Recommend Preschool Ready-Made Program or Kit?

[timandsveta]

I was wondering if anyone can recommend (or not recommend) a ready-made preschool curriculum for 3 year olds. I'm looking for something easy to use that preferably includes all the materials, but it's not deal killer if it doesn't.

My friend and I are thinking of forming a preschool co-op through a local Twins Club. The good thing about multiples, among many others of course, is that we only need one or two more families to join us, and we'll have enough kids to make it the size of a regular preschool. The hard thing about multiples is that we don't have a lot of time to devote to the material prep and curriculum development, so we think that ready-made program with our own signature add-ons is a way to go.

Please let me know what worked for you and what you thought about any program that you have tried. Many thanks and perhaps some karma later on

[Tanikit]

I know of 5 homeschooling curricula that are aimed at 3 year olds and most are Christian based I think:

Sonlight P3/4 (You have to look under the kindergarten section now when looking this up and it is not so easy to find on their websire but it is there)
ABCJesusLovesme which I believe is free
Hands on Homeschooling
Letter of the Week
Hubbardscupboard
Five in a Row (well really Before Five in a Row)

Only Sonlight, Hands on Homeschooling and Before Five in a Row will send you things - the rest are free curriculua online. Neither of the two bought curricula will send you absolutely everything as the crafts they do require you to have certain things at home. I have used Sonlight and Hands on Homeschooling and they are both good curricula though very different - Sonlight is very much Literature based and Hands on Homeschooling is based around activities. Before Five in a Row is also Literature based.

[Skylark]

Tanikit,

Thank you for these recommendations! I have not heard of Sonlight, and it was really interesting to check their website!

In fact I found it really helpful to go to their list of books included in each curriculum. We happened to have about half of the ones included for 3 years olds, and the rest of the list with book descriptions, gave me a good idea what other books I should be on a look out for   

I really liked their selection!

[Skylark]

Here are some other curriculum resources that I heard of, even though I have not used any of these apart from Abeka ( which is great, but pricey)

You can take a look and do some research on these ones as well:


http://www.tapestryofgrace.com

It's a plan of study that helps parents provide a Christian, classical education using a guided unit study approach, with the history of the world as the core organizational theme. From Grades K–12, all students cycle through world history every four years, with all ages studying the same slice of history each week, each at their own learning level. Detailed lesson plans and discussion outlines enable parents to be their children’s primary teachers and mentors and shape their students’ biblical worldviews.

http://www.heartofdakota.com/little-hands.php

Little Hands to Heaven is a collection of 33 units based on stories from the Bible. Each unit has a theme centered around Bible characters. The activities in each unit coordinate with the daily Bible stories.

http://www.time4learning.com/

Time4Learning is a new approach that takes advantage of today's technology. It's a convenient, online home education program that combines learning with fun educational teaching games.
The online language arts and math comprise a comprehensive program for preschool, elementary school, and middle school. Science and social studies programs are provided as a free bonus for most grades.

http://www.abeka.com

Abeka also have some pre-K materials

[mother of faith]

www.carlscorner.us.com
www.abcmouse.com   My FAV!
www.completecurruculum.com

[timandsveta]

Thank you all who replied! It's all very useful My friend and I have a lot web sites to check thanks to you

[mother of faith]

I myself with teaching my preschoolers is that the more hands on stuff you have the busier you are and the more the kids enjoy learning. As you know LO's love getting their hands on everything so there fore using that to your advantage is the key. Having workboxes or centers as some call them set up around the room is a great way to learn. We set down on the carpet for instruction time or theme study time, and then go to the centers one by one. The children have partners and a card that is stamped when they go from center to center. as they are at the centers music is played with a time once the time usually 10 minutes is up the groups of children rotate to the centers. when the groups have visited every center they return to their seats for arts and crafts.

[timandsveta]

That sounds like a great idea to organize the lessons! Thank you for sharing

[Dr Miles R Jones]

If you want to teach your pre-schooler to read and do math try jonesgeniuses.com Threshold to Reading & Matrix Math.

[KeriBerry]

We used Time4Learning with my son for prek if that helps any    Wish I could offer more, but that is all we used as far as an all in one type of program.

[lois1]

I just got the preK curriculum or Letter of the week curriculum from http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/ It's very inexpensive but appears quite comprehensive. Haven't even started using it yet but all the content is downloadable, it looks very straightforward & has a very helpful materials list at the beginning.

Lois

Edit: just noticed that Tanikit already mentioned letter of the week

[Lisac]

I used 'What your Preschooler Needs to Know" along with the corresponding activity book. My son loved it!
Link to the book is below.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385341989/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0881661465&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=175W1Y4ASMTJ8XMV3D9E

Also if you go to www.coreknowledge.org you can down load lesson plans for various ages and topics.

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