Hi Moms
I have two daughters-one who is 4 and one who is 15 months. My four year old had a heart transplant about 10 months ago and due to the time she spent bed-ridden and the stroke preceding the transplant, she is delayed. In any case, we have teachers from Early Intervention in our school district that come out to our house to work with her. Now that it's summer, though, we are down to just her occupational and physical therapists from a private company. I have decided to try to school her the way her teachers did throughout the summer. I have some worksheets and activities that the teachers gave me, but I am looking for more.
What good resources are out there for preschool "home school" type things that are free? (Printable activities, etc)
Also, what are some great kids books you can recommend? We are a book family here and both girls love books. We already have a ton of Sandra Boynton, so we are looking for different things to read. Anything from the 1-5 year old age range will do.
Thanks!
www.tlsbooks.com has great printable worksheets. I have been using this since my kids were in kindergarten. Also, I used to pull stuff from www.dltk-kids.com They also have some great coloring pages on there.
Books are very important, and there are some great responses on here regarding books. If your trying to give her a pre-school type atmosphere there are many other avenues to explore as well. Counting bears are amazing, they will teach your child color, size, patterning, etc. Wooden puzzles for fine-motor as well as wooden blocks. Be sure to expose her to plenty of pretend/dramatic play and gross motor as well. At her age, she will learn the best through play. Incorporate all of these things into the way that you play with her and she will not get bored. Kids at that age have a very hard time sitting and doing papers, it's not fun to them! The best of luck to you and your daughter's, you are doing a GREAT thing. But keep in mind, it's not easy!
Here are some sites that I like:
abcteach.com
starfall.com
dtlk-kids.com
janbrett.com
I also have good luck with the PBSkids site. (I can't remember if Starfall has printables, but the online activities are really neat!) If you are on Facebook, I highly recommend becoming a fan of Teach Preschool, which is put together by a master preschool teacher named Deborah Stewart. She combs the blogs and posts the best craft and learning activities she finds.
You are a great mom!!! get a catalogue from Veritas Press. Go through the book list and order the books they reccomend from the Library. use the catalog as a book list. I also print telling time sheets from the computer for free. Type in what you want then add free worksheets and you can find almost anything. You might find out you dont need the tutors anymore. This is a fun way to spend time with your kids, and they get a better education too. Feel free to contact me for more book lists, catalogs, etc.
S.
I would get on the internet and see what you can find. I know alot of libraries offer free book reading sessions and such, if your daughter can attend those, that might be good.......
Anything from the library is free.......as long as you take it back.......
You can always do your own thing as well. Make a game and make up words for her to learn or letters......here is how to make a game....
Manila folder board game.
Get a file folder, open it up, and draw circles or squares or triangles, whatever you want and make a game board. Be sure to leave room for pictures either drawn or cut out. Then either buy clear contact paper or take it and get it laminated. Then go to the dollar store and buy some cheap "game pieces", they can be erasers, or whatever they like.......next cut some paper and make playing cards. These can go from ABC's, pictures or words, to letters and sounds, whatever you want. You can laminate them too if you want........Get some dice......now you are ready to go.......you can use the game for quite a while, and you can just changed the cards as they progress to new things.....When the board is in bad shape, make a new one......this can go on for years......and it's cheap, simple to make and they have fun playing a game, not realizing that they are learning as they go.
I hope this helps, remember, stickers are great too for the board, cards and as rewards for a great job done!
I'm sure you can find many different type cards to do, from animals, letters, sounds, numbers or anything that she likes.......you can even create sentences and put each word as a point, and she gets to make a sentence with her cards and then gets to move that many spaces........I'm sure you will have fun.........
Remember going out to places, if she can, like the museums or any free option around town is also a learning experience even if it is only to observe people and how they act..
Take care and good luck.......you can also make things off your computer, use excel to make a place for her to practice writing or letters.
Anything by Dr. Suess is good, The giving tree, Guess how much I love you, chicca chicca boom boom (my 2 year old's favorite!), If you give a mouse a cookie, The runaway bunny, Goodnight Moon, Where the wild things are, Alexander and the terrible horrible no good very bad day, Dora the Explorer has a great line of paperback and board books, and so does Barney. They are great "learning" books. :)
And I am sooooooooo glad to hear that your daughter is ok! Praise God! My little sister had a liver transplant when she was 15 months old, so I know how hard it is. Give her a hug for me!
All books by Mary Ann Hoberman are perfect for that age. Two of my son's favorites that I always give as gifts are Seven Silly Eaters and The Cozy Book
