Need ideas for bright 4 year old? Curriclum?

[freemanfamilyof6]

So, I know there is so much curriculum out there and this is my first year to homeschool. My DDs are ages 6, 5, 4 and 1. This year my oldest 2 have been my priority so far, bc it is there first year being homeschooled. BUT... does anyone have ideas of a good curriculum/workbooks or whatever for my 4 year old. She is very bright. She has begun to read hooked on phonics readers (the yellow box), but I don't have much time to do 1 on 1 with her this year. She is mostly reading 3 letter words and is definitely early reading.

 

I need some ideas for specific curriculums/workbooks that might engage her but also help her move forward (but be self paced). I know that is a lot to ask for a 4 year old, but I am a bit overwhelmed this year. I wish I had more 1 on 1 time for her during schook. She does do Get Ready/Set/Go for the Code books. I have Kumon handwriting books, and Hooked on Phonics. But mostly she does busy work while we school. She does participate in History, Bible, and Science with us but I know she is ready to be learning more. I just don't know what she can do, without me having the time to do 1 on 1 with her. I was thinking of ordering a set of Horizons Math K, since I already have the TM from DD #2. I know she could do the first 1/2 of the book, since we already finished it with my 5 year old (and it was easy).

 

Any other thoughts? I know there are great phonics/reading programs out there and probably other math programs that would work. I am just not sure what?

[boscopup]

Is she wanting to do school? If she isn't begging, I would just wait until she is. She won't stagnate in her learning. My oldest taught himself quite a bit at age 4. I didn't do any formal school at all with him (in fact, he resisted if I tried). He started K ready for 1st-2nd grade level across subjects (except writing).

 

My middle son (just turned 5) wanted to do school early, so when he was 4, I started occasionally doing phonics and math with him - basically on a when he asked basis. We used Singapore Essential Math K and Webster's Speller. I'm sure the Horizons K you already have would be fine too. This week, we also started using the I See Sam readers (the first 52 are free online). He is really enjoying those, which surprised me, because the first few only have the words "I", "see", and "Sam" in them. :lol: I guess the pictures and story line are engaging enough, despite the lack of intelligent dialogue.

 

Picture books from the library are excellent too. We're doing MFW K, sort of, and we always have a bunch of books on a basic theme. For example, we've done the sun one week, the moon another week, and leaves another week. We get books of various types - fiction books that relate to the theme, non-fiction books that tell us more about the theme, etc.

[ChandlerMom]

I'd try to keep math informal -- if you can work with her on counting, number sense, addition/subtraction concepts and facts, sorting and patterns -- those things are fun and can be done without curriculum, then when they are faced with curric it's easy.

 

Maybe have your 5yo and 4yo work together playing games with blocks. Maybe even get your 6yo into it. Things like taking 5 blocks and one person hides a number and the other person figures how many. It's just a way to practice math facts. If your 6yo is starting to do multiplication, the 5 and 4 yo can add up the blocks to "check" the 6yo who makes groups. A fav with my kids was carrots for bunnies. All sorts of operations to figure out how many carrots each bunny would get (dd set out stuffed animals and pretended to feed them). Duplo blocks have hundreds of uses -- make a game continuing a pattern, or figuring out how many red blocks you would need for a tower 12" long. Anyway, you can cover a tremendous amount of math that way -- arithmetic and patterns, especially. It's fun, it's hands on, and it uses the see one - do one - teach one model (all the kids benefit from seeing different ways of doing things and trying to explain to the others). Even just 5-10min every day.

 

There are also some good math books aimed at the preschooler and K-2, math games and kitchen table math come to mind.

 

ETA: both my 8yo and 6yo read to my 3yo. The 3yo is doing phonics and learning to read, but all three enjoy reading to each other (being able to read stories to the "baby" was a huge motivator for my 6yo learning to read). It really has had a positive impact on their relationship as well -- one big mutual admiration society (most of the time), esp since the 3yo finds it useful to always have a lap to crawl into with a book. :D

Edited November 17, 2011 by ChandlerMom

[....]

I never thought I'd say this, but my 4th kid (who's also 4) is constantly begging to do school. :glare:

 

She seems to be a workbook machine and she loves workbooks. I told her the other night as she put 50 stickers all over a completed workbook, "Lady, you need to pace yourself." The last kid I had who did this sort of stuff ended up being a Perfect Paula, so I'm guessing I have another Perfect Paula.

 

I'll be buying these over the weekend :glare::

 

http://www.clp.org/store/by_grade/1 The Beginner's Activity set is very good - I've used them before. Also, one of my other kids was addicted to the GHI Series (two of them are animal-themed).

 

I had bought a preschool curriculum, but the kid has outgrown the curriculum before we finished it. IMO, that's the bad thing about buying curricula for preschoolers. They make a huge developmental leap and *poof*...you can't use your curriculum. :tongue_smilie:

 

Forgot to add: Because she's crying for the 6 yro's math work, I'm going to print out MEP's Reception for her (scroll halfway down the page). http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/primary/default.htm

Edited November 17, 2011 by starrbuck12

[dsmama]

Last year, my middle daughter (4 at the time) begged to do school, but I was very busy with her siblings. The preschool books from Rod and Staff (books A-F) were great. I would start your daughter with book C.

 

Lots of math, counting, letters, tracing, and mom usually just needs to explain a little and then let the child do the pages.

[morosophe]

For math, have you considered Math-U-See Primer? If your daughter is anything like my son was in kindergarten (he certainly wasn't that far along as a 4-year-old), it'll still require some time from you, but it won't require as much brain power. Plus, the blocks are kinda fun.

 

Another idea is to pull out the old busy bags, tot packs, or workboxables, whatever you want to call them, and whether you want to pay for them or not.

[....]

For math, have you considered Math-U-See Primer? If your daughter is anything like my son was in kindergarten (he certainly wasn't that far along as a 4-year-old), it'll still require some time from you, but it won't require as much brain power. Plus, the blocks are kinda fun.

 

That's neat!

[morosophe]

That's neat!

 

Look what I found for playing with the pre-primer years while researching for this post! It didn't answer the original poster's concerns, though, since it's more about what games you can play with your young children, and not how to keep them happily occupied.

[go_go_gadget]

 

This is what my four year-old did for Kindergarten. RS is teacher-intensive but *so* worth it, in my opinion (math major here).

[LittleIzumi]

The Drama is 4, and her work is in my siggy. :) She also adores more.starfall.com and random apps.

[Mrs Twain]

I have a 4 year old similar to yours. She also wants to do school, but I don't have a lot of time to spend with her right now. I got her a bunch of workbooks which she does for "school." These are useful mostly for helping her learn how to print letters as well as for some math. I do spend time with her individually for her reading lesson.

 

I think Horizons K workbooks would be fine. I'm not using them now since I am saving them for Kindergarten, as I use Horizons as my main math program.

 

Besides workbooks, I got K writing paper for her to practice writing letters, and K journal for her to write a sentence and draw pictures.

 

These are the workbooks I got for her which she can do either independently or almost independently:

 

Get Ready For School! Sticker Workbook (A Stuck on Learning Book)

Big Hidden Pictures & More

Big Kindergarten Workbook

Alphabet Fun! Sticker Workbook (Stuck on Learning)

AlphaTales: A to Z Letter Formation Practice Pages: Fun-filled Reproducible Practice Pages That Help Young Learners Recognize and Print Every Letter

A Reason for Handwritng, Level K

Kumon: My Book of Pasting

1-100 dot to dots

Other sticker workbooks

[Moxie]

There is so much good free stuff out there (lapbooks, worksheets, Starfall, apps, etc.) I wouldn't spend much money. Maybe get a subscription to...I'm totally blanking on the name of the worksheet site but it is only $20/year..pregnancy brain, good grief! It'll come to me later and I'll edit my post.

[Walking-Iris]

I have a ds4 and some of the things I do with him are in my siggy. There's also a ton of online Montessori type materials you can make yourself. He does science with my ds8---I just tweak it for him a bit. And he colors the sheets and participates in the activities in the SOTW. Other than things above his level (such as math and the lang arts) he does everything with us---sometimes dipping in and out to go play. He listens to most things I read aloud---his level or not---and I put in Classical Kids for him a lot. I strive to carve out time everyday to devote to him and try to give full days to him as well at times. I try to get him working on handwriting and a Montessori inspired math everyday.

 

There's some fun pre-k and k lesson plans available at the Core Curriculum Website. The Baltimore core knowledge plan looks awesome and I've given thought to following that closely with my ds4 starting next fall.

 

I agree that there's a ton of free stuff available online that a great pre-k and k curriculum can be put together. btw http://www.kinderart.com is so much fun!!!

[go_go_gadget]

There is so much good free stuff out there (lapbooks, worksheets, Starfall, apps, etc.) I wouldn't spend much money. Maybe get a subscription to...I'm totally blanking on the name of the worksheet site but it is only $20/year..pregnancy brain, good grief! It'll come to me later and I'll edit my post.

 

Sounds like Enchanted Learning, maybe?

[acurtis75]

Expode the Code is inexpensive and easy to use for a motivated 4 year old. I'll also add another recommendation for MUS. The blocks and curriculum were a big hit for dd when we switched from Horizon to MUS.

 

ETA: Just saw that you're already doing the get set for the code books. That's what happens when you are doing 3 other things while reading and posting on the board.

Edited November 18, 2011 by acurtis75@yahoo.com

[Five More Minutes]

On the math front, one thing that helped occupy my school-eager 4yo was a tub of cuisenaire rods and selected Miquon pages. (I've made up a lot of worksheets based on the Miquon style, because she likes to repeat them lots.) She has also adored dot-to-dot books or printed pages.

 

With language, I do 10 - 15 minutes of phonics and reading with her a day. I've also given her copywork (tracing) books as she has asked for them.

[pitterpatter]

How old of a four is she? I'm not sure what you're using with your five-year-old, but couldn't your four-year-old do the same? I started my DD at four years, four months this year. We're working on the kindergarten/first grade level. She's done extremely well and have been totally surprised and delighted by all that she has learned and can do.

 

As a side note, we just started the second half of HOP Kindergarten today. Having said that, we spent a month or so cementing her letter identification and sounds before starting the first half of the program.

[TracyR]

Last year, my middle daughter (4 at the time) begged to do school, but I was very busy with her siblings. The preschool books from Rod and Staff (books A-F) were great. I would start your daughter with book C.

 

Lots of math, counting, letters, tracing, and mom usually just needs to explain a little and then let the child do the pages.

:iagree:

These are great books. I've used them with my 2nd and 4th daughters. At the age of 5 my 4th daughter is working through CLE's 100 level (1st grade level) and doing really well with it.

[Jay3fer]

The preschool books from Rod and Staff (books A-F) were great. I would start your daughter with book C.

 

ETA: I had no idea this was an old thread... no idea how it got bumped; weird.

 

I bought one of these and I liked it, but there were so many elements of it that my son didn't "get." We're city folk and even some of the tools he didn't know all that well. Which tells me that he probably needs LESS book learnin' and more actual livin'!... but also that R&S might not be the best for every family. They are also Christian, of course, but not as much so as the big-kid books.

 

Right now, we're working our way through Get Ready, Get Set, Go for the Code (A,B,C) of the Explode the Code book. I have also ordered "Get Set for School," the stupidly-titled first Handwriting Without Tears book. It wasn't useful for my daughter, who loved to write and draw, but ds is reluctant, so I want an easy way to encourage him in pre-writing.

 

Beyond that, we have NO book work at the moment. He is reading BOB Books, but mostly voluntarily, and voraciously - he's torn through the first three sets now and I only have one left. He reads everything we leave within his reach, so I'm not worried on that front.

 

Occasionally, he'll play with Cuisenaire Rods, if we have them out, or the Funtastic Frogs counters I bought for patterning, but he has shown no interest in the cards or making patterns with them just yet. We also have an inexpensive bucket balance that he uses with his toys, which I count as math/science exploration. :-)

 

Even though we are doing SOME workbook work, I'm (mostly) with Charlotte Mason on the idea of not (really) starting (much) before 6. :lol:

[blondeviolin]

I'll throw in a vote for FIAR!