Advice on Preschool Curriculum

I am homeschooling my preschooler with the same method I used for my now 10 year old son. We use the books from Walmart that others suggested plus some books I found at Teacher's Delight in Lafayette, IN. I found a book at Teacher's Delight that has a 'puppet show' for every letter of the alphabet and a letter of the week book that has reproducible pages to color, poems for every letter and a recipe for a food that begins with each letter. My kids love doing those books! I also use a dry erase board that has a bulletin board attatched to it. I tack up the letters we're working on (the kind that come in a mixed bag for teacher's to use on their bulletin boards) and then have them practice writing their letters and numbers on the dry erase side. Then I will play letter recognition games using letters on the dry erase board with them (Write out A, C, E for example and have them circle the E). Then later we do a worksheet copied out of one of the books we have. Not only does my four year old love doing all of these activities but my three year old and one year old can participate in all of them too! That helps keep little hands from getting into other things! My oldest son also enjoys helping with the puppet show and the recognition games!

I am not a home schooling mom, but I am an Early Childhood educator and a mother of two. I have been in the field for 19 years... I like the Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers, and Twos. There are several components. You can go to CreativeCurriculum.net or TeachingStrategies.com. If you can find a Kaplan (Early Childhood) catalog, you can order it through there.

I also like "Your Baby Can Read" and "Baby Einstein" books and DVDs.

I'm not sure I have all of the websites correct, but you can always Google it.

I have been using Naturally Three: Creative Curriculum for the 3-5 year old. It is great. It is based on a Waldorf style of teaching. It is broken down into monthly unit study lessons and then the weeks are broken down to help you plan your weekly lesson. I also incorporate, on my own, other things like French and Sign Language and flash cards. I ordered this curriculum, from www.naturekiddos.com. Congratulations on baby #2!

I am doing Brighter Vision Learning to get a taste of what homeschooling will be like. Congrats on your pregnancy! S.

Usborne Books has great books, kid kits, and other great learning tools. Many homeschoolers use usborne books for their curriculum (art, history, etc.) As a homeschooling I fell in love with the books and wanted to use them all with my kids (ages 3 and 5) who enjoy them so much. I had a very successful show earning so many free books that I decided to sign up so I could keep buying them at a discount. Also, I enjoy sharing with other what my kids enjoy and what my customers say really helped their kids. Along with the library, field trips, a nearby craft store, and Usborne books, I've been able to build our own preschool curriculum that closely follows my child's natural interests.

A.

For preschool, I like anything. :-)

For my daughter I bought her books for preschool @ Walmart (by the stationary). THey have soooo many great books to get you started on the right track to homeschooling!

Also, if you live near Avon, IN - try the store Teaching Supplies. It has a lot of great books!

hope this helps! :-)
L. Kay

I've been able to just use books from Walmart to get my children ready up to 1st grade, then I bought the 2nd grade ACE (Accelerated Christian Education) cirriculum, which my daughter is breezing through. My 4 and a half yr old knows her abcs and sounds and can read simple words. I have put very little effort into teaching her, just bought the book from WalMart & try to have her do a little every day.