They offer a book of ideas for Preschool "bags" of different educational activities you can give your preschooler while you work with the older children. Or you could use those bags as you work with your preschooler.

HTH

Thank you both for the input! I think the activity bags just might be the thing to keep my younger one occupied while I work with my older daughter. I'll go check out the website more.
janelle

Hi Janelle,

I haven't really looked too hard at this myself but I know there is a website with preschool suggestions called....something starting with B but if you go to www.oldfashionededucation.com there is a link to it under the curriculum section.

Karina.

I haven't read all of the responses but you might look into Five in a Row. I have used their Before Five in a Row book for preschool and really liked it.

hth

Kerri

I used to avoid workbooks like the plague, but I found out that my preschoolers love them because they feel like they're "doing school." For teaching letters, I really like Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for the Code (Explode the Code). Before that, I've used some of the Rod and Staff preschool workbook sets. Also, Timberdoodle now carries Kumon workbooks that are really cute for preschoolers. None of these are necessary, but my kids like them.
Michelle

As our third daughter is three now, and we are also making these decisions, I wanted to add a vote for Letter of the Week.
Letter of the Week


We just learned about this resource ourselves a few weeks ago, and believe it is the direction we'll go with the 3 year-old for the coming year.

We love Five in a Row, too, and have had our older girls read some of the Before Five in a Row titles with the youngers as well.

I also have the Preschool Activities in a Bag book, which has been on my "to do" list since January!! Hope to get at least a few of them put together before August.

Thanks for the other great ideas above,
wendy

I was going to suggest Five in a Row (or Before Five in a Row) as well. The books are generally well chosen and older children would enjoy them too. I have also used many, many activities in Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready.

Most pre-school suggestions focus on letters and reading, which is great. One area that I have just started doing with my 4yo and 3yo, to keep them occupied during school with the 7yo, is giving them tangrams and/or pattern blocks, and encouraging them to use the shaped blocks to create creatures, cars, etc. They only do this during our "school" time. I like how the geometric figures can stimulate other areas of their brain. With my oldest I did only reading and counting, but I have fun watching the younger ones create dogs and people, etc., out of the geometric shapes. If money is tight, you can make your own out of construction paper (for the very gentle toddler), cardstock (for the more "involved" toddler), or foam (for the destructively inclined toddler). For my destructively gifted toddler, I sprung for some plastic tangrams and patterns, so I don't have to worry.

To easily fold and make your own tangrams, here's a website:

http://tangrams.ca/inner/foldtan.htm

To order some, I know you can go to rainbowresource.com and search specifically using "tangram". I've had a harder time searching for the pattern blocks there, but I'm sure they sell them.

Just a suggestion for the math side of preschool. I'm a big math person, but I don't like "doing" the worksheet math for preschoolers. This gives them some spatial practice using a fun method.

Deanna