Someone tell me they love KidSparkz

[Voodoo_Bryn]

We're looking for a pre-school curriculum and I came across this site. Who has it? Is it good? It seems priced perfect for us right now, but I don't want to get it if it's not a great program.

[BrattyMeg]

I don't know how advanced your wee one is but for preschool, I'd just do lots of hands on activities, letters, numbers, colors, and just stimulate his imagination and mind..and you can do that for free! You can get dollar books if you need to from the dollar store..i'd jst do more activities and get him curious. Do you have a children's museum, science center, etc in your area? if so engage him in fun activities and read read read to him!

If you want extra that program looks kinda cute and fun..it doesn't seem like anything you can't put together on your own though. Browse the $1 section at Target..they have flash cards and stuff if you want to do a little at a time

Good Luck!! I don't think anything you do with him as far as learning could be wrong! Do you plan to homeschool in K onward?

[Voodoo_Bryn]

We're seriously considering it. Since the boys are only 16 months apart, I figure it might be pretty easy, since their curriculums won't be too different.

And I'm feeling a little disappointed with all the budget cuts Calif has been making to the public schools. =(

[Sharon Kay]

You might check out abcteach.com ... I used to be their crafts editor a few years back... there is a TON of stuff in their member area...and the cost is inexpensive especially if teaching different ages!

[Darcy Baldwin]

I'm with Meg, Bryn. To me, preschool doesn't need standard curriculums. There's so much you can do for free with a little prep time. abcteach.com, letteroftheweek.com, having them involved with you in doing everything and how you can teach through it, reading reading reading reading reading!!!

[Sharon Kay]

When it's time to learn how to read...my boys liked the "BOB" books by Scholastic

[Voodoo_Bryn]

Hmmm... I think a lot of you girls had experience with children before you had them, lol. I'm completely clueless. I never had any time with kids before my two "sweet surprises", haha. Yorick is only 2 and a half, but I feel like all of my friends' kids knew their abc's and numbers by this age. =(

I just feel like I won't feel so lost and exhausted of ideas if I had a curriculum made for me. And he doesn't get to participate in learning activities since we don't do daycare or church. So I feel like megafail there.

[LenaGardner]

Well I can tell you Naomi is 2 1/2 and doesn't know those sorts of things...she can count to 10 (spottily) and knows a handful of colors...and she has great communication skills and speech...but she couldn't identify a letter or sing the abc's.

Anyway, I was out this weekend and picked up some really inexpensive homepreschooling supplies. Where we live and because of our income level I could send Naomi to Head Start starting in October when she turns 3, but I will not. I do not trust the school system where we live's ability to educate a child properly and I cannot afford private school. She will qualify / need 3 years of preschool due to when her birthday falls...so we're doing it at home.

Will I send her to Kindergarten in 3 years? I might. It depends on how I feel about the school at that time. I never saw myself as a homechooler (not certain I have the patience and confidence) but I won't rule it out.

Parker and Naomi, due to birthdays, will be in piggybacking grades...so I'm with you Brynn...it may be for us.

What I picked up were things she'd really like...Care Bear flash cards with shapes and colors, Disney Princess flash cards with numbers on them, and a Winnie the Pooh workbook with basic preschool concepts (color the carrot orange, etc..). We have safety scissors, glue sticks and construction paper, and sensory stuff like water, play dough and oatmeal to play with. This fall I plan on working with her 2 afternoons a week and work up to more...but as for a specific curriculum...nothin' for me

Good luck though and I'll be watching this thread for pointers because I don't exactly know what I'm doing

[Misty Cato]

Take a deep breath Bryn, the fact that you care so much shows you are doing just fine. I have to tell you that before I had my kids, I was soooo not a 'kids' person. I never babysat growing up and felt lost whenever surrounded by little people. Of course, I've fallen in love with my little ones and my world pretty much revolves around them, but I'm learning from the ground up, much like you.

My son is 4.5 now. I tried doing some structured stuff around 2-3 years, but I found my son really wasn't wired for structure of any kind at that age. Their brains are really geared to learning through experiences. I found I had much more success if I just exposed him to a bunch of stuff and then when his brain latched onto something I ran with it. He loved tractors, so we went to construction sites and watched them work. I found I could 'slip' in bits of learning as we went along "Tractor starts with T. Want to see what a 'T' looks like?" That sort of thing. Later he got excited about space ships and we learned the planets. A few months later it was dinosaurs and we learned height/measurements in terms of the relative size of dinosaurs. To me it is less important what he is learning, then that he develops a love of learning and experiencing new things.

[Darcy Baldwin]

^^ What she said

Bryn - I'm still not a kid person and I have 2 of 'em LOL At least not a wee little kid person.

Personally, I feel that your boys are just a little too young for curriculum. Having idea books to read on for ideas for you is a great idea. I devoured them at that age because I didn't have a clue what to do with wee ones. Something we did was take a book that we loved to read, and build a few activities around it to learn about. So, for Very Hungry Caterpillar, we learned about the days of the week, food choices, good foods/bad foods and color. We also learned about counting sequences (learning what # follows another), and sequence (what parts of the story come next). It took just an hour or so of planning on my part, we played with it during the week, and then moved on to something else. Brown Bear Brown Bear can be done using color play all week, etc. I'd just read the book everyday, do an activity or repeat one, and then go off and sort clothes together for laundry and talk about the clothes and what colors they were and what we wear during what season.

I just want to emphasize that you don't HAVE to have a curriculum at an age where they are just interested in absolutely everything. Not saying curriculum is bad...just that you're at such a young age, and they have a million school years ahead of them...

I am trying to remember some of the books I read and used, but just hit the child development section of your library and you'll find tons. Things to do with 2's and Things to do with 3's..that's one of the series I remember being really good.

I just want to encourage you that no matter what way you choose that's best for your family, you're going to do great, and the boys aren't going to be dumb. You're a step forward because you've such a big desire to do this for them!

[Voodoo_Bryn]

yeah, maybe I just need a couple of idea books, because I'm at a complete loss. I think I'm the one that needs structure, darcy, lol.

[Darcy Baldwin]

Totally get that - I'm the one that needs structure, too!

[dana]

bryn, i totally get what you mean i have tons of books that i use to come up with ideas - plus i read a bunch of kids craft/learning blogs. what works for me is to come up with weekly 'themes' and then compile of list of things that go with that theme ...then i pick from that list whenever it's craft time, etc. i also just try to 'think' of that theme when we're doing other things b/c maybe i can work it in our 'normal' play too ...

also - i try to do a letter craft each day (i don't always get there!) and talk about letters and their sounds w/out being too boring! (my daughter turns 3 this october) .... we sing ABCs a lot and she knows a lot of her letters/numbers just from our normal play and what her toys are ...

e.g., this week, i'm doing rainbows/colors ... some ideas i have:
playing with paint in rainbow colors - and mixing colors to make new colors
playing with food coloring/water and mixing colors to make new colors (she loves to do this LOL)
various rainbow crafts w/ coloring/contruction paper etc ...
making rainbow cupcakes
doing a rainbow muffin tin for lunch
reading rainbow books and singing rain/rainbow/sun songs
making a rainbow colored 'R'
make rainbow colored ice cubes and play in bath with paints
write color words on paper and play games to stick them to things in the house that are that color
color memory game (w/ little squares of colors)
etc etc etc .... u get the idea

[dana]

also, we're bilingual so i do everything in english and french - so that doubles a lot of the stuff above