After much pray and thinking... I have to come to the conclusion that I am going to homeschool my 4 year old. The only problem is that I have no ides where to start or what to do? I also have a 6 month old son and I am fixing to start a work at home job (8 hours a day!!!) I am not sure how to manage everything. Any advise or information any one could give me would be a great help!!
Thanks

Hi jdawn,
Welcome to the board!
First of all, take a deep breath! Four year olds are not doing algebra. Focus on learning to read, count and explore the world. You could buy a whole curriculum, or you could go to a local teacher's store and get an activity book for preschoolers. Take a look at What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know. It will give you tons of ideas of what to do.
Just curious, what type of work do you do from home? Do you have help with the children during those hours?
Blessings,
Christine

It may also help to know that you dont have to 'copy' a school environment in your home. Teaching pre-K and K should only take about 1-1 1/2 hrs tops a day and most of that is hands on fun learning...practicing writing letters in sugar in a jellyroll pan for example. My daughter loved that! Enjoy! Dont forget cuddle up time on the couch to read aloud lots of stories, too.

Briva

I am new to Homeschooling. I will start with my 4 year old daughter in August. We are missionaries on the field. I have no idea where to get started. I have heard that Sonlight curriculum is good and I am thinking about using it. Any recommendations? What material do I need to teach the full curriculum to my daughter. I have no idea what to get for Pre-K. Can anyone help me?

I never used a formal curriculum before kindergarten, but I have heard great things about Sonlight. Have you been to their web site? I think there is a lot of good information there. For us, though, Pre-K was mostly a year of learning through everyday life. I involved my child in whatever the rest of us were doing, let them participate to whatever extent they could. We read a LOT of books, did simple crafts, went on nature walks, etc. My youngest had "learning centers" that she could work in while I did school with the others. She worked puzzles, played with Play-Do, played with math manipulatives and other educational toys (Discovery Toys are great!). But we didn't really start a formal curriculum until kindergarten, and even then we pretty much just did math and phonics, then continued with the other fun stuff.

One other thing -- I was reading on another board this morning and someone mentioned Five in a Row curriculum. I think that can be a great option for PreK & kindergarten. We did a sample unit once and really liked it. The only reason I didn't buy it was because it used a lot of books we didn't own, and we didn't have access to a good library at the time.

Hi

We have used both SL and FIAR for preschoolers in our home at different times. I have found SL PreK to be a bit thin and I also do not like workbooks for young children, but we have loved the stories.

With FIAR we have had a wonderful lerning adventure - I am using it for a third time with my 4 th child and each time we enjoy it more and my older children still love the stories.

You can go wrong with either, but just to reiterate what the others have said, there is no pressure to do more than enjoy being together, reading and character training for the next few years.

I have found tons of free lesson plan ideas and such online. When in doubt, go online. You'll be amazed.