My Favorite Quotes:

A person's a PERSON no matter how small... -Dr. Seuss

I am a little pencil in the hand of God who is sending a love letter to the world. - Mother Teresa

The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to THINK, than WHAT to think- rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men. - James Beattie


Sunday, July 18, 2010

Pre-K Curriculum for my 3.5 yr old

I thought I would use this to jot down what we will be doing in our homeschool Preschool this year!
Of course we will still be doing our Thursday Preschool Playdates with the other Mommies (which Scarlett just LOVES) but Tuesday and Wednesdays we will also be doing preschool activities!!  There may be a few changes/additions once I attend the Catholic Homeschooling Convention in Grapevine this Friday.  I am really excited to attend this homeschooling convention and this year  with my HUSBAND!!   I was impressed last year and just want to make sure he and I are on the same track with our kids.  Looks like some great speakers this year and I have more of a plan for looking at their books too!

Here is my tentative Pre-K Curriculum list for this 2010-2011 year:
(I put links for many things if you are interested in checking them out!!)

Progressive Phonics
A Child's Garden of Verses
Reading aloud classics- starting with The Jungle Book (july '10)
Later in the year- Teaching to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Bible Stories & Children's story books of the Saints
(planning to use Faith & Life for grade school)

Kumon Books- Pre-K & K 

Kinderbach Music
"Handle on the Arts" Fine Arts Program
Maestro Classics "Stories in Music"

Little Pim Spanish DVD and Music CD for Pre-K
(note: after I bought this I found it at the library!!)

Gross Motor- lots of running and playing outside of course! :) We will also be signing up at our City Rec Center for Gymnastics and probably ballet/tap again as well!  I can't wait till Lily is old enough to join her sister... only about 6 more months ( it is just too cute!!)

*Lily will be playing along with her sister in Pre-K this year (she is almost 2 years.) Anything she is interested in doing with Scarlett I will just try to simplify for her of course!! :)


My Goal: After this year I would like to start a Kindergarten curriculum with Scarlett... she will be 4 1/2 next August and would be waiting another year to start school if we were attending somewhere.  However from what I have seen so far and watching her very close this year, I am assuming she will be MORE than ready to start at the end of next summer!

I am looking forward to learning with my little girls this year- it has been a lot of fun so far and my feelings have only gotten stronger about educating at home for the moment.  There have been LOTS of HUGE things this year society wise AND close to home that make me believe I need to do this for my girls so much! I know it is a HUGE commitment for me but I will do anything and everything possible to bring up girls who will know, love, and serve God and everyone they meet! :)
 


9 comments:

Goat Gal said...

i totally hear Kumon! I will be looking for those little pim spanish resourses.

Anonymous said...

Hello,
Wow, that's a lot of curriculum for such a young child! A lot of it is designed for Kindergarten or even First grade. Please don't be offended, but I've got to ask--what's the rush?
I would like to encourage you to relax a bit, even if your daughter is gifted. Studies have shown that children who experience a play based preschool and Kindergarten program actually do better (academically and otherwise, long-term)than children who are in academically based programs (whether at home or in school.)
If you would like to research the issue, I have links to several articles/studies about the issue at http://susanlemons.wordpress.com/important-links/ . You could also look at my tabs on "readiness" and "early academics", as well as the archives for "readiness".
Since preschoolers do not learn the same ways older children do, they need to be taught in different ways, too.
We concentrate on the 4R's: Relationship (with God and family), routine, readiness, and reading aloud. We try to incorporate lots of art, music, play, real life experiences, and reading aloud into a literature based approach.
Just something to think about...I hope you'll visit my blog to find out more. Tell yourself, "She's only three!"
Blessings,
Susan
www.susanlemons.wordpress.com
~Homeschooling mom of 4
~Bachelor's Degree in Child
Development
~Former preschool teacher
~Author, Homepreschool
& Beyond

Jo Shabo said...

Hi Susan- Since this was just a list I didn't really specify when we would be doing these things... I am a teacher as well and after working in a classroom for 6 years decided to be at home with my girls.
All of these books, etc. are things we will look at once or twice a week- if you know me then you would know that ALL we do EVERY day is play. My girls are very imaginative and have lots of fun playing. This year in December we started toying with the idea of preschool homeschool- one day per week we would do different activities in small increments along with lots of singing (which we do all the time here) and playing. Then we got a group of mommies to do this with us and created Thursday preschool playdate- lots of fun, crafts, and playing on Thursday mornings for 2 hours.
This year we are going to really look at doing it about 2 days per week tuesdays and thursdays. So in the great scheme of things I don't think I'm really pushing the academics. These just happen to be the books and tools I have around the house that we will be using from time to time and I wanted to share. My mom is also a preschool teacher and her and I both agree that play is the best type of learning for a small child. She and I swap ideas all the time.
Sorry you got the wrong idea about me and my blog- if you have followed it for awhile you would see that we aren't pushing academics on our 3 year old in any way... quite the opposite! I was using this as a list of tools I have that will be used for my little ones at various times. Does that make sense? Everything you said was completely true- and that's what we believe over here at SOSCTT as well! Thanks for stopping by!

Jo Shabo said...

oh Susan- just curious - what things did you see that were for 1st grade? I don't know of any of these that aren't at least geared for Kindergarten or younger?

Candace @ Candace Creations said...

awesome! I've been thinking about doing this with my daughter! found u on texas blogging gals :)

Jo Shabo said...

Thanks Candace! :) Love finding Texas bloggers! :)

melonbelly said...

I found your blog over at Candace Creations! I am a previous teacher, currently SAHM, who is starting an in-home mdo/preschool this fall! I live in Frisco! It's a small world! :)

www.melonbelly.blogspot.com

Jo Shabo said...

Candace- I replied on your blog... check it out when you get a chance! :)

Julia Pimsleur Levine said...

Hello Candace! I'm Julia Pimsleur Levine, the mom behind Little Pim. :) I'm so honored that you're using our program to introduce French & Spanish! If you could send your contact info to bunmi@littlepim.com, we'd love to get in touch with you. Have a wonderful homeschool year!