Did anyone use a preschool program? Would you recommend it, or do you think putting one together yourself is better? I am not sure what to do for my dd. I am leaning toward compiling one myself.
My Grace is doing prek stuff. We loosely follow suggestions from www.letteroftheweek.com We also use a couple of different work books for handwriting. Grace has been writing since she turned 3 so her handwriting is really good for a 4 year old. We just do a letter each week. On Monday she paints the letter (I print plain letters I found online), then she cuts them out and glues them to a piece of construction paper and we put that into a cheap 3 prong folder to make her own ABC book. On Tuesday we go to story time at the library and mostly just read a lot. Wednesdays she works on the capital letter and on Thursdays the lower case. She also plays lots of computer and board games and we read to her a lot. Lots of playdough, paints, cutting and glue and just whatever she feels like doing. Oh and lots of riding bikes and playing outside. That is our preschool!
I have a P-Ker, too. Mostly he does a lot of the stuff on learningpage.com that corresponds with what big brother (K5) is doing. I keep them doing similar work, just at different levels. That's really saved my sanity. We do Sams Club workbooks and computer games. Read a lot. Play a lot. If it were me, I wouldn't bother with purchasing a program. That's just my opinion.
I just used things I found online as I felt like it or as she showed interest. http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/pre-kindergarten.html is a good site with free curriculum. http://www.first-school.ws/ http://www.dltk-kids.com/ http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/ http://www.alphabet-soup.net/index.html
Do it yourself and save yourself some $$$$$ McGraw Hill workbooks are easy and cheap for little ones. Add in TONS of crafts, painting and hands on activities (clay & play doh are awesome). Let them help you cook and vola! Preschool "curriculum".
most people who have spent money on a prek or k curriculum later seem to regret it. anyone confirm this?
Chiming in! TOTALLY pre-K, K and even 1st I would say could be done without official curriculum. There is so much free stuff out there it's almost overwhelming. HA! Okay it IS overwhelming! But really you could do preK easy!
Putting together my own as well, using some of the sites already listed and I can't believe that no one has yet said Starfall.com Plus, my grandma taught ps (1st grade) for over 40 years and I have a ton of stuff from her (games, books, crafts based on letters - you name it). I also happened to get *for free* a terrific book by Monday Morning Books called Alphabet Connections: Animal Themed Activities from A to Z. This particular book is $30 on their website, but they have plenty in the $7-$15 range. If you're going to buy something, I recommend looking at their site! If you want a list of what I'm using, PM me. It's a pretty long list, and I'm picking and choosing a little of everything....
We do "preschool" around here. We just use the stuff off the web, and some workbooks from walmart. I was going to post a question on what workbooks people liked for their little ones. I look at this about.com website and get a general idea of things we need to work on about once a month just as a reminder to myself. http://www.primarygames.com/curriculum/math.htm http://www.abc.net.au/countusin/games/game5.htm
I have three preschoolers. . .pk is optional. . .I have some things if they want to do preschool but I don't make them. We read out loud a lot though!!! I highly recommend two books: Einstein Never Used Flashcards and Better Late Than Early. They are excellent reads and provide a lot of compelling evidence for NOT doing pk. (LOL that's probably not at all what you were looking for huh?) I still think even if you really feel compelled to do formal pk with schedules and everything. . .they are both good reads for learning how little kids learn best. ;-) When my girls do want to do school, we pull a lot of stuff from the internet as well.
As far as I'm concerned, PK is what my 3yo does to keep him occupied while his brother does kindergarten.
My 4yr old does the Rod and Staff workbooks. He loves these, so I just let him do as much or as little as he wants. We also do one lesson a day out of Horizons K math. We don't stress over any of the concepts, we just talk about each section and he does as much of it as he wants. This usually takes all of maybe 10 minutes. We are also working on a nursery rhyme pocket book. We just do one activity a day for it. We started Teach your child to read 100 EZ lessons the week before last. He's really excited about learning to read. Again, I don't stress over it, if he doesn't want to do the lesson we wait until the next day. I don't plan to use the whole book, but I really like the foundation it gave my oldest in blending and sounding out words. Oh, and he colors a bible picture while a read to him for bible. And plays on Starfall, and other computer games. Starfall has been great for teaching him is letters/sounds. In all he probably spends 30-45 minutes on formal schooling (depending on how much coloring/craft stuff there is). The rest of the day he spends playing/helping/ learning by living. Lisa
We do a daily (most of the time) calendar time- it takes about 10 minutes. We talk about the days of the week, months of the year, weather, have a prayer, pledge of allegiance and maybe a few other little things. Both the girls love this time. After that, I let the eldest lead the way. Some days she is wanting to sit down and do worksheets- I use free online stuff and print them out. Other days she just wants me to read to her. She also loves to use a little white erase board and we take turns writing things. For now it is working well and I see progress. I feel I could do more and she would be fine but I'm being lazy! For 3 yr olds, go freebies! I'm looking at a cheap curriculum for next year. I think I need the structure more then she does!
We used Before Five in a Row (about $25, I think) when ds was 2-3...basically, you read great books together and do small activities (well, a few are large like making a cave for Angus Lost) that promote thinking skills and provide students with connections to great literature. We also used Alphabet Art to make an ABC Notebook. We read lots of ABC books together and watched Leap Frog's Letter Factory DVD. Instead of investing in curriculum, I purchased some quality learning toys & books such as Lauri Perception Puzzles Doug & Melissa Puzzles Feel and Find Game Doug & Melissa Lace and Trace Shape Sequencing Puzzles Wooden Beads/Shoestrings Usborne Big Book of Things to Spot -- we actually bought a ton of Usborne books when ds was very young. My sister gave me $100 to spend at a party! I also asked for many items for gifts for ds instead of the regular "junk"; I'd much rather have brain-building toys for Pre-kers than stuffy curriculum.
We use a few of the local workbooks which are quite cheap, and of coure tons of print-out from the web. No curriculum. I agree @ educational toys. It's more important for those kids than table work. Also educatinal games (like the ones on preschoolprintables.com)
These are great ideas and advice. Thank you so much! I am very much in agreement that she learn a lot without a formalized program (I will read the books you suggested Sneaky Mama!). I just want to make sure that I do enough to ensure that she gets the start that she deserves. I am probably more anxious about this since she is my first!
LOL You're totally allowed to be anxious over your first. Hindsight is always 20/20. I think about my oldest dd who is at least one grade level ahead of where she should be in almost all of her subjects. But when she was little (like k & 1) I was pg with and then had the twins and hsing just didn't always happen. But of course I read to her, and we did things. . .etc.
My preschoolers are 2 and 3. I use Little Hands To Heaven and Before Five In A Row. I have tons of educational toys and videos for preschoolers. This stuff is also to keep them contained for at least 10-15 minutes so I can do some one on one with my 7 year old. I have Kumon workbooks and we use www.starfall.com, www.edhelper.com and www.enchantedlearning.com. They also play a lot and reading is big here too.
I would utilize the links that have been shared and just design your own pre-K curriculum. When my Zach was four, I bought "Hands On Homeschool" http://www.handsonhomeschooling.com/ I'm not saying it was a bad curriculum. It wasn't...actually it's a pretty good one if you're looking for that sort of thing. It's just in retrospect, I'd have saved that $80 or so and used it for something else. Eli went to school for pre-K, but if we're blessed enough to have a third child, I might use some of the H.O.H. activities since I already own it. I'm just saying that I don't think it's worth it now that there are so many excellent resources to create your own plans online.
