Just wondering if anyone has done this and might have any information for me. My 3yo is in preschool right now for speech but I don't think I can afford it next year for regular preschool. He will be 4 yo for the next school year. I was just wondering if anyone did preschool at home and what I should be looking for to teach my son. I googled it bt I wanted to see if anyone else had ideas. There are about 2 other moms that I will be doing this with.

Thanks so much in advance for ANY help.
Lori :}

I didn't put my daughter in pre-school and she is now in 1st grade and at the top of her class. I did a lot of Hooked on Phonics with her. At first, she struggled, but once it clicked she rolled with it. I highly recommend that and any fun learning games on the computer. Learn to Read at Starfall - teaching comprehension and phonics is one she frequented quite a bit.

Good Luck!

Added: I also took my kids weekly to the public library for story time, where I met other mothers. We made playdates twice each week at the park so the kids could have social interactions.

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Both of my children were in daddy daycare until they started kindergarten. DH taught them all they needed to know, and then some. I agree with taterchip73 in regard to Starfall. They have excellent material and that's a great place to start.

JMHO, but if your son is only three, please don't push too hard. Let him be a little boy. Games are great at this age. We'd have picnics or tea parties with our children to practice manners and etiquette. We read to them constantly and now have them read to us. Board games are another great learning tool, although DD is still learning (at age 5) how to handle losing.

Good luck and keep it FUN!

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DS#4 is my youngest, he just turned 3, none of mine was in preschool they just learned at home, DS#2 is honor roll except last report card where we had some troubles but it wasnt cause he didnt know what to do.

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Personally I don't think what you learn is actually as important as learning how to ineract with other children and the other things that preschool teaches. Maybe just by getting a bunch of your friends kids together maybe switching houses every week and let each Mom be the teacher for a day and then just do crafts, play outside, reading, art and painting that sort of thing, they would benifit as much as learning the abc's.

It's also about working together, taking turns, listening to other adults when you are told, etc, and all of those things can be taught outside of preschool, but you have to really set the environment up for the socialization.

My kids love workbooks too, it's not like learning when they are playing games.

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

Ok...you say he's in preschool for "speech". Does he have a speech impediment or speech delay? If so, then you may qualify for HeadStart.

Neither of my kids went to preschool or pre-k and they have done just fine.

Read, read, read to your child! Everything is a learning opportunity: Picking up his toys you can say "Johnny can you find 4 blue cars/3 green squares (blocks)" Or "let's see how many blocks you have " and count them out loud.

Sing, sing, sing to and with your children! Silly songs, teaching songs, lullabies--just sing! And dance--get those little bodies (and mommy's body!) moving.

You can do science experiments--Make Kool-aid (teaches measuring and counting), then pour into an ice tray and freeze, and voila! You done math/measurements, science (freezing liquids) and made a snack that they can enjoy outside! Make homemade playdough--the recipe we used called for the mixture to be cooked, so let them play with it warm then when it's completely cool. Add scent to the playdough.

Every day is a learning experience and just being there for your child is as beneficial as any "teaching" you can do.
(I guess I should add--I did work in daycare/preschool many, many, many years ago. )

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

You hit the nail on the head. I put both of mine in preschool because I was personally unable to provide what the kids needed as far as socialization.

I have experience with teaching early childhood... the skills will be taught (and learned!) in Kindergarten so I'd not push the academics too hard so as to cause the child to be *bored* once he reaches school... DO push the socialization and playtime. Let him be a kid; we all expect them to grow up too fast these days.

I agree with marilynk - do lot's of reading, play fun games and keep it simple.

Also, when we did flash cards, I always started with the lower case letters as opposed to the capital letters. If you think about it, most of the letters we read are in lower case.

If you really want to do a little more, you could go to a school supply store and look around. I used Abeka (christian curriculum) for one of my boys because I liked the phonics program and they had a nice art book that had crafts to correlate with the holidays. We still kept it lighthearted.

Good luck.

my oldest was home preschooled but she started kindergarten at 4 due to b-day cutoff. My youngest went to 4yr old program at her sister's school.
We bought educational stuff at the teacher's supply store, printed off stuff, and did lots of field trips.