Homeschool World Forum

Hey there. Extremely new to this and am looking at possibly homeschooling my preschool children at least until kindergarten or longer if things are working out well for us. With the economy the way it is I am looking for inexpensive or even free ways of providing a quality education for my child. Any tips, tricks, or advice would be much appreciated.

Here are some free educational sites that might be helpful:

http://www.funfonix.com/

http://www.starfall.com/

http://www.everythingpreschool.com/

http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/

http://letteroftheweek.com/

http://www.projectsforpreschoolers.com/

And, of course, the local public library is a wonderful place to get tons of free resources for your preschooler too! (books, dvds, books on cd, story time and other educational programs, etc.)

Preschool / kindergarten is basically just arts and crafts (fingerpaint, Play Doh, crayons, etc.), letters, numbers, and phonics. All of that is really pretty easy to do on your own, except maybe phonics, and for that there are a variety of packaged curricula you can buy for a few hundred dollars or less. We most recently used Sing, Spell, Read and Write, though that was well over a decade ago.

I am all about the free and the cheap. You can absolutely teach preschool at home. I love doing preschool with my son. I started a blog because I might be obsessed with teaching (I got my degree in education). It's preschoolmommy.blogspot.com My rules for preschool are
1. Keep it short and sweet. A rule of thumb I go by is their attention span in minuts is equivalent to their age. That doesn't mean that you make preschool 3-4 minutes. It just means that each activity should last about 3-5 minutes before moving on. Also, as you switch activities, switch locations. Do some writing at the table, then sit on the couch to read a book.
2. The more hands-on the better. Let them touch, explore, learn.
3. Relax. Enjoy it.