Tamberly Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 I hate to sound lazy... but what are the best options for something fairly open and go for a 4 year old? I'd like to start teaching him, but it's been busy moving to a new home, working from home, attempting to sell the old home, homeschooling a very distractible 7 year old, and entertaining the 2 year old. And I might be pregnant soon.... I'm open to all education styles, I'm not sure what style we are yet ;) Thanks for your input and helpful comments! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veritaserum Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 I really like Hewitt Homeschool Preschool Plus. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krismoose Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 I like Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven. I also like the Rod & Staff ABC workbooks, depending on how much of that he likes to do. They go all the way to H so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeganW Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 I LOVE LOVE LOVE The Learning Box Preschool. It has all the usual preschool stuff, but the arts & crafts are WAY better than anything else I have seen. And everything is included. Open the book to today's date, open the baggie with today's date, and go. If you need a teaspoon of cocoa powder, it's in there. If you need 4 pink pompoms, they are in there. A 3" square of white cardstock, it's in there (precut!). We did a LOT more crafts just because it was so convenient! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamberly Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 Thanks so much for your suggestions! I have been leaning towards Heart of Dakota, especially since I have a little one that I may be able to include in that program since it's geared for 2-5. I have never heard of some of the ones you all have mentioned so it's really good to have more to look at. And thank you for not coming down on me for needing something easy! One board I posted a similar question had several posters that told me if I didn't have the time to research and figure it out myself then I should re-think my decision to homeschool :001_huh: Any other suggestions or endorsements are still welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyP Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 I definitely understand the need for easy. I have been looking for something to do with ds who will be 4 next fall. I used letter of the week with my first two. It is a great site but I don't know if I can do it on my own this time. Somehow I have never seen Little Hands from HOD. This is exactly what I am looking for. Educational but light and easy! I just showed dh and he said hmph:lol: but I am very excited. I hope you find what you're looking for too.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmschooling Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 I like Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven. I also like the Rod & Staff ABC workbooks, depending on how much of that he likes to do. They go all the way to H so far. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Oak Meadow K is more like a preschool program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenni Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Little Hands to Heaven is super easy to use. That's why it gets done here! Love it! but interested in hearing about other programs because I don't really want to repeat LHTH next year. I just hate repeating anything! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Rod and Staff ABC preschool workbooks are adorable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamberly Posted January 12, 2011 Author Share Posted January 12, 2011 Ok, got the HOD Little hands to try! Excited about it :) The rod and staff books look mostly like coloring books, is that right? Or are there activities with them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Ok, got the HOD Little hands to try! Excited about it :) The rod and staff books look mostly like coloring books, is that right? Or are there activities with them? They are readiness skills - coloring, cutting, pasting, match, writing numbers.... We love them! My daughter just finished the first set (3-4 yr. olds) and my son has already done the next set after that (preschool). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 The "B" book is a coloring book ("Bible Pictures to Color"), but the others are not coloring books. "A" is "Adventures in Books", where they learn tracing, coloring, shapes, colors, cutting, pasting, etc. Thanks to that book, my 3 year old quickly knew all his colors and how to cut paper along the lines (the latter being something my oldest didn't know until the summer before KG when he failed that section of the KG assessment before school started... he had cut straight across the face he was supposed to cut out. :lol: Guess who wasn't normally allowed to touch Mommy's scissors due to prior accidents involving her fabric?). The "C" book is "Counting With Numbers", which teaches how to write the numbers and how to count things (obviously). Again, my 3 year old quickly learned to count with this book. He hadn't picked up colors or numbers on his own like my oldest had done. The later books we haven't done yet, but I have them here, and they again do tracing and drawing lines and slants and circles (letter writing readiness), etc. They are very much "PreK" books, with the ABC set great for age 3. My middle son has enjoyed them and asks to do them often. Between that and OPGTR, that's all I do for his "PreK" (he's 4 now). I don't plan to do anything else until he's ready for K level work, at which point I'll add in HWT K, RS A, and maybe ETC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mohop Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 I really like Hewitt Homeschool Preschool Plus. :) This is what I am leaning toward. I love that they have a 30-page curriculum sample you can download for free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verity Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 If you think your 4 year old might be ready for some early phonics take a look at Funnix.com, this month their complete program is free. I started my newly turned 5 year old on it last week and so far it's a hit here! Mostly it's learning letter sounds with the computer and going towards learning to read but there are also pages you print out where they start to learn to write letters and do dot-to-dots. Free is definitely worth checking! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 I am looking at Clavert for Pre K. It looks good, open and go. I have wanted to try it, but I was put off by the price. The PreK is not to bad, and I thought a good way to dip my toe in and see if I like it. I have also been looking at Singapore Math. On the rainbow resource page it says that the Kindergarten version is actually a two year course meant for PreK and K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaHappy Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Carol's Affordable Curriculum (www.carolscurriculum.com) I used this with my older son when he was 4, we both *loved* it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 If you think your 4 year old might be ready for some early phonics take a look at Funnix.com, this month their complete program is free. I started my newly turned 5 year old on it last week and so far it's a hit here! Mostly it's learning letter sounds with the computer and going towards learning to read but there are also pages you print out where they start to learn to write letters and do dot-to-dots. Free is definitely worth checking! :) :iagree: I was going to post the same thing. I started my almost 4 year old on it and he was BEGGING to do it yesterday :lol: It may get too hard but I figure we will go until he gets sick of it...the price is right. Busy Bee Bags are nice too. My dad ordered one of the bags for ds for his birthday last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamberly Posted January 15, 2011 Author Share Posted January 15, 2011 Thank you for the suggestions! I actually didn't teach preschool with my first - she went to one since I never planned on homeschooling. Ha!! Turns out I was wrong! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewel7123 Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Those of you looking at Little hands to Heaven, I would just give a word of caution. I tried to use it with my daughter when she was 4, but it assumes that your child doesn't know his letters/sounds at all, and I found it to be too simple for her. If you're child is ready to start reading or is already beginning to read, I would suggest you try Little Hearts instead, or my favorite, Bright Beginnings: http://bright-beginnings.net/ I also use and love the Rod & Staff ABC books as well as Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for the Code primers for ETC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krismoose Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Those of you looking at Little hands to Heaven, I would just give a word of caution. I tried to use it with my daughter when she was 4, but it assumes that your child doesn't know his letters/sounds at all, and I found it to be too simple for her. I found this to be true when I tried to use it with my ds at 4.5yo. We did indeed drop it and move on to Little Hearts, though I know others have just added phonics and/or math to it and enjoyed it. It's been perfect on its own with my dd, though, who I started at 3.5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamberly Posted January 22, 2011 Author Share Posted January 22, 2011 Thanks for the suggestions! He does know most of his letters but he's not real solid yet. He is enjoying the LHTH so far but since we just started, he does not have much of an attention span!! He frequently wanders away! I think that will get better with time... On the upside my other son, only 2, started joining in and acting out the finger plays with us! I didn't think he would take an interest in it so that part has been really fun! So we are just a week into it, and I recommend it, but am looking into the R&S workbooks because he loves having some seatwork like his big sis :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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