What Age Did You Start?

I started with Kindergarten. WE used ABeka book and now we use ABeka Academy dvd. My son is pre-school age now and we just do a letter a day and coloring sheets printed off the internet to correspond with that letter. We have a workbook we bought from Walmart for his numbers.He's doing well and actually picks up on other things from his sister's dvds like math facts.

I started doing a little something structured with my boys when they were 3. Before that they had learned the alphabet, counting, shapes, etc. through natural play and curiosity. At 3 we did Letter of the Week ( www.letteroftheweek.com ) it is free. We also did Before Five in a Row. We spent about 10 minutes a day, 3 days a week and that was it. At 4 we added a little more... both of my boys were ready and wanted to learn to read at 4, so we did Reading Made Easy and a kindergarten math program. I follow their lead and move ahead at their pace.

I started at age 5 with both of mine. It is PBS every day. I did not stress myself out. My 9 year old boy is in 5th grade he is doing two grade level's ahead.My little girl is 5 in 1st grade.They are going to retest her this year to see if she needs to move up a grade. We are in Arkansas Virtual Academy powered by k-12.com.I let PBS teach them the basic stuff and now they are flying.Good Luck!

I have a 5 year old and I did not start with preschool. We went straight into kindergarten. He was 3.5 when we started. I use a cirriculum though. I like having some structure to our day. It is all up to how you feel if you can teach all the basics you do not need to start until kindergarten.

H.,

I started my kids' learning as soon as they showed even the slightest interest. In fact, from the time they were born we counted all the buttons and snaps on their clothes, talked about body parts, named the shapes of the road signs, called out the colors of train box cars, etc. By the time they were three they knew all that basic stuff because they had heard it so often.

When my oldest was still a toddler I got a subscription to Brighter Vision Learning Adventures and have used them for now the third child. Once he got about four or five though he did work each page of the higher level workbooks so I threw those away. I have "Slow and Steady Get Them Ready" which starts at birth and also the first of the "Five in a Row" series. The preschool curriculumn I recommend to everyone is by Rod & Staff; simple, thorough and very inexpensive.

If you have any intention to send them to public school though I would recommend you not let them get too far ahead. In my opinion, public school programs for three and four-year olds is review, review, review; the four-year program here is play and review and kindergarten is even more review. I say, let your kids play and BE KIDS until they're like five or six and then start them on their formal schooling. By then they have more maturity, can sit still and concentrate longer and can handle more complex ideas.

K.

My kids are 4 and 3, and I just started both of them on a
4-yr-old Kindergarten program. They are doing really good, and I love it. The program is A Beka, and Christian based. Good luck!

Hi H.,

I agree with these responses. I have a 4th and 2nd grader that I currently home school. I have a 2 and a half year old and 8 month old that I will be home schooling.
With both my boys, I taught them colors and shapes as preschoolers. Every child is different. With both of them I purchased the book, "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". I taught them both to read the summer prior to them starting K. With the little ones, I am not rushing into "structured school". I am teaching them life skills right now, and enjoying letting them be little.
I encourage you to check out Sonlight curriculum. That is what we use and LOVE it. Learning is so fun, and you get a great collection of books. They have some books for preschoolers, no schedule or curriculum, just a collection of great age appropriate books that you can snuggle in and read with your preschooler anytime.
Hope this helps,
~R.

I have 4 kids: 6, 5, 3, and almost 2. With the oldest 2 I just did basic preschool stuff like letter, colors, calendar time every day, stuff like that. I still don't do a full curriculem, I have a patchwork of stuff that I teach them. Even for Kindergarden I did just the basics, math, phonics, bible, science. It wasn't until 1st grade that I taught history, social science, etc. If you want to e-mail me I can tell you more about the stuff that I teach, and how I came up with it. There are plenty of free webistes that have stuff for your pre-schooler, just print and they color/write.
Starfall.com is a great one. I also use PBSkids.org as they have some good preschool resources.

Hello H., This is one of my favorite subjects. I have been homeschooling 4 children since 1995. The best advise I have is to judge each child separately. One of my children, my only boy, I waited until he was 6 before I started any curriculum because his attention span was so short. I couldn't even get him to sit down and color for a few minutes. Now he is very advanced in school and I will probably skip a grade for him. One of my daughters was four and told me she wanted to learn to read. So I bought the kindergarten curriculum and started her early. She is still a fantastic reader. I usually would just go to a book store and buy some math and other books for my preschoolers. That would get them excited for learning. You could even buy them from Wal-mart. After that I have been using curriculum from Christian Liberty Academy for Kindergarten up. I love them and they have great curriculum. The best part is that they have two different ways to use their curriculum. One is the least expensive way but you have to keep all the records and paperwork. The other way costs a little more but they take care of all the paperwork. They keep records and send back quarterly report cards. If you would like any more information please e-mail me. ____@____.com