A newbie with questions

[andrea14]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm brand new to this and will begin homeschooling my 4 year old little girl this year. What are the best resources to use? I currently plan on using The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading along with the BOB books. Other than that I'm unsure on what resources I'll use and which subjects to focus on. I would love any advice (or links) that could help me feel less overwhelmed.

 

I would love to hear about your experiences teaching pre-k/K. I need to get myself organized.:001_smile:

 

Thank you!!! I'm sure I'll have lot's of questions along the way.:confused:

[JMDRAD]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm brand new to this and will begin homeschooling my 4 year old little girl this year. What are the best resources to use? I currently plan on using The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading along with the BOB books. Other than that I'm unsure on what resources I'll use and which subjects to focus on. I would love any advice (or links) that could help me feel less overwhelmed.

 

I would love to hear about your experiences teaching pre-k/K. I need to get myself organized.:001_smile:

 

Thank you!!! I'm sure I'll have lot's of questions along the way.:confused:

 

There's not much that you NEED for a four year old but it's fun to have school things for them. The OPGTR is a great program. I am using MUS primer with my dd 4 because she wanted her own math book like her big sis. I also have Sonlight Core P3/4. There's a ton of great books in that core and also a few games. A salt box is great for them to practice writing. I use a shallow tupperware container and put 1/4 cup salt in it.

 

Have you read The Well Trained Mind? SWB has some great advice for pre-schoolers. Ruth Beechicks little booklets are another great resource to check out. Have fun:D

[andrea14]

There's not much that you NEED for a four year old but it's fun to have school things for them. The OPGTR is a great program. I am using MUS primer with my dd 4 because she wanted her own math book like her big sis. I also have Sonlight Core P3/4. There's a ton of great books in that core and also a few games. A salt box is great for them to practice writing. I use a shallow tupperware container and put 1/4 cup salt in it.

 

Have you read The Well Trained Mind? SWB has some great advice for pre-schoolers. Ruth Beechicks little booklets are another great resource to check out. Have fun:D

 

Thank you so much for your response! What is MUS? Is that just a math program?

 

I LOVE the salt box idea. Very cool. :D

[PentecostalMom]

MUS is Math-U-See, a hands-on, manipulative math based program. I would suggest getting The Three R's by Ruth Beechick, and Language and Thinking for Young Children by her as well. One of the very best places to begin is your local library. Find out if they offer resources for homeschoolers. There are a million books out there for beginners. You can get from the books, names of a wide variety of curriculum and order catalogs. Then you can begin looking to see what sort of curriculum you will need in the future.

 

If you have not read The Well-Trained Mind, it is also an excellent resource, but you really do not need a lot for this age. OPTGR is great (for some, it didn't work for us), but you don't need a lot of other "stuff" for Pre-K.

 

Some beginning places for curriculum/catalogs are:

Abeka

Rainbow Resource

BJUP

Sonlight

Peace Hill Press

Beautiful Feet Books

Saxon Homeschool

Winter Promise

My Father's World

 

There are a zillion more....this is just the tip of the iceberg! Enjoy! :001_smile:

[Suzannah]

Read The Well-Trained Mind if you haven't already. It might help you organize your thoughts some and help you decide what your goals are if you haven't already. There's great information for Pre-K and K as well as practical advice for later years and recollections of the authors' personal experiences with homeschooling.

 

But don't get overwhelmed! :) Maybe I should have said that first.

 

I love Five in a Row for Pre-school and Kindergarten. It's a unit-study program based on classic children's literature such as The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge, Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel, Peter Rabbit, etc. You read the story once a day for a week and pull one or more topics from the story to study. The authors advocate the same methods up through 3rd grade I think. I prefer WTM from 1st grade on, but to each his own.

[Tracy]

I love Five in a Row for Pre-school and Kindergarten.

 

We did FIAR, too, for K and loved it so much! At 4yo, you might want to consider Before FIAR. (FIAR is for 4-8yos, and Before FIAR is for 2-4yos.) You could easily add FIAR to what you already have planned and have a wonderful, cozy preschool program planned, touching on all subjects.

[mhg]

My son is 4 and we're going to do some preK this year also.

Here's our plan (and I don't plan to have a schedule -- we all know they are most teachable in the mornings, so I'll AIM for mornings, but I'm not going to get OCD about keeping any type of schedule (only a child once). We plan to continue with Child's Story Bible (by Catherine Vos) and every now and then we'll read from A Child's Book of Character Building volume 1. Work on bible verse and hymn memorization. I also have purchased OPGTR and magnetic dry erase board and AlphaMagnets (by Educational Insights, bought off amazon) since OPG recommends using the letter magnets. Mainly want to get in a lot of reading so we're going to do Five in a Row volume one. Saxon Math K and teacher's manual. Start some pre-writing / tracing/prep for future handwriting. He loves science, so we'll just get various library book on whatever he's interested in. I bought Mudpies to Magnets and Everyone Has a Body for an occasional fun activity/craft/project.

[andrea14]

Oh my goodness....such great advice. Thank you! I do have The Well-Trained Mind and am slowly reading through it as well. I like to take what they suggest and mix in what other's are learning along the way as well.:001_smile:

 

Thank you again!

[kathkath]

i suggest math their way

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=math+their+way&x=0&y=0&ih=2_4_2_3_1_1_0_2_0_1.48_118&fsc=-1

and

developing number concepts. no you don't need unifix cubes. You can use anything. These are fantastic for wee ones and entirely hands-on.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Developing-Number-Concepts-Using-Unifix/product-reviews/0201061171/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

[Closeacademy]

Honestly, for Kindergarten and under, I love Sonlight's Preschool programs (not K) and Five in a Row. The books are wonderful and you will enjoy that time spent reading with your child.

 

Other activities that are great for this age:

 

spending time outdoors (playing and observing and talking)

going to the park

cooking together

cleaning house together

singing

dancing

cuddling

going to a local playgroup

going to the zoo, children's museum or other activity center

going to the library

going on field trips to fun places

painting, playing with clay, drawing

doing crafty projects

 

Basically, have fun with these last years because it is all over so fast and you can't have this joyful time back. There is plenty of time for seatwork later on. Go hug your dd.:grouphug:

[andrea14]

I'm intrigued with FIAR. I like their approach for pre-k. I'm a little on the fence about which one to start with, though. My daughter is 4, but is very excited to learn and is pushing me to start "homeschool" with her.:001_smile: For those of you who have used FIAR, would you suggest beginning with FIAR or stepping back to Before FIAR? Also, how long does each volume in FIAR take?

 

And a math question. I know that FIAR hits on Math. So, in your experience, would you begin with Saxon Math K this year or wait until she is officially in Kindergarten?

 

ETA: I'm also researching the Horizons Preschool Program. Any thoughts or experience on this???

 

Thanks again!!

Edited August 6, 2010 by andrea14

[Tracy]

Well, we started with FIAR when dd was 4.5yo. She is very bright and advanced in all areas. Some of the lessons were beyond her, but since there are so many lessons to choose from, this was not a huge concern. There were a few books that were a little difficult. We loved FIAR so much, I do wish that I had started with Before FIAR for Pre-K and then FIAR for K so that we could get 2 years out of the program. But when I was making the decision, I focused on what dd was capable of doing. In that respect, choosing FIAR was good, as I was always able to choose a lesson she was capable of, but I did not realize just how wonderful FIAR would be for us, so it didn't occur to me that doing Before FIAR would give us more time with a great program. I could do FIAR another year, but I feel like it would not be as good the second time around, because we would always be comparing to year 1.

[Suzannah]

It doesn't really matter where you start. If you like the books in B4FIAR, start there. But depending on your child you may find there's not enough to keep her attention. FIAR/B4FIAR is intended to be very laid-back, very child-friendly. I'd recommend visiting their forum and reading what a a few people are doing. I actually "did" B4FIAR for a few months before a got the book, just based on what I read others were doing on the FIAR forum. Really, once you do one book, you'll get a feel for how it works. You can definitely bring books up or down, based on the child.

 

As for math, when I did FIAR with older DS, we did math only as recommended in WTM. We practiced counting to 100, skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s. We practiced writing numbers and read some math books from the library. He was well-prepared for Saxon 1. In fact, when DD came along, we did the same thing (with the addition of free online worksheets from LearningPages because she wanted to do her own schoolwork). When she turned five I looked at the Saxon placement test to figure out whether we had covered everything she would need to begin Saxon 1 in first grade. As it turned out she was ready, so we went ahead and started. I wish I had done this with DS as well, rather than waiting for him to officially start first grade.

 

For all three kids, beginning at about age 3 or 4, I try to have them do something with letters and something with numbers each day. As they get older I introduce more structure, depending on the child. By Kindergarten, I try to have them practicing phonics, practicing writing and doing simple math each day. Sometimes this is in the form of worksheets (DD loved them) sometimes skip-counting on the stairs (we put numbers on each step). And for Kindergarten I try to really follow a schedule for FIAR, figuring out which books we'll use ahead of time so that we have the book and any extras we might need. Before then, we just pick up and go when we are in the mood, but I try to do a book a week, even if we don't do all the activities or even read it more than once. :)

 

So, hope that helps.

Blessings!

[2_girls_mommy]

We did Letteroftheweek.com with one of my 4 yr olds and had fun with it. I also got her the Rod and Staff preschool/K ABC workbook series for seat work. She worked through those over prek and K. Very sweet books. She actually cried when she finished the last one:)

[kalanamak]

Starting at just 4, I did EB. The first book took a year, the second one 5 months.

I tried a reading book like OPGTR at 4, but kiddo was not ready. I began SWR at 5, along with pre-ETC. We did Plaid Phonics K at about 4.5-5.

Much art work, games, walks, music, and 2 hours of read aloud a day.

If I had only one to pick: the reading aloud.

HTH

have fun!!