Having looked into homeschooling a bit now, I would like to know if anyone has tried curriculums with younger than normal children and if so how they managed. At the moment I am checking how far my daughter can go with various read-alouds on preK and preschool curricula, but it seems they vary so much - I could read her a non-fiction book on ducks and ducklings today that I thought was quite advanced for her (lots of writing per page) and she showed a great deal of interest, but there is no way she is ready for the Amelia Bedelia books suggested in Hewitt preschool plus. I know a lot of children do hear read alouds for older children when they have older siblings. Does anyone have a good list of read-alouds for age 2/3? Are read alouds automatically trial and error?
I have homeschooled both of mine since they have been here. I have my curriculum for under two. I might suggest a few websites to help. IF you are interested in printing your own books that is. http://www.carlscorner.us.com/
They have a section called Library Lane. You just print the books out and staple or glue together. I use a file folder and cut in half and hot glue the book in. It becomes a sturdy travel book as well, also paint Decopouge over the cover (file folder) and it becomes water proof, and crayon proof.
Grant it some books may not spike interest to some children but the majority of these books my children love. I even use them in my toddler’s church curriculum. I think I have some videos on here about creating those books.
Also www.kizclub.com has some books as well, other then that your local library is a good place to start. My library has a list called AR books, AR is accellerated readers that are designed for the child’s age and their is a software program that the public school uses here to test the children on the book content. I am in search of AR software for homeschoolers to use.
The publishers DK and Brainy Baby are good books to start with. I find them everywhere for a small amount.
But here is a tip if you find a book that has to much text just write your own under the picture on a cue card, you can velcro the cue card on if you are careful to use it for later that is.
There are tons of online libraries that you have to pay for but they are okay if you like the virtual word.
Thanks for the links - am using the library a lot at the moment, except they do not seem to have a good referemce section for the children’s books (I think they just presume you’ll look and choose anything rather than actually look for a specific book so it is a bit tedious to find what I want) I am not so much interested in books that my child can read herself - she’s probably still a few months from reading books with sentences though it gets closer every day. I am more looking for books to expand what she knows about the world and also stimulate her imagination - so I want books that stretch her a little, but that she will still find interesting. I am also looking for well illustrated books about things we cannot show her in real life right now (eg the pyramids, animals we don’t have in this country and so on)
T|he accelerated readers interest me as my daughter will probably need those in a couple of years time.
Someone out there suggested a book about books a few weeks ago. Anyway, I signed it out at our library and am really appreciating the information in it. It’s called “Great Books for Babies and Toddlers - More than 500 recommended books for your child’s first three years” by Kathleen Odean. Each book is described in a “beefy” paragraph - lots of info about it. This might be a helpful place to start. From what I can tell, it’s mostly about fiction…at least as far as I’ve gotten… There’s also a small section on activities to do and a section on books that have been translated from English to Spanish (if you’re interested in teaching that language).
I just went to the Carl’s Corner site (by the way the section to look for is called “Little Book Lane” not “Library Lane”…simple oops). Anyway, I LOVE the book on word families! This is a great site. Thank you for the tip, Mother of Faith. I’m looking forward to poking around there a bit more 
Sorry! I have so many in my head that I forget some things. Thanks for letting me know.
I’m not sure if it will help you or not but I have just started looking into educational tools to help me in my plan to homeschool later on (after I get organized)
I get catalogs from www.eNasco.com/earlylearning.com (I like this one because the store is actually only 40 min from my home so I plan to go in an shop myself.) and www.discountschoolsupply.com
Both of them have similiar products for learning just about everything you would need to teach a child including teacher resources. Some things cost a little bit and they have some book kits for a classroom but if you look through them they have plenty of sets for individuals. All the books they have including leveled readers and guided readers have level A-J and approx age group listed which I like.
I made a list of the titles I liked and I’m searching in other places now to see if I can locate similiar ones before I buy what they have to offer.
i thought of you when i saw these… i think they are what you mean. i get the montessori services cat. and ran across these books that may be what you are looking for?? i am very tempted to get them as my dd loves the non-fiction section of our library but like you can’t find anything that isn’t fairly above her comprehension level.
http://www.montessoriservices.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=91_248_2355
or
http://www.montessoriservices.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=91_248_2356
look through the other books too… sometimes they offer great pricing.
Thanks for all the links - my husband and I have been playing around with various things for a few days now and will probably mix up a whole lot of methods to teach her in the next year. Once she starts reading I will still want books to read to her. I have also started making Little Reader categories for unit themes my husband is playing around with which introduces more vocabulary and various other things.
The Montessori books do look like good books for when she starts reading books too. I am trying NOT to read certain books to her with easy vocabulary so that they will be new and exciting for her when she does read them by herself so we have a stock of books at home for us to read any time and those to introduce when she starts reading alone.