[veggiemomma]

Okay, I really did not want to start teaching ds to read yet, considering he just turned 3 in March, but the little cutey is driving me NUTS to learn. Today, I bought him two SchoolZone Preschool workbooks at the store (the only ones I could get my hands on). After his bath, we sat down to look at the books. He quickly decided he needed a pencil to do the tracing and circling. Except for the coloring pages, which he skipped because he did not want to leave the book long enough to get his crayons, he worked an entire workbook, one page after another. He sat there for over an hour. He never keeps his attention on anything for longer than about 10 seconds. I was honestly shocked.

He told me he really likes the workbooks and can't wait to do the other one tomorrow. Umm...okay. Then what? Perhaps this new workbook craze is a passing fad. But I feel like I should take advantage of it while I have the chance, since he is so willing.

I have heard that "Happy Phonics" is a good game-based phonics program. Do you know anything about it? Would it be appropriate to use for a 3 yo every now and then, not really following the cirruculum?

Also, where are some good places to buy preschool workbooks. I do have a copier at work, and plan on copying some of the pages out of the next workbook so that he can do different activities with the same pages, but I think he'd like a little variety. I have heard that Sam's Club carries several workbooks, etc. Do you know if there is any truth to this? I have to drive across the river into Ohio to go to Sam's, but would be more than willing to go if I thought it would be worth the effort.

 

[elizawill]

i own happy phonics, and i love it! your ds would probably enjoy it. some games will be way too advanced but there are definitely some that he would have fun doing. for example "muffin top" is where you match the bottom of the muffin to the top (matching upper case and lower case letter together). all of the games will benefit him eventually, so i'd definitely say it's a good investment. i got it used for $35. you may also want to look at http://www.letteroftheweek.com/preschool_age_3.html

my son also turned 3 in march (ha ha - but he could care less about workbooks or reading right now), and i think i will use letter of the week with him when my dd homeschools in the fall just to give him something to do.

anyway...happy phonics is awesome!!!!! i can't recommend it enough.

 

[nicandboys]

You could also just get a book out of the library, like Peggy Kaye's Games for Reading, or the Little Hands book Wow! I'm Reading!, and do games out of those when the mood strikes you.

 

[Bird Girl]

The PBS Kids website is great--I especially like the Between the Lions page. (The show is pretty great too, if you do TV.)

The Kumon books are appealing in that they build one skill very squarely on top of another one. They are available through Barnes and Noble, for one.

I know that lots of times it's amazing to see kids gobble up work that we adults would think of as "drill and kill." But they just see it as demonstrating their mastery. They'll work on something until it is no longer meeting their needs, then they'll quickly discard it.

The works of Maria Montessori are a great explaination of how this works!

 

[veggiemomma]

Thanks for the recommendations. We do watch "In Between the Lions" whenever I let them watch TV.

Ds stayed with MIL while I studied for an exam and my dh went to a class this evening. I gave her the workbook to work with him. She is a recently retired teacher and tried to make him hold his pencil the right way and helped him with every single page, whereas I just read the directions and let him try it out. He said she made it boring!

But he still did every activity on 25 pages.

I have been telling people that he doesn't know his alphabet by sight yet, or his letters. He SO proved me wrong. I can't understand how he hid this fact from me! I mean, I am with him everyday...