Tips for Homeschooling Son from 3 to 5 Yo Instead of Sending Him to Preschool

Google "kindergarten readiness" for a basic idea of what they expect from a child entering kindergarten.

I'm sure there are probably homeschool curriculums for preschool, but you can just teach him the basics like most kids normally learn at home anyway -ABCs, colors, numbers up to 20 at least, shapes, how to write his name, etc. Read to him a lot! Read about and talk about geography and what types of animals and plants live in different climates and places in the world. Do many arts and crafts projects with paper, scissors, glue, markers, crayons, clay, etc. Lots of drawing and coloring!

Work on numbers, letters, shapes, colors, writing, address, phone number, manners, songs. Then also have some fun art/craft projects and make sure to use different types of mediums (paint, glue, paper, marker, crayons).

If you kind of want the preschool structure maybe try to say Mon & Wed or Tue and Thurs are preschool mornings and have a more structured schedule of what you do those mornings, similar to a preschool. Otherwise you can just do the above with-in how your day is already planned.

I don't think you need to do anything 'formal'. Just basics like the alphabet, colours, numbers. Teach him to write his name. Make sure he gets to do stuff like cutting and pasting, play-doh, painting, colouring - stuff like that.

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I don't think you need to do anything 'formal'. Just basics like the alphabet, colours, numbers. Teach him to write his name. Make sure he gets to do stuff like cutting and pasting, play-doh, painting, colouring - stuff like that.

I do what Katie B. suggested.
My son is 4.
I am homeschooling my Son... before Kindergarten, as well.
I even ring a fun "bell" to play pretend 'school' and we sit at a certain table.

ANYTHING can be incorporated into learning. Even cooking.
With my son, I tie in 'learning' and concepts into everything we do, we also do computer learning, reading, counting, Math, he can do simple addition/counting with his fingers, ABC's, he likes to do dot-to-dot type workbooks with numbers or ABC's, or work on fine motor skills (ie: writing, sculpting, grouping objects, playing with marbles, making shapes with string you glue down on cardboard, cutting with scissors, gluing objects etc. We also do learning in other languages like Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese (just counting and naming things). Learning about 'nature' and animals and just any concept he has interest in, or asks me questions about. How things are built etc.
ANYTHING really, can be taught.

All the best,
Susan

I am 100% sure that you can teach him all of the "academic" things that he needs to know.

Do consider signing him up for a variety of classes/activities. There are many types of socialization - getting along with peers is only one of them. When he gets to kindergarten, he'll need to be able to sit quietly for an extended period of time, listen to and follow rules the first time he's asked, do things even if he doesn't want to do them, etc etc. These are things that you alone cannot do, because a parent relationship is different than a classroom teacher relationship. He certainly doesn't have to go to pre-school per se, but some classroom environment could help a lot.

Good luck.

Every has great ideas - I am a big fan of art projects coloring, painting etc. help with fine motor skills AND you can use it to help him learn more about colors (blue and yellow make green, red and yellow make orange, etc.) shapes (2 squares make a recatangle, or two right triangles can make a square, etc.).

Also baking cookies and then decorating lets them learn measuring, following instructions and then of course decorating them - mixing the icing colors, and coming up with how they should look (for exampe M&M's as ornaments on Christmas tree cookies).

Good luck and have fun!

Costco is very pro-homeschooling, with great curriculum and tools. If you're a member, definitely check out their materials. Good luck!

I have a daughter that missed kindergarden cutoff by 19 days.. so I have been teaching kindergarden at home.. everything is a learning experience for preschoolers..

I bought a big preschool workbook (9.99) and we do a couple of pages every day.

we go to the library for story time and check out lots of books.. I check out preschool science books about things like weather, animals, mountains etc. we cook - measure ingredients. we play games and do puzzles..

go to starfall.com great website for learning letters and early reading..

my daughter also likes the disney website and pbskids website.

For math - I made my own flashcards from index cards. I cut them in half and wrote numbers 1-20 on each of them. I cut other ones in half and wrote "plus" "minus" "equal" "less than" and "greater than" signs. I have a huge bucket (5gal ice cream bucket actually) almost full of buttons. We used these to help count. I started out by lining up simple problems like 2+3=__. They would count out the two buttons and place under the 2, then count out the three buttons and place under the 3, then count all buttons and find the answer. It worked great because my kids always wanted to play with mommies button collection. You could also use pennies!
For reading - we read alot, but I also used some homemade flashcards. I thought of a bunch of simple words that rhyme - there are several "families" cat, hat, bat, sat, - dog, fog, bog, log - wish, fish, dish, - I would write the ending ex "og" on one card then have a bunch of single letters to choose from to make the correct word. This helped them with letter sounds!
All of these "materials" cost about $2!!!!
We did science in nature everyday things. Lots of art projects too.

The best thing I ever used for my triplets was a FREE site called Letter Of The Week at www.letteroftheweek.com.

It's fantastic! They have lesson plans set up per age level and ability and you can tweak the lessons to fit your needs. You can do a weekly field trip to match the letter your doing that week like Aa visit an apple orchard, Bb visit a book store, boats, etc.

There's also a web site to join through Yahoo to get support and suggestions to help set things up.

I did it for 2 years with my triplets! Love it!

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HarrisburgPAChat
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My daughter went to pre-school but it was mainly for socialization versus academic. I wanted to supplement her academic learning since I knew she was ready and interested in reading. I highly recommend the book "Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". Each lesson takes about 15 minutes. We did one lesson per day and by day 60 my daughter was able to read any easy reader book. In first grade she was reading American Girl books that I believe are around a 4 th grade level. The book cost about $15 and in my opinion was so well worth it. Have fun homeschooling!