My two oldest children Miss and Lil D have never attended preschool. Big D and I taught them the basics at home and then sent them to Kindergarten.
Not sending my children to preschool was a hang up that I had. If I had known more about homeschooling back then I would not have sent them to Kindergarten either. My reason is kind of silly. My heart ached when I put backpacks on my kids. The backpack was so big on their little bodies. All I could say when I looked at them was, "They are still babies!" My hang up with the backpacks kept my children from preschool. I know it's silly but I can't help it.
Now that we are homeschooling I have become adventurous and decided that I will bring my Preschooler Bug into the mix.
When she thought she was going to school in a building away from home she was not happy. When I told her we were going to do school at home she became excited and seems willing, for now.
With my older two we read books and did flash cards. They would do an occasional workbook that I picked up from Target and that was the extent of their preschool education. This worked out fine and both were ready when Kindergarten started.
Now that I am homeschooling I am always on the computer looking for ideas to do with my kids. I was visiting the blog Weird,Unsocialized Homeschoolers and came upon all her great links for preschool.
I really like the site Brightly Beaming Resources. This site gives you a complete Preschool curriculum that you can print out. It has a beginning curriculum and then you can go into the more advanced curriculum.
Another great site is Kidzone. They have crafts, many printouts, and preschool lesson plans. Core Knowledge also has preschool lesson plans.
When it comes to online games Bug and I like Starfall.com. Especially since I am focusing on teaching her letter recognition and letter sounds.
I have always been interested in the Montessori way of learning, Although I do not intend Montessori to be the only method of teaching Bug. I do hope to add a few of the learning techniques to are curriculum.
Some of the Montessori sites I find helpful are Montessorimom.com. This site gives a lot of Montessori techniques and explains how to do them. They also have lessons and worksheets that you can print out.
If you want to order Montessori materials for your preschooler, Child of the World has a nice catalog.
I prefer not to buy a Preschool curriculum, so I found the sites I mentioned above to be great resources.
I hope teaching preschool will be a good experience for Bug and I. If it goes as smooth as I plan, it will be wonderful, if it doesn't we still have the tried and true books and flash cards.
P.S My post is up over at The Homeschool Classroom. If you are interested you can check it out.
