Hi! Does anyone know of a homeschooling group for young kids (preschool, kindergarten) in either Jersey City or Downtown NYC? I know there is a Jersey City and Hoboken group, but they accept kids 5 and above only. Thanks!

I have another question for the group. My second child (boy - 3 years and 3 months old) is at the point where I feel I need to start some sort of formal learning/ work. Until now we have been reading to him everyday; playing with duplos, cars, trains; used leapfrog dvds, and take him outdoors - park, pool, etc whenever we can. I would like to get ideas on what/ where would be a good place to start for math,reading and writing. I have looked at HWT and like it. I have used AAS with my older daughter (7 years old) and thought I could use their AAR program with my 3 year old. Confused about my options with math. We did not use any formal math curriculum for our daughter when she was young and now we use Miquon and Singapore during summer and winter breaks (to supplement school) so would like to know if these programs are good for the preschool years as well. Any other thoughts/ directions/ advice/ critiques would help - thanks!

I have another question for the group. My second child (boy - 3 years and 3 months old) is at the point where I feel I need to start some sort of formal learning/ work. Until now we have been reading to him everyday; playing with duplos, cars, trains; used leapfrog dvds, and take him outdoors - park, pool, etc whenever we can. I would like to get ideas on what/ where would be a good place to start for math,reading and writing. I have looked at HWT and like it. I have used AAS with my older daughter (7 years old) and thought I could use their AAR program with my 3 year old. Confused about my options with math. We did not use any formal math curriculum for our daughter when she was young and now we use Miquon and Singapore during summer and winter breaks (to supplement school) so would like to know if these programs are good for the preschool years as well. Any other thoughts/ directions/ advice/ critiques would help - thanks!

Hi there! There are already threads that list free curriculum, but they focus more on the older kids, so I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread with free curriculum for preschoolers and kindergartners. These are some of the resources I used as a teacher and now as a mom. Please add on and list any free curriculum or resources you are using or that you know of. I taught 4 year old Kindergarten before homeschooling, and I worked closely with the 5K teacher to mesh our programs. For my son, we just have fun doing phonics, handwriting together, math games, and take lots of field trips around your area! Also, read, read, read! At least 3 read alouds a day, more if you can. Kids at this age really need hands on play with materials like blocks, play dough, ect. to develop their cognitive and motor skills. We also do monthly themes based on the seasons, holidays, etc. I don’t use a boxed curriculum, just tons of good books and free printables and ideas from the internet. www.starfall.com Starfall is wonderful and free online, it has an ABC section for early phonics and reading going all the way up to 4th or 5th grade. They also sell a complete Kindergarten curriculum, but you can just use the ree activities and alphabet printables on the website for phonics and handwriting. Here is a program with lesson plans for presenting Nursery rhymes to work on phonics and literacy skills, it is called Rhyme a Week: http://www.teach.virginia.edu/go/wil...and_rhymes.htm Just to let you know, it is a program that was developed for Head Start. Some homeschool families might not approve of the source, but I used it in the Catholic school I worked in and I didn't find anything objectionable about it. The also have a program called "Book a Week" that has lesson plans for activities to go along with a children's book. It is also used to increase literacy and reading skills, and expose kids to picture books. http://www.teach.virginia.edu/go/wil...#A_Book_A_Week I don't use these faithfully, but if you wanted to it could constitute a complete language arts curriculum, I would just add in a bit more formal handwriting and/or phonics. Don Potter’s website has a phonics program called Blend Phonics that I think would work well at this age, as long as the child knows the alphabet. http://www.donpotter.net/Blend%20Phonics.htm www.littlegiraffes.com This is a website that was maintained by a Kindergarten teacher until she retired, it has great ideas for hands on activities and projects in language arts, math, science, reading, etc. The monthly themes section has great ideas units you could use as an integrated curriculum, also it has great ideas for hands on projects and centers that relate to science, social studies, as well as math and reading. Lots of fun crafts too! Again, you could use the themes to plan your activities for the whole year. www.jmeacham.com This is another public school teacher who still maintains her site. Although she teaches older kids now, she started out in Kindergarten. I really like her “roll a games” for math, which you can find here:http://www.jmeacham.com/roll.a.games.htm http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/abc_centers.html This website is from a former teacher who is now a homeschooling mom. She has tons of resources for preschool and Kindergarten. These are her ABC centers, which have some great games. She also has printable reading books that coordinate with great Children's lit: http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/printable_booklets.html This site also includes a link on the left for Christian resources and printables, and there are plenty of ideas for math games and language arts games if you follow the links. http://www.first-school.ws/ This is a preschool site with tons of free printables, but they are also great for the Kindergarten level. They have handwriting worksheets in either Zaner-Bloser or D'Nelian. They also have some great flashcards, coloring pages, and they have lesson plans for various children's books and themes. Their site can be a little hard to navigate, but their free printables really are great. Their alphabet handwriting sheets also include pages with Christian and biblical themes if you wanted to incorporate religion, though most of their resources are secular. Here is the link to their handwriting printable section: http://www.first-school.ws/theme/handwriting.htm This site has a handwriting worksheet generator you can use to print out your child’s name in dot letters for them to practice. You can use Zaner-Bloser or D’Nelian, or cursive. www.handwritingworksheets.com Here is a page with free learning activity sheets for math, writing, reading, etc. You need to register at www.learningpage.com, but it is free. They also have lesson plans and printables to go with themes units, such as ocean animals, that integrate all the different subjects around a science topic with resources for grades prek-4. Here is a lin k for the activity sheets they have by month in an archive: http://www.learningpage.com/member/p...thly-sets.html Here is a link for their themes units: http://www.learningpage.com/pages/me...ct_oceans.html And here are the basic sheets that have great math and letter practice: http://www.learningpage.com/pages/me..._dnealian.html Here is a site with fun ideas for theme units, they also have songs and fingerplays listed by theme that you can incorporate into whatever you are studying. This is the section with recipes for things like playdough, paint, etc. http://www.preschooleducation.com/recipe.shtml They also have great ideas for games and activities to go along with phonics and math. These are all hands on activities and games, not worksheets. If you wanted a more traditional math program, I know that MEP math has a kindergarten program. I haven't used it, but it is free online and a lot of families on this board really like it. It is a British site so the Kindergarten year is called "Reception." Here is a link: http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/proje...ry/default.htm If you are looking for a CM approach, Ambleside Online has free Kindergarten suggestions and reading lists as does Tanglewood Academy, and Mater Amabilis (Catholic CM approach). You could also look at the booklists on the Living Books curriculum website or Memoria press for more literature ideas, and then just use your library card to check out the books. I know there are a lot more out there, let's keep em coming!

I came across this in one of my facebook groups: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/educators/early-childhood/ It's a 10 month long (or several units if you're just taking some of the units) preschool curriculum (3-5) for free! It looks fun and interesting, also included a pre-history unit for your dino lovers (or pre STOW if you are doing that first). I think I just found our science curriculum for prek-4!!

HI all, My 3 YO LOVES books. He memorizes the ones that we read the most and when we read a new one then after we are done he takes it and wants to read it to me. He asks me to help him "say something" for each page if he doesn't have it memorized to "read" back to me. The other day he asked me to teach him how to read and say something. I am very much of the don't push it mentality and letting him play as much as possible. He loves to play but he again, has asked me to teach him to read. He watches Leap Frog letter factory and knows about 5 letters and can point them out. He can sit still when he wants. He is a little speech delayed but he has had his hearing aid know for over a year and making huge progress. So my DH and I were talking and he feels that we should "teach him to read" since he is asking and i'm like he doesn't know his alphabet yet! So i at least agreed to start teaching him his alphabet. If we start and he isn't interested i can put it away. So my question is more of, what are good tools to teach the alphabet and pre-reading skills. I have started to buy rhyming books too and his new favorite book is "Rhyming Dust Bunnies." I figure we can sit and learn the alphabet together and go from there and if he still wants to "learn to read" after that we will cross that bridge later. He knows the alphabet song too. Also, i need ideas for teaching it w/out writing. His fine motor skills are not there yet. Thoughts?? TIA. I looked at All About Reading pre reading but its a little expensive. We had also been doing Simply Classical A from MP and he had a huge leap. Now we just use the book list since he made that leap. I am just not sure he is ready for the fine motor skills in Simply Classical B and thinking i am not ready for a whole package yet either.

Hello everyone, My name is Christina and I have a 4 and 2 year old. I recently purchased "The Well Trained Mind" and am looking for some resources and encouragement. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with how/where to start. My 4 year old went to 3 year pre-school last year but I always felt the pull to home-school my kids. After ordering the book I really think this is the avenue I need to persue with our home-schooling. Do any of you here have any good places to start?? Thank you!!