Highly Recommended and really all you need for your Preschooler:

• What Your Preschooler Needs to Know: Get Ready for Kindergarten” by Ed Hirsch
• Year 0 outline by Ambleside
• The New Bible for Little Eyes by Kenneth Taylor or My First Bible in Picture by Kenneth Taylor
• Lots of love-hugs-kisses-and cookies (okay, that’s really more for mommy, but we won’t tell them that)
• Lots of playtime
• Lots of crayon and blank paper to go to town with
• GO OUTSIDE-they have the rest of their lives to discover t.v. so having a lot of fresh air won’t hurt them;If you haven’t introduced them to t.v.-Don’t; It’s not a necessary and educational programs, unless a parent is sitting with the child, really isn’t beneficial as picking up a book and reading to them.

Thank you to Alicia of A Magical Childhood for allowing me to reprint the following excerpt from her article, “What Should a 4 Year old Know?” .

If you would like to read the article in it’s full entirety, I highly recommend it to those who are wondering about homeschooling with pre-K children in the household

1. She should know that she is loved wholly and unconditionally, all of the time.

2. He should know that he is safe and he should know how to keep himself safe in public, with others, and in varied situations. He should know that he can trust his instincts about people and that he never has to do something that doesn’t feel right, no matter who is asking. He should know his personal rights and that his family will back them up.

3. She should know how to laugh, act silly, be goofy and use her imagination. She should know that it is always okay to paint the sky orange and give cats 6 legs.

4. He should know his own interests and be encouraged to follow them. If he could care less about learning his numbers, his parents should realize he’ll learn them accidentally soon enough and let him immerse himself instead in rocket ships, drawing, dinosaurs or playing in the mud.

5. She should know that the world is magical and that so is she. She should know that she’s wonderful, brilliant, creative, compassionate and marvelous. She should know that it’s just as worthy to spend the day outside making daisy chains, mud pies and fairy houses as it is to practice phonics. Scratch that– way more worthy.

But more important, here’s what parents need to know.

1. That every child learns to walk, talk, read and do algebra at his own pace and that it will have no bearing on how well he walks, talks, reads or does algebra.

2. That the single biggest predictor of high academic achievement and high ACT scores is reading to children. Not flash cards, not workbooks, not fancy preschools, not blinking toys or computers, but mom or dad taking the time every day or night (or both!) to sit and read them wonderful books.

3. That being the smartest or most accomplished kid in class has never had any bearing on being the happiest. We are so caught up in trying to give our children “advantages” that we’re giving them lives as multi-tasked and stressful as ours. One of the biggest advantages we can give our children is a simple, carefree childhood.

4. That our children deserve to be surrounded by books, nature, art supplies and the freedom to explore them. Most of us could get rid of 90% of our children’s toys and they wouldn’t be missed, but some things are important– building toys like legos and blocks, creative toys like all types of art materials (good stuff), musical instruments (real ones and multicultural ones), dress up clothes and books, books, books. (Incidentally, much of this can be picked up quite cheaply at thrift shops.) They need to have the freedom to explore with these things too– to play with scoops of dried beans in the high chair (supervised, of course), to knead bread and make messes, to use paint and play dough and glitter at the kitchen table while we make supper even though it gets everywhere, to have a spot in the yard where it’s absolutely fine to dig up all the grass and make a mud pit.

5. That our children need more of us. We have become so good at saying that we need to take care of ourselves that some of us have used it as an excuse to have the rest of the world take care of our kids. Yes, we all need undisturbed baths, time with friends, sanity breaks and an occasional life outside of parenthood. But we live in a time when parenting magazines recommend trying to commit to 10 minutes a day with each child and scheduling one Saturday a month as family day. That’s not okay! Our children don’t need Nintendos, computers, after school activities, ballet lessons, play groups and soccer practice nearly as much as they need US.

They need fathers who sit and listen to their days, mothers who join in and make crafts with them, parents who take the time to read them stories and act like idiots with them. They need us to take walks with them and not mind the .1 MPH pace of a toddler on a spring night. They deserve to help us make supper even though it takes twice as long and makes it twice as much work. They deserve to know that they’re a priority for us and that we truly love to be with them.-from Alicia of A Magical Childhood ,article, “What Should a 4 Year old Know?

If you would like to see what we are doing, here’s a down- loadable copy of our preschool schedule.

The purpose of this schedule is really more for a “mental reassurance”. Preschool is not only not recommended by Charlotte Mason, Ambleside or really by any state laws.

The schedule is really tojust help provide a “visual reassurance” to “doubting Thomases” in your life and if you are in a situation, you just want something that says…”will this make you happy” or that someone is questioning about homeschooling and dealing with young kids and you can provide a “visual” to well..relieve their concerns more than yourself.

Don’t worry. Give yourself a pat on the back. We know you’re doing a good job and not just sitting “on the job”.

“In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mothers first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet and growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it for the most part spent out in the fresh air.”-Charlotte Mason

Welcome back!