Preschool at Home

I don't plan on homeschooling. Sydney, however, is very interested in learning to read, write, do crafts and "school work". And I think it would be unfair for me not to follow her lead and provide her with learning activities. She goes to Mothers Day Out, but at this point I feel like it is my job to teach her basic academic skills.

She knows all of her colors, shapes. She knows all of her letters, upper and lower case. She can count to twenty, with some mistakes. She can spell her name, and write "most" upper case letters. We are working on reading, right now we are focusing on three letter words that end in -at and -an. When she has that down 100% we will move on. But she doesn't as of yet.

I am a big ole' fan of montessori methods, so I use some of the following websites with free downloads. I get most of my info from Montessori Free Fall . The author is one smart cookie. She does Montessori Preschool from home with her daughter and another little girl she keeps. She so knows her stuff. She also has a great list of other Montessori blogs, which I also reference. I print the downloads on my color printer and send them to school with my mother to laminate. Then I will cut up the activities and we work together.

Free downloads:

Montessori for Everyone

Homemade Montessori

Montessori Materials

Syd's most favorite reading site, which she does activities online, is Starfall . She has been through all of the ABCs and we are on the first level of Learning to Read.

For handwriting, prefixes, suffixes, weather, calendars I think Carl's Corner can't be beat! It could take hours to go through and organize.

For things OTHER than just language arts/reading, Kids Zone is fab! We use everything in the math section.

I got the link to Carl's Corner, and get most of my book recommendations at Painted Rainbows and Chamomile Dreams . The author plans on homeschooling, and I love to read all of the things she does with her two kids. I do get frustrated, however, because she apparently has a more extensive library selection than I do. I often can't find the books that I know Syd would love and I can't afford to buy them.

For CRAFTS I am a huge lover of No Time for Flashcards . 90% of the crafts we do come from there. Once you get a basic art supply cabinet ready you can pretty much do anything on her site. I will post an art supply cabinet list in the near future.

I always read Let's Explore, Create . Not everything on her site is a craft but they do the coolest stuff. Our love bugscame from there.

I also reference The Artful Parent, and you can bet we will be doing THIS this very week! And Mama can't wait!

So, that is enough for anyone to get started. I definitely have more, so let me know if you are interested in other subjects, etc.