Overwhelmed...where to start??? K

[saoirse2007]

I would like to find a full ciriculum for preK-K

I have been scanning the net off and on for 3 years to figure out how to homeschool....turns out I have a bit of an ADD issue

Ds (3 1/2) really wants to do school....he knows the alphabet and all the letter sounds (starfall...thanks to a tip from an mdc momma)



1. we are low income

2. we have to move alot

3. we are have no real knowledge of religion, but are not opposed to it...I like the values that it instills...I am willing to learn right along side my little ones

ds is bright....most people have been amazed (not Einstein, but more advanced than average)

I really need structure or I have a tough time following through

I feel like I am letting him down by not feeding his hungry brain!

p.s. we have no daily routine....spam me with some pleeeease.....

[magnolia_mama]

Have you ever looked into Sonlight? It does have a Christian worldview, but is not overtly so. I used the pre-k package with my son when he was about four. It was an awesome introduction to homeschooling! If you simply buy the teacher's guide, you can buy used books off of Amazon or just borrow them from the library. The Singapore math is also pretty inexpensive.

For early reading skills, we watch a lot of Leap Frog DVDs and use some of their fridge phonics materials. It really seems to work for my kids.

Before Five in a Row is also a good program...and inexpensive if you live near a library and can borrow the books needed.

I'm sure others will have good suggestions for you. Just look around until you find something that fits.

[mountainmama2]

Hi there, my kids are DS 8.5 and DD 5 (today!!) and I've been homeschooling the whole time. The first piece of advice I would like to give you is this-relax. Seriously, your son will pick up on your energy. The best thing you can do for him right now is read A LOT!. It's ok to do ABC and even teaching him to read but remember you have 15 years to school him! AND remember that homeschooling is done one on one so you can get done in 20 minutes what it takes a classroom to do in an hour. I completely understand the pressure you feel to adequately educate you child, it's a HUGE responsibility.
Your son is very young still and his learning style might not be apparent or it may change. That is the one thing I can tell you for sure is that things change constantly. The most successful homeschoolers I know are the ones that are able to roll with it as gracefully as they can. I belong to a yahoo group called tidalhomeschooling-what that means is that our styles are undefinable. Sometimes we are more unschooly, sometimes we are more structured. Just realize that there are ebbs and flows.
As to curriculum, I wouldn't commit to a curriculum for the whole time right now. As I said (and can't say enough) things change year to year, month to month sometimes week to week.
There is a great book that I love and loosly follow and that is "A Well Trained Mind" by Susan Wise Baur. It's more of a philosophy of homeschooling. It's called Classical.
The first thing you need to do is identify for yourself, WHY you are homeschooling. Then do some research and find what "your homeschooling philosopy" is. As I stated above, I use a (very loosly) classical approach. But there are as many approaches to homeschooling as there are people and as many reasons as well. Most people I know mix and match their curriculum based on what works best for their child in that particular subject. We use Singapore for math, Story of the World for history, and kind of unschool for science. Now I don't think that all of that will work as well for my daughter so I'll adjust.
The best thing you can do right now is slow down and start enjoying the journey. If you are worrying about not stimulating your son enough now, you will be a crazy woman when he goes into high school.
I believe that children choose the parents they have for whatever reason. He chose you. What you are doing is enough.
Good luck! It's a heck of a ride!!
Peace, Kelly Jo

[saoirse2007]

thank you...
i did not really teach him abc's he basically taught himself.....makes me feel guilty.... shouldn't I be teaching him all sorts of things?

I try to teach him things as we come across them...like solid liquid...etc
but it is all very fragmented....I like how school puts things together to reinforce what they are learning.
hmmmmm

[caefi]

Originally Posted by saoirse2007

I would like to find a full ciriculum for preK-K

I have been scanning the net off and on for 3 years to figure out how to homeschool....turns out I have a bit of an ADD issue

Ds (3 1/2) really wants to do school....he knows the alphabet and all the letter sounds (starfall...thanks to a tip from an mdc momma)



1. we are low income

2. we have to move alot

3. we are have no real knowledge of religion, but are not opposed to it...I like the values that it instills...I am willing to learn right along side my little ones

ds is bright....most people have been amazed (not Einstein, but more advanced than average)

I really need structure or I have a tough time following through

I feel like I am letting him down by not feeding his hungry brain!

p.s. we have no daily routine....spam me with some pleeeease.....

I really like Before Five in a Row for preK and Five in a Row for K. After that I like Ambleside Online (free), but you have to create some of your own "structure" for that. Perhaps Learning Language Arts Through Literature would be a better fit?

[luv2homeschool]

For k through 1st we used Sing, spell read write. We go it at a great deal at a consignment sale. We used Saxon for math, although it was a little easy. If you are looking for more, Sonlight is a great program that is literature based and has a schedule to follow! You don;t have to do the religion part, and can pick and choose what subjects you want to do. it is pricey, but I gt the instuctors guide on sonlight forum for sale and most of the books are at the library.

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by saoirse2007

thank you...
i did not really teach him abc's he basically taught himself.....makes me feel guilty.... shouldn't I be teaching him all sorts of things?

I try to teach him things as we come across them...like solid liquid...etc
but it is all very fragmented....I like how school puts things together to reinforce what they are learning.
hmmmmm

Actually, at this age you should NOT be teaching him all sorts of things. He needs to play and read. He will pick up knowledge from what you read to him (I second the sonlight books. You don't even need the teacher's guide. I just buy the books based on the titles listed online or in the catalog.)

Really, play, play, play. That is how kids learn. Give them lots of open ended toys--dolls, scarves, spoons, legos--things that can be turned into all kinds of stuff via the imagination. Kids who are taught academics too young are more anxious and less creative. If he teaches himself academics, fine, but don't force them upon him.

I'm an unschooler, but even if I wasn't I'd believe from all that I'm reading that academics shouldn't start until 7 or 8.

This is a great book on how young children learn: http://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Never...9719750&sr=8-1

You could get the book from the library. If you don't, I'll sum it up for you: Play, play, play, read, read, read.

Here's something I sent to someone about homeschooling. Maybe some of the links will give you some ideas:


Homeschooling isn't hard. AND the way we're doing it, it will only be fun. If you want to follow a curriculum, there are tons of them out there you can buy for next to nothing to super expensive. Most cities have homeschool groups you can join for ideas, support, and social activities. Tomorrow we're going on a tour of the miniature horse farm. We've been to a print shop, tortilla factory, recycling center etc. And my oldest is only 4.

I'm doing a lot of reading about delayed schooling. Most European countries don't start formalized education until 7 and their kids do much better than ours.

Here are a bunch of links that I hope are helpful:

Homeschooling and Socialization:
http://learninfreedom.org/socialization.html
http://www.homeschool.com/articles/s...on/default.asp

Movie about problems with education system:
http://www.racetonowhere.com/

Do schools kill creativity? Very entertaining video with some good points to ponder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Article on why young kids’ brains aren’t ready for early reading/writing instruction:
http://www.lilipoh.com/articles/2007..._children.aspx

Here’s an article that discusses how children who start academics at later ages do better in the long run:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/2752895.stm

Youtube videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQQyP9WXKk8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIOogqa-5GA

Unschooling definition:
http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/earl_stevens.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unschooling

I did a search on Peter Gray on the Psychology Today website and he has lots of interesting looking articles. Here are a couple I read:

Math:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...r-own-learning

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...ath-in-schools


Reading:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...hemselves-read

Sudsbury School:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...sudbury-valley (The closest we have to Sudsbury in Tucson is the Kino Learning Center.)

Homeschooling forums (mdc):
learning at home
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...splay.php?f=50

curriculums
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...play.php?f=425

unschooling
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...play.php?f=439

Tons of great articles about homeschooling. http://www.besthomeschooling.org/gateway/inted16.html

[saoirse2007]

thank you some more

we read alot!

5+ books a day

I started almost from birth...lol

dd's first word was book....she is crazy for them!

I love to read....and I love to read to them...we can't afford cable tv...and don't even miss it

ds loves to play games on pbs kids island, but got bored with starfall.

he gets a huge kick out of learning new things...and teaching them to his friends (and dad...lol)

I am looking up all the links that I am being sent!

[Kindermama]

If you need an all inclusive curriculum, I'd go with Oak Meadow. It's simple, nature-based, secular and user-friendly! THere are samples on the website!

You can join waldorfcurriculumsupplies.com on yahoogroups and find one at a discount! I see them on the list all the time!

[VisionaryMom]

Originally Posted by saoirse2007

3. we are have no real knowledge of religion, but are not opposed to it...I like the values that it instills...I am willing to learn right along side my little ones

If you want to learn about religion, have at it, but it's not necessary. We are firmly secular homeschoolers and will not buy any materials from companies with Christianity as their core, no matter how amazing the materials may seem. It's entirely possible to homeschool without dealing with religion.

[shoefairy3]

I second the read read play play read read

We are doing Sonlight, and I really recommend it. We only bought the IGs new and got the rest of the books from the library, used or on Amazon

[sbgrace]

The absolute best thing for brain development at that age is play and imagination--play pretend with the child, make up stories, explore, read lots of great books, follow the child's joy. SundayCrepes linked all I would and more. But take it to heart. The academic stuff is not what you want for this age. I waited on academics until six and I am so glad I did. As you've noticed kids pick up stuff just through living. But focus your time with him on the important things and it's not academic stuff.

If you want to you can homeschool really, really well for almost nothing. I was so worried about that and it's really possible to homeschool wonderfully with little more than the internet and a library card.

[SundayCrepes]

Here's an excerpt from something I posted in the unschooling forum:

We are also secular unschoolers using sonlight. Here are some of the books I've purchased used. You can also get them from the library:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Do-You-Lif...9369794&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Whale-Big...ref=pd_sim_b_2

http://www.amazon.com/How-Hole-Other...ref=pd_sim_b_3

Even some social science ones that do an interesting job:
http://www.amazon.com/Then-Now-Usbor...ref=pd_sim_b_5

http://www.amazon.com/Childs-Book-Ar...ef=pd_sim_b_29

My son loves most of the books we got. I read through their "newcomers" list for his age group (He's 4 so I got p3/4 and p4/5.) I eliminated any that were religious or what else I didn't like.

I also joined the sonlight secular group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sonlig...guid=156716553 Do a search on "evolution" there and you'll get some great ideas on evolution books.

I really like the idea of using "living books" and I like that there is some thought given to the book list. I feel like I've sort of got a cushion that we are covering subjects that I wouldn't think about on my own to "strew."

Because he enjoys these books and we're just reading without any expectations on him I see nothing academic in all this. There are several books I bought that he's not interested in and we don't read those. They tend to be the social studies books. The science books he reads like a vacuum cleaner.