Will be starting Pre-K/K work with my son and need some help...

[coopsgrl98]

My 4 1/2 year old son is eligible for VPK (Voluntary Pre Kindergarten) here in Florida. We plan on homeschooling him because the programs here are difficult to get into and I am already homeschooling my 11 year old daughter.

 

I can't afford to purchase a lot of curriculum (finances are tight and we already have to pay for our daughter's curriculum).

 

What kind of sites would you recommend for his age group?? What inexpensive books would you recommend?? Anything that can be borrowed from the library or purchased from a used book store??

 

He already knows his letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc. He also knows about half (if not more) of the Dolch sight words list (thanks to "Meet the Sight Words" DVD's).

 

I appreciate any help in this since it's going to be my first time starting from scratch and building my own curriculum. We plan on him attending Kindergarten in public school... my husband's choice, not completely mine... but it's for a year to see how it works for him and then we'll make the decision whether to homeschool him as well or keep him in public school...

 

Thanks in advance to everyone!! I'm kinda scared to start out brand new!! :001_huh:

 

-Tara

[Mama2two]

you could try Five in a Row with library books. Ambleside also has a good reading list for "Year 0" and you could get books from the library. MEP is free for math.

[RoundAbout]

I also have a 4.5 year-old son starting Pre-K. I am keeping things very simple and just doing reading, math, and fine motor development as subjects.

 

For reading we are using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading - $20 from Amazon and covers absolutely all the phonics you will ever need. It's very simple and straightforward. I dress it up with homemade games and activities.

 

For math I would suggest MEP Reception if finances are tight. Excellent, totally free math curriculum.

 

Instead of writing, I focus on the broader category of fine motor skills. Homemade playdoh, stringing pony beads (from the dollar store), mazes, lots of coloring, etc. I love the Kumon cutting book but most of the rest can be done free or cheap using resources from the internet.

[HayleyKC]

For my son last year who was 4 almost 5 at the start of the school year, it was very inexpensive to get the basics covered and still way ahead of the game because if I had put him in PS he wouldn't have been able to start K until this fall and they don't start teaching reading until 1st! I got everything I needed for the year for him for $65. I bought these things at Rainbow resource which tend to be cheaper but only if you are getting free shipping. If you don't have a big enough order, Amazon has decent pricing and easy to get free shipping. And you could probably drop the handwriting book to save more for now as there is writing in the phonics and you could probably do more on your own.

 

1. Math- singapore math early bird series. there is book A which is pre-k and book B which is k. Each level is meant to last a year. you could look and decide where to start your son. I got the textbook ($23) and the activity book ($15).

 

2. Phonics- explode the code- when he was 3/4 we went through the 3 book series Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for the Code which goes through all the letter sounds. Then last fall we started him on Explode the code Book 1 which begins putting those sounds together into words. We made it through Book 1 and 2 for the year (Each book was $6.50 so total of $13 for the year!).

 

3. Reading- We rented Bob Books from the library and went through the whole series (5 sets) over the course of the year. By the end of K, we hit our goal. He can read! :-) (FREE!)

 

4. Handwriting- We used "A Reason For Handwriting" Book K for kindergarten. ($13)

[5LittleMonkeys]

If you know for sure you are going to be enrolling him for K in ps I would caution you about getting him too far ahead. I know this probably won't be an extremely popular opinion.

 

When my oldest was 4 I worked with her a lot; I didn't consider it homeschooling at that time, I was just having fun with her. Well we worked so far ahead of where her peers were that the following year when she started ps K she was bored out of her mind. They were doing beginning sounds and she was already reading at a 1st grade level. They were doing typical K math and she was doing addition and subtraction and had already started playing around with multiplication. She hated it. She would come home and complain that all they did was cut and paste and color all day long. I know that there may be many ps K classes that are ahead of others but unfortunately mine wasn't one of them. I was hesitant to work with her anymore at home because that would cause her to be even farther ahead and feel even more frustrated during class. She wasn't gifted, just ahead. They tried to give her additional work to do but when your 5 it isn't fun sitting by yourself doing your own work and not being part of the group.

 

I'm not saying not to do anything with him but maybe instead of getting him so far ahead in core subjects you could do some other things with him that typically they don't focus on in K. Geography, Ancient history, science, classical literature...anyway, just a thought.

[Farrar]

Well, obviously Starfall is a good free learning option. Another free program is Progressive Phonics (you have to register on the site, but it's free) - it's little readers with phonics lessons that you read with the child. We really liked their method and began using it with really easy readers from the library. It helped eliminate a lot of the sight word reliance that so many of those early books have and focus on the phonics that one of my sons actually knew. Another freebie is the I See Sam books - you can print the first 30 (?) for free. Good, simple very early readers.

 

Seconding MEP Reception. Jump Math is also free (you have to register).

 

Seconding that doing FIAR with library books would be pretty cheap.

 

And there are just lots, and lots of good printables for K/1st out there. I've seen some threads here listing resources for printables a few times. Mazes, Dot to Dots, etc. are all actually really good learning things for this age (small motor skills!). Also, lots of free handwriting or copywork generators out there.

 

As for cheap options - Explode the Code is really inexpensive. Handwriting Without Tears is too - you can make your own letter shapes with cardboard and buy a cheapie blackboard.

[TracyR]

I agree. If you plan on sending him to public school for K I wouldn't get him to far ahead. Reason being is because he'll be bored, bored, bored and chances are high they won't accomidate that.

 

You could have him do :

 

http://www.starfall.com

 

maybe have him work on his handwriting , just print out some free handwriting worksheets. You can google that.

 

If he likes workbooks maybe get some from Target and or Walmart.

If your willing to use a Christian curriculum something like Rod and Staff Preschool Series is very affordable.

 

Read him good books. You can go to Sonlight's website and find some books you can get at the library to read. Ambleside Online has a free list of books.

And I agree with Aime, you can read about things like history, do some science experiements, read good books. That's what I would do.

Having the experience of having children in school. My 3rd and 4th were very ahead. The school was advanced but not as advanced as they were evidently. They were bored out of their minds and their teachers refused to do anymore then they had to. Hence us going back to homeschooling this year.

[skueppers]

I agree, if he's going to public school for Kindergarten, check out the VPK curriculum standards, and don't offer formal instruction that goes too far beyond that. Of course it's great to follow his interests, etc. -- you just don't want him entering school too far ahead unless it's coming from inside of him.

 

This appears to be a draft of the new version of the standards:

 

http://www.fldoe.org/earlylearning/pdf/StandardsSurvey.pdf

[boscopup]

Since he'll be going to public school K, how about focusing on science and geography, since they won't be dealing much with those topics? Then it won't really matter as much if he gets "ahead" (and I had a child that was bored in K too, and it got worse in grade 1 when the "party" aspect was no longer there... hence why we're homeschooling now ;) ).

[Aurelia]

Developing the Early Learner workbooks, the Kumon mazes, Salsa Spanish, plenty of coloring and fine motor activities (I'm sure there plenty of Montessori websites that list some of these). You could get What Your Preschooler Needs to Know and just do some activities from that.

[rocketgirl]

isn't that sad though, its like you have to "dumb him down" to put him into ps, (then ps will dumb him down even more??) yikes! Sorry, i'm a ps lifer, saw the light, and recently transformed to a hs'er. I have a 3 yo who wouldn't start preschool til next year because she isn't old enough, but she wants to learn!! I found 5 cute workbooks at Dollar Tree for $1 each on math, letters, etc and she'll sit in with us for bible, science, history, stories & whatever else she can so that's pretty inexpensive right there. But I'm also buying handwriting without tears sticks, cd, slate & writing book (i taught ps kdg 7years & loved these) so that was quite pricey but she's ready for that (not the writing book - i'm thinking after christmas) My first grader will do some primer and alpha math u see & I know she'll do well with some of the primer right now. I have to admit we also have a kumon maze book that she loves & I may buy a Brainquest Preschool Workbook for her if she needs more. I bought the 2nd grade book for my 1st grader last year when I took her out of ps in the middle of the year & it was nice.

[skueppers]

isn't that sad though, its like you have to "dumb him down" to put him into ps, (then ps will dumb him down even more??) yikes!

 

It's not really "dumbing him [or any other child] down" to emphasize skills and activities other than reading, writing, and math in the preschool years. There are lots of other worthwhile things for young kids to do, which will help them succeed academically and in life. For example:

 

Improving fine motor skills with cutting and pasting, coloring, mazes, dot-to-dots and play-doh

Listening to stories read aloud

Learning songs

Learning another language

Learning to swim, ride a bike, or other physical skills

Doing puzzles

Playing board and card games

Experiencing the natural world

Gardening

Baking

 

I tend to think these are the most appropriate kinds of things for most preschoolers to be doing anyway.

[HayleyKC]

I wouldn't hold back on what you teach him based on you PS plan for K. Teach what he's ready to learn and since he's on the older side for prek (like my son), he may be ready to learn kindergarten type stuff during preK. If anything, it may make PS kindergarten become an apparent wrong choice when the time comes, which it sounded like you weren't too excited about anyway. Yeah?

[coopsgrl98]

If anything, it may make PS kindergarten become an apparent wrong choice when the time comes, which it sounded like you weren't too excited about anyway. Yeah?

 

You read that COMPLETELY correct... I'd prefer to have him home with his sister and me, but DH is pushing for him to go to school. Although he's not pushing REALLY hard or he'd be in VPK... He needed his vaccinations (and the letter of refusal for his MMR from the ped)... And it was DH's responsibility... so, OH WELL!!! :tongue_smilie:

[Momof2:E&T]

I live in Florida and my son is eligible for VPK this year too. I enrolled him in a great program that my niece was in last year. I am also going to work with him by using OPGTR and MEP. I was also considering using the Kumon books for manual dexterity. There are a lot of free sites for handwriting practice. I have been using those with him during the summer. My kids 6 and 4 both love the pbskids website. As far as being bored in ps K, that is a possibility. I would also recommend checking out freehomeschooling101.com. They have great links and they are all free and listed by category.

[ErinD]

www.weefolkart.com has a free seasonal-based curriculum that is really lovely. They have a suggested book list, most of which is easily available at most libraries. They have crafts, recipes....all sorts of nice stuff. I think you click on "homeschool" from th main page to get to it.

 

ETA: If you want a different kind of free you could enter the giveaway I'm holding of the BFIAR manual and some of the books. Just saying.

[coopsgrl98]

I live in Florida and my son is eligible for VPK this year too. I enrolled him in a great program that my niece was in last year. I am also going to work with him by using OPGTR and MEP. I was also considering using the Kumon books for manual dexterity. There are a lot of free sites for handwriting practice. I have been using those with him during the summer. My kids 6 and 4 both love the pbskids website. As far as being bored in ps K, that is a possibility. I would also recommend checking out freehomeschooling101.com. They have great links and they are all free and listed by category.

 

I figured out what OPGTR was, but what is MEP??? :confused:

 

I already purchased a workbook for him (that is SO huge), but he's already been working on that since February... So I'll be buying some more.

 

I'm actually thinking about printing out some printables, putting them in sheet protectors (and dividing them by subject with page dividers) so that he can use dry-erase markers or the new dry-erase crayons and REUSE them over and over again! Especially the letter ones... Save some trees, ink and my sanity!!!

[Aurelia]

 

MEP is a free math program being piloted in UK schools. It's really impressive. We did Year 1 last year and it was very good at teaching the child to think mathematically.

[coopsgrl98]

MEP is a free math program being piloted in UK schools. It's really impressive. We did Year 1 last year and it was very good at teaching the child to think mathematically.

 

THANKS!!! :001_smile:

[LittleIzumi]

MEP is a free math program being piloted in UK schools. It's really impressive. We did Year 1 last year and it was very good at teaching the child to think mathematically.

 

It is awesome.

[Holly]

My DD is 4 as well and this will be our 3rd for prek/K. My favorites are:

--ETC primers to learn letter sounds, my DC have all loved these books!

--Singapore Essential was great for DS (and very inexpensive), however I'm going to use Miquon with DD because it looks interesting. :lol: We'll switch to SM 1a later (or combine the two if I like Miquon)

--Five in a Row was a hit...I'll probable use this with DD. I'm currently using HOD's LHTH program, but I'm still tweaking it a bit to fit DD.

 

Another idea would be to focus on the 3Rs and spend the rest of the time with library books, activities, cooking, field trips, outdoor play, crafts, etc. I've found with 4 DC I need a curriculum to keep me on track, but you may find it easier without a curriculum.