Here is a look at what we will be using for Mr. T’s pre-K3 learning this fall. For our letter recognition and beginning reading and writing, we will be using D is for Dinosaur by Ken and Mally Ham which is a great Creationism resource as well, Get Ready for the Code  is recommended for children with Apraxia as it is based on the Orton Gillingham Method, LeapFrog: Letter Factory DVD, and Kumon My First Book Of Uppercase Letters. We will be using Before Five in a Row and rowing the books we already have for “break” weeks when Mr. T and mom need a lighter load.

Mudpies to Magnets has great pre-K science fun, and we also have Kid Concoctions of Biblical Proportions for fun easy science stuff but it’s a little more difficult to find. We got our like new copy at Goodwill, a great place to look for $1 kids books! The Story of the World Volume 1(an excellent history curriculum especially if you love classical learning) is part of our read aloud stash for this year.

Games! Well, it is preschool! We have Chutes and Ladders, My World ABC Game, and Dr Seuss Super Stretchy ABCs. I think we will be having a lot of fun. Mr. T has already gotten into C and L and the My World games but I’m saving Super Stretchy for a rainy or rough day. Games are a great way to get back on track when Mr. T and I are “off”.

 

We have our First Field Guides for nature study, which I hope to be incorporating a lot more of since Mr. F is now mobile and eager to explore. We are using The Way They SEE It, ARTistic Pursuits for our art curriculum and it is fabulous! Art is one thing we will be doing on a structured schedule because the motor planning and motor skills it helps refine are things Mr. T is working on in OT. And I love our See & Spell (it’s another great Melissa and Doug toy) and the awesome Sandpaper Letters Kit we have. Tactile learning is such a huge benefit of Montessori, and the sensory input is a big help for Mr. T. He’s making huge leaps and I am so proud of how hard he is working.

 

We are focusing on character training, since that is our main job as parents to train up our children in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6) and we have some wonderful resources to aid us in that. Good Morning, God is a fantastic book by Davis Carman of Apologia and there is a Coloring Book, too. The Child Training Bible is such a great help to us when it comes to giving a “why” we do or do not do things. We are using the Character Quality sheets and verses from His Sunflower Blog by Rachael Carman. They are free and printable so you can use one sheet with multiple children and have the same character lesson. And a super sweet book I’d Be Your Hero. It is a wonderful story to help teach young boys about godly character, and it’s between a little boy and his mommy so it’s especially sweet for me to read. We also have our morning devotional for the boys, VeggieTales 365 Day Starter Devos for Boys that we use each morning at breakfast with Mr. J to start the day off right!

Mr. T LOVES counting. So we are beginning with Math-U-See primer. I am only planning on using it one or two days a week, we will see how much Mr. T wants to use it and go from there. I have a huge number of manipulatives I happened across on Ebay when Mr. T was about 18 months old and the price was so great I bought them and have been saving them ever since. If you keep your eye out (or set up Ebay or Google alerts) you can usually find almost anything you need at a good price used.

Our major Read Alouds for this year are A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, Mother West Wind When Stories, and The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter . We will include some additional poetry and our day to day reading when the boys want book time, but these are for our pre-lunch daily read aloud time. We do reading, lunch and then nap for Mr. F or, if I’m lucky, both boys!

The Well Planned Day is my first real planner in years! It seems like a lot for a pre-K3 year, right? I have to tell you that I needed a daily/monthly planner for me. I need one place I can keep track of what we are doing at home school wise, Mr. J’s schedule so I know which nights we have family dinners and what I will be fixing for them, one place for grocery lists, budgets, therapy appointments, obligations, church functions outside of the normal Sunday/Wednesday meetings, play dates, birthdays, anniversaries, travel, and even blogging schedules. This is it! I love it! I so don’t have it all together and I know this will be a huge help in keeping our home better organized and our lives as simple as possible. I highly recommend this planner, as well as doing your initial scheduling in pencil. Flexibility is key!

 

And this little book is our special project for this year. It’s a cute little book from Build a Bear that Mimi picked up for Mr. T since he loves to cook. That was before he was put on his gluten free diet, so we are going to be trying out 2 new recipes a month (just for Mr. T’s book) and if they are awesome and Mr. T loves them, we will print them on some special paper we are going to be picking out together next week, and putting them into his book. I’m really excited about this since most of the recipes in his previous books we used to use are really far from gluten/artificial preservative and dye/soy free.

Schedule wise you must be thinking I’m nuts right about now ;). But I have no intention of finishing anything but our read alouds this school year. I am planning on keeping everything short and sweet day to day, but Mr. T really did beautifully with the structure of the preschool class last year so I want to continue that with him at home since he really thrives with structure.

Mr. F will be enjoying lots of play time and Montessori activities just like Mr. T did at his age, and will be joining us for reading and nature fun. I’m hoping to find a good balance between keeping Mr. T on task and Mr. F out of too much trouble! Any suggestions are most welcome!

What sort of fun things are you using in your homeschool this year? If you have a post, please leave the link in the comments so we can come and see! I love sharing ideas and new resources.

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