Teachable Tuesdays: Homeschool Curriculum Choices - Part 2: Preschool

Please ignore the mess in the background.
Here is a rare picture of all 3 kids at the table for school-time!

Our third official year of homeschooling begins June 4^th. But, this year will be much different than the previous two years. This year I will not only school our oldest (2^nd grade), but also our two Middles (ages 3 & 2). WOW!!! Can I tell you how nervous I am? Yet I’m also so excited to see them learn and grow!! I didn’t get to school our oldest at this young age, so I’m bursting with excitement, joy, and overwhelming anxiety all at the same time!

Anxiety you ask? Yep! I have it all planned out on paper and even a rough schedule outlined so we can mostly stay on task. This year will really stretch me, because I am an on-time, task oriented, Type A personality and well…that doesn’t compute with my Middles. So, it should be interesting, fun and a wonderful year of learning for everyone!

I wanted to share with you our preschool curriculum choices for our upcoming school year. The links I am providing in no way give me commission or any compensation. It’s merely to give you a reference. I did not necessarily purchase my products from the site I link to. I researched and found the least expensive option and ordered/bought from there. I’ll share more about that at the end of this post, so stay tuned!!! Next week I’ll share how we structure our school days.

Okay, so our choices for Preschool are obviously less than those for our 2^nd grader. But, somehow that makes this task much more daunting! Nevertheless, I have finally decided on the following choices.

BrainyBaby Series: Last year my grandmother bought the entire Brainy Baby system for about a quarter of the original price!! And I plan to use every last bit of it with my Middles! We will use it to introduce our shapes, colors, numbers, letters and music this year. I also have Spanish, Sign Language and Art, but that will have to wait another year or so. I’m not that ambitious!!

ABeka: I will use this curriculum for our Numbers and Letters. We will do one Number per month and one Letter per week for Mister Mouse. Miss Priss will probably just color along and get some of it, but I don’t expect her to get it all. She just turned two, so it could get interesting! But, I do want her to know her numbers for sure, so that’s what we’ll mainly focus on this year with her.

I will also use the A Beka curriculum for most of our Arts and Crafts projects. They have some fun, creative and easy ideas that I’d like to take advantage of.

Bible: I don’t have a particular curriculum to use in this area. I like to read the Bible stories to them and find pictures they can color or activities we can do to reinforce what God’s word says. We will do this Bible reading time with Mister Bull as part of our Family Bible time during our school day.

As most Homeschooling Mom’s will tell you, it is so wonderful to be able to find and print so many FREE and wonderful papers online now!! I use these papers as fillers and supplementals to our other curriculum.

Here are a few of my favorite spots to find them:

SchoolExpress (over 17,000 FREE printables in a variety of subjects)

Kidszone (easy to find, sorted by grade or topic)

BiblePrintables (some great printables on this site. Easy to find too!)
All Kids Network (a fabulous resource for crafts, worksheets & activities!)

Some blogs I subscribe to also have stores where they offer their own curriculum. I’ve been very pleased with the ones I’ve purchased from:

HeavenlyHomemakers

MommySchool @ Oopsey Daisy 

(be sure and check out her Freebies tab too!)

So, that’s our curriculum for Preschool! What’s your favorite Preschool curriculum? I would love to hear what you are using or have used in the past. Or do you just do your own thing?

Now, I promised you I would fill you in on all my curriculum deals. Honestly, it takes quite a bit of effort to find the best deals, but believe me…it pays off!!! Here’s where I search for my deals.

Amazon

Half.com 

(a subsidiary of Ebay)

Christianbook.com

Timberdoodle

Individual Manufacturers (A Beka, RightStart)

Mardel - Yes, the Christian book store!! They have 2 semi-annual Homeschool/Education Sales and I watch for others throughout the year! In fact, I got our Apologia curriculum 30% off this year!!! YAY!!

Bibliomania (a local Homeschool re-sale/consignment shop. I don’t find too much here for what I need, but sometimes my teacher’s manuals and our A Beka readers for cheap!)

So, there ya have it!! I take several weeks usually to search out the above websites and stores and factor in upcoming sales, coupons, discounts, shipping, etc. before making my final orders. Like I said, it can be a lengthy process, but it’s well worth it for the money I save!

Feel free to share in the comments or leave a link back to your own post!! I love reading all your tips and ideas! I am always open to researching for new curriculum to see if it would work for us! We learn by sharing!! Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Annette

Linking up here:

What Joy Is Mine

Far Above Rubies

Teaching What is Good

Raising Mighty Arrows

Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling

*HOT* Brainy Baby Sale

I have to tell you about this HUGE sale going on over at the Brainy Store. Being a homeschooling mother, I am always on the lookout for great toddler/preschool curriculum. While these should NOT replace actual curriculum, they are a GREAT supplement

We have had the ABC, 123, Animal and Shapes books since my oldest was a year old. We’ve have replaced a couple of them because they love them so much! The books are a durable boardbook so the kiddos have difficulty tearing them up. And, because they are thicker than normal pages, they are easier for little hands to turn the pages.

Recently we purchased the entire set (above) for the middles (ages 1.5yr and 3yr). I use them in the mornings when I am teaching my older son. I put in a new video each day (there are 8 total), place them in their high-chairs and give them a snack to eat while they watch. They love watching the kids on the videos sing, dance and do motions. The bright colors used on the videos really help engage them. My daughter (age 1.5yr) is already picking up on the ABC’s and I have even caught her singing along! My son (age 3) can now count to 15 by himself!!!

Now, I don't expect the videos to do everything. So,. I reinforce what they’ve watched in the videos with the books and flashcards. The flashcards are colorful and easy to read (both for the kids and adult!). The pictures on the flashcards are kid-friendly and easy to identify, which helps promote learning. There is a book and flashcard set for every video, which makes it so easy to reinforce what they have just watched. Plus, my middles love, love, love the extra time they get with momma!

You can also purchase the Booster Bundle (above) to complete your collection!

These deals are too FABULOUS to pass up if you have a toddler or are expecting a new bundle of JOY.

Blessings,

Annette

These are my opinions based my observations and use with my own children. I received no compensation for this review. These opinions are mine and mine alone.