teaching materials

[Neeley]

Hi everyone.

My daughter isn't quite three yet, but I will be homeschooling her when the time comes.
Does anyone have any suggestions for good teaching materials, I'm especially looking for books or online resources.
There seems to be so much out there, but a lot of it looks dry and boring and its hard to weed through it all.
Thank for the help.

[vegma]

Hi Neeley, I haven't responded to this since you specifically asked for books or on-line teaching resources, but ... I am now!

You mentioned the things you've found so far are dry and boring. What about doing things with your child that you both find fun? Just reading to her every day will help instill a love of reading. Talk about things that interest her. Answer her questions. Play games. I'm amazed at how much math my child has picked up from games such as dice games, Monopoly and others. I count checkers, chess, and legos as math time because of the thought process/logic involved in playing them. Playing with tape measures, cooking, counting money, telling time - all are life skills that fall into the math category.

Science is "easy" too. We love to look at the stars, and my husband is sharing his love of astronomy with our son. We garden - think how much science is involved in this process! We have found some books with simple science experiments that are fun to do and educational too. We love to watch and identify birds and other "critters" that live near us, and we also enjoy reading about other animals in their natural habitats.

Just remember that as a homeschooler you don't have to recreate a school setting! You can set the pace and follow your and your child's interests and have fun doing it!

[Christa]

When your daughter starts to express an interest in early reading, www.starfall.com is a great site for teaching early phonics and reading.

[crunchychristianmom]

Neeley- what a great thread idea!

Christa, thanks for the starfall site tip. My 5yr old and 3yr old love to practice writing their letters. I was able to print out some fun letter tracing sheets for free! It's a great resource for parents.

Vegma, I loved your tip as well. I'm trying to be more mindful of using everyday activities as teaching tools.

-Cheri

[xstayposix]

Thse posts have all been very helpful as I have been thinking the same thing. My son is almost 3 and loves his books. He also loves kitties and puppies. If you children loves animals and you have more then one of them you could help them learn counting and adding by going over how many animals your family has and talking about their ages.