Do I Need a to Buy a Preschool Curriculum to Homeschool???

I am also a sahm and a daycare provider I teach my 3 year old and my 2 year old niece preschool now we are using www.letteroftheweek.com

There are a LOT of free sites for you to use for preschool curriculum. The whole point (IMO) is to get them used to sitting still and practicing their hand/eye coordination with writing, drawing, etc. You can also get them started with number recognition and simple math.
This is one site that I really like:
http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/index.htm

I am a home daycare provider of a mixed age group 15 months-5 years old. I have ordered a preschool curriculum for years. Right now I use mother goose time. Previously, I used Adventures in Learning. They both have pros and cons. Neither of them includes workbooks. They have a teacher's book that spells out everything you should talk about. They both have each day separated in a plastic bag with all craft and educational materials included. They come with a monthly calendar, weather, daily topics, letters of the month, numbers of the month, science experiments, worksheets, lots of crafts, and much, much more. The children really enjoy the preschool time and are learning a lot. I highly recommend either program.

I homeschool my three children. We use IXL.com for our math with our 4 3/4 daughter and nearly 6 year old son. The two kids absolutely love the program as it gives them a gameboard with stars to click on to reveal their rewards after they complete a skill. It has a PreK level. Right now my daughter is 60% through Kindergarten and my son is 25% through First Grade math. You as a parent get updates and can see when they answered questions incorrectly, what areas they need improvement on, etc. I also do alot of oral addition, subtraction. My oldest knows how to multiply by 0 and 1 as well.

We use workbooks to practice our writing skills along with lined writing paper including the story paper (drawing above and the child writes the story below). Spelling is done orally at the moment.

I use Letter People for learning their alphabet along with flashcards. We use Dick and Jane and McGuffey Readers to learn to read. They have access to books in their rooms and in our family room/classroom.

I have them sort the clean laundry for me and count how many socks there are in the pile (or pants, shirts, etc). I have at times broken it down further as to how many socks are there that are blue, how many are white, etc.

For science, I have done hands on things like walking in the woods and listening for the birds, showing them a broken robin's egg that I found in our yard, learning about dinosaurs (all three of them are interested in this), learning about animals in general but especially elephants (my oldest daughter has a huge interest in elephants), taking them to the zoo and to the aquarium, watching over time plants in our yard grow, die back and grow again the following spring, and more.

They are also involved in sports as well...my DS is involved in soccer and is now learning basketball. My oldest daughter is involved in gymnastics.

Jen

No, and you don't need to buy a curriculum for any other grade level, either! I'm not going to go into all the different philosophies about learning, but just dip into some homeschooling websites and you'll get a taste. For the early years, exposure to letters and lots of reading time (you reading to them) are beneficial. They are natural learners and if you fuel the fire, they'll do fine.

Preschool kids need to learn how to share and be nice to each other. My kids learned their alphabets, did a lot of simple crafts, and generally played. They wrote their names a little bit, but really... they are still babies. As for your 5 year old, you might want to start some simple reading with the Bob Books. My oldest wasn't interested in reading, he was more interested in building things and being read to. My youngest ate up the reading - and is still a voracious reader... they are all different.
You might want to start money - a penny, a nickel, a quarter... some simple addition - 1 + 1- you know... Workbooks are great. Coloring books with counting, connect the dots, find the words, color by number... all those are great skills to have. You might want to help them learn how to use scissors and glue. Let them be creative.
YMMV
LBC

I did a preschool curriculum & the majority of it was from the library. I literally was able to check out a large ziplock bag for several different "subjects". The only reason why I found out about it was because I went to the library and asked if they could recommend any books about preschool curriculums & she told me they put together curriculums that could be checked out. Just like a lot of people don't know you can rent movies from the library.

Not at all! There are so many free resources on the we it should keep you busy. There is a program that many in our group have recommended for reading, though. It is a pay site but everyone I know who used it swears by it!
http://headsprout.com/
Also an awesome free site (says k-5 but could be used for preschool):
http://www.lessonpathways.com/
Have fun!

We actually "home school" during the summer months and thanks to our school found a wonderful program called "Summer Bridge Activities". The school sends a book home with each child at the end of the school year - if they bring it back completed in the Fall they get a T-Shirt. Last Summer, my oldest was finishing Kindergarten, but was also going to repeat it this year, while our youngest was going into Pre-School. I did some searching and found that several book stores had the Pre-School level and bought it for her. It really helped her with small motor control and learning those basics. Her pre-school didn't start until February due to funding issues, so we did go and pick up a couple other thick workbooks that really continued her educuation. By the time she got to Pre-School she could count to 15 and write her name (something that before last summer she couldn't do). When she tested for Kindergarten this year we were told that she was more than ready - this from the teacher who had our first daughter last year.

While you could find a curriculum, I would say that between workbooks, flash cards and "on the road" learning you should be fine. On the road learning involves looking for specific, yet familiar, signs (Meijers, McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, Pepsi, Coke, etc) and having your child read them to you and then try to spell them. I'm told that this basic recognition, and memorization, is the first step to actually reading. You can also create different puzzles or matching games to play at home to reinfornce this type of learning - and for the kids it doesn't feel like school.

As a preschool teacher, I would say that you do not need a curriculum. There are many resources online that are even free. You can to the same things with each child, but the older one can do more and use a more advanced approach. IE. the younger one can do letters whereas the older child can start doing words and simple sentences. I am surprised that the daycare does nothing with them. Is it a home daycare facility? That is usually the case. I use to do things even with my toddler group when I taught that age group.

Hi Lisa,

I know you said you looked into other childcare options but did you consider a Montessori format? My son attends a Montessori school/daycare center 2 full days a week. They are open from 7 am until 6 pm. The "preschool" portion of the day I believe goes from 8:30 to 11:30. They also teach Kindergarten at the Montessori my son goes to. It is a great facility and he gets both the educational needs and the social/playtime needs met. I noticed it says you are out in Sterling Heights which is the other side of town from me so the particular school my son goes to wouldn't work for you but I think Montessori's in general are a great format for many. Its something you might want to consider. We love where we have our son. Good Luck!

J.