Calvert or Sonlight for preschool?

[Angel in FL]

Which would you use for a 3 year old?

[awanama]

Neither. Seriously, I would just let a three year old be a three year old. At four, we just did some very basic things like learning letters and played with numbers. My ds did learn to read at four because he wanted to but my dd didn't have any interest until she was almost 7.

[Karen in CO]

I agree - neither. Let a 3yo play. If the 3yo wants to join in with older siblings "doing school". Let them choose books for you to read to them, let them cut and paste and draw and make things from clay. Take them to the library, the zoo, the science museum, the park, swimming.

[Trivium Academy]

We've loosely used letteroftheweek.com 's Preparatory Curriculum but really we're just playing games, singing songs and reading a bunch of books until next September when my ds3 will be almost 4 1/2 then we'll start Horizons Preschool at his pace. I have a great home library that I've been building for over a year now for him and it includes almost all the books from Sonlight and Before Five in a Row/Five in a Row that I want to use plus classics I enjoyed as a child.

Just read, play games and have fun for a little while longer. Go on nature walks, get books from the library, bake cookies- at this age if it isn't fun then it isn't worth doing.

The Kumon books are great, we have Coloring and the Cutting one for 2-3 years olds. Fiskars has scissors called "My First Scissors" which are spring-loaded. There are also books like "Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready" which have skill-building activities from birth to age 5. We have Wedgits, blocks and I created a few activities with shapes and such. I think the hands-on & spend time with Mommy/Daddy activities are the best for now. I've edited this b/c I realized I could offer more, check out our preschool activities at my blog for our ds3 (http://triviumacademy.blogspot.com/search/label/preschool). But like I said before, if it's not fun, it's not worth doing.

[Maxine in WA]

I would use Calvert. Getting that box full of all the school supplies you need sounds like so much fun. I'd supplement with books from Sonlight.

[GothicGyrl]

Neither. i wouldn't touch formal curriculum until at least 1st grade. It isn't worth it to buy anything for anything less than that.

Honestly--not when there is so much for free on the internet. I might not even consider it for 1st grade.

[Krista in LA]

Another vote for neither. I would just read together a lot and play. Doesn't get any easier or more fun than that. If he/she really wants to do "school work" then I would pick up a workbook to use.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

My oldest dd is 3yo and I'm dying to start doing something more formal but I know it just wouldn't work yet. I turn everything into a game for her. She loves it and is learning a lot. We work on pre-reading and early math concepts in this way. We also read lots of books.

[readwithem]

Another vote for neither. I wouldn't even use Calvert for Kindergarten - it's too rigid for me. But for a 3 year old I would read good books, snuggle, read good books, play with dolls or Legos, read good books, take nature walks, and read good books. :)

[Maxine in WA]

Oh, someone mentioned using the internet for resources. Here's a cute little site that will help with reading. It's interactive with video, audio, and silly characters.

http://starfall.com

[DawnUK]

We are using Winter Promise's pre-k curriculum, and it's just perfect for us. It's not high academic pressure. It's just a lot of fun theme's and crafts and fun activities that I don't have to come up with on a moments notice. Some time during the weekend before, I gather all of the supplies and read over the activities that are planned. Last week we hole punched black paper and cut and glued trees onto it, then covered the back of the hole with yellow tissue paper so that they look like fire flies. We got out some spice jars and smelled them, then tried to decide which ones smelled best. Then we put them in order from largest to smallest. There are 4-5 things planned everyday, and I only do the ones that we can easily fit in or he's interested in.

While I definitely agree that 3 is young for a curriculum, it's hard to be spontaneous and then track down all of the supplies when you are also teaching two older children and a two year old is racing through the house!

--Dawn

[SandraDumas]

and save Sonlight Core B for when she's 4-5 ish.

We used part of Calvert pre-K and it was cute, fun, and easy. the price is not too bad either.

[Mom2GirlsTX]

Just joining in to say say "neither". Just reading to her alot and let her have fun are plenty at three!:)

[one l michele]

For me it's not that I couldn't do without a "prepackaged" program, it's that I'm juggling other kids and can tweak a prepackaged program much quicker then putting together my own schedule and gathering supplies. I'd rather spend that energy elsewhere.

[chiguirre]

and say both! SL Core A is a great collection of stories. If you want to have a lot of books on hand to grab when the mood strikes, this is a great option. You can get most of the books from the library, but it's handy to have them on hand. The IG is just a list of books by trimester, not a weekly schedule. It's not a must-have by any means, but it also only costs $10 and IMHO it's worth that. Sure, you could pick a bunch of books on your own, but SL has done the legwork for you, might as well use their list as a base.

Calvert PK is totally different from SL Core A and they'd complement each other well. Calvert works on motor skills, memory, stretching attention span, following instructions, etc. You could do this on your own, but again, someone's done the work for you. Calvert PK doesn't concentrate on letters or numbers for 80% of the course. They cover them at the end as a bit of Calvert K prep.

Choosing to use curriculum versus doing your own thing depends more on your personality than on your dc's needs. If you love to research and pick your own materials, plan your activities and write lessons, don't buy a boxed curriculum because you'll end up modifying a lot and feeling you wasted your money. If you'd rather follow a plan and you can afford the boxed curricula, go for it. It will save you time and guarantee you hit all the main points.

[one l michele]

more of a structured school type curriculum - Calvert, or a more relaxed living book style - Sonlight. Both are good. I used Calvert Pre-K through 2nd and am now with Sonlight. Calvert gave me the hand holding I needed to get started on this journey. I don't regret starting there, it gave me structure and time to consider my educational goals for my children.

[Angel in FL]

I'm not new to homeschooling but have never done pre-k or even K at home. My sons were 1st, 2nd & 5th when we started homeschooling. I have used both Calvert and Sonlight with them in the past so I know how they work, just not in the beginning.

I know I don't have to do anything with her but I'm not the best at being spontaneous or crafty. I also am a bit burned out on trying to put all of the plans together so I thought I would let someone else do it. I have two sons still homeschooling, in 9th & 10th grades, and they have busy schedules with school work as well as outside classes, etc. so I am not able to just up and go to the zoo, museum or story time whenever we feel like it.

My daughter just turned two on January 4. We've been using the beginning Kumon books since the late fall. She loves to color, cut, paste, etc. She knows most of the basic colors, shapes, she's learning numbers and loves to watch the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD. We just play right now but I can see that she is going to want more. She already asks for her "coolwork" while my sons are at their computers doing their work.

I was leaning toward these two programs to choose from because they seem to provide the framework. I wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel. I love that Calvert's program works on motor skills, memory, etc. and I love the looks of the new SL core A because I love fairy tales and the literature they include. The SL parent guide sounds good to me because the activities that go along with each story would be good and low key but not something I would naturally come up with. I lack creativity in that way. I can *follow* a good plan and even tweak it a little (we did that with FIAR and SOTW) but I am not one to just think of it out of the blue.

If I got one or both of these, I would start in the fall and go very slowly. Maybe two days a week, similar to if I were sending her to preschool. We would do it in a relaxed way but I would have guidelines to work with.

[Tonia]

I haven't used it, but I think Sonlights new program for 3 year olds looks really good. I don't think you could go wrong with that - it looks like a lot of fun reading and activities.

I think if you read to her a lot (get Honey for a Child's Heart or some other book that lists good kids books by age) and provide a few workbooks for those times she wants to do "coolwork" - some we've liked - the About Three series at Rainbow Resource followed by Rod and Staff Preschool Series, Kumon workbooks, Get Ready, Get Set, Go for the Code series from Explode the Code.

Also, I've got some lists on my blog for activity bags and books, etc. - I've got it linked in my signature below. At my blog there is a green box on the right side with all the stuff I've used with my dd and below there I've got some preschool links that I use to print coloring pages and activity pages.

HTH!

[Free Indeed]

I have not felt the need for either of them, we use Five in a row for our preschool. However, I would choose Sonlight if I needed something prepared and ready to go.

[LisaTheresa]

and we really enjoyed it. All we did was read all the books, but I love SL's book suggestions. My son was 5 and my daughter was 3 when we did this. Now that I think about it, I guess there were a few workbooks, which I did with my 5 year old, but I didn't do any of that with the 3 year old. Some of the books were over my daughter's head but there were many she enjoyed.

I also highly recommend Jim Trelease's read-aloud handbook. I used this the year before we did SL pre-k and there were tons of great picture book recommendations.

Lisa