Perschool Curriculum

What Tonya says!

Preschoolers learn from play, free play, unstructured play, pretend play, storytelling play, imitation play, shared play, individual play, active play, and more play. They learn speech patterns, vocabulary, social values, decisionmaking skills, emotional exercise and restraint, fine and gross motor skills, they build strength and maintain flexibility, stretch their imaginations.

A large vocabulary is the single strongest predictor of future academic success. Talk and read to her, describe in clear sentences what you're doing in the kitchen, while you're cleaning, what you see on walks. Playing school is fine if the child enjoys it (my grandson ADORES playing school). Art and craft projects are fine, and fun experiments with color, letter and number shapes, but too much focus on academic excellence can sour a child on schooling before it even officially starts.

4 moms found this helpful

Please don't do a formal curriculum with a 3 year old. They don't need anything formal. What we do is read to them, teach them basics like ABCs and 123s (like you are doing), colors, shapes. You can do these things in a very low-key, casual, and fun way with them. They will have 12+ years of formal, sit down and use curriculum in their lives. They don't need more. These are the years you can instill a love of learning from everything around her. True education doesn't merely come from a curriculum. It's in all of life. Enjoy these sweet years while you still have them. Most littles don't have the attention span to sit and learn from a book the way older children can. Blessings to you! Remember that you have been "homeschooling" since birth. You've taught her everything she knows in ways other than curriculum. And, see how great it has worked so far!! :)

2 moms found this helpful

I teach 3 year old in a Registered Preschool. The main reason parents send their 3 yr old to preschool is social learning.We focus on social and emotional learning. We expose them to basic, letters, numbers, shapes, colors. I say expose because some will retain and some are not ready. we also bring in science and math, which is a wide field of learning. It ranges from simple mixing items for GAK or more complex cooking (measuring, mixing of ingredients, etc.) To gardening, and housekeeping. The limits are what you set, they are everywhere. Enviromental print is also everywhere. Walmart, Lowes, stop signs. Most little ones can name the location, just by the sign. Take pictures of familiar things, post the name below it, make it a game. Label items, af few at a time in your home. Make it fun. Teach you child something as easy as folding a wash cloth. Give them their own little basket, washcloths. Enjoy counting, sorting, folding. Scarves, boxes, plastic utensils, wooden blocks. I love this age they love to learn. Enjoy, and take photos and notes of what they say.Language is huge for children, talk to them about everything you are doing. Even infants need this stimulus. Best of luck.

1 mom found this helpful

A 3 1/2 year old doesn't need to read and write. Those parents that brag about their children who do are probably insecure about something and need to feel like they have exceptional children.

Tonya and Peg M. are on the right track. If your child is too advanced in reading, then she may become one of those that gets bored in school and drives us teachers crazy.

Also, help your daughter to learn how to entertain herself by giving her creative things to do. So many kids grow up telling their moms, "I'm bored," and the parent feels obligated to entertain them. Give her things to touch and manipulate, things to put together and build, things to draw or paint with, etc.

Give her books to read on her own and then sit down and read a book yourself while she reads. Help her to see that reading is fun and you like to do it at the same time. You may have to start out with short times of reading but with regular trips to the library, she will learn there are inlimited numbers of wonderful books out there. Enjoy!

1 mom found this helpful

Our preschool uses Saxon Math and Hooked on Phonics. Have you tried going to a teacher store in your area and picking their brains about it. This would also give you the opportunity to peruse the material to see if you like it.
Hope this helps!

I teach my 2 almost 3 year old niece and my 3 almost 4 year old daughter preschool and I use www.letteroftheweek.com it has the lesson plans for you but of course you can look up other ideas to change it up a bit good luck

Here are some sites I found that may help you find ideas and materials.

http://www.abchomepreschool.com/

http://www.preschoolcurriculum.com/

http://www.letteroftheweek.com/preschool_age_3.html

http://www.preschoolcorner.com/

http://www.mothergoosetime.com/

I agree with Laura W - We loved Sonlight curriculum while we were homeschooling. The great books we read together were also a great time of building common histories - we still talk about different things - like 'do you remember in that Greek Mythology book how....., or remember that book about.... ' And I am still amazed at what they remembered just from my reading the book aloud to them once! My launch point for homeschooling was that if you encourage their natural love of learning and teach them how to learn, they can learn anything! My personal educational experience felt much more the regurgitate for the test and had little to do with a love of learning, so I was excited to spurt them on in love of learning as they were growing up. And rich books that capture the imagination were great for us!
hth,
A.

Go to a teachers store. Where they sell teachers supplys for each grade level. Also you can get some good free information on google. Teach him how to spell his whole name. His A,B,C, some numbers. A few easy word. Like dog, cat,girl, boy,mama,mother,father,sister,brother,etc and teach him how to write his A,B,C. Take it slow. When he do good. Give him stars.Good luck!

We really like Sonlight curriculum www.sonlight.com

It's literature based and has wonderful stories to read together. The preschool 3/4 program is perfect and realistic learning for mom to do with their 3 year and 4 year olds. Doing the activities suggested by Sonlight. is a natural precursor to home schooling in later years. We love this level :)

We home school our 6 children ages 3 up to 10th grade and are always learning. Since you just have one "schooling" right now the best advice I can give you is to spend this time getting your house in order and establishing a heart relationship with your child (not spoiling...parenting...and connecting with her by doing things together...reading, cooking, cleaning house, heading to the park etc.) Formal academics come so soon. The best thing you can do is make learning real and part of every day life rather than something we do when we sit down to "school" Small chunks that build confidence keep curiosity alive.

Have you checked out www.thsc.org for the guidelines/legalities of home schooling in Texas?
Also first year homeschoolers may be interested in Smoothing the Way (google) They have some wonderful topic to think about when starting to home school.

Blessings to you!

Hi N.. Go to www.californiaranchschool.org .This is the curriculum I want to use.

In my child care center I used the mailbox curriculum from a local business supply store. I will give some detailed things below but you will have to use your imagination and come up with some stuff on your own.

Week 5: Month, February, color red and white, maybe some pink, numbers, 5 and review 1-4.

Week 1: Theme- Mail
Colors red, white and blue
Go to the local Post Office for a tour, have all parents send letters to their child, ask grandparents, etc...to mail the kids letter at the center, make them their own mailbox for their letters to go in. Count letters, read addresses and overview where things go, like stamp, sender, recipient, ...
(The book has tons of ideas I didn't list here)

Week 2: Theme Valentines Day
Red foods, apples, cinnamon applesauce, strawberries, cherries, etc...
Make Valentines boxes, should get valentines from family in mail. Lots of activites and songs in book.

Week 3: Theme-human heart
use mailbox booklet idea for craft day, have them color it then take it and have it bound to make a real little book.
Red foods: Red Hots, any red or white foods.
Borrow stethoscopes to listen to hearts, count beats over and over from 1-5

Week 4: February National Dental Month
Make giant mouth and use yarn for floss, make large toothbrush out of cardboard to pretend brushing, play dress up and be dentist to baby dolls, eat healthy food to strengthen teeth, etc...lots more in the books.

you can take the books and buy them for under $20 a month. They have about 7-8 different themes in them that you can pick or combine, I combined Valentines day and strawberries on February each year. You can make a years curriculum in a few days and have it all laid out and know just what you are going to do. Be flexible and make it fun.

http://www.theeducationcenter.com/tec/

Hi there! I would like to recommend The Calvert School. It's a secular "box curriculum", meaning it comes with everything you will need to teach your child (workbooks, texts, crayons, paper, manipulatives,etc.) including teacher's manuals that actually TELL you what to say and how to teach your child. I have used it for two years and I love it. It's a little pricey, and I didn't use the pre-k program, I started with with kindergarten and have done first grade and will be doing 2nd this school year. So I'm not sure how the pre-k program is, but i think it's definitely worth checking out at least.
Hope this helps!

Here is one that many friends have had success with:

http://www.heartofdakota.com/index.php

The lessons are very simple and don't require a lot of preparation.

Check out www.k12.com. It is for kindergarten but I used it with my older kids.

I also will be homeschooling and You may find the FEAST website helpful.

http://www.homeschool-life.com/tx/homeschoolfeast/

Hope this helps. There are also probably homeschooling mentors in your area.

This isn't as formal as an actual preshool would have to be but it worked for us. http://www.letteroftheweek.com/index.html and its free. preschoolprintables.com has fun file folder games that are free and other things to purchase. There are matdhing patterns, colors, numbers, etc. Make learning fun for her at this age, not a sit down learn this education.

I am a home daycare provider and have used two different preschool curriculums that I liked. Currently, I use Mother Goose Time. Previously, I used Adventures in Learning. They both have lessons spelled out for you. Each day is packaged in individual bags with the supplies needed for that day. They include art projects and work sheets. A calendar, weather, and other displays are included in your first month's shipment. The lessons are mostly hands-on activities to learn about the theme, letters, numbers, colors, basic science and math, and music. I highly recommend either of these programs.