Preschoolers?

[Bettacreek]

Tripp is turning two in March and Talon just turned three in November. I'd like to get them started, though they'll be going to public school. I just don't know HOW!!! I tried online research, but they just basically give you a schedule, not any lesson plans. And the ones with lesson plans want $50+ for a damn plan!! So, how do I really go about it? I don't know how to teach, least of all math. For me it has always been a "you get it or you don't" type of person. I've never had much luck with math, lol. And a lot have bible study... I'm not religious and don't want my children raised to be. Morals and ethics yes, but not through religion. Any help would be appreciated, because I'm just dumbfounded lol.

 

[TanksHill]

If you concerned with building skills for pre K I would just say work books, and crafts. Most office supply stores have work books, it's mostly coloring, cutting, gluing. Learning the Alphabet, identifying the letters, and their sounds. I am sure would be more than sufficient.

Tortoise and Lori work with their little ones. I am sure they could give you some good advice.

good luck,

g

 

[tortoise]

Pick up a Pre-K workbook. It will show you what they should be able to do. Add in lots of play and just talking about things. Read a lot of books.

I see that towards the end of his workbook it starts working on money. So we have started talking about coins, he earns a coin every day that he does chores well without nagging. At first this helped to teach him days of the week. (I have a little chart with an envelope for each day of the week to put a coin in.) Now we talk about how much each coin is worth and soon we'll talk about adding them together.

Lots of coloring and painting, playdoh and other activities to help develop fine motor skills and IMAGINATION!

If they are into academics I have more to say, but this much covers normal kids.

 

[Rebbetzin]

For over ten years I had a pre-school in my home to support myself.

I taught the kids the basic greetings, alphabet letters and sounds, colors, numbers in English, French, Spanish and Hebrew.

I wrote my own lesson plans and had "Homework" for the parents to do with the kids.

It was such fun!!

I LOVE PRE-SCHOOLERS!!! They are just the best!!!

Back then, I didn't have internet access.
This was in the early 1980's to 1994.

I used "Sing Spell Read and Write" still available I see... Probably updated from my old version.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=16TF65RP5AXMS96KCHFB

And I had a great set of tapes and books with character developement... let me see if I can remember what they were..

Oh yes, and still available... Brite Music, Standing Tall and Safety Kids.

http://www.britemusic.com/brite-sets/standin-tall

http://www.britemusic.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=Safety+kids&x=33&y=7

The kids LOVED them!! Lots of songsand stories that teach lessons!! Bet they too are NEW and improved since I had them on audio tape cassettes. They were great quality and well worth the cost.

I would have loved to try the "Teach Your Baby To Read" with the younger ones. But, it hadn't come out back then.

NOW is the time to teach them as much as you can, their brains are at the best age to memorize, learn new languages, and remember for life the things they seeing and doing right now. The first five years are the most important.

I don't know about your public school system, but here in our city, they are the PITS!! Even way back in the 1970's I made sure my kids could at least read a bit and do simple math before they started in the public schools.

 

[farmerlor]

I believe it's Leap Frog that makes a little refrigerator magnet set that has the alphabet letters that you stick in the machine and the machine tells you the letter and phonics sound. It's wondrous. I had three pretty delayed children who started using that before school and the teachers couldn't believe how advanced they were with their phonetics. I agree that some workbooks for fine motor skill development are crucial but you can also do that fine motor letter and number drawing using sand, shaving cream IS COOL, pudding, macaroni, whatever you can think of to mix it up and make it fun. Little things like cutting their sandwiches and telling them that's a half and that's a half start the beginnings of abstract thought and math prowess. Building and counting with legos is huge fun because you can add and subtract and they can SEE what it is you're talking about. Don't go out and buy some expensive program when so much of what they need to learn you are already teaching them or can show them through playtime.

 

[big brown horse]

All great ideas.

May I add one? I taught Montessori to preschoolers for 15 years...

Anyway, I love, LOVE this book http://www.amazon.com/Workjobs-Activity-Centered-Childhood-Addison-Wesley-innovative/dp/0201043114 It has tons of hands on activities that you can make at home with stuff you would normally just toss or recycle. I have the book and loan it to my mommy friends all the time. Kids love it too.

 

[Rebbetzin]

Another thing I did to help with leaning letter and numbers was to get a set of alphabet and number cookie cutters. We had a letter and number a week. I cut the sandwiches and even pizza in letter and number shapes. Made cookies and even used Bakers clay to make some letters and numbers they could play with.

I still use those same ideas with my adult Hebrew students. I make them Hebrew letter snacks for each class of the letters we are learning that week.

 

[patandchickens]

I know this is unpopular with some here, but IMO "pfffthfhhtttthttt" to "schooling" (home or otherwise) for preschoolers.

They are just supposed to be LIVING, that is the best kind of learning and what they are naturally super-well adapted to do anyhow.

Playing lets-pretend games. Dress-up. Building all sorts of things out of cardboard boxes.

Getting interested in letters and numbers and colors, finding out about different foods and seasons and plants and animals and occupations and body parts and art/craft materials.

Being encouraged to wonder about the things they see, and to try to find out the answers to what they were wondering.

There is no "math" to be taught at this age. Play with numbers, play with counting things, play with grouping and matching and patterns, but, you know, just PLAY, and point out things in the course of normal daily life. ("How many cheerios on your plate? Let's count them. One, two, three. Now eat one, how many are left, let's count again... one, two!")

Gee whiz, people in North America make such a production out of trying to force kids to do what they really do BETTER on their own ANYhow. You realize that in many other countries they do not start kids in formal schooling or attempt Actual Academic Learning of stuff until age 6 or 7, and often have HIGHER national average test scores and literacy %s and so forth than the USA does?

Kids are BUILT to learn. All we have to do is offer experiences and answer their questions.

JMHO,

Pat

 

[Wannabefree]

I am of the opnion that the whole schedule and scheduling thing is the basics of what a preschooler needs to learn. Preschool has always been more about getting kids into a routine rather than actually teaching letters numbers etc. They'll learn that in kindergarten and first grade. Sure it is good to schedule some of those things into their day, but the actual learning they should be doing is the getting used to the schedule. Everything else is bascally filler. They'll catch onto some of the things "taught" but the schedule is most important at this age.

I'd do things like playtime, art, maybe learning numbers, colrs, letters, etc. but sticking to a schedule would be top priority.

 

[big brown horse]

There are lots of things to do with your children that teach pre-EVERYTHING, and they are fun and structured, rather than just playing...which they do need time to do as well.

Handwriting: (activities that work the three fingered grasp and help with concentration) stringing beads-making necklaces etc.; sewing with large plastic needles, using card board cut outs punched with a hole punch-working up to (as they get older) sewing using a real needle etc.; tracing stencils...

Math: one to one correspondence activities; matching objects into sets etc., grading things from smallest to largest and visa versa, measuring dry (beans) or liquids--as they get more coordinated ....gosh, so many things I can't list.

Science, botany and zoology: Teach parts of the insect, mammal, bird, amphibian, reptile and fish that you may find in nature. Sort mammals and the other vertebrates, you can use photos from a mag or plastic figurines. What makes this a mammal, reptile, amphibian, fish or bird? Children are absorbant sponges at this age...they love to learn big words....

Geography: OMG it is so fun to discuss and sort what animals come from each of the seven different continents...the next time you go to the zoo, you can try to remember what continent the animal is from....

Geometry: shapes (trace them) and geometric solids too. The "ovoid" for example are the shapes of chicken's eggs. A football is an ellipsoid. Bricks are rectangular prisims etc...

Independence: The possibilities are endless.

Grace and courtesy, again the possibilities are endless. cutting up fruit and serving it to their sibling for one.