Letter of the Week Preschool Curriculum

A lot of people have asked me about where the info for Coleman's schoolwork originated. There is a great website called http://www.letteroftheweek.com/ that has the basic format there, I just modified it a bit and there you go.

They have the basics from birth to older kids- but I really like the "theme of the week" which I did a little of with him last year, and the "letter of the week" which we are using now.

For all the great graphics and such, I just use a printshop program or search google images for whatever I am looking for. I just print them out on 5x8 index cards and the full sheet is just regular printer paper. I made the board out of a sheet of foam-core and used vinyl page protectors sealed with my foodsaver machine. Was pretty easy and durable too.

Coleman LOVES his schoolwork. To see what we have done so far you can go to our online school photo scrapbook at http://picasaweb.google.com/jennifer.s.blake/HomePreschoolLessons . A lot of people have been a little worried that we are pushing him too hard too early, but trust me- he asks to do his work. Some days he begs to learn more if we are learning something he is really interested in. We are far from "hothousing" him to be sure, especially since he does not go to preschool or Mom's day out anywhere. (If you are not familiar with the term "hothousing" in relation to child-rearing, check out this article http://giftedkids.about.com/od/glossary/g/hothouse.htm)

Since we plan to homeschool our child(ren), this is great practice for both of us in keeping a schedule, paying attention and how to gather resources (for me.) 5 days a week we study a topic relating to the letter of the week. We read 3 or 4 books on the subject, do a craft, activity or game, practice some basic handwriting, discuss our Bible story and verse. That's it! It takes about 30 minutes (unless it is an involved activity like baking) and we are done. We also take a field trip or two relating to our words for the week.

I love it too, the field trips are especially fun for both of us as are the activities. I can really see the difference in his attention span since we started, and we are reinforcing that learning is fun.