My 3 kids are 2, 4 and 6. My 6 year old is in kindergarten now. I taught her how to read but I wish I started teaching her earlier in retrospect and I really wish I did more math with her before she went to school. She is very average in her skills and is really working hard at reading and is still in that phase where she still has to sound out a lot. Her school is using a good curriculum and she is doing fine in her class but it took a lot of work to teach her.
I would like to do more with my 2 and 4 year old. I did phonics videos with them. I know my 4 year old knows his letter sounds but I am going to work on him so he knows all the phonograms. I did videos then some reading bear with him and he is just starting to blend out CVC words and has good phonemic awareness. I think my 2 year old knows a lot of her letter sounds but I haven’t really tested her yet. I do reading bear with her too. She isn’t ready to blend yet but I will do reading bear, starfall and abc the key with her periodically until she gets it. I have a plan on what to do with them with reading and will just be low key about it with no pressure and if they learn great and if they don’t know big deal.
I want to do something similar with math but I don’t know what to do. I thought about doing right start math with my 4 year old son but it is really spendy and I rather do a low cost option. I have no idea what to do with my 2 year old. The brillkids little math is more than I can spend right now but I want to do something. I have done number dots but I am not good about doing that especially more than once a day and I like stuff that is outlined in a plan and laid out for me. I am guessing if I get the Dorman book it won’t be laid out enough for me and I won’t complete it. It also just doesn’t feel like I am doing much when I do number dots and my 2 year old was very bored and not interested whenever I tried. Any suggestions on what I can do with them for math? Hopefully it isn’t too late with my 4 year old. I am not really aware of what is out there besides stuff geared towards kids who are kindergarten age.
I highly recommend starting with either of these books. They might be available at your local library.
Kitchen Table Math
http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Wrights-Kitchen-Table-Math/dp/0982921128/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353447663&sr=8-1&keywords=Kitchen+table+math
Or Marshmallow Math
http://www.amazon.com/Marshmallow-Math-Early-Young-Children/dp/1553953959/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1353447709&sr=1-1&keywords=Marshmallow+math
Neither book is a curriculum. It is mostly for you to read and then implement. But it describes how. Once you have completed these books (especially if you do all 3 Kitchen Table Math books) you are fine to go onto a set curriculum if you wish. But most likely you will have given your children a pretty decent foundation for school.
If you are looking for some worksheet like work for your older you can pick up workbooks for as little as $3-$4 from a store like Walmart or Target, or any bookstore. The SchoolZone work books are okay. My son likes them. I prefer the pricier spectrum workbooks, but for $10 they are much cheaper than things like Saxon, Horizons, or RS.
It seems like your children are going into formal schooling. So I wouldn’t invest a lot of money in a curriculum unless you were going to homeschool or after school.
Thank you for the resources. I think I will try marshmallow math for my 2 year old. I am not sure how I will be schooling my son. I was considering homeschooling but we also have good charter schools in my area. I really feel I was failing my oldest when I was doing a trial of homeschooling and she got into the charter that reminds me of a classical school and works at a accelerated pace compared to the school district. The use the WRTR to teach reading. It is a good fit for her. The problem is I am worried about how my son will do at this school because they need to sit in desks a lot. He is a lot more socially immature and cannot sit still. He picks up on things pretty easily so I am also worried he will be pretty far ahead by kindergarten. He just misses the cut off but maturity wise he wouldn’t do well being skipped plus he also has an articulation delay so it wouldn’t be an option anyway. I don’t know what I will do with him. It is possible I might home school him. If I don’t home school I will be after schooling. I don’t know what I will do with the 2 year old either since she only 2 so it is hard to imagine what kind of schooling will work for her.
In that case I would certainly start with marshmallow math. Go through it and see where your son is. Then go from there. Check out the site www.ixl.com. They have an amazing list of the scope/content that meets the standards for each grade. I use the site to assess my sons abilities. And it helps me see where he has a deficiency so that we can work on that. You can access the grade content for free and do a few test questions for free daily. Or you could sign up for a $10 monthly fee.
What I do is sign up for a month and have my son work through a grade level. Then I suspend subscription until he is ready to complete another grade level.
There are a lot of full curriculum math programs, all quite different. It is near impossible to compare Jones Genius, Singapore Math, Saxon Math, Horizons Math, Math Mammoth, Miquon, MEP, Jump Math and Right Start.
Now those are just a few of the more popular programs. I have read good reviews on all of them.
But it all comes down to what kind of learner your son is, and what kind of teacher you are. Price is also a big contributing factor.