by Betsy Sproger
My daughter just graduated from our homeschool this June! I am usually talking about homeschooling high school here, and homeschool prom, that sort of thing....
That was such a special day for my homeschool graduate! But today, I'd like to share about how we homeschooled the early years, preschool and kindergarden. And how we had so much fun doing it....
We started homeschooling my daughter when she was 4. She was SO ready to learn.... always following the words as I read to her, and trying to copy letters herself.... We did our homeschooling with lots of fun, hands-on activities, and often using things that we already had around the house. And a few favorite curriculum items, that I will be sharing with you below.
So here are some of the things that we did, while homeschooling the early years......
EARLY MATH FUN
When you are four, everything is math! Toys can be counted, towels sorted and put into sets. Cookie making became a lesson in adding and subtracting, and beads got sorted into patterns as well, as making necklaces. Also, buttons, shells, rocks, sorted by shape, color, size, what have you. Even laundry could be sorted into sets, or small, medium and large, such as with towels.
When we ran out of ideas, we stopped at our local teacher's book store, and picked up a few workbooks. Here are two early math workbooks that we enjoyed, with my reviews of them, so you can see how we used them:
Shapes and Beginning Fractions
Numbers and Patterns - this includes tons of math play ideas, with manipulatives
INFO on two other math programs:
Learn and Grow -
Saxon Math for K -
We used manipulatives a lot at home, and also for a fun, hands-on math program that I taught at our local Park Dept. Nothing has to be bought for this, as small toys, buttons, shells, or whatever you have will work out just fine! Anything that your kids can count, sort, and put into groups, or sets..will be wonders for their learning!
PHONICS
Not every homeschooler does phonics, but we did, and I found it helpful for teaching reading. So for early Phonics, we used Explode the Code Primers. This is a very well researched program, and is kid friendly as well! It covers all the basic phonics, from preschool all the way to 5th grade, if you like, and does it in a fun way. It also includes learning to write the abc's, early reading skills, and word families.
I can still picture my daughter working in her Primer so proudly by herself, after she had mastered the routine. Of course, we talked about it afterwards, to review all the sounds of the day.
READING FUN
We introduced the letters of the alphabet with Alpha Tales. This book has a humorous story for each letter of the alphabet. There are ABC mini-book to make as well, which was a favorite activity in our house!
We went to the library every week, and found so much there.
When my little one was ready, we used the Bob Books series from there, as our first readers, which introduced one vowel at a time. We also liked the series at I Can Read
My daughter loved to work in Sequencing Simple Stories by Evan-Moor.
HANDWRITING
To help with writing, we did lots of fun small muscle activities, playing with molding clay, painting, drawing, cutting, etc. Arts and Crafts were popular in our house, as well as some easy knitting and sewing. We wrote letters in pudding, in the air, and later used the Handwriting without Tears program. For more ideas on handwriting, please go to Handwriting Helps Review.
This gives you an idea of our favorites for those precious early years, what are yours?...Link up and share your story! And I love getting your comments, too....
And now that my daughter has graduated homeschool, I will have more time to share about our earlier years, and all the fun we had homeschooling them!
Happy Homeschooling!
Betsy is a writer, blogger, homeschool consultant, and most importantly, mom to her 18 year old, who was adopted as an infant. Betsy and her husband chose to homeschool, to provide the 1 on 1′s, and the nurturing spirit of learning at home. And this year, her teen was accepted into four colleges! Betsy writes about that in Our Steps to College, and all the fun of homeschooling the earlier years as well, here. https://plus.google.com/113549331590200938818
My daughter just graduated from our homeschool this June! I am usually talking about homeschooling high school here, and homeschool prom, that sort of thing....
That was such a special day for my homeschool graduate! But today, I'd like to share about how we homeschooled the early years, preschool and kindergarden. And how we had so much fun doing it....
We started homeschooling my daughter when she was 4. She was SO ready to learn.... always following the words as I read to her, and trying to copy letters herself.... We did our homeschooling with lots of fun, hands-on activities, and often using things that we already had around the house. And a few favorite curriculum items, that I will be sharing with you below.
So here are some of the things that we did, while homeschooling the early years......
EARLY MATH FUN
When you are four, everything is math! Toys can be counted, towels sorted and put into sets. Cookie making became a lesson in adding and subtracting, and beads got sorted into patterns as well, as making necklaces. Also, buttons, shells, rocks, sorted by shape, color, size, what have you. Even laundry could be sorted into sets, or small, medium and large, such as with towels.
When we ran out of ideas, we stopped at our local teacher's book store, and picked up a few workbooks. Here are two early math workbooks that we enjoyed, with my reviews of them, so you can see how we used them:
Shapes and Beginning Fractions
Numbers and Patterns - this includes tons of math play ideas, with manipulatives
INFO on two other math programs:
Learn and Grow -
Saxon Math for K -
We used manipulatives a lot at home, and also for a fun, hands-on math program that I taught at our local Park Dept. Nothing has to be bought for this, as small toys, buttons, shells, or whatever you have will work out just fine! Anything that your kids can count, sort, and put into groups, or sets..will be wonders for their learning!
PHONICS
Not every homeschooler does phonics, but we did, and I found it helpful for teaching reading. So for early Phonics, we used Explode the Code Primers. This is a very well researched program, and is kid friendly as well! It covers all the basic phonics, from preschool all the way to 5th grade, if you like, and does it in a fun way. It also includes learning to write the abc's, early reading skills, and word families.
I can still picture my daughter working in her Primer so proudly by herself, after she had mastered the routine. Of course, we talked about it afterwards, to review all the sounds of the day.
READING FUN
We introduced the letters of the alphabet with Alpha Tales. This book has a humorous story for each letter of the alphabet. There are ABC mini-book to make as well, which was a favorite activity in our house!
We went to the library every week, and found so much there.
When my little one was ready, we used the Bob Books series from there, as our first readers, which introduced one vowel at a time. We also liked the series at I Can Read
My daughter loved to work in Sequencing Simple Stories by Evan-Moor.
HANDWRITING
To help with writing, we did lots of fun small muscle activities, playing with molding clay, painting, drawing, cutting, etc. Arts and Crafts were popular in our house, as well as some easy knitting and sewing. We wrote letters in pudding, in the air, and later used the Handwriting without Tears program. For more ideas on handwriting, please go to Handwriting Helps Review.
This gives you an idea of our favorites for those precious early years, what are yours?...Link up and share your story! And I love getting your comments, too....
And now that my daughter has graduated homeschool, I will have more time to share about our earlier years, and all the fun we had homeschooling them!
Happy Homeschooling!
Betsy is a writer, blogger, homeschool consultant, and most importantly, mom to her 18 year old, who was adopted as an infant. Betsy and her husband chose to homeschool, to provide the 1 on 1′s, and the nurturing spirit of learning at home. And this year, her teen was accepted into four colleges! Betsy writes about that in Our Steps to College, and all the fun of homeschooling the earlier years as well, here. https://plus.google.com/113549331590200938818
