Preschool curriculum suggestions

[trishalinn]

Hey all,

 

I have a little boy who will be 4 in September. I'd like to have a little moral formal preschool curriculum to do with him. We have started Saxon k this summer and he LOVES it. He asks to do math every day. He is so different from my first son in that he loves drawing coloring and cutting so he does a lot of that. He also loves puzzles and other hands on activities.

 

I'd like to find something besides the math, maybe focusing on pre-reading skills. He knows all of his upper case letters. He has just picked them up on his own. I suppose I could keep doing informal stuff with him, but I know I work better with a schedule and when I have a formal plan. I don't want him to be the neglected middle child. He has an 8 year old brother I homeschool and twin baby brothers that take a lot of time. As such, it would be nice to have something that doesn't take a lot of prep each day.

 

Cheap or free is always a bonus too :)

[coffeegal]

I'm using many of the printouts from this site: http://www.first-school.ws/INDEX.HTM for my littles. :001_smile:

[~Amanda~]

This one is on my wish list.

 

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/k4-curriculum

[warriormom]

I have seen great reviews with Rod & Staff preschool ABC program. Lots of coloring, pasting, cutting as well as critical thinking, preschool skills etc.

[craftyerin]

We use All About Reading Pre-Level for PK and reading readiness. I has a daily story to read, a craft/coloring page to do, and a phonemic awareness game to play. Oh, and a puppet to play the games with! It's awesome!

 

http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/all-about-reading-level-pre-1/

[boscopup]

Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD (teaches most kids lowercase letters/sounds in about 2-3 days and is MUCH less painful than trying to teach it yourself)

Lots and lots and lots of library books :D

 

I too have to have things scheduled, which is why I got Sonlight P4/5 for my middle child K'er this year. I am definitely reading now! We add library books to it also, but it just gets me having a set "reading time", which I think is the most important thing he needs right now. You could do something similar for free by using library books and just making a schedule each week to read 2 or 3 library books in a sitting.

 

Also, I'm working with my younger ones for a bit each day before I start with my 8 year old. They're on the schedule. It gets done. ;) I'm not actually doing anything real with the 3 year old, but he likes to "do school", so he's doing the Developing the Early Learner workbooks with his big brother and plays with C-rods (I'll start him in Singapore EM K next year when he's 4). I'm supposed to be getting R&S ABC series for him. I used books A and C with DS2, and they were great.

[Holly]

We love the ETC primers for that age. My 5yo is working through them right now, but I usually start them at age 4. After that, we move to the regular ETC books and McGuffey readers.

 

They've also enjoyed the R&S preschool books and Kumon books.

 

Another great resource is Preschool Activities in a Bag, but there are tons of ideas for free bags online...it's basically an independent activity for them to do that can be stored in a bag and easy to clean up. Pinterest has tons of ideas for these! Matching/memory cards, sorting activities, button snakes, I-spy cards, Popsicle stick puzzles are just a few ideas to search for...I'm hoping to get a few of these ready for my younger two.

 

I have 4 DC and also worry about neglecting my middle DD! We'll be using FIAR this year and my 2yo may join along for some of it.

[cmarango]

We use All About Reading Pre-Level for PK and reading readiness. I has a daily story to read, a craft/coloring page to do, and a phonemic awareness game to play. Oh, and a puppet to play the games with! It's awesome!

 

http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/all-about-reading-level-pre-1/

 

Would this be worthwhile to do if my ds already knows all of the letter sounds and can identify all of the upper and lowercase letters?

[Ecclecticmum]

If he already knows his letter sounds then I suggest the following:

 

- Leapfrog Letter Factory (as review-optional)

- Leapfrog Word Factory (covers blending)

If you have an iphone or Ipad I highly recommend "Reading Raven" its similar to Reading Eggs (but not as annoying IMO, and is set out nicely) is a brilliant app. Its helped my daughter immensely with blending.

- Have a look a Kumon workbooks, there is stuff there for all different ages

 

Curriculum Resources:

 

Reading

- Phonics Pathways

- Reading Eggs

- Confessions of a Homeschooler K4 Curriculum

- Reading Raven App

- Progressive Phonics

- Bob Books

 

Maths

- If hes flying through Saxon, have a Look at MEP or Math Mammoth for some extra worksheets.

 

Extras/Enrichments

- Lollipop logic (he may not be ready for that, but its another "workbooky" type option

- Kumon workbooks

- Leapfrog stuff (there is even fridge word magnets now)

- Evan moor workbooks

- Have a look on currclick

- And also Teachers pay Teachers

 

Curriculums

- Oak Meadow Kindergarten

 

It all depends on his learning style, how far ahead he is, what sort of gross/fine motor skills he has (obviously a child who is writing letters easily, is totally different from a child who just happens to know his letter sounds, and you don't want to push with fine motor activities, but rather to gently work with them on it)

 

So if hes got good pencil grip, and is comfortable with making circles, loops etc, he's probably ready for something like Explode the Code or Handwriting without tears, but if he is uncomfortable with his grip, then its just better to work on his pencil grip for the moment.

 

He's still young, so thats a factor, but he does want more work, so thats another.

 

No matter the age of the child, these are the priorities I usually work on (in order)

 

1. Phonics/Getting them reading

2. Pencil Grip (this is usually worked on before/concurrently/or after depending on whats going on, once they start picking up a pencil to draw, I gently start correcting their grip, so that it becomes natural to them before they have "bad habits" with their pencil grip

3. Maths basics

4. Once I am happy with all of the above, then I can ramp up a program.

 

So right now, we've dropped everything onto the backburner to concentrate on Atlas's phonics as shes had too many bumps in the road.

 

If he's not writing comfortably, a program like Letter of the week can still be good. You can work on him doing A's in shaving cream/rice/paint bags, tracing sheets, as well as reviewing/harnessing the letter sound.

 

I'm stuck between saying "but he's quite young" to "hmm....thats pretty similar to Eve, and she's 3" lol, so if I said he's too young, then that would be criticising myself as well. :lol:

 

I hope you can figure out something to make you both happy :001_smile: :grouphug:

[lexi]

Would this be worthwhile to do if my ds already knows all of the letter sounds and can identify all of the upper and lowercase letters?

 

I'm going to start Level 1 with my 4 year old son since he knows his letters and letter sounds. You might want to move up a level if you think that will be a better fit for him.

[trishalinn]

Thanks for the suggestions! This gives me a nice list of things to check ut :)

[Jacobadom8]

Hello everyone. My child is a preschooler as well. He studies at Montclare Children’s School in New York. I was looking for activities I can incorporate at home to encourage learning, and I am so glad to have come across this forum. Thank you to the topic creator and to all the people who commented.

[HS Mom in NC]

One of the most important and often neglected aspects of an education is reading aloud great literature to children.  That includes excellent picture books and chapter books for reading aloud.  It develops the attention span, immerses and child in the richest type of language, builds vocabulary naturally in context, trains the ear for excellent grammar and prose, exposes children to some of the best visual arts with the best picture books, allows children to travel through time and fantasy worlds, and can introduce them to some of the greatest minds real and fictional. 

 

Books that help you find good books include:

 

Honey for a Child's Heart

Books that Build Character

Books that Children Love

Google "Award Winning Children's Books" for the American Library Association’s complete lists. 

 

Begin with shorter sittings and slowly increase the read aloud time.  Allow quiet play while you read aloud.  Look up read aloud threads on this forum. Our kids were read aloud to up to 2 hours a day (in a couple of sittings) until they started college.  The youngest is still read aloud to by dad and by mom.  Of course, the material got more complex as they got older.

 

 

[ALB]

I think its hard to follow a pre-made schedule at that age.  We also did Saxon K, the ETC primers, HWOT primer, Developing the Early Learner and the Rod & Staff A, B, C series.  Just working in some (not all) of those a day, with LOTS of reading and some crafts or messy art projects here and there is the perfect preschool program.

 

Read lots of nursery rhymes, fairy tales and classic stories!  I completely agree 100% with Homeschool Mom in AZ that reading aloud is necessary and the best thing you can possibly do.

[Jess4879]

Another vote for the R&S preschool workbooks.  My kiddo trucked through them super fast though.  I ended up getting him one of those all-in-one workbooks from Walmart.  It's like 400 pages.  It's great to keep him busy when I can't be there to do 1 on 1 with him.  We also use, and love AAR.  We start with the Pre-1 level.  Since your kiddo knows his letters & sounds, you could go with Level 1.  What I do feel people miss by skipping a level is all the extra content.  There is so much work on blending, rhyming, syllables, etc.  You can cover it without the cost of AAR, for sure, I just love the way AAR presents it and lays it all out for you.  :)

[ruthie050573]

This list is so helpful. We tend to do mostly leapfrog DVD with our 4yo - so hard to find time w littlest when there are big ones in home.

[alanabrown15]

My child is enrolled in Williamsburg Northside Preschool and I was looking for the similar forum. Thank You!

[CafeDiem]

My second and third kiddos enjoyed working on the R&S preschool books while their big brother was doing school work. I also used the Wee Folk Art Simple Seasons units for preschool with each of my kids which is a great way to start some gentle formal schooling.

[FO4UR]

Happy Phonics!  This is a series of games to teach phonics/reading.  

 

Laminate the games so you can play them again with the twins.

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

I would consider what you are going to use for your reading program in kindergarten and see if they have a preschool level. For instance, we use SSRW, and they have a preschool book I bought on sale. If you know you want to do something like FIAR, you can do Before FIAR. If you think he is ready to read though, it doesn't have to be tied to writing, which may come later in his development. You can start with some oral lessons.

 

For me, I have found most preschool books to be similar in the pre-reading. So I get handwriting worksheets as free printables on the Internet or cheap ones at Target. We did Saxon K in preschool, which was a perfect intro to math. I put together a letter a week program and have different activities center around that letter with lots of Pinterest ideas, handwriting sheets, etc. One day, he will glue objects that start with the letter in the formation of that letter, such as beans in the shape of a B. This helps with textile sensory. We do handprint art for the letters another day. We read a book with the title that starts with that letter. We trace that letter with our finger into salt, which helps them know the shape even if they don't have great fine motor skills to write. We may do a letter scavenger hunt or hunt for things around the room that start with that letter. We do magnet letters on the chalkboard. I have some flashcards that have corresponding songs for the letter from A C E to introduce the letter of the week, and we sing our silly song all week. We may do a snack that starts with that letter. We really don't spend a lot of money on fancy curriculum in preschool. Teachers pay Teachers is a great website resource for printables, too. I do make a list of the activities for each week before school starts so I am not scrambling during the year.

[KnSmith6]

Once my boys knew their letters, I started teaching them sound that each letter makes, then we started on the Bob Books.  They really liked them and are doing great. My 4 yo is currently on Collection 2 (got all the collections at Costco), and I found lots of printable on pinterest to go along with the Bob books, so occasionally he does those as well.  I also picked up some workbooks that he does while older brother is doing work.  He really loves the LeapFrog 'Kindergarten Skills' book I found at Target for $5.  More multisensory (stickers, instead of just writing in letters all the time) than most and a good variety of activities rather than just tracing every letter one page after another.  Mine loves math as well, so looking to get a more 'formal' math curriculum or good workbook like Mathematical Reasoning.