Homeschooling

Question: What are your favorite preschool websites and resources?

I have a 3 year old, and two autistic 5 year old boys that I am Homeschooling. No, that is not necessary, but I think it is very necessary for them. I like the Kumon First Steps workbooks, and I have all in one pre-school curriculums for our basics. But I like to have themed unites with fun videos, games, felt board stories, songs, simple arts and crafts, and some fun worksheets that are theme based and will work on basic thinking, sortings, etc. skills. As of this month, everything still has to be very simple... although they are participating, singing along, and in general doing great. Arts and crafts have to be very simple... but not simply a coloring page. I'm still not sure why, but i can only get them to do a wee little bit of coloring, so everything still has to be simple paper crafts... a little coloring, a little pasting and then we have something exciting to put on the wall. So anyway, what websites or resources have you found that were your favorites? Thanks.
Kat

Answer: Luckily for us, there are now plenty of sites out there that have great content that will help your child learn and grow. Some of my kids favorite sites are

http://www.Starfall.com

This site is great for young children. There are plenty of activities that keep my six year old and my two year old interested. Games vary from matching, to concentration-type games (we unexpectedly found out that my 2 year old little girl is a master at this. I need to research what that means) to activities that test and improve math, reading and shape and color recognition. There is no cost for the site, but there are ads.

http://www.PlayhouseDisney.com

All of Playhouse Disney's sites focus on the characters on their hit television shows that play to preschoolers across the nation. At first glance, this looks more like a play site and a time waster, but we noticed that some of the better games are teaching something. One of my favorites is Manners with Max. Max will go through different scenarios and teach your child how to display the proper manners in each situation (answering the phone, eating at the table, etc.) There are also a lot of activities that allow your child to color and animate pictures on the screen or print out coloring pages to color on their own. Make sure you restrict access to the printer on this one, because my kids can go through a lot of ink and paper if I'm not paying attention.

http://www.NickJr.com

If your little one enjoys Dora the Explorer or her cousin Diego, this is the site for him/her. Similar to the Playhouse Disney site, there are many learning, reading and coloring activities all surround the Nick Jr. universe.

http://www.CartoonNetwork.com

Not much learning going on here. You may want to restrict this site. The games can be fun, be they can also be gross and time-wasters. Save this one for the pre-teen or teenage years.

http://www.pfgoldfish.com

Sometimes you can find the best sites in the strangest places. The Pepperidge Farm site was built to promote their tasty Goldfish snacks, but in the process, they created some pretty good games for kids. Definitely worth a look if your kids like Goldfish.

http://www.Edutopia.org

Edutopia is an interesting site that is sponsored by George Lucas and is based on his Educational Foundation. Most of the site is geared to helping school teachers use technology in the classroom, but as a parent, this is a great resource. Just pick a topic that your child is interested in learning or needs help in and you will be given a wide range of resources and links to external sites. Learning about the solar system, for instance leads to to some interesting resources on the NASA site. If your teacher needs a little push to use the computer in the classroom, have him/her sign up for a free subscription to the Edutopia magazine.

Sometimes its not always about learning.
Believe it or not, even if the site isn't geared towards learning, reading is almost always involved, so some sites are just fun to use and will increase your child's comfort lever with technology. They may pitch their product to your child, but they see it on tv anyway. Some fine examples are: http://www.PopTarts.com , http://www.CapnCrunch.com , http://www.FisherPrice.com and http://www.Lego.com

I have a blog at http://www.preschoolsoftware.blogspot.com where I talk more about software and computer learning for preschoolers.

The Madsen Method, English for Life. "Sounds of the English Phonograms" part 3

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