if you used a prek 4/5 curr -- which one

[Momma Aimee]

I want to start a more formal / offical approach in 2010 fall ... do a pratcie year before we are accountable to the state in 2011 for "kindergarden".

both accountable to ourselves and the state.

Mainly to get our ducks in a row here at home. to get us into a routine. I get ME in shape. to make me put school first. granted only 30 to 45 mintues total, but to make me get the routine donw to get it done.

but also so we are "test drive" the curr we plan to use. be it an all in one boxed one -- or be it differnt ones for each subject (math, reading, etc).

and let me get an handle on things -- reading first? math after lunch? what does his learning style really look like. i want to be able to s ee what we like, and don't like -- with out the pressure from DH or myself "that it is real school". I knwo if we are in kindergarden and trying things out and making a lot of constant changes and finding we don't like something that looked great -- i am going to feel very anxious -- that is jsut me. and Dh is gonna loose confidcne in the whole homeschooling idea.

I do not want to dive into kindergarden cold. i want a year in the wading pool.

and to give littel brother a full yerar of getting used to letting big brother do school. and a full year for me to get used to juggleing them.

but the curr "test drive" is most important to me. I do not want to craft together stuff once we are 'really into school" (also DH will not support that , his vision of HS is an est curr that we follow -- change as we need but that is "there" for us to work from). i do not have that much confidence in myself -- not right now. i want to add things in, and alter things, but i want a base to start from.

Theo's late birthday means he will be 5 most of teh 2010 school year, but not kindergarden age till 2011 (at 6) so i think it is not toooo much to ask to thik we can do some pre-K work in 2010 -- i know he is a SN kid and immature at best so it is gonna need to take all that into account -- so glad about the late birthday -- but that is "stuff" i am going to have to take into account each year, not just in 2011 for kindergarden (or 2010 for preK) you know? so there is no real point in delaying because of it ...

My idea of a formal prek year (prek4/5) is to test drive what we want to use -- to see that we like it, to see it works for us. so we are set and ready to go when we need to be. i do not want to be fumbling around in K any more than necessary -- Dh is not gonna be supportive of that. and i will start to get anxious too.

BUT I do not want to push him or us, i feel he has a lot to with play. also he has some SN that we need to sort out and give him time to mature.

Also -- there is a lot of "typical pre-k stuff" he knows cold .. and other stuff he is really struggling with / doesn't care to try / has not caught on to yet.

i want something "established" or boxed or complete so I feel accountablity -- a check list. a "bigger picture". We do a lot on our own .. but with no Bigger Plan it is eay to slide and do nothing today as we are not 'behind" even if we do nothing all week. we were doing a nusery rhyme a week, but then we'd not do anything and i'd push that rhyme off to the next week cuz it didn't really "matter". i know that, really, that is ok. but i feel like i let too much slide, like i get too lazy.

which is fine for now .. but not fall 2010 i want to be in a better routine so fall of 2011 is not a rude awakening to us.

so ...................

if you are still reading

I am looking for formal / full pre-k curr ... what have you used and liked??

Aimee

[Lillian J]

Aimee, I just want to note that doing trial homeschooling runs doesn't usually work very well - largely because of the fact that they come before the child is the age he's going to be when you do intend to actually "start." And so what can happen is that it can backfire - you can get the idea that it's going to be a lot harder than it will be - because it is harder than it will be - and the child can get turned off to the whole thing because of having had to start something he isn't ready for.

So what I'd suggest is coming up with a schedule/plan that addresses not things you intend to touch on in the future, but things that are right on target for now.

The little brother will be a lot older when the time comes that you'll be wanting to do certain things with the older brother - and even more importantly, the older one will be a lot older when the time comes that you want to do certain things with him alone. This will make a huge difference for each of them - they'll both more developmentally ready for those things when the time comes.

It's a lot less likely that you'll come into a rude awakening later than it is that you'll feel unsuccessful now over things you don't even need to be doing yet, giving yourself the false idea that homeschooling later will be harder than it will be.

Since there's nothing you need to be doing along the lines of homeschooling at this point, you're really not slacking off. I can pretty much promise you that it's not going to be anything like as challenging as you think to do more formal things later, but it probably will be challenging to start prematurely.

I've seen a lot of people over the years do trial runs ahead of time, and it tends to be discouraging rather than being a window into the future or a good practice for later. Lillian

[kgianforti]

Singapore EB math is good for Prek/K. The Level A is mainly for 4 year olds and the Level B book is the 5 year old book.

I know you are interested in Horizons PreK box - that gives you everything you need subject-wise. It also gives you a lot of options for activities and projects you want to do.

[ocelotmom]

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee

i want something "established" or boxed or complete so I feel accountablity -- a check list. a "bigger picture". We do a lot on our own .. but with no Bigger Plan it is eay to slide and do nothing today as we are not 'behind" even if we do nothing all week. we were doing a nusery rhyme a week, but then we'd not do anything and i'd push that rhyme off to the next week cuz it didn't really "matter". i know that, really, that is ok. but i feel like i let too much slide, like i get too lazy.

I totally understand what you mean and have been there myself, but I don't think that you're going to find what you need in a boxed curriculum.

You have a child who is developing atypically, with significant strengths in some areas and significant difficulties in others. I don't think there is a curriculum out there that provides the level of structure you're looking for while taking into account these differences. If the curriculum is flexible and customizable, they're unlikely to provide a detailed schedule.

I wrote my own schedule which, while we have ended up deviating from it a lot as we found what works for us, has really helped keep me "on track". Even in areas where we're doing something totally different, just having a visual reminder that I wanted to do that subject is helpful. Doing this would allow you to integrate whatever curriculum pieces you feel might work for you in different subjects, at whatever level is appropriate.

I also found that, as DS got older, more structured learning occurred naturally (or, if not naturally, at least with less effort). And I'm finding this to be true of DD (3), too. She's learning, but at this point isn't ready to sit down and do actual lessons in the way her brother is.

Also, remember that, when you are accountable to the school district, that will likely be a motivating factor in itself, which you can't really replicate now.

[Momma Aimee]

ocelotmom

I think you are very correct.

sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I jsut can't seem to get a handle on all the zillion options.

i am fairly confident that a good reading / phonics program along with some Math .. would be a great foundation for us for now and up to K level too .. as you suggest theo's ablities are all over the board.

i guess i was jsut hoping a boxed curr would get me over the hump i feel .... i am on this side with a zillion great options and paths ... on the other side is the actual DOING .....

thanks for the imput

Aimee

[kgianforti]

Originally Posted by ocelotmom

You have a child who is developing atypically, with significant strengths in some areas and significant difficulties in others. I don't think there is a curriculum out there that provides the level of structure you're looking for while taking into account these differences. If the curriculum is flexible and customizable, they're unlikely to provide a detailed schedule.

I have an atypical developing child and what I did was decide on what subjects I wanted to work on with curriculum, then buy according to her level. I got each subject separately and from different companies.

That was the problem I ran into with Horizons PreK box - I thought since she is going into PreK, then I need PreK material. Not true.

Have you decided what you wanted to teach via curriculum?

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by kgianforti

I have an atypical developing child and what I did was decide on what subjects I wanted to work on with curriculum, then buy according to her level. I got each subject separately and from different companies.

That was the problem I ran into with Horizons PreK box - I thought since she is going into PreK, then I need PreK material. Not true.

Have you decided what you wanted to teach via curriculum?

I want

Phonics / reading

I want handwritting / pre-writting

I want math.

I want Bible Study / Charchter

we will continue to do a ton of art and crafts -- based on our read a louds and the seasons ... right now i am not worried abotu 'learning about" art -- we just do for fun .. he is picking up the color blends and i feel that is fine for now and for a while.

realistically i guess i should be looking at finding the best program for each. I was just, i guess, hopeing for something easy (hide in shame)

I know pre-school is not a big deal, even Kindergarden is not "pushed" by most classical educators. Again, this is all more about ME and it is about him in a formal learning situation. and about me NOT wanting to scrambe in kindergarden.

his colors are down cold, as are his shapes. also 1st, 2nd etc and bigger / smaller less/more and all that.

he needs work on pattens -- ie: red / yellow / red / yellow / ???

he needs fine mototr work (dot to dot, maze, cutting lines)

he needs help putting what he learns in Speech Therpay into pratice and he needs help connecting sounds to letters. (thought he has several sight words)

he needs to connect the written number with the number concept -- he can count adn add and subtract some in his head -- but can not ID the written numbers at all.

[kittie313]

For preschool I use Sonlight. Right now I'm doing P3/4 with my youngest 2 girls, ages 2yo and *almost* 4yo (next month!) I used P4/5 with my older two girls (before P3/4 came out) and we had a blast with it. There's a lot more to Sonlight than the whole "shapes and colors" thing. The core itself teaches a lot of things that you can't really measure. I added in Singapore earlybird math and Handwriting Without Tears for my oldest girl, and we were good to go. We had a ball with it, the stories were great and they just had so much fun with it all. Now, with me doing P3/4 with my youngest two, we are having all kinds of fun with the stories and doing some activities and crafts. I added to the core because my 3yo is ready to start working on letter sounds and some other concepts, if you take a look at my blog you'll get an idea of how I'm doing it (I'm setting up the phonics stuff we're doing based on Sonlight lang. arts K and adding in stuff from homeschool share)

I found for me that having a curriculum makes it more likely that I spend time with my younger kids because I'm so busy teaching the older ones and doing all the housework and such that I do daily. My 3yo and 2yo aren't exactly what I'd call gifted in any area, not like my 5yo is, so I keep it light and fun and they get their time with me this way too.

[kgianforti]

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee

I want

Phonics / reading

I want handwritting / pre-writting

I want math.

I want Bible Study / Charchter

For writing and pre-writing, we aren't doing any formal. There are plenty of tracing and writing opportunities in math and other workbooks we do. She also wants me to "dot" her answers in math so she can trace.

Math - Singapore EB (should finish in January) then moving onto Horizons K math.

Phonics/reading - starfall.com and readingeggs.com and Evan Moor Basic Phonics K/1

Bible- we were using the Horizons PreK box for that but now I'm just doing memory verses and reading. When we start K in the fall, I'm going to use CLE 1st Grade Bible. Alpha Omega sells Bible Character Builder DVDs that dd likes to watch too.

For the other things you mentioned (dot to dots, etc), my dd has always loved School Zone workbooks for that stuff and you can find them at Wal Mart.

[ocelotmom]

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee

I want

Phonics / reading

I want handwritting / pre-writting

I want math.

I want Bible Study / Charchter
...

realistically i guess i should be looking at finding the best program for each. I was just, i guess, hopeing for something easy (hide in shame)

Don't be ashamed! I think a lot of people, especially just starting out, want guidance and accountability, and especially not to have to reinvent the wheel figuring out everything for themselves!

I use Story Of The World for this reason. It doesn't exactly fit my desires for history, but I don't have the energy to try to piece it all together from scratch. If money weren't an issue, I quite likely would have gone with Sonlight or something for our whole curriculum (which probably wouldn't have ended up working well for us, as my son seems to be a bit too sensitive for many of the books, but that's another story), but money is an issue, so I didn't.

Don't underestimate yourself. If you can figure out what you want to use, setting up a schedule isn't hard. Look at the number of days/weeks in a school year (generally 180 days/36 weeks). Look at the number of pages/chapters in the resource you're using, divide it up as seems appropriate. You may end up breezing through something you thought would take a long time, or bogging down in something for longer than you expected... but that's true of a premade schedule, too. It may work best to plan to get things done within the school year, but remember that you have time to catch up if you do get behind.

Remember there isn't one right way of doing things - there's ways that work best for different individuals and families, and it's probably going to take some trial and error to find out what works for you.

Things I like:
MEP is a free downloadable Math program, and they now have materials available for Reception, which is roughly age 4-5 (I haven't tried this level personally, but we use Level 1).
Progressive Phonics has free downloadable phonics books, along with corresponding handwriting sheets and exercises.

Please don't discount these because they are free. We've had better luck with Progressive Phonics than Hooked On Phonics, BOB books, How To Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons, or anything else we've tried, and I really respect MEP.

If you have a homeschooling group near you, you may be able to find others using curriculum that you're interested in so that you can check it out and get an initial impression of whether something would work for you without having to buy it first.

[Momma Aimee]

ocelotmom -- thanks

I think i am just lacking confidence and as you say not wanting to re-create the wheel.

I looked at Sonlight -- too pricey.

I would be happy actually with guide line / book -- i am glad to pull free resources and get books (ours or ILL) ....

my mind jsut spins at everything out there

[ocelotmom]

That's part of why I decided to use Ambleside. The weekly reading schedule is all laid out, and that served as a good starting point. And it's free, as are most of the items on the reading list. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply until 1st grade.

My mind spins, too. I have half a dozen ideas I want to integrate now, and any number more for future years. There's just too many wonderful things out there to implement everything (or I expect the kids would rebel if we tried!). So we start with the free, and move on to the highly recommended inexpensive if the free isn't working

[skueppers]

Here we have yet another respondent who hasn't actually used a preschool curriculum, but I hope what I have to say might be helpful.

I wonder if you've looked at the book, "What Your Preschooler Needs to Know" by E.D. Hirsch. I've never looked at that particular volume, but I do have the one for grade K, and my daughter loves the read-alouds from that. There are two accompanying activity books, which are organized into weeks, although you would need to do some scheduling/organizing -- it wouldn't just be "open and go". For more details, check out the Core Knowledge Preschool web site:

http://coreknowledge.org/CK/Preschoo...l_sequence.htm

I was thinking that it might meet your need for a specific curriculum to follow (and augment), without being expensive or rigid. You and your husband could be assured that you were following a thoughtful curriculum, but you'd also have lots of room to augment with other things if you wanted to.

[Reebekah]

well, i'm in a situation where i have money now to buy materials, but i wont soon (i'm leaving my job to be a stay at home mom). so, i've been buying and trying a bunch of things....sonlight p3/4, handwriting without tears, singapore earlybird, explode the code, hooked on phonics, etc etc etc.
but actually, when you broke down all of the areas that your child need to work on....my son gained his skill in those areas from a simple $15 workbook of basic skills that i bought on amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-...9730198&sr=8-1

[skueppers]

Originally Posted by Reebekah

phonics, etc etc etc.
but actually, when you broke down all of the areas that your child need to work on....my son gained his skill in those areas from a simple $15 workbook of basic skills that i bought on amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-...9730198&sr=8-1

My daughter used that workbook last year, when she was four. I'm not sure how much she learned from it, but she did think it was fun, especially the cutting and pasting activities.

[meetoo]

what something like this. We have the last one, you would be able to do it with both your boys too.

http://www.amazon.com/Learn-at-Home-...der_0769683703

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Grade-E...der_0764124757

http://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Disco...773669&sr=1-42

[Momma Aimee]

thanks everyone

this is such a BIG task -- trying to get a grip -- not ont eh WHY i want to HS, not but the pratical day to day HOW

[skueppers]

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee

this is such a BIG task -- trying to get a grip -- not ont eh WHY i want to HS, not but the pratical day to day HOW

I really think you're making this into a bigger task than it needs to be. Even if you're looking for a very structured approach, all you really need to do is something like:

1) Decide how much time you'd like to devote to homeschooling -- how many minutes, how often, for how many months.
2) Block that time out on your calendar.
3) Decide what subjects you'd like to use to fill the time.
4) Pick out some curricula that match up with those subjects. Remember that there's no such thing as the perfect curriculum; you won't know whether it works for Theo until you've tried it for a while.
5) Slot the curricula into the allotted time.
6) Expect that things won't go as planned, but at least you'll have a baseline from which to make changes.

I think you might really benefit from reading Terrie Lynn Bittner's "Homeschooling: Take a Deep Breath--You Can Do This!" You would probably find her step-by-step approach reassuring.

[raelize]

i am in a similar boat.

i decided that we would pre-k hs, (as dd was really asking for stuff) and that we would officially start in january after she turns 4.

we have been doing some phonics stuff, and lots of handwriting/fine motor skills stuff, but here is what i decided:


for allover fun start i am using before 5 in a row, although i think it is a little below dd, i will save it for dd2, but i think just five in a row would be better for dd1.

Phonics:
i read ruth beechicks book: the three R's and am implementing her phonics stuff (i HIGHLY recommend it if you haven't read it, it really takes a lot of the stress out of teaching someone how to read). we also do starfall. so we talk alot about what letters say and we are starting to sound out simple words. we also have bob books and other easy to read books for next year, but really i am just following beechick's advice (you don't need to buy anything for it)

handwriting:
dd has some fine motor skills issues, at least i think so, but i think she just needs more practice, so we have some kumon workbooks- cutting and pasting and coloring activities. she is happy to sit and work on these. also, any tracing, lacing, activity, picking up things with tweezers, etc.

science:
i got a book called sceince is simple. great book, set up to follow a fall through spring year, so we are starting mid-year through. also, we do lots of collecting and categorizing and nature hikes, etc.

math:
i really like the miquon math and singapore. we are goin to start with miqoun and introduce singapore for kindy.

kindy and pre-k are pretty simple. have them do this type of stuff, allow for LOTS of playtime, library time, outside time, adn have them help wth chores around the house.

i feel like up till age 9 or so the emphasis should be on Reading Writing and Arithmatic, science and history is extra - do it, but the emphasis should be on the three r's. and we are certainly not doing things everyday, the 3 r's will be everyday, but how much time, 20 minutes, 30 total??

[kittie313]

Sonja is actually right about that. I may use Sonlight for our curriculum in preschool (and totally love it too btw) but we use a lot more than just that. Like right now, my 3yo dd is doing her preschool work, she's coloring in a page I printed off from www.first-school.ws as part of our weekly letter theme. I have dozens of sites that I pull free stuff from for preschool, and if I wasn't able to afford Sonlight p3/4 and p4/5 when we bought them then I would have just used the library to provide books to go with our themes instead.

If you want a free resource, try www.letteroftheweek.com Its a free curriculum for preschool (and some early elementary level) and has all kinds of links to free worksheets and things plus story lists and a daily outline of what to do each theme, it was how we started with our oldest girls before we bought Sonlight P4/5 2 years ago. That site was awesome (unforunately my oldest didn't learn to read until we started k12 phonics this school year for 1st grade but she has dyslexia and other learning challenges that make it difficult for her) I am still using stuff from it with my littlest two now. I use many components other than Sonlight in preschool, I pick and choose from several resources the parts I want and we make it work together as one comprehensive program that is customized for each child's individual strengths and weaknesses.