Introduction to My Program And Methods of Teaching

The following blog posts include some information about my preschool and an example of the parent letters that I send out each week. I've been using the base of this curriculum for the last 18 years, tweaking and adding to it each year. Since I'm only teaching a 2 day a week program right now (Mon/Wed or Tues/Thurs), I get to pick and choose my favorite activities and worksheets each week. As you can imagine, there's so much to choose from, no two years will ever be exactly the same!

There are several methods of teaching the alphabet to young children, I prefer the one that introduces the letters randomly, not in alphabetical order. In the 1st year class they'll start learning the individual letter sounds, and the writing emphasis will be on learning to write their names, the uppercase letters and the numbers 1-10. Then the next year, when your child moves up to the 2nd year class, they'll start writing the lower case letters and also learning about letter/sound blends; ch, tr, sh, etc., and I'll begin introducing sight words and basic word families; cat, hat, sat, mat, through pocket charts and word walls.

Numbers are introduced in order, 1-9 then zero, then 10. I go over these numbers twice and then the rest of the year is spent reviewing multiple numbers each week (1-3, 4-6, etc.) and individually reviewing some of the more difficult to write numbers (3,5,8,and 9). The 2nd year class will continue past 10, into the teens and 20's and they'll start learning about skip counting; counting by 2's, 5's and 10's, as well as more advanced pre-K math concepts like basic addition and subtraction, breaking down word problems, etc.

As you can see in the following posts, we'll be doing some traditional preschool worksheets, math and phonics, art, and practicing cutting skills, etc. These papers will come home for you see each day, but we'll also be doing lots of hands on discovery through science experiments, sensory centers, kitchen cooking, fine motor skill builders, and large motor games, etc. These activities don't usually produce results that can be taken home at the end of the day. To keep you posted on your child's preschool experience, I'll e-mail you a short (sometimes long...) letter each week letting you know what activities we've done as well as the lyrics to any new songs we might be learning.

Thanks for your interest in my program!