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Marvelous Monday- PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN
By Kendra | June 15, 2009
I really don’t know anything about preschool or kindergarten materials. 
What I do know is that over the course of the past 16 years, we’ve used a lot, seen a lot, ditched a lot, and loved a lot. Because this is a subject that could garner a ridiculously long post for me, I thought I’d offer here only the things that have really worked for us. If you don’t see something mentioned, it’s likely because we either haven’t used it, or we have used it without success.
In the earliest years, I like to offer learning tools that are hands-on. Preschool attention spans are notoriously short, so if I can get ten or fifteen minutes out of one of these items, I am happy.
♥ Lauri Alphabet Puzzles are my favorite way to purposefully review the alphabet with a preschooler. The puzzle’s bumpy texture and bright colors allow the child to feel the letter, trace the letter with a finger or two, and associate colors as well.
Lauri also makes lower case alphabet puzzles, number play puzzles, and many others: cars, flowers, people, and play packs such as this one. The price is right, they’re pretty durable (ours have lasted over ten years), and the company will replace missing pieces. Incidentally, I love to put these away as birthday and Christmas gifts; they don’t know I’m sneaking “school” in that way.
♥ Wedgits are building blocks that are suited for little hands because they are larger and easier to hold. The pieces drop right into each other and stack in interesting geometric ways (aha! math!). Bonus: they can be thrown in the dishwasher. Another bonus: older kids like them, too.
♥ Wikki Stix allow preschoolers to bend the little waxy sticks into any shape, including letters (my older kids have been known to write messages to dad on the front door). Wikki Stix are quiet, mess-free, and intriguing. Perfect for the car or church, too!
♥ Big, fat crayons. I’m sure you’re familiar.
Preschool in Grammy and Pop Pop’s motorhome
♥ Kumon workbooks are a lovely little thing for preschoolers. Books range in subject from math to rhyming, cutting to tracing. Workbooks can get a bad rap in some homeschooling circles, but to my way of thinking, they are a nifty way to keep a preschooler happy, productive, and learning.
Our preschooler loves games, too. And pretty much anything with Charlie and Lola (including pink milk)
Kindergarten is simple here. I haven’t changed my approach too much with each child, except with the last two I have waited to teach reading. While I was busy helping the older kids, our fifth child decided she didn’t need me to teach her and she taught herself to read. She’s an amazing reader, so I’m not expecting the same from the others younger than she. It was quite a bonus though!
♥ We use TATRAS in our home. TATRAS stands for “Teach America to Read and Spell”. I love this approach, adore the man who authored the book, see huge and wonderful results, but I do wish it was laid out a little better. Don’t let the book scare you off; it’s a bit busy (ie, too many things going on each page), but it works and it works well. TATRAS employs the vertical phonics method, which you can read about here.
The reason I adore the author is that when I first began using TATRAS nine years ago, I was flabergasted to receive a phone call from him after I had purchased the program. He wanted to make sure I understood it and knew I could call him at any time if I had any questions. Six weeks later, he called me again to follow up. Now that’s a man who stands behind his product and believes in what he is doing.
♥ We jump right into Rod and Staff preschool, which is equivalent to kindergarten. Motor skills, letters, numbers, comprehension, and following directions are all covered in the series. These books are long on preparation and short on fluff. The illustrations are engaging and the work leads to really solid skills needed for first grade. They are also very reasonably priced.
Don’t forget to go see Cheryl’s Marvelous Monday post. We’ve only one left; these have been fun, haven’t they?
Topics: Educating at Home, Resources, Reviews | 16 Comments »
June 15th, 2009 at 4:41 am
I’m so glad to see your positive review of Rod and Staff. I am considering it for my preschooler but was on the fence thinking I might just ‘pull together this and that.’
We also love Kumon. The trace and wipe letters and numbers have helped all 3 of my little ones.
June 15th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Love all the fun, hands on resources. Have I thanked you lately for turning us on to Charlie and Lola? We LOVE them and quote them quite often.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Kendra,
Thank you so much for the Marvelous Mondays reviews. They have been extremely informative. I find myself going back and reviewing the posts as I make plans for next year.
We also use TATRAS and it has made a world of difference in my 8 year old daughter. She was very slow to read and the other phonic programs I had never seemed to click. But, she is doing much better this year with TATRAS.
A question on TATRAS…did you do each of the steps every day (dictation, timed phonograms, and word lists)? We tend to spend a good deal of time some days doing all the steps.
Thanks for any insight.
Your website has been a blessing and I also picked up some great tips to save on our grocery bill!! (my husband was very happy about that also
Very understandable if you take off July and enjoy your family. Have a great time!!
Jennifer
June 15th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Only one more? Can’t you all think of any more subjects? Kitchen gadgets? Baby supplies? I have loved your review days.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Cute! OK, I’ll try to think of more reviews…
June 15th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
I have loved your review days, too! I agree that hands on activities are best for preschoolers. We love Melissa and Doug puzzles and the Preschool Activity Bags. Blessings!
June 15th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
I’ve never even heard of TATRAS.
I, too, am SUPER bummed this series is coming to a close. I’ve been loving it!
We are busy catching up on all the Charlie and Lola DVDs at our house. The kids love them. Even Adelia.
WHERE did you get the C&L STUFF? Cute!
June 15th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Stacy- Amazon!
June 15th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
I agree! I love the reviews!
I love the crepe rubber puzzles, too! Glad to know they have a name. I’d always called them the bumpy rubbery puzzles. Now I can sound more educational! : )
I had not heard of Charlie and Lola. I’ll have to check them out!
Thanks again!
June 16th, 2009 at 4:43 am
Dear Kendra,
I want to thank you for the wonderful series you have been doing. I am especially grateful for the advice you gave in a recent post to get everything all planned, photocopied, etc. I am doing this for our Mystery of History and believe it will make all the difference in our homeschool this year. Doing it all at once sounded like a huge job to tackle at first, but it’s really much easier than trying to print out and copy activities, maps and timeline pieces as we go. I tried that last year and felt so defeated that we never accomplished what we could have. I think the benefit of entering each day feeling prepared will be more than well worth the effort! Thank you for all your encouragement. Have a fun summer!
Dawn in TN
June 17th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Kendra- I have so enjoyed your Monday posts! They are helping me plan for next year! I have a son who just finished K. We didn’t do a lot of formal school for K, which I was fine with. I was busy chasing the baby who has learned to climb out of the play yard, play pen and crib! Yikes! I did want to ask you this: do you continue with Rod & Staff for 1st grade? I too enjoyed using their preschool books with a couple of our boys. Thank you, Laura
June 17th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Laura-
We’ve used Rod and Staff 1st grade a bit. I’ll write more on that next Monday.
June 19th, 2009 at 9:36 am
I had the same experience with TATRAS as well. I was stuck with how to proceed with my dyslexic daughter and he has walked me through it with phone calls and e-mail. His support is great and the price of the program is really reasonable too!
We also loved the Rod & Staff books. I’m glad to read your post as I have a kindergartener next year and you have some resources I had not considered.
Thanks for your very helpful blog.
Jammie Payne
June 20th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
We switched from Alpha Omega Lifepacs and SOS to Rod and Staff about 4 years ago – we had to rebuy and go back almost 2 grade levels to find where the kids were academically for Math and English. That really surprised me. Of course the kids were able to use the books eventually, and while the oldest has mostly caught back up, my younger daughter has just plodded through, so even though she looks like she is 2 levels behind, she scores on the state tests above grade level.
This year we bought Horizon Preschool for our 3 year olds this year – used it 2 or 3 times a week and finished up to lesson 80 – plus we used Rod and Staff on other days. I was very impressed with the Horizon stuff. I had 6 kids that I worked with – all my nieces and nephews and best friends 2 kids. It does require some teacher prep time – but covered science, social studies, and Bible – and kids LOVED it. We plan to use the rest of the curiculum (lessons 81 – 180) for their 4 year old preschool year. The work took about 90 minutes to go through, though if there were a lot of projects with cutting or cooking, we sometimes went over 2 hours.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:49 am
I have been enjoying this series too, sad to see it end. What about one more for your favorite things to do with the under 3 crowd?
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:51 pm
I can’t really even begin to say enough thanks for this little series on homeschooling . . . it has calmed my heart and made me really excited to get started with my very first kindergarterner this year. God bless you and your family!