A thread for what we're using with our preschoolers! Mine are 3 and 4. The 4yo is interested and WANTS to "do school too" (like his older, third grader brother). Sometimes my 3yo does things with us, sometimes not. I'm so not worried about his academics - he's VERY bright. At any rate, here's what we use: FIRST of all, I guess we're sort of doing an animals unit study in most things. All of the subjects we do will include studying an animal of some sort, because my kiddos are enthralled with anything that moves. LOL With each animal, we'll do a notebooking page about where they live, what the males, females, and babies are called, what their footprints look like, and some basic facts. Not yet sure how this will work, but I love the idea formulating in my head. Also plan to do dioramas for each habitat (one or two at a time of course) and add animals as we go! Phonics - The old, original Letter People from World Book, in conjunction with Letter of the Week. We have an animal or two to go with each letter, as well as a community figure of some sort. I'm waiting for my copy of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons from the library. I may end up buying it after this "preview" if it's worth it. I already have The ABCs and All Their Tricks, so it would be a great guide to use with that. We shall see. Math - Using resources from Hubbard's Cupboard. Learning to recognize numbers, counting, colors, shapes. A lot of this they know and so we'll delve deeper as far as odd colors and color combinations, as well as odd shapes and how they can be used to draw. Hope to start with Math-U-See primer after the first of the year. Bible - LifePacs, where appropriate. Incorporated a lot with science. Starting with a unit study on creation - each day will be at least a week's study, with several days being longer. (Dry land and plants will be a week each, plus a three week separation of animals, PLUS a week on dinosaurs, and then of course human body including rest. We're looking at 10-12 weeks.) Science - incorporated with Bible for now. Also just joined a physical science co-op. FUN! History - Starting chronologically, so most of this will be Bible for now actually. When we get to Mesopotamia and Sumeria, I'll think of something. Not too worried about this yet. Language studies - hope to incorporate as much sign language as I can. The kiddos could use it anyway, and I think it's a great way to help learn the sight words and vocab words we need. Social Studies - based on the phonics letter of the week. We'll study a community helper or holiday, plus a "theme" each week. The first week, for example, is about M: mailman, and moon is our theme. (We're studying day/night in Bible/science.) This week doesn't have a holiday, but obviously the week of Halloween we'll do some things for that one day, and a short community unit the other day. (Social studies is only 2 days per week, and the theme on the third day.) If this ends up being too much, I'll scrap it. PE - Hopefully, the Homeschool Gym N Swim class we attended today at the YMCA will gain 2 more members and "make" for us. If not, or maybe anyway, I'm discovering a wealth of CHEAP or FREE opportunities at the rec center near us. Music and art - we're singing phonics songs (thanks to the letter people), plus we're doing art in just about every subject. My preschoolers are very kinesthetic, and so this is a must for us! For the week of M: we're making mailman hats, moons from plaster, a moon and sun mobile, buildings from marshmallows and toothpicks, a moose puppet, a cow toilet paper roll project (for black and white), an artful construction paper and cotton ball display of owls (for our study of a nighttime animal), a monkey with spring arms and legs... and there's probably a few more that I'm not remembering offhand. The kids will LOVE all of this mess-making! (Not to mention that MESS starts with M. :lol: ) We're also gluing a tactile object to the letter - dry macaroni to the outline of M, for example; plus, we'll make a minibook based on the letter as well... maybe. Might end up being too much, and if so, I'll scrap stuff one at a time. We shall see!
I ahve a preschooler also. We are using Starfall.com and she loves it. She feels very special when she and her sister work on her own school website. WE also use some of those little learning books like you get at walmart or books-a-million on preschool skills. She also watches all of the movies that I assign the second grader to watch on cosmeo. they were both excited to find a Pocahantas related film in their folder today. I need to print out some writing practice sheets soon. She is learning a few letters now and needs to start trying to write them also. My Preschooler told me the other day she wanted to know what the inside of her body looked like so we will be going through a little body atlas we have this week.
Well I have a preschooler and a 6th grader. Guess I'll comment here and then have to start a 6th grade topic! We're pretty simple here. We use letter of the week mostly. I also have this really big book I got from Office Depot. Each page has to do with a letter. So the first page is for "A" and has hadwriting lines for capital and lowercase and then has all kinds of pictures that begin with that letter. I take Grace to story time once a week. She plays on starfall. We do crafts, Bible stories and a little math and LOTS of reading out loud! I think that's it!
I have a preschooler. And we are pretty simple here, too. We are working on a letter a week--crafts, tracing, songs, etc. We go to storytime each week and read TONS at home. Until school started back, we were going to an art class. Parking is too much of a nightmare to do it until the weather cools down to make the walk okay. He sometimes plays starfall. Lately he is not interested in the computer at all. I think that after we are done with letters we may work on some unit studies type things--community, etc. I think for next year I am going to head in a more literature-based direction.
I have three preschoolers sort of. . . For the 4yo we do explode the code, spanish from living languages and whatever else I feel like teaching her, and Saxon K math. We have story time too. . .and cooking skills. She is also taking piano. For the twins I am just kind of wandering through the letters of the alphabet at a very slow pace. Lots of story times, arts & crafts and of course--science! ;-)
That is just what I think we are going to do as well. I am including Grace in Samantha's science unit study on killer whales. She watched a National Geographics video and colored a picture of a killer whale. I am going to let her do her own little lap book. It will be VERY simple but it will be all her own.
That is neat that she can do stuff along with her big sister! I had this great idea that we were going to do a lap book each week for each letter. Well, it was a great idea, but I cannot keep up with that! So maybe we will try a different kind soon. Maybe around Christmas we will do something since we will probably be pretty informal while dh is getting ready to leave.
Jack Jack is THREE! And he wants to sit and do schoolwork SO BADLY like his brothers...so...here's his work... Bible--sits with us and draws a picture of whatever story we're reading...I write on his paper what he tells me his picture is about. Reading--anything he wants me to. I read between 3-6 books to him each day. Now Jack has been sitting with me and Ricky while Ricky reads. I have been sitting with Jack and Ricky and working on phonics flash cards together...and Jack's making the sounds after Ricky. Writing---no formal writing yet. He's just barely learned how to make circles! LOL Math--whatever we need to count. Lately, it's been the eggs the chickens have been laying, or the number of dogs we have, or the number of potatoes I have to peel LOL or how many strawberries are on your plate? How many has Jack eaten? how many are left? I have been asking him things like, how many potatoes have been peeled? how many are not peeled? now count them all together! Sorting, colors, shapes...whenever we come across them in real-life. Science--he is listening to the bat lessons too...sometimes he astounds *and oh the BIG smiles as they realize how SMART their baby brother is!* them with his vast knowledge LOL History--he sits through the Pilgrim read-alouds. If there are pictures in the story, I ask him what color things are, how many people are there? what happens next? etc. It is much easier for me to encourage and engage him in what we're doing with the older boys and have little Jack lessons, and give him "Mommy and Jack" time...than it is for me to flesh something separately out for him. He enjoys living and learning so much right alongside his big brothers (and sister!) that I don't think we probably will do much in the way of formal schooling with him for a while yet... I was so worried that I wasn't doing enough with him. Now I realize he's learning a lot!! .
I have a preschooler & a 4th grader. This is what my son does (he's 3): Reading- I read aloud to him numerous times a day, we do lessons from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons whenever he wants to, he goes on starfall.com, watches Between the Lions & Super Why, he is sounding out words & we're working on sight words Writing- he's still doing a lot of pre-writing, he can write some letters & is getting better with those as well as drawing shapes, but mainly it's pre-writing stuff (either worksheets I find free or ones I create) Math- he's counting to 20 by himself now, so we're working on counting & recognizing numbers to 30, we do patterns & sorting, knows the names of the coins so now we're working on how much they're worth Science- He watches when I'm doing Science experiments with his sister, we read science books (Magic School Bus, etc.), watch Science videos, studying animals, solar system puzzle (knows the planets & their order, and the sun & moon), human body puzzle We aren't formally working on any other subjects, yet. Sometimes I read the Magic Treehouse books to him, which are historical fiction. When dd is watching an educational show, he'll sometimes sit & watch, too. He likes being read to & trying to read books, so we read a variety of books together (although I'll admit, Berenstain Bears books get read most often). He likes to sit & "do school work like sissy" when dd is working, so we have a few workbooks for him (a Spectrum preschool one & one of those big ones from Walmart for Kindergarten), but there isn't much challanging in either. Other than those, we mainly use stuff around the house to work on school. He does puzzles & plays games with us (he LOVES Uno & is pretty good at it). We also do tons of arts & crafts projects. He'll start foreign language in another year or two, piano when we get one (should be this year) or when he can sit still that long. We plan to get him a formal Math program shortly before he turns 5 (maybe next year if he's doing really good with math).
I forgot to add that we watch so much pbs. Super Why, Word Girl, Between the Lions. For Samantha who is 11 she loves Cyberchase and Fetch. Great for math and other skills.
I don't really have a preschooler...I have a pre-preschooler. My little Alyssa is 2. However, I have to give her "lessons" so she will behave during school. lol. Here is what we do: Reading: I read aloud to her all the time. She explores books on her own. she is learning to recognize her name. She spells her name Aysa. lol. Math: She studies shapes and counts. She can count to 13. She is starting to learn to recognize the numbers and learn to count objects. Science: Water play, doing what she can do with her brother and sister during experienments, mixing colors. Writing: well, she isn't writing but she loves to scribble and color! lol. We have plenty of fun with play doh, lacing, coloring, puzzles, and whatever else we can come up with. She enjoys washing dishes and mixing pancakes or cookies or whatever. Bascially I just keep her busy. However, she has learned her colors, can count to 13, can almost spell her name, nows her ABCs, and knows her shapes.
I have a preschooler as well. We're using starfall.com, school zone phonics and numbers flashcards, and working on recognizing her name in print and identifying the letters and sounds in everyday words. We also use a preschool thinking skills workbook. For math we do counting games like chutes and ladders, and grouping/sorting activities as well as the sesame street counting wipeoff workbook. PE is mostly time spent at the park, beyond that she does ballet and tennis
About the only formal thing we're doing right now with ds4 and ds2 is calendar and circle time in the morning with the rest of the daycare kids. We do so much off the cuff stuff - like coloring, play-do, cooking, exploring, etc. Starting next week, I'm going to try "Little Hands to Heaven" especially with ds4 and see how that works out for us.
I have a 3 yo DD. We are doing starfall.com (isn't this the best?! I'm so surprised/grateful that they do not charge for this). We print out worksheets off the net for numbers/counting, letters, and shapes that she does while my 6 yo is doing school. We also have the LeapPad Phonics "The Letter Factory" video, which is AWESOME! Very colorful, fun songs, well done. It is the 1st in a series of 5, so I will continue to buy the rest. (My 6 yo 1st grader likes these too.) I have to admit that my preschooler did not know her ABCs before starting to watch this and now (in 2 weeks' time) she is singing them all the time. PLUS I feel that it is not just verbatum singing but she is recognizing the letters/sounds also. I am really amazed at this video and would totally recommend it to anyone! We also have a preschool Mickey Mouse computer game that is really good for her age that is teaches shapes, colors, letters and numbers. We actually just got this as her older sister now has a laptop so Ellie inherited her older desktop. I have "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons' that I might try later on this year. It didn't really work well for my 6 yo, but hey, every child is different, right?! Of course, she is learing quite a bit by watching older DD so she is almost learning things by osmosis!
First of all, thanks to all of you for all contributions. My preschooler is teh oldest child, so I invest time into her schooling a lot. I like all your ideas and will see if there is anything new I could with Valeria. So this is what we do so far: Bible- a story every day and some activities going along with is, and two Bible verses a week (we have illustrated version of the verses made for kids, but it;s King James, also learn the same verses in Russian). Math- the usual thing, counting, sorting matching, shapes and colors (games and activities, sicne she knows them already). Math activity sheets Pre-writing practice Reading: sight reading in English and letters in Russian. I am thinking @ usung starfall since everybody here is talking @ it We use computer programs also, like Reader Rabbit Preschool, Reader Rabbit Reading Journey etc. For science now we are reading book @ body and do little practical experiments from the book. Learned @ healthy foods, vitamins, groups of foods, planets, etc. We did lots animals befoe but now she seems to outgrow it, at least all the activities we had before. If there would be something new we would probably use it, but can't come up with anything yet. I use flashcard for every possible topic Of course, arts and crafts, ha. Since I joined this forum I found lots of useful sites, and started to print out games, activities etc. TX for all the contributions. Keep them coming!
It's kind of funny because generally, I'm really not in favor of doing lots of preschool. But I found with my first we needed to do something to fill the day besides the park and well thus began a 'preschool' of sorts. Then the poor middle children kind of got left out for awhile but now everyone wants to do what the older ones are doing. (Which is how the twins ended up doing the letter a week--or month.)
Dolphin....my kids all use and memorize the King James. I have not found it to be difficult for them. Though it will require more explanation and a bit of Old English vocab lessons at times. Of course, a little one would need any version explained. lol.
That is me! (Except I only have one.) A girl I know has a child the same age and she kept talking about getting his curriculum ready and I was thinking, "Um. He's 3. I'm not doing that. That's crazy!" But with him not taking naps and it being too hot in the afternoons to do stuff, we were just watching a lot of cartoons, so here we are!
I just started working with mine. We are doing a letter a week. Loves to read to me & me back at them. Math shapes, patterns, counting. Art learing colors (already knows most) just reinforcing, working on coloring neatly (not rushed), fun projects. Just kinda going with the flow. I'm going to try to find my Spanish cd & I do know how to count in Japanes, so maybe a little of that as well.
