Preschool Homeschool advice

[anaj06]

My husband just quit his job to stay home with our boys (ages 3 and 4). Once will go to kindergarten in 2012 and the other in 2013. He wants to treat from 9-12 as preschool time and allow them to keep getting the "academics" they have been getting in daycare/preschool. Can anyone suggest any curriculum that they follow or what are some ideas that you do with your children in this arena?

I would appreciate any thoughts from those of you with experience in this area

[Macaela25]

I have heard of abcmouse dot com, but don't know much about it other than it is an online preschool/K curriculum.

[kschick96]

I know Usborne books (you can find them on Amazon.com) have many educational books that are geared to the homeschool crowd.

[Gertie2u]

There are some home schooling organizations around. I'm sorry I don't know a great deal about them, but I would suspect one that isn't a scam would have some sort of public forum where you could view comments on various home school options such as various textbook companies. If he really wants to do the home school thing properly, he will find it is a lot of work. While I never home schooled my kids, I did teach a pre-school class for mother's day out twice a week at our church when my kids were little. What we did at our church for a preschool was either you could pay so much a day, or you could work in the pre-school and every day you worked, your kids stayed free of charge plus you got another day free of charge for them to stay when you didn't work. Based on that experience, you should expect to spend about the same amount of time planning and gathering supplies as you spend teaching, at least for the first several months.

I can give you loads of hints and project ideas but some general stuff I think of off the top of my head: Designate a closet for supplies. Plan double the amount of activities you think you need to start with - preschoolers have short attention spans. "Academics" for the preschool set are more about learning life skills such as social skills, hand-eye coordination, and how the world works in many cases, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try working with some alphabet flash cards and things like that. Try your local dollar store for the flash card. Also, coloring books of the alphabet and numbers are great learning tools.

[fungirl2727]

I do a lot of learning videos for my 3 yr old! I do send him to a private preschool 3 days wk 7 to 6! Then folowing yr he will go 5 days a wk 7 to 6 and that will be so much money 700 bucks a month. I have already start saving for that expensive school yr. I think homeschool is great if your kids can learn from you. My son is kinda hyper active and does speech threapy 2 days a wk at school. I send him for friendships and give me a break and learning!

[fungirl2727]

Well this yr the 2 days he doesn't go to daycare I take him a learning place or playground. We do a lot. Of fun things together. I would homeschool too if I had 2 kids in preschool. I stretch my budget every yr paying for my sons daycare. My dad helps out some for daycare so I am thankful for that.

[anaj06]

There are some home schooling organizations around. I'm sorry I don't know a great deal about them, but I would suspect one that isn't a scam would have some sort of public forum where you could view comments on various home school options such as various textbook companies. If he really wants to do the home school thing properly, he will find it is a lot of work. While I never home schooled my kids, I did teach a pre-school class for mother's day out twice a week at our church when my kids were little. What we did at our church for a preschool was either you could pay so much a day, or you could work in the pre-school and every day you worked, your kids stayed free of charge plus you got another day free of charge for them to stay when you didn't work. Based on that experience, you should expect to spend about the same amount of time planning and gathering supplies as you spend teaching, at least for the first several months.

I can give you loads of hints and project ideas but some general stuff I think of off the top of my head: Designate a closet for supplies. Plan double the amount of activities you think you need to start with - preschoolers have short attention spans. "Academics" for the preschool set are more about learning life skills such as social skills, hand-eye coordination, and how the world works in many cases, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try working with some alphabet flash cards and things like that. Try your local dollar store for the flash card. Also, coloring books of the alphabet and numbers are great learning tools.

I would love to hear more of your hints and ideas. Any websites that you print from? Thanks for your words of advice!