Since Noah is four this year I have decided to do some pre-k work with him. I am grateful to have a friend in the neighborhood {my running buddy} who homeschools. Her daughter is in first grade so I was able to look at what she used with her for kindergarten. We went one night to Barnes and Noble together a few weeks ago to get a night out of the house and to “talk homeschool.” She was so sweet to bring some of her things for me to look through in person.
In the end I ordered two different books to start working through with Noah. The Ordinary Parent’s guide to Teaching Reading and the Zaner-Bloser Handwriting{K}. This year I plan to work at his pace. Next year when he starts kindergarten we’ll continue working through these books where we left off. Right now I am trying to do one lesson a day of each. We only do this about 3-4 days a week, on average. If Noah is not interested one day I don’t push it. Right now we try do “school” after nap around 3:00 p.m. while little brother is still napping but occasionally we do it in the morning. I want to keep things light and simple {and fun of course!} I also use some free printables I found online to supplement the workbooks. My two favorite sites for free worksheets are schoolsparks.com and tlsbooks.com {Thanks MK for the tls link!} If you have a pre-schooler you should definitely check out these sites.
Right now in the reading book we are going through all the letters and the sounds they make. Noah already knows most of the sounds but we’re still going through them one at a time. A little reinforcement never hurt anybody!
One idea I got from The Ordinary Parent’s guide to Teaching Reading is to use our letter cards to play a “game”. {By letter cards I mean notecards that I wrote the letters of the alphabet on.} You can order cards to go with the book but of course this thrifty mom made hers! We start each lesson by laying out the cards of all the letters we have learned so far. {Right now that is all the vowels and the consonant letters through “G”} I make the sound of a letter and Noah has to find the letter that makes that sound. If he can identify the letter correctly I then ask him what letter it is and to tell me some words that start with that letter. If he can’t find the letter then I get the card and we review that letter again at the end of the game. Noah loves games so he thinks this is fun and I don’t think he realizes mommy is making him practice what we have already learned. Sometimes I switch it up and say a letter and he has to find the letter and tell me the sound it makes.
And of course we use our BOB books too. Noah can read “Mat”, Sam”, and “sat” in the first BOB book so far. He gets so excited when he reads a new word. It’s encouraging to see he’s interested in reading and is excited about it!
As for the handwriting book Noah really liked the first couple of pages. It teaches you about vertical and horizontal lines, forward and backward circles, etc. Then the book moves on to tracing letters. Noah likes to do this but sometimes he just rushes through it { He gets that from me unfortunately!!] I am trying to encourage him to slow down and trace the letter the best he can with out getting out of the line. He seems to like writing his letters on plain white paper rather than on dotted line paper. If we do “art time” right after pre-school then he seems to put letters on everything!
Do you have any favorite pre-school resources that you and your family use? Please share in the comments!
eat.run.teach 
Loving that face in the first picture! He is ALL business. 🙂
Yay!
I think you are doing a great job trying to give your son the best start. I have a different approach to homeschooling preschool that might give you some ideas to integrate into your current work. I am a certified teacher of grades K-12 with English specialization. I use a lot of literature, art, and homemade games to reinforce skills. Let me know what you think and good luck!