Over and over and over again I see and hear loving, caring, hard-working mommas who are contemplating homeschooling their preschool and kindergarten kiddos ask the same question; "What curriculum should I use?"
My answer is very simple: "None. You do not need to buy an expensive big box curriculum for a child that age."
Give me a minute before you think I'm advocating the impossible and I'll expand on some things I think you should do instead.
1. Read to your child. Follow the words with your finger while you read aloud and help your son learn that English tracks from left to right. Ask natural questions as you read. Have your child predict what will happen next. Count the number of dogs on the page. Ask which has more, what color the balloons are, or what time of day it is in the story. Little ones love this and these are the prereading skills they need. An expensive curriculum won't likely give you much in this regard that you couldn't figure out all by yourself but they will charge you an arm and a leg.
2. Go places. Go to the library, the grocery, the zoo, the park, the museum, the firehouse, city hall, the aquarium, and to church. While you're there, talk about what you see and what you're doing. Even if you think your kids are too young to understand, with time and repetition, they will pick up on so much more than you can imagine.
When you're at the grocery, explain to your daughters and sons that you are picking cereal based on what is on sale and the nutritional content. Let them see the difference in price between red delicious and Fuji apples. Let them help you put the produce on the scale and learn to read it. At the checkout, explain the difference between paying with a debit card, credit card, check and cash. Explain why you choose to pay the way you do. It doesn't need to be a formal lesson or one that takes very long. A few sentences here and there add up!
My kids have all been to the voting booth with me more than once. They know how the process works and why it is important to me. Hopefully, by the time they are 18, going to the poll will be such a natural thing for them to do that they won't miss a single chance to have their say in the world.
3. Use what you've got and what's around you. Point out letters and numbers you find in your home and around town. In the car, have the kids look outside for the letters in their names or the alphabet. At home, have them search through magazines for letters. Cut them out and make an alphabet book or wall with construction paper and glue. Make or buy some simple and inexpensive letter flash cards if you must.
Sing the alphabet and count as part of your bedtime or bath time or whatever time routines. Make it a natural part of the day, not "school time." Learning can take place 24/7, so don't relegate it to 8-3.
4. Let kids be kids. There is much knowledge to be gained in free play. This is something any preschool or kindergarten teacher worth listening to would tell you. They would probably also tell you that they are getting more and more pressure to leave this out in lieu of formal learning. They probably hate that.
5. I'm a big believer in the "better late than early" philosophy. I had a friend once explain it to me this way: It is possible for a farmer to work his field in the cold, snowy, frozen ground of January. It can be done, but at a great cost in time and resources for the farmer. The ground itself does not necessary benefit from this either. However, if a farmer waits until Spring and works his ground when it is ready, it is a much, much easier process for both the farmer and the field. The same is true about our kids. If we force them to begin formal schooling before they are ready, the process is long and hard and often kills the natural love of learning the child once had. If however, we wait until the child himself shows some signs of wanting to begin, it all goes so much more smoothly.
I have four kids and they have all learned to read at different ages. At age 5, my oldest wasn't ready for kindergarten. He didn't show the least bit of interest in learning to read. At age 6, we started our formal homeschooling and he still wasn't ready then. I didn't understand all that I do know and I probably pushed him too hard that first year. At age 7, when he decided he wanted to be a reader, he became one.
My daughter read early. She listened to me teach her brother that first year and when I started with her the next, she really had very little to learn. She had picked it up from listening to me work with her older brother and basically taught herself to read at age 5. She has been a voracious reader since.
Tigger is almost 7 and still learning to read. At age 5, he had zero interest so we didn't do much. This year, he started taking an interest and we have used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons along with sight word cards to teach him. Once he saw the value in reading, he started wanting to do it, with less fuss when I told him to get his book out.
My youngest just turned four and we have done zero formal schooling with him. He watches a lot of Leap Frog videos (The Letter Factory is our favorite!) and has a Letter Factory toy of his own. He sits with Tigger and me when we do our reading lessons and he's learning. A few weeks ago my dad handed him a pen and told him to write his name. He did. All by himself with not one single writing lesson. You will be surprised at how much your kids will pick up just by living.
Seasoned homeschoolers, would you agree or are you big fans of the big box curriculum?
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