I would really like some suggestions on Pre-K curriculum. What have you used? and liked? Thanks!!

The Five in a Row series is good. I haven't seen the before Five in a Row book though.

I just let my preschoolers play with the math manipulatives. No formal anything. We do read a lot and they listen in on the other lessons for the older boys.

They learn so much from playing that I don't worry about teaching them anything formal.

I've got the unschooling bias, but truly, I don't think you need a curriculum for preschool. Do lots of art, read lots of books together, go on long walks outdoors, let them play with water and sand and stuff, count things together, let them do some cooking with you, etc. Kids this age are SPONGES.

Tara

I've got a preschooler and a homeschooled kindergartener; the preschooler is pretty much a long for the ride. Because he wants to participate he has an ETC primer and a Kumon writing workbook. I print math worksheets for him but by that time in our lessons he's usually bored so he gets down to play. He hangs around while we do our phonics lesson but doesn't really participate, which is fine with me. He does play informally with math manipulatives such as attribute beads and pattern blocks.

I think play and exploration are the most important things at this age. My guys play constantly; Legos, K'Nex, wooden blocks, kitchen play, dress up and imaginative play, etc. They have access to many art supplies and make art daily on their own initiative. They have many puzzles that they love to do. They play outside daily, swinging and climbing on their playset, digging in the dirt, playing with water. I think all of this is much more important than any schoolwork that we do (but then I'm an unschooler at heart with a DH that feels more comfortable with a curriculum).

And of course, read, read, read!

Kimberly

Kimberly ~ what is ETC? I have seen this referred to before on on this board and couldn't figure out what it is?

I have a 4 year old and just about all of the things he learns, he learns though playing. For learning letters and their sounds, I have made up games using an alphabet puzzle and he drives a matchbox car to the correct letter. At first we just did games like "where is the letter _?". After he knew all of his letters we moved onto their sounds. I ask him "What letter makes the ___ sound?" and he drives his car onto that letter. Sometimes will will play if we are in the car and stuck in traffic or something and he will just yell out the answer.

We have a few workbooks that MIL gave us, but ds doesn't like them. I sometimes make up my own worksheets for him. Like for counting, I will draw a certain number of characters (today we did C-3PO and R2D2) he adds them up and them tries to write the number. When he was learning how to write his numbers, he would say the answer and then I would write the number in pencil and he would trace over it with a marker.

We work on writing by sending messages to friends and family members. He says what he wants to write to them (usually just a sentence), I write it in pencil and he traces over it with a marker. Lately, he has been doing a few of the words on his own, after I write them on another piece of paper so he can see what to copy. Then he decorates the paper with a drawing of some sort.

But like Lisa, Tara and Kimberly said, kids learn so much on their own at this age, if ds did not enjoy doing what we do, I would not bother with them. Most days he asks to "do homeschool":) and we work on our activities for 15 - 20 minutes or until he gets bored. Other than that we just play, build things, read, and go about our lives!

ETC is Explode the Code workbooks for reading.

Originally posted by mum_mum
ETC is Explode the Code workbooks for reading.

Ah-ha! Thank you!:)