Preschool Plans (2012-2013)

[bluemongoose]

For my nearly 4yo.

 

Reading/Phonics: Bob books, get ready for the code series, and Leap Frog DVDs

Math: Right Start A in combo with Singapore Earlybird A

Handwriting: Handwriting with Tears PreK

Science: Magic School Bus DVDs and books

P.E.: Tumbling

Music: Piano

[Ecclecticmum]

We usually do Jan to Dec, so that would be two years :tongue_smilie:

 

2012

DS Pre-K & DD Preschool

Letter of the Week Curriculum by Confessions of a Homeschooler, Sensory Tubs, Montessori Trays, Messy Crafts, Leapfrog Videos, Following along with 1st grade curriculum (SOTW, Expedition Earth, Life Science, Art)

 

2013

DD Pre-K

Bright Beginnings Preschool Curriculum, Messy Crafts, C-Rod Preschool Program, Following along with 2nd Grade Curriculum (Knitting, Atelier, SOTW, Earth Science & Astronomy, Expedition Earth, Shakespeares Midsummer Nights Dream, Earth*School Units, Scooter & Me (Fitness), Bible)

[mamakelly]

In order to save my sanity next year, my preschool crew is getting to a year of one of those preschool programs that gets mailed to the house each month.

 

Which one are you using? I've been thinking about trying something like that with my 4 year old.

[A home for their hearts]

These are my plans right now, but they can change at any given moment. ;)

 

Language Arts:

Montessori inspired activities and or All About Reading Level 1

 

Math:

Miquon Math,

Cuisenaire Rods

 

Montessori inspired practical life, and sensorial activities.

 

Thanks it for now!

[alisoncooks]

My 4 yr old will be doing:

 

2 days church Preschool (Tu/Th)

 

LOTW (mostly arts & crafts)

R&S Preschool workbook C

Bible time with big sis

science with big sis (animal studies)

[AsgardCA]

My 3yo & 4yo DS will be doing Preschool/Jr. Kindy this year..

 

So far I'm thinking/I've got:

Get Ready for the Code series

Wordly Wise 3000 K

Saxon math K

Child's Play Science & Magic School Bus/Sid the Science Kid

lots of crafts

Kumon Cut/Colour/Fold/Sticker

SOME of Letter of the Week Curriculum by Confessions of a Homeschooler

Tumble class at least 1 morning/week (starts up in the fall, 3x/week)

 

French, Canadian Geo, read alouds & music/composers with 6yo DS

Edited July 13, 2012 by meggeh

[tabrizia]

Okay just looked up Essential Math it looks perfect for DD so we'll do that, once I pick up, when I make my Rainbow Resource order for DS' stuff.

[MeaganS]

We are officially starting preschool on August 6th. DD will turn four shortly before that. I've posted my plans on my blog.

 

She will also be doing OT, ST, PT, and soccer twice a week and dance once a week. I'm excited to be doing some "official" stuff!

[thefragile7393]

for my preschooler, who will be 4 in October, we will be continuing ABCMouse.com, and starting Building Thinking Skills, Beginning and Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 1, plus lots of read alouds and playtime.

[Guest SEM2REM]

My daughter turned 4 yr old in Feb. Currently we are half way through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. For our Pre-K curriculum I have lined up Sonlight P4/5, MUS & Teach Them Spanish PK. In the afternoons we do crafts or pretend play & I take her to My Gym 2-3 times a week. I'm thinking we'll start school in about a week as Ramadan begins then and there is not much to do here in Riyadh during that time for non-Muslims.

[swellmomma]

Which one are you using? I've been thinking about trying something like that with my 4 year old.

 

That I have not decided yet. I am debating between Carol's affordable curriculum and adventure's in learning. Carol's is cheaper but Ail seems to have more to it each month.

[Mommy_of_4]

DD will be 4 this fall. This is my plan for her so far. My main goal is to get numbers 1-10 and letters down.

Rod and Staff ABC books

Tons of arts and crafts

[StephF]

That I have not decided yet. I am debating between Carol's affordable curriculum and adventure's in learning. Carol's is cheaper but Ail seems to have more to it each month.

 

We tried Mother Goose Time one month and it was great (comparable in price to Ail). I will be ordering their Solar System theme soon for August.

[mamakelly]

That I have not decided yet. I am debating between Carol's affordable curriculum and adventure's in learning. Carol's is cheaper but Ail seems to have more to it each month.

 

I just checked them out. Ail looks awesome, but it's 51 bucks a month ouch!

[Momling]

I have a 3.5 yr old now, so I'm interested in what folks are doing with their little ones... but honestly, it's just wishful thinking. He's pretty far from being ready for even the earliest academics. He will be starting Headstart and special ed services in the fall, so that will allow my olders to get time to work. We've been fooling around on starfall with him, but our goal is more learning how to talk than how to read!

[hands-on-mama]

ODD is 4 1/2 and beginning to read. She loves to do school.

We will be doing a junior K I guess.

 

We are going to start August 20 or 27. (that's when ps starts back here)

 

Our lineup is:

MFW K

MUS Primer

ETC Primers

HWOT PK

Bob books

LOTS OF PLAYTIME

LOTS OF READING

She will be going to daycare with me daily in the afternoons for a few hours, gymnastics once a week, and OT once a week.

[sewingmama]

Gosh -doesn't anyone have a 3 yo who is still a baby? :001_huh:

 

My little guy turns 3 at the end of this month and I have no pre-school plans for him beyond "what a parent ought to be doing" ;) The usual glueing, painting, read alouds and playing in the dirt. No way is he ready to start reading or writing lessons -he can barely make a mark on paper with a crayon yet.

 

His "pre-school year -will be getting potty trained and giving up the paci :lol:

 

I have a "pre-school box" set aside for him when the others do school - for him to do when he becomes annoying. :001_smile:

 

My 4yo will be 5 in September. He graduates from public Pre-K at the end of this term (September). Then for the rest of the year he will just play with his baby brother and follow along with DD when he wants. I have nothing formal planned for him till he starts K in January.

 

He taught himself to read -so I will just listen to him read aloud to me and that's it.

 

My DD in K is not even doing what some of these 3 yo's are doing - how did you all get your kids ready so young :bigear:

[AdventureMoms]

Gosh -doesn't anyone have a 3 yo who is still a baby? :001_huh:

 

My little guy turns 3 at the end of this month and I have no pre-school plans for him beyond "what a parent ought to be doing" ;) The usual glueing, painting, read alouds and playing in the dirt. No way is he ready to start reading or writing lessons -he can barely make a mark on paper with a crayon yet.

 

His "pre-school year -will be getting potty trained and giving up the paci :lol:

 

I have a "pre-school box" set aside for him when the others do school - for him to do when he becomes annoying. :001_smile:

 

My 4yo will be 5 in September. He graduates from public Pre-K at the end of this term (September). Then for the rest of the year he will just play with his baby brother and follow along with DD when he wants. I have nothing formal planned for him till he starts K in January.

 

He taught himself to read -so I will just listen to him read aloud to me and that's it.

 

My DD in K is not even doing what some of these 3 yo's are doing - how did you all get your kids ready so young :bigear:

 

Eh, kids are so different at these ages! DD was just kind of born ready. She was begging for reading lessons at 3.5. She's not particularly GOOD at them, but she wanted something more formal. I think it's a personality thing.

 

I suspect the twins will be a rather different story.

[SnowWhite]

You'll be surprised, too, how a few months makes a difference in your 3yo. Mine turned 3 on June 10 and in the past month he has potty trained himself and is VERY into coloring, etc.

 

He wants to "do school" when the other kids do, so I bought him a Melissa & Doug letter/word puzzle activity box, a thick preK workbook, and the "About 3" series from Pathway (I think) Readers. It also has "Bigger Steps", "Color, Count and Cut" and "Doing My Best". I loaned out my WinterPromise Animals and Their Worlds resources, but once Alphabet Art comes back I will be doing Teach Me Joy's Animal Play as a themed Letter of the Week program.

[swellmomma]

Gosh -doesn't anyone have a 3 yo who is still a baby? :001_huh:

 

My DD in K is not even doing what some of these 3 yo's are doing - how did you all get your kids ready so young :bigear:

 

Every kid is different. In my case my preschool kids are not even mine, but I teach them tot school/preschool while I teach my own 4 to keep them busy. WHen you are teaching 6 kids a day you don't limit it to only cutting, glueing and potty training, or someone ends up getting into trouble.

 

Right now the youngest 1 I teach is 2.5 and she can do most of what I do with the 3.5 and almost 5 year olds. The 2 youngest do AAR pre-level 1 with dd4.5 right now. They will not be ready to move on to level 1 when she does so I will just start them over.

 

We use lapbooking, preschool packs and sonlight p3/4 mainly this past year and even the 2 year old can do those things with some help, the 3.5 yr old boy I watch is less into it and needs more help. The 2 yr old is funny because she starts asking for her "homework" as soon as she gets here at 730am, the little boy would rather just play trucks all day but he does join us at the table for about an hour a day or structured preschool.

 

My own dd has been at the school table since birth, by 6 months she had organized activities on her high chair tray to do and it has blossomed from there. It is just a way of life here.

[Rush]

I know that many of you don't do preschool, but thought that there were a few of us that do that could benefit from some ideas.

 

 

we do too:001_smile: my son doesn't like to play much with his toys, but he's constantly learning something new. This week he figured out how to read in Russian:lol:(in English he is reading like a 2-grader). So, I guess we should try to give it a start:001_smile:

 

here are our plans so far:

 

Maths -Singapore 1b, Miquon Math, MathTacular DVD

English - FLL1, Explode the Code 1

Russian - Reading programm

Music - Story of Orchestra, Beethoven's Wig, Peter & the Wolf + a few Russian Audio Encyclopedias about music

Science - books from Library

Chess with Fritz & Chester

+ Montessori kindergarten(3 hrs a day), ballet, piano, swimming lessons & maybe tennis or drama school. It is advised that he spends more time on the fresh air, but himself he wants acting & singing classes. Have to choose yet, coz he wants everything, but I'm working mother myself, although on reduced hours, and have another little precious who is ready for some school too.lol

 

Also, I figure out that we need a handwriting program. Would anyone guide me pls? Which one should I choose? He can write almost everything, even a few sentence at once, but a few letters he writes in wrong way, so I want to teach him now before it is too late.

thank you

Edited July 14, 2012 by rushhush08

[swellmomma]

Also, I figure out that we need a handwriting program. Would anyone guide me pls? Which one should I choose? He can write almost everything, even a few sentence at once, but a few letters he writes in wrong way, so I want to teach him now before it is too late.

thank you

 

 

I quite like handwriting without tears. IF he is writing most letters properly and can copy sentences I would skip the preK level and go right to the K book.

[godsmissiongal]

My son turned 4 in April. He started school in the middle of June after I was finally tired of him constantly asking to do big school. My in-laws had been living with us for about a year and they were homeschooling 3 of their children while living here, so he wanted to be in school too. But he is one of those odd ones that go crazy at the sight of any workbook. Just got an order in from CBD and he wouldn't go to bed last night until he went through all of them to see what they were. So that being said, we are doing mostly little workbooks concentrating on Letters, writing, mazes, dot-to-dots, math, and ETC.

Phonics with be taught with Horizons Phonics and Reading supplemented by ETC, HOP, and Primary Phonics. I am trying multiple ways of teaching him because he really wants to learn to read but isnt quite getting it because of a speech problem. However, I can definitely see a drastic improvement in his speech since we started school.

Math is Horizons because it is close in format to his Answers in Genesis Preschool in format.

Science will be covered with nature walks, just answering questions, putting lego kits together, and reading some kids books on scientific topics like weather and such. Really self-directed.

History will be taught using the Heroes of History for Young Readers Series of books. He loves these. 2 weeks ago he read 6 of these books in one week. He loves the one on George Washington. We will also read other history based books and answer any questions he might have.

Handwriting using HWT and Memoria Press' Copybooks. This is another one of the areas he struggles in so lots of practice.

Also finishing up R&S ABC curriculum.

Music will be banging on the keyboard.

Also using ABCmouse.com and nickjrboost for fun games. He also will be playing with his Leappad for phonics help.

[bluemongoose]

Gosh -doesn't anyone have a 3 yo who is still a baby? :001_huh:

 

My little guy turns 3 at the end of this month and I have no pre-school plans for him beyond "what a parent ought to be doing" ;) The usual glueing, painting, read alouds and playing in the dirt. No way is he ready to start reading or writing lessons -he can barely make a mark on paper with a crayon yet.

 

His "pre-school year -will be getting potty trained and giving up the paci :lol:

 

I have a "pre-school box" set aside for him when the others do school - for him to do when he becomes annoying. :001_smile:

 

My 4yo will be 5 in September. He graduates from public Pre-K at the end of this term (September). Then for the rest of the year he will just play with his baby brother and follow along with DD when he wants. I have nothing formal planned for him till he starts K in January.

 

He taught himself to read -so I will just listen to him read aloud to me and that's it.

 

My DD in K is not even doing what some of these 3 yo's are doing - how did you all get your kids ready so young :bigear:

 

 

I agree with pp. It is all about being ready. For example...my now 7yo DD was ready at the crazy age of 2.5yo. This is not a brag, it is just what it is. So I followed her lead and we started. My next child is still not really ready for much and he is 5.5yo right now. I used block scheduling and small amounts of of work at a time to get him through preK level stuff. This fall for kindy he is going to do a little more work each day, and it will be a bit tough for him, but I wont push too far...just enough to create a challenge. My 3.5 yo is really just ready. He was not ready as early as big sis was, but he is more ready than his 5yo big brother. All kids are so different.

 

As far as "gluing, playing in the dirt, and painting" we do that too. Even though my list seems long, we do not do each of those every day. He may read a couple pages of a bob book and do one page of singapore (which only takes 20 min) in a day. The rest is just playing.

[Rush]

I quite like handwriting without tears. IF he is writing most letters properly and can copy sentences I would skip the preK level and go right to the K book.

 

oh, thank you so much. I was looking for this one, but could not figure out which level should go for:001_smile:

[Rush]

I agree with pp. It is all about being ready. For example...my now 7yo DD was ready at the crazy age of 2.5yo. This is not a brag, it is just what it is. So I followed her lead and we started. My next child is still not really ready for much and he is 5.5yo right now. I used block scheduling and small amounts of of work at a time to get him through preK level stuff. This fall for kindy he is going to do a little more work each day, and it will be a bit tough for him, but I wont push too far...just enough to create a challenge. My 3.5 yo is really just ready. He was not ready as early as big sis was, but he is more ready than his 5yo big brother. All kids are so different.

As far as "gluing, playing in the dirt, and painting" we do that too. Even though my list seems long, we do not do each of those every day. He may read a couple pages of a bob book and do one page of singapore (which only takes 20 min) in a day. The rest is just playing.

 

:iagree: Every kid is unique and growing up on his own pace. As I wrote earlier my oldest son is not playing with toys at all, maybe except interactive toy and obsessed with books and learning. First, he learnt how to read (on his own, appx at 2.5), then he got rid of the nappy(2 mnth before his 3 b'day):001_smile: My youngest son is completely different, I am still thinking that he is advanced for his age, as he isn't 2 yet, but he knows all abc & can count till 10, but this everything thanks to his big bro, who constantly teaching him and even reading for him books. In fact, when the youngest wants to read a book first he takes the book and goes to his big bro:lol: Otherwise, he's usual boy, obsessed with cars, playing with lego and stacking the blocks and I will try to leave him playing as much as possible. Beside, I believe that all important skills and knowledge kids receiving through their play and that's why splashing lots of money on different toys :001_smile:

Edited July 14, 2012 by rushhush08
mistake))

[Ecclecticmum]

Gosh -doesn't anyone have a 3 yo who is still a baby? :001_huh:

 

It depends on the individuals. My 3yo is a bright, vivacious little thing.

 

And all my kids "potty-trained" at the same time LOL. So they were barely having accidents and using the potty at 2, 3 1/2 and 5. Yes, you got the last one right. 5. The only time she went without pull-ups was to her pre-school (2 days a week). Now they are all officially toilet-trained (no more potty except car use). I still have DS doing Number 2 on the bathroom floor everynow and again :ack2: instead of taking the extra few steps to the toilet :001_huh:

 

DS had/still partly has speech delays (and therefore may have other delays that have gone unnoticed) and has a form of concentration problems.

 

So Eve (who is a year and a half younger than Chaos) actually surpasses him and wants to be included in school, and does work alongside my 1st grader. Chaos joins in when he's upto it, elsewise follows his own devices.

 

I actually had planned to do Singapore with DS this year (as he is gifted in puzzles, logic and maths) but he's obviously not ready with the concentration/listening skills required, so it has been delayed till next year. I also got Singapore for Eve for next year as she is probably ready for it (shes already done Singapore's Big book of preschool math)

 

So what I am getting at is even in my household, all 3 children, although "close" in age, are vastly different, even back at the same "age" all had completely different capabilities at age 3.

 

I forgot to add, I decided to add Miquon as a supplement for Atlas next year, so will be adding in "Miquon" Primer programs for both Eve & Chaos.

 

Miquon Primer

Cuisennaire Discovery/Exploration Book

So that they have a "program" for their own special c-rods too :D

[Mommy_of_4]

DD will be 4 this fall. This is my plan for her so far. My main goal is to get numbers 1-10 and letters down.

Rod and Staff ABC books

Tons of arts and crafts

 

I decided to add in sing, spell, read and write prek. I think she will love it! We will start it next week.

[Rosie_0801]

Gosh -doesn't anyone have a 3 yo who is still a baby? :001_huh:

 

Yep. And yours is advanced compared to mine! Mine isn't talking, I've no idea when we'll even commence potty training and we aren't even doing most of those things that parents ought to be doing. He doesn't want to glue or paint and when I try to read to him, he grabs the book and runs off to read it himself. Playing in dirt, however, he is gifted in. :p

 

Rosie

[lindblomnest]

My 4 year old will begin OPGTR, Pre-k Handwriting without Tears, and lots of listening and coloring while big brother has his lessons. I'm going to allow her to follow along with whatever he is doing if she is interested.

[Pamela H in Texas]

My preschooler is 4. He is an odd little creature, neat guy, interesting, and EXTREMELY hyper (medication has already been suggested). He seems incredibly bright, but not quite ready to move on (for example, knows all letters and sounds, but not ready to segment or sound out words meaningfully yet; still having a bit of trouble with not skipping numbers counting; cannot write AT ALL). I'm sure he'll have another learning spurt when he's ready.

 

So he's tagging along with siblings for things like Latin, Science, History, etc. He's enjoying it so far (official start date is Aug 6, but we're doing some now so I can feel out things like pacing and such as well as to give us more opportunity to take breaks when the weather is nice).

 

He'll also be involved with a lot of our "wall work" (geography, spelling months/days, months of the year, "sight words," word families, counting/place value, musical notation, memory work, etc). He learns a LOT through repetition, song, chants, etc and those are the sorts of things we do there.

 

He also has a whole shelf of his own stuff. Pattern blocks, folder games, geo board, coloring books, etc are included. I do have Handwriting Without Tears K and the public school sent home a Kindergarten math book that seemed the perfect level for him to play with (not nearly as advanced as Horizons or Math Mammoth).

 

Mostly, I guess I figure he'll do what he does. So far, he thinks I'm not giving him enough. I have plenty of preschool materials, I think. So hopefully once we ramp up to 100%, we will find the right balance for him too :)

[Mom-ninja.]

Let's see....my 3 yr old does the following for school:

 

He "writes" on dry erase boards while I work with older boys. Then he "reads" to me what he has written.

 

He "reads" me books.

 

He draws pictures and tells me the story he drew.

 

He is learning to use scissors.

 

He is learning to not eat glue.

 

He is learning how to put caps back onto markers.

 

He is learning to wait his turn and not interrupt.

 

That pretty much sums it up.

 

I've decided that this time when I do start to teach him to read, it will be German first.

[MinivanMom]

For dd4 we will be primarily working on speech. She has been making good progress, but people outside our family still can't understand her. That is a huge hurdle for her right now and I don't feel like we can move onto anything else at this point. She really wants to start doing "school", though, so I bought her:

 

HWT Preschool

Singapore Essentials

 

Her speech exercises will be her "school" at first, then we will be starting the other things very, very slowly.

[tomandlorih]

So excited to see this thread! For various reasons, I have just decided to start "school" with ds3(4 the end of Dec.) in the fall. I don't have much to add since I am on the beginning end of planning but :bigear: to all of you all's great ideas:D

 

I'd like to get my hands on a Sonlight P4/5 IG but don't really have the funds to purchase one. So I'm looking at putting my own together at this point using the following resources from the library or piggy backed on big sisters school.

 

What Your Preschooler Needs to Know

Sonlight list books for Lit Appreciation

Leapfrog DVD's and talking magnetic letters, foam alphabet mat for letter recognition and sounds

Piggyback on big sis's RSO Earth and Space science using easy read alouds and videos such as Sid the Science Kid

Art projects (handling scissors and glue)

Liberty's Kids

[flamommy2mygirls]

Great thread! My yDD will be 4 in Sept and all I have planned for her so far is R&S ABC series. Lots of great ideas on here though to help me broaden our horizons. :)

[zillymom]

I'm excited to see this thread, too! I'm using SCM as a foundation with my 3 year old, but relaxing it in some ways and adding to it a bit in other ways.

 

Habit training, outdoor free play, read-alouds, and Italian are pretty continuous, just trying to make them part of life.

 

Beginning Reading - Reading Eggs

Bible - reading from the Spark Story Bible

Early Writing Skills - Kumon First Book of Tracing and TracingABC app on my phone

Math - reading Math Fables, playing games on ABCya or Nick Jr., or playing Counting with the Very Hungry Caterpillar (app on my Nook)

Poetry - one poem per week (we read it twice per week)

Art and Music - one composer/artist per month, and one folksong, Italian song, and one hymn per month (she loves to sing, even as a musician, it's a challenge for me to keep up with her desire to learn new songs!)

[spaceman]

OPGTR (we just started, we are in the 30s)

 

Bob Books

 

All About Spelling 1 (reeeeaaallly slowly)

 

TV Teacher Handwriting

 

MUS Primer (already 1/3 done and haven't begun the school year, so we'll probably move into Alpha too)

 

Suzuki violin, music mind games, and listening to lots of great composers

 

Song School Latin & Code Cracker Greek with brother (Simian the monkey is by far the highlight of her day!)

 

Tag along for science (BFSU) and History (PreHistory currently, scheduled to start SOTW 1 by September) and great books and picture books read Alouds.

[Sally Day]

My 4, going on 5 year old is doing...

Getty-Dubay Handwriting B

Singapore Maths Essentials A, going on to B soon

Finished the Oxford Reading Tree (UK thing) and reading Usborne Young Readers.

Lots of running around in the fresh air!

:001_smile:

[corduroy]

I'm slowly easing my way into some preschool thoughts. With my almost-3-year-old little boy, my vague plans for the fall include:

 

-modified Wee Folk Art curriculum

-process-oriented art projects a la Maryann Kohl

-"science" projects and sensory activities

 

I'm mostly hoping that the Wee Folk Art curriculum (with some tweaks) will help me plan a one or two-hour segment of the morning - first we read a book, then we do a project, etc. - just to give some shape to the day. My kid is awesome, but pretty energetic and intense. When I try to think of things to do as we go along, it doesn't work as well as when I have an idea of what we're doing each day in advance.

 

My plans don't really include anything academic at all. I had originally thought I would also introduce a letter each week, but now I'm backing off from that. I find Ruth Beechick's ideas about reading fairly persuasive, so now I think that maybe I need to put the brakes on my own nerdy instincts and just hold off on talking explicitly about letters for at least another year. I have to admit that it's very tempting to take a more academic approach and talk about letters and numbers. I'm trying hard to suppress my geeky urges, though!

[arliemaria]

My plans don't really include anything academic at all. I had originally thought I would also introduce a letter each week, but now I'm backing off from that. I find Ruth Beechick's ideas about reading fairly persuasive, so now I think that maybe I need to put the brakes on my own nerdy instincts and just hold off on talking explicitly about letters for at least another year. I have to admit that it's very tempting to take a more academic approach and talk about letters and numbers. I'm trying hard to suppress my geeky urges, though!

 

I am interested in what Ruth Beechick says about delaying academia/early instruction. I waiver a lot about more natural learning like Wee Folk to Elizabeth Foss' Along the Alphabet Path to Charlotte Mason "letting the mind stay fallow" to wanting to feel more academic and doing workbooks like the ETC Primers. It is so hard to decide and of course we all want to feel like we are doing "enough" so that we are not looked down upon or perhaps worse, abusive.

[chepyl]

Lilly is 4.5, we are using the R&S ABC workbooks, a bunch of A+ workbooks I picked up at Target in the dollar aisle, 100 easy lessons and phonics pathways, BOBB books, and maybe some Mortensen Math counting workbooks.

 

She is very smart, but not interested in really learning yet. We will be doing lots of art. She is quite a talented painter for 4 :)

[corduroy]

I'm reading Ruth Beechick's "The Three R's" right now. What she says about reading is essentially that there's an "optimum time" for picking up reading, and while that time may fall very early in some children:

 

"It usually is not the baby who shows any readiness or eagerness to learn to read early, but it is too often an over-anxious mother pushing for it."

(I am totally guilty of having those thoughts, that's why I think Beechick's ideas are valuable for me to mull over.)

 

She also says, and this is, I think, something that also shows up in Charlotte Mason's ideas and although perhaps phrased differently, in Waldorf:

 

"...each child has only a limited amount of time in his early years. That time can be squandered in trying to teach reading before the "optimum" time for it. Or it can be used wisely in teaching "real stuff" that the child is ready for. If you are the teacher, the choice is yours.

 

The real stuff your child learns does not have to be only science. (note: these paragraphs come after a section about a study wherein kindergartners were assigned to either intensive reading instruction, or experiential science instruction. The result, several years later, was that the "science" children were far ahead of the "reading" children in their reading scores, with larger vocabularies and thinking skills.) Science is a natural because children are curious about the world around them, and you can capitalize on that curiosity. But you can teach also about music, art, literature, money, work, safety, God, people, and everything else you and your child are interested in. [...] The science research described above seems to be telling you to keep up that kind of informal teaching a little longer than most people would advise you to. The American attitude that "earlier is better" will die hard, in spite of research evidence to the contrary."

 

I also wonder, based on recently reading some things about boys in the American school system, if part of why places like Finland have such outstanding school scores is that they start later, and that later start allows boys (who are often hit the optimum reading window later than girls) to come to reading when they're ready, instead of when it's still slightly forced.

 

Anyway, it's also hard for me to back off my own overeager instincts toward "Let's do real academics! Worksheets! Sticker books!" but I do find R.B.'s writings pretty convincing. But I think that for my own sanity I need to have a little bit of a plan for what we're going to do during the week, even if it's just the Wee Folk Art-style very laid-back natural learning.

[AbbieJack]

Gosh -doesn't anyone have a 3 yo who is still a baby? :001_huh::

 

My 3 year old is still a baby LOL . He will be 4 in September and is JUST now getting interested in "school". He will be spending his year learning his letters,numbers and playing.

[BugsMama]

Mine is 4.5, We just started FIAR, and are reading LOF Apples. Easy, cuddle time school for us!

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

My dd is 4.5yo. Her preschool plans are pretty simple.

 

Nursery Rhymes

finish HWT pre-k, then start HWT K

pre-reading games from Montessori Read and Write, especially the sound game; maybe moving on the word building

math games, a la RightStart and other fun seasonal things

Other than that, just living everyday life with her siblings.

[sparkygirl]

For dd4 we will be primarily working on speech. She has been making good progress, but people outside our family still can't understand her. That is a huge hurdle for her right now and I don't feel like we can move onto anything else at this point. She really wants to start doing "school", though, so I bought her:

 

HWT Preschool

Singapore Essentials

 

Her speech exercises will be her "school" at first, then we will be starting the other things very, very slowly.

 

:iagree: Our 18 month old has speech issues and is a little firecracker. She will not speak words if we are looking at her and wanting her to repeat the word. We have set up a "homeschool preschool" using a five in a row format, and theme printables from various blogs. Although I have categorized it by subject category since the county comes out to see her.

 

Our first week is Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss, the letter A - its sounds and fun activities like making play dough, using play dough mats, etc.

[PeterPan]

Ds is 3.5 and LOVES cut and paste, begs for it. So we're doing the cut and paste worksheets in the MFW K5 and AAR pre-reading. I rearranged AAR pre to hit all the worksheets for a letter in one week to fit with MFW. So far so good. We're in week 4. He has speech problems (apraxia, motor control), so my main goal is phonemic awareness. The hands-on and book lists in MFW have turned out to be perfect for us. We're having fun and it's EASY for me to open and go. For math we're doing Saxon K5. I'll probably jump him over to RS A when we finish. For now he's pretty content.

 

So that's:

 

MFW K5

AAR pre-reading

Saxon K5

[lea_lpz]

My ds, 3 as of June 1st, will be doing BFIAR, MFW pre-school toys with index cards, Rod & Staff About 3's series, and HWT Get Ready for School. My dd, 5, is doing MFW K so he'll join us for Read Alouds, Bible and prayer, and activities (based on if he wants to) in science, art, music etc. For actual preschool time we will spend about 5 min. on preschool toys, HWT, and Rod & Staff each and about 15 minutes on BFIAR.

 

Next year for pre-k4, I plan to use FIAR, R&S A-B-C Series (A-F), repeat HWT Get Ready for School, and Singapore Early Bird Math A.

 

Then we do MFW K or another year of preschool maybe if need be.

 

Or more FIAR, R&S G-L Series (should have the other 3 by then I bet), HWT K, Singapore Early Bird Math B

Edited August 4, 2012 by lea_lpz

[teeniebeenie6]

My three year old knows his ABC's and can count to 10. He learned them playing with his bath letter/number set, Starfall and Leapfrog videos. We don't use the bath set in the bath but keep them in a bin in the living room. He adores lining them up and going through the letters with us. We say words that start with the letter he is holding.

 

He has speech issues and sensory issues. I am going to do preschool units from 1+1+1=1, 2TeachingMommies, Little Adventure Preschool, Homeschoolshare, Homeschoolcreations, etc. I am laminating pages from these places and am binding them at Kinkos. I just had a Dr. Seuss book spiral bound. I think having his own activity books will help him focus more. I also plan on doing some BFIAR and Peak with Books and lots of art.

[~Amanda~]

OPGTR w/leapfrog DVDs, planning on some handwriting not sure yet, confessions of a homeschooler letter of the week pk4 plans ES intro to science lots of reading and starfall