Homeschooling Pre-Schoolers

I have a few friends that are starting homeschooling and some of them have children 5 years old and younger who would like to start and others have pre-schoolers who want to do school. I have been thinking about them all for a while and have been surfing the web and found some really great blogs offering wonderful free things for them to use at home.

Some of my friends ask what do you do with preschoolers when homeschooling older ones ?  To be honest I am not really qualified to answer this as I only had one preschooler when homeschooling older children and so I simply did school when he was sleeping.  I would be very keen to hear what you do with your preschoolers / tiny tots while you school your older children.

 Here is a list of what I have found so far 
(Click on the graphic or any blue links to have a look).

Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers 

Workbox Activities for Toddlers

Activities for your Toddler

Keeping your Toddler busy during School time.

TOT School sorted by age ranges 10 - 24 months

Progressing to Pre- School

From Wonder to Wisdom Blog

Kindy Level

Fun things to do together that cost next to nothing or with what you have at home:

What did I use ?

I didn't do any formal work with Sir N I simply enjoyed good books.  We have not read all the books in each of these packages and in fact I have them on the shelf and we are reading them this year as extra's for fun.  There are a few we have read over and over again.

Sonlight Core P 3/4

Sonlight Core P 4/5

What do you use with your preschoolers / Kindy age children ?  More importantly what do you do with the youngest children when homeschooling the older ones ?

Blessings

Tuesday's Treasures 1-11 Little Britches Series

Little Britches
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 260
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1991
ISBN: 0803281781
ISBN-13: 9780803281783



IF I was only allowed to purchase one series of books for boys to read this would be the one I would choose. Cost wise they are a little more expensive but well worth the price.

The Ralph Moody Collection has been one of the most amazing journey's we have undertaken as a family.  My older two roses would sit waiting at the window for daddy to come home and when he arrived would race out to the car begging "Daddy PLEASE read to us!"

 In fact I suffered a sever lack of self control during this series of books and hid away from the children with one of the books reading to find out what would happen when my daughter found me red handed in the act and said "Mommy that's NOT fair!!!"  I can only use one word to describe this series and it's :BRILLIANT

My Father is an avid reader of historical non fiction borrowed these and enjoyed them.

Paul said he really enjoyed the sense of adventure and old fashioned simplicity of the books.

Other Books in the Series:

Man of the Family
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 272
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1993
Dimensions: 8 X 5.25 (inches)
ISBN: 0803281951
ISBN-13: 9780803281950

Mary Emma & Company
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 235
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1994
Dimensions: 8 X 5 1/4 (inches)
ISBN: 0803282117
ISBN-13: 9780803282117

Fields of Home
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 335
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1993
Dimensions: 8 X 5.25 (inches)
ISBN: 0803281943
ISBN-13: 9780803281943

Shaking the Nickel Bush
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 236
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1994
Dimensions: 8 X 5 1/4 (inches)
ISBN: 0803282184
ISBN-13: 9780803282186

The Dry Divide
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 230
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1994
Dimensions: 8 X 5.25 X .5 (inches)
ISBN: 0803282168
ISBN-13: 9780803282162

Horse of a Different Color
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 272
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1994
Dimensions: 8 X 5.25 (inches)
ISBN: 0803282176
ISBN-13: 9780803282179

The Home Ranch
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 279
Vendor: University Of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 1994
Dimensions: 8 X 5.25 (inches)
ISBN: 0803282109
ISBN-13: 9780803282100

Sonlight sell this as a Six Volume Set of books or  Eight Volume Set of Books.

One word of warning about the series is that some of the books contain colourful language.   I took a friends advice and simply took to the books with a dark texta and erased them.

These books are Mr Moody's memories of growing up in the early part of the 20th Century.  They illustrate amazing character and fortitude and the ability to get up again and again regardless of circumstances.

I can't remember the order in which to read these books.  When I am able to access my collection I will update this post with the order in which to read this series. I am really looking forward to when Sir N is around 12 years old to reading these out loud together.

Do you have any series of books that have stood out among your library ?

Blessings

Sustainability Expo

Yesterday Paul went to the local City Council Sustainability Expo at the local council offices as a Representative from the zoo that he works for. So Sir N and I decided to go for a visit and see what Daddy was doing and have a little look around. 

Firstly we had a look at the Melbourne Water display.  We pushed buttons to hear all sorts of frog calls and we learned that only the male frogs call when they feel safe.

On the other side they had a pond water display with all sorts of bugs for us to look at with magnifying glasses. They had a wonderful little book called: Australian Guide to Pond Life by Gould League I am really keen to see if our local library has a copy for us to look through.

Next we went indoors to find Daddy and all the wonderful animals Mark and him had brought along for the children to look at and touch.

This in Bonnie and she is a  Murray Darling Carpet Python 

This is Ned the Shingle Backed Lizard.

This is Colin the Ring Tailed Possum 

After a look and a touch we moved along to the Bunnings Alfalfa Sprouts head making table.

I am planning a photo essay on the seeds growing and how we made the head. A very easy at home project.

We had a look at a few other displays and finished off with being blessed with three native bush plants courtesy of the City Council.  I am planning to demolish the weed jungle in the garden bed out by my front door and enjoy these three plants: Fragrant Saltbush (Rhagodia Parabolica),  Blue Flax-Lily (Dianella Revoluta) and Austral Indigo (Indigofera Australis).

This was the first expo I have attended with Sir N. Have you been to any local expo's lately ? Do you have any suggestions of outings we could do together ?

Blessings