Early Learning & Preschool
Children learn from birth, so the concept of homeschooling a preschooler is easy to contemplate. Get information on how to make early learning fun and enjoyable for you and your child.
Homeschool Preschool Curriculum
Time4Learning
The Time4Learning preschool program combines technology, animated characters, original stories and fun music to inspire a love of learning in the littlest e-learners. Ed Mouse and his friends guide children through more than forty topics such as numbers, letters, rhymes, self, time, music and colors.
Alpha Omega Publications Mathematics Resources for Homeschoolers
These workbooks help teach pre-K concepts such as time, counting, and more.
Living Math
Early exposure to real mathematics in natural settings, without requiring mastery of arithmetic on a set timetable is a key to the ease with which kids attain mastery when the time is right for them. Math literature and history humanizes math, makes it come alive, and provides a context to enjoy and retain learning. This wonderful site offers a literature-based approach to math learning, with book lists, lesson plans, and more.
Math on the Level
Math on the Level is a flexible, maturation-based, homeschool math curriculum with a very effective review system. It's unique approach is designed to turn your home environment into a rich, real-life learning experience and make math education meaningful and fun for your whole family.
- Teach when it is easy for your child to learn
- Use everyday activities to make math real
- Review for long term retention without busywork
JumpStart Free Preschool Curriculum
Preschool is a time of rapid growth and development. While the preschool curriculum is designed keeping in mind the physical and intellectual developmental characteristics of 2 – 5 year olds, there are certain milestones that most preschoolers should achieve before they begin kindergarten.
Numbers Plus - Preschool Mathematics Curriculum
The Numbers Plus Preschool Mathematics Curriculum is a comprehensive set of detailed plans for small- and large-group early childhood mathematics activities, with ideas for extending learning throughout the program day. What’s special about Numbers Plus is that children’s mathematical learning is sequenced within activities — each activity has a built-in progression so children of different developmental and ability levels can participate together and have a positive and meaningful learning experience. By actively engaging young children with materials and ideas, Numbers Plus builds on the latest knowledge from research and practice about early mathematics learning and how adults support it.
TouchMath
This pre-K homeschool math unit download includes an implementation guide, module guides with instructional strategies, student activity sheets, answer keys, progress monitoring, and vocabulary. Designed for ages 3-4, it covers counting and number sense, comparing and classifying, sorting, graphing, patterning, 2-D and 3-D shapes, coins, and representing quantities and shapes.
Math-U-See Primer
In the Primer level your child will learn not only how to write numerals but also addition and subtraction, basic counting, skip counting, geometric shapes, telling time, and they will be introduced to the manipulative block system. It’s a gentle introduction to "doing math."
JumpStart Free Math Curriculum
Homeschooling parents will find that when it comes to choosing the curriculum for math, there is a huge variety available. In fact, the number of math curriculums available to choose from may make choosing the right one difficult. These supplemental math activities for grades K-5 are fun ways to incorporate more math into your homeschooling.
ABC Mouse Homeschool Early Learning Academy
The ABCmouse.com Homeschool Early Learning Academy offers these features:
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- More than 5,000 learning activities in Reading, Math, Beginning Science, Social Studies, Art, and Music
- A full online preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten curriculum
- A Step-by-Step Learning Path that guides your child through the curriculum at his or her own pace
- Our powerful Lesson Builder tool that allows you to create your own lessons for your child
Things to See & Do in Virginia with Preschoolers
Mill Mountain Zoo
Mill Mountain Zoo in Roanoke exhibits 45 species of exotic and native animals on a ten acre site. Winding pathways and observation areas provide close viewing of such animals as a Siberian Tiger, Red Pandas, Golden Lion Tamarins, Hawks, Tree Kangaroos, and reptiles. A popular contact area includes goats and small mammals which children can learn about up close. During the summer season, programs are presented on the Zoo's amphitheater located at the top of Mill Mountain with beautiful views of the Roanoke Valley below.
Virginia Zoological Park
Located on 53 acres adjacent to Norfolk's Lafayette Park, the Zoo was established in 1901 as a City Park and has over 375 animals and features one of the finest Africa habitats in the country. The 8-acre Africa exhibit is aptly named Okavango Delta, because it is representative of the actual Okavango Delta region in Botswana, Africa.
Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center
Located in Virginia Beach, the Virginia Marine Science Museum features a total of 800,000 gallons of aquariums, live animal habitats, more than 300 hands-on exhibits, nature trail, aviary, and an IMAX theater.
Resources
Explode The Code
Explode The Code provides a sequential, systematic approach to phonics in which students blend sounds to build vocabulary and read words, phrases, sentences, and stories. Frequent review of previously learned concepts helps increase retention. Each workbook in this series contains exercises that incorporate reading, writing, matching and copying. The consistent format of the books helps facilitate independent work. This series includes primers—Get Ready for The Code, Get Set for The Code, and Go for The Code—which introduce initial consonant sounds. In addition, Beyond The Code provides a comprehension component introducing basic comprehension skills with phonetically controlled stories. You'll find product information here.
Bob Books
Bob Books are organized into sets that progress in level as your child learns. They have cute stories and darling illustrations. These books are perfect for children ages 4 to 8.
Pattern Blocks and Boards
This set of 10 simply designed colorful wooden blocks and pattern boards includes 100 blocks in six different shapes and colors. They help develop shape recognition and spatial relationship skills. The contents store neatly in a durable wooden case. This games was awarded the Scholastic Parent & Child's 2004 "Top 22 Toys that Make Kids Think" award.
Happy Phonics
Happy Phonics uses games to teach early reading skills. Simple yet entertaining and educational, these phonics games are printed on colorful, sturdy cardstock ready to cut out. Included is a mother-friendly guidebook which contains details on how to teach phonics and reading, how to pronounce and teach the phonics sounds, how to make your own simple beginning readers, and step-by-step teaching information for each phonics sound. Happy Phonics covers beginning to advanced phonics.
Bead Sequencing Set
Stack the durable, brightly colored wooden beads on 5 hardwood dowels in sequence to match the design on one of the pattern cards. Builds complex reasoning skills as well as sorting and coordination. Includes over 45 brilliantly colored beads, 5 dowels, and 10 patterns that increase in difficulty.
Preschool/Early Learning Games and Activities
8 Preschool Math Ideas Using Toy Vehicles
These fun math activities use simple toy cars to teach ordinal numbers, sorting, counting, number recognition, subitizing, patterns, colors, and addition.
Pre-K Mathematics Activities
This 49 page pdf file contains scores of activities to teach math concepts to preschoolers.
Coin Poems
These fun printables feature poems to help young children learn the value of coins.
Number Chants and Counting Songs: Teaching Early Mathematics Skills, Shapes, Money and Telling Time
A selection of songs and lyrics from a variety of different albums teaching how to count, recognize shapes, use the concept of zero, use units of measurement and money.
Lego Challenge Math Activity-Free Printable
Practicing math skills like spatial awareness and geometry can be fun, especially when the math activity involves Legos! Here’s a free printable math challenge for kids using Lego or Duplo bricks!
Pom Pom Math Activities
These fun math games help encourage counting and color matching using pom poms.
A Car Parking Numbers Game
This inexpensive and easy to create game uses small toy cars to teach numbers.
Easter Egg Matching Activity
This matching activity for younger kids can be made out of plastic Easter eggs.
Board, Card and Dice Games for Learning Math, Logic and Strategy
This list is a great start to incorporating fun activities and games into your homeschool math curriculum.
Math Songs
These cute math songs help young children learn about addition, money, time, and skip counting.
Handprint Measuring and Number Lines
A simple activity to teach measuring and number lines. Easy to put together and understand.
Preschool Math Activities
Browse through our preschool math activities. Here are many preschool math activities to keep your preschooler learning on the fly, all year long.
Sort and Count Bottles
Use old bottles and pom poms for simple counting and sorting maths games and motor skills fun! With lots of ways to play and learn, these are a great addition to the maths area at home or school.
40 Awesome Number Activities for Preschoolers
Number activities for preschoolers don't have to be boring and just worksheets. Make them fun so your preschooler will love math. These number activities help with identifying numbers, counting and one to one correspondence.
75+ Math Activities
These simple early learning math activities teach skills like number recognition, counting, simple addition and subtraction, sorting, sequencing numbers, and measuring.
Helping Your Child Learn Mathematics
This booklet is made up of fun activities that parents can use with children from preschool age through grade 5 to strengthen their math skills and build strong positive attitudes toward math.
Preschool Math: Teaching Numbers Greater than 10
How to make a homemade version of the Montessori seguin board, a board with lots of 10s in a column.
20 Preschool Math Activities
Children should gain an understanding of math concepts at an early age. This can best be done through every day life experiences and through play. these are great ways to introduce math concepts to kids in fun way. Many of the activities are also appropriate for kindergarten and the early elementary years.
Free Printable Ten Frame Cards
Learn 10s with these free printable cards that offer a fun way to practice. Read about different ways to use the cards for enjoyable math games to teach this concept.
Flower Power Patterns for Preschool and Early Childhood
Practice patterning with this spring-themed set of pattern boards. children will be able to determine the next picture in the pattern and will be able to continue the pattern on each of the boards.
Preschool Worksheets and Printables
Preschool Math Printables
These printables are free and help provide extra support for teaching preschool math. You'll find calendars, number tracing cards, number mats, patterns, and more.
Making Learning Fun Math Ideas
Fun and free printables that are great for preschoolers. These activities make learning fun!
Preschool Math Worksheets and Printables
Preschool math worksheets help your young learner develop essential early math skills. From number recognition to counting to addition, preschoolers learn a lot about numbers in one year. Our collection of preschool math worksheets is designed for kids who want to build skills that will prepare them for kindergarten and beyond. These preschool math worksheets help present new number topics to kids in a way that's fun and easy to understand. Help foster a culture of learning by doing these preschool math worksheets with your child.
Making Learning Fun
This early childhood education website is filled with free printables designed to make learning fun.
Free Printable Preschool Worksheets
Free printable preschool worksheets for learning to write the alphabet, numbers and bible memory verses, plus free printable colouring pages and more!
Lego Challenge Math Activity-Free Printable
Practicing math skills like spatial awareness and geometry can be fun, especially when the math activity involves Legos! Here’s a free printable math challenge for kids using Lego or Duplo bricks!
Free Printable Ten Frame Cards
Learn 10s with these free printable cards that offer a fun way to practice. Read about different ways to use the cards for enjoyable math games to teach this concept.
Support for Parents of Preschoolers
Field Trips 101
Field trips can inspire your child to study a topic, give him further insights into his current studies, or provide closure to a completed unit. Is there somewhere you’d like to take your children to reinforce a topic this year? Or just want to visit because it would enrich their lives? If you let your support group (or even just a few other families) know that you are planning to go and they are welcome to tag along (think: group rate)—voila! You’re planning a field trip!
CharlotteMasonKindergarten
A group for Charlotte Mason Mom's using the curriculum outline suggested in Karen Andreola's summer of 93 Parent's Review titled, "A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six", and also trying to complete the Kindergarten Skills list as described in Catherine Levison's book, A Literary Education.
CM4primaryyears
To discuss the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling elementary age children, and to share the joys and concerns of everyday life.
Homeschoolers Teaching Kindergarten
This discussion list is for homeschoolers teaching preschool and kindergarten. Topics include curriculum selection (whether necessary or not), teaching tips, creative learning ideas, time management, unit studies, homeschooling books, neat craft ideas, cooking tips for all occasions, support those who have homeschool burn out, or those who are just starting to homeschool.
Homeschooling Preschool Teaching Tips & Ideas
Way to Learn Math Naturally
These are ideas and strategies to incorporate math learning into everyday life.
Preschool Math: Exploring Patterns
Patterns are all around us, from the clothing we wear to the repeating patterns found in nature and everyday routine. Patterning is also a basic math skill upon which many mathematical concepts are based. Times tables, addition and skip counting all require an understanding of and proficiency in patterning. In preschool, identifying and creating patterns is just the beginning of the mastery of life-long mathematical skills.
Pre-K Smarties
Pre-K Smarties is a preschool education resource for parents teaching preschoolers with tips for early reading using phonics, parenting articles, family freebies, and deals on the best educational toys.
Teaching Young Children at Home
How do you teach young children? What do you do all day? How do you provide a "stimulating environment"? These questions are asked frequently by parents of young children who understand the immense magnitude of what it means to take responsibility for their child's education.
Preschool Math: Mastering Number Recognition and Counting
Learning about numbers is a preschooler’s first step toward becoming a budding young mathematician. And in preschool, math learning is all about counting, number recognition, and one-to-one correspondence. If a child doesn’t ace these seemingly simple skills in a timely manner, don’t fret: even math whizzes need time to blossom. But with age appropriate techniques, helping your child to master these math milestones will be as easy as 1, 2, 3!
Preschool Math
There are many natural ways to teach preschool math. Everyday activities, like cooking and grocery shopping involve mathematical concepts.
Kindergarten Math
Simple approaches to teaching math for preschoolers and kindergarteners in the home environment.
Homeschooling with Little Ones ARound
Homeschooling with babies and toddlers underfoot is indeed a wild crazy ride, and one that stretches you to the limits of what you previously thought chaos could look like. But once you embrace the madness, you will love it.
Readiness
This article takes a look at one mother's coming to terms with her daughter's readiness, or lack thereof, to learn to read.
Mathematics in Pre-K
Young preschool children are active learners, naturally curious and ready to engage in mathematical learning. They approach math with excitement and curiosity, if the practices are age-appropriate, engaging, and involve hands-on, minds-on learning approaches.
Preschool With Mommy
Here you'll learn to create a simple, inexpensive, and fun home preschool for your children. You'll also find suggestions for books and toys to use in your home preschool. This site supports any type of home preschool, whether you're just supplementing your child's regular preschool, creating an educational home environment, or homeschooling completely.
Math Play: How Young Children Approach Math
Mathematical experiences for very young children should build largely upon their play and the natural relationships between learning and life in their daily activities, interests, and questions.
Preschool Math--Counting by Tens/Odds and Evens
This youtube video demonstrates some great strategies to help preschoolers learn counting by tens and odd and even numbers.
Should I Try a Curriculum for My Preschool Child?
This article explains why formal homeschooling is often not the best choice for your very young child. Avoid burnout by enjoying the process of learning and living.
Simple Tips for Summer Math Learning
Summer reading clubs and story times can help with early literacy and reading, but it might seem daunting to figure out how to prepare a young child for math. Here’s the great news: you’re the right person for the job.
Mathematics Teaching Strategies
As a teacher, you can foster the development of early mathematical skills by providing environments rich in language, where thinking is encouraged, uniqueness is valued, and exploration is supported. Teachers support young children's diligence and mathematical development when they direct attention to the math children use in their play, challenge them to solve problems and encourage their persistence.
Why Preschool Shouldn't Be Like School
houldn't very young children be allowed to explore, inquire, play, and discover? Perhaps direct instruction can help children learn specific facts and skills, but what about curiosity and creativity—abilities that are even more important for learning in the long run? hile learning from a teacher may help children get to a specific answer more quickly, it also makes them less likely to discover new information about a problem and to create a new and unexpected solution.
A Poetry Unit for Preschoolers
This free unit study for preschoolers features poems found in Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends as a text for 10 poetry lessons. Each lesson refers to a poem (so it helps a lot to have access to that book), includes an activity suggestion, and instructions for a writing project (mostly poems). You can use all the lessons, or just a couple.
Board, Card and Dice Games for Learning Math, Logic and Strategy
This list is a great start to incorporating fun activities and games into your homeschool math curriculum.
Field Trips 101
Field trips can inspire your child to study a topic, give him further insights into his current studies, or provide closure to a completed unit. Is there somewhere you’d like to take your children to reinforce a topic this year? Or just want to visit because it would enrich their lives? If you let your support group (or even just a few other families) know that you are planning to go and they are welcome to tag along (think: group rate)—voila! You’re planning a field trip!
Featured Resources
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A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling
In 1991, shortly after receiving both the New York State and New York City Teacher of the Year Awards, John Gatto resigned to begin a new career as an education reform advocate. In this collection of 16 essays, Gatto analyzes the problems of American education and suggests solutions for revitalizing the system prescriptions that run counter to current trends.
Learning Adventures
Each book in the Learning Adventures series covers skills and concepts for grades 4-8, with a history-based approach. Each contains a year's worth of lesson plans in a daily format. All subjects except math are covered.
The Case for Classical Christian Education
Douglas Wilson looks at the state of America's school system and offers a remedy for those who are committed to their children's best interests in education. Wilson details the history of the classical education movement and discusses what is needed for a useful curriculum. Readers will come to understand that classical education offers the best opportunity for academic achievement, character growth, and spiritual education.
Not So Fast: Parenting Your Teen Through the Dangers of Driving
Most driving literature for parents focuses on how to teach a teen to drive, without explaining why teen driving is so dangerous in the first place or giving parents a plan to preempt the hazards teens face. By contrast, Not So Fast empowers and guides parents to understand the causes and situations that most often lead to teen crashes and to take specific, proactive steps—before and each time a teen driver gets behind the wheel—to counteract them. This authoritative guide tackles hot button iss...
The Homeschooling Revolution
A readable, scholarly overview of the modern day homeschooling movement. Includes vignettes from homeschooling families, war stories, research information, media reaction, footnotes, and statistics.