Homeschooling

Archive for November, 2005

Question: need information on Homeschooling a preschooler?

my 2 1/2 year old is quite a smart boy, i am a stay at home mom and i would love to start teaching him all the things kids learn in preschool and kinder garden. i don't know if you can home school a kid this young but i would love to get him a head start on his education. i cant seem to find any free lesson plans or curriculum samples. if you are a preschool teacher or a Homeschooling mom who can give me some advice on what and how to teach him i would trully appreciate it.

Answer: I totally agree with K that you don't need a curriculum. At 21/2 I wouldn't even bother with worksheets at all. There are so many resources for young kids. Focus on hands-on activities. Make letters out of play-do. Draw them in sand, whipped cream or if you child doesn't eat non-food items, shaving cream. Fill a dish tub with rice and sift through the rice for letters. Go fishing for magnetized letters in a tub. Use a pole with a magnet on it. I once strung a clothes line across the wall and my daughter pinned up baby socks with letters written on them with fabric paint on them in alphabetical order. Sort letters by their appearance; letters with straight lines in one pile, curved and circles in another. Read to your son. Do puzzles and counting games. Start by teaching math concepts not written numerals. Count objects. Subtract goldfish crackers by eating them. Have you seen the Cheerios counting book? It's really fun for little kids and teaches counting 1-10. Building with duplo blocks and hanging on the bars at the park helps to build hand strength and fine motor skills. So does finger painting. Your son should be learning through play.

One thing that I'd like to add is that websites geared at preschools are great resources. Don't be afraid that because they are geared at preschool teachers, that they are not for families. People sometimes get into "us/them" mentality and look only at materials specifically for Homeschooling. But good hands on activities for small kids can be done at home or in a preschool. You'll find your homemade play-do recipes, craft ideas, ideas for letter and number recognition, shape and color recognition, ideas for teaching counting and basic addition and subtraction on lots of sites.

Here are a few good sites:

http://www.preschoolexpress.com/alphabet_station.shtml

http://www.lessonplanz.com/Lesson_Plans/Language_Arts/___Preschool/Alphabet/index.shtml

(This links to other sites)

http://www.preschoolexpress.com/alphabet_station.shtml

This next one is a good site that has letter recognition and counting activities:

http://www.preschoolrainbow.org

For counting:

http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/counting-theme.htm

http://kids.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Math_Activities:_Preschoolers

http://www.preschoolactivitybox.com/preschoolmathactivities.htm

This is a lesson plan for the Cheerios Counting Book. You'd have to make some simple changes, because it's written for preschool teachers, but making them would be really simple.

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/MathCountingUsingTheCheeriosCountingBookIdeaK.htm#

For the future, this is a wonderful book for k-8 family math activities

http://sv.berkeley.edu/showcase/pages/fm_act.html

Finally, Do a basic google search with something like
preschool alphabet activities
preschool counting activities
preschool activities

Have fun

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