Our Favourite Pre-K and Kindergarten Read Aloud Boy Books
We made the decision to homeschool a couple of years back, but then we tried preschool with Jackson and knew for sure we wanted to do it. Right before this school year though I wavered a bit, not really knowing (or not wanting to know) what we were supposed to do. At the last minute I thought how cool it would be to send Jackson off to school for several hours every day, but then I prayed and God gave us the same answer He had all along. Homeschool.
We have started and now I wouldn’t want to do anything else. Jackson is 5 years old and is in kindergarten and Oliver (3 years old) is preschool age. They both are happy learners, they love to be read to even if there are no pictures at all and enjoy chapter books. Jackson has gone through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons , a book which we loved for learning to read and I will most certainly use it with Oliver as well.
Now Jackson is on to stage one reading, he can read short books and stay focused really well. He can write his letters and is working on his numbers now. We decided to not buy curriculum for this year, but wanted to concentrate on the basics of reading and writing and then next year we will see what we’ll do. I really like the SonLight curriculum, and am leaning towards that for sure. Oliver can’t wait to join in and he is starting to write his letters now too (wants to be just like big brother!) There are some books that we love that I want to highlight over the next couple weeks so stay tuned. And most certainly YES, learning can be is fun.
Today I want to highlight some chapter books filled with good old fashioned values and tons of adventure to keep little boy’s minds fascinated, we love all of them, but the first two are by far the boys’ favourites. Since it is hard to read some of the titles, I have the titles listed below books from left to right and top to bottom.
The Sword in the Tree
My Side of the Mountain
Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Prairie
Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook
My Father’s Dragon
Daniel’s Duck
Stuart Little
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
I hope you find some here that will be your favourites too. Do you have a favourite to share? Any ideas on good homeschooling curriculum? Do tell!
Themocracy
We don’t have the concept of homeschool or maybe I have never heard anyone do it here…
I think that’s great idea though, but then when they eventually have to goto school, what happens?
Oh ! Actually i have not much idea about how it works here.. i need to find out
Here you can just homeschool all the way to college! There are tests and stuff that the kids have to take to be sure that they are keeping up, but I have never heard of that being a problem at all.
Wahoo! Good for you!! I just requested the Sword in the Tree, I hadn’t heard of that one. I pulled Xavier out of school just after Halloween and we’ve been having a blast doing 1st grade at home
I just found a series of non-fiction early chapter books that Xavier really likes – they are by Jean Craighead George. The first one we have read is called One Day on the Alpine Tundra. He’s written ones about all different ecosystems
We also like reading Nate the Great books – the mysteries really get his brain working.
There are a bunch of early reader Magic School Bus chapter books that he loves also.
You MUST read Stone Fox, although I bawled my eyes out at the end
My boy and girl loved this one (and so did I, as a kid
Naya Nuki: Shoshoni Girl Who Ran by Kenneth Thomasma
Re: curriculum? I have a friend who is going to start Sonlight, she’s stoked about it. I’m doing a hodgepodge of things, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE my history and science curriculum. They are super interactive with lots of fun projects that my boys LOVE. This is the science:
http://www.pandiapress.com/real_science.htm
We’re doing Life Science this year.
This is the history:
http://www.pandiapress.com/history_odyssey.htm#ancients
We’re doing the Ancients, level one
Anyway, let me know if you have any questions or ideas!
Thank you! Thank you! I love your info. I need to go check out those links. I just ordered some history stuff for us, but I haven’t looked into science yet.
Is there a reason you took only one of your kids out of school? The rest are still in public school right?
blessings, friend.
Have you heard of the Title Wave Used Bookstore in Portland. Used library books at cheap prices. Lots and lots of kids books.
I haven’t! I go to Powell’s when I am up there to buy used books. Is title Wave even cheaper??? I think I will have to find it!
Yeah, I’m so excited to hear you’ve made a choice…I’m always here for questions if you have any…9 years of homeschooling now. You are the perfect type of parent for homeschooling. We are using Tapestry of Grace which is very similar to Sonlight. I bought books all over for the first several years, but now I find that with free shipping it is usually cheaper to buy all my books on Amazon. I’ll give my plug for 2 math curriculums here. Either Saxon, which I love or Math u see which alot of families use that have a number of children. Yeah for reading…. It is my own personal guilty pleasure and it is always such joy to introduce it to another generation of readers.
Heidi Durrett
PS, I don’t buy curriculum for my kids until they hit 3rd grade. Everything you need for the younger grades is free online and at the Library. I just used the “What your child needs to know” books. They have one for each grade. It is a classical approach and you just find information on the subjects listed.
Hey Heidi! I have been looking into different math courses. I really like the Math U See one since I am a visual learner and I know that Jackson is too. I think we will probably go that route. I need to get the What your Child needs to Know, that is a great resource, thank you.
I googled Tapestry of Grace and found the site, it looks great! Is it just for highschool though? I only saw years 1-4 and I am guessing that is highschool.So you just see what is listed in Tapestry of Grace and order them new on Amazon? I don’t know how to get free shipping on used there.
Thank you Heidi so much for your insight and I will be coming to you with questions for sure! Blessings and thank you.
Tapestry takes you through history from Genesis to now 4 times during your schooling. Each time you read a deeper section of books.
If you are a visual learner you’ll love Math u see. It is a very successful program and at the end students are testing very competetively who have used it. They tend to be able to get further in high school making it through trig instead of just algebra.
You should check out Apologia Science…I’m a huge fan and it is useable for all your kids together. It is a read aloud and you add to it. Specifically set up for homeschool families learning together.
Yes, I order books new…Amazon has super saver shipping on orders over 25.00 (Free). I used to go to all the book stores mostly because I love books and the whole experience. Now I save the experience for special days and just order my books for school.
Heidi
Yay for you!! You will never regret this decision, although there may be moments of doubting your sanity
I have homeschooled all three of my children from the start and this year I graduate my second. I have used Sonlight for the last 6 years and love it! Tapestries made us all cry lol!! When I discovered Sonlight I cried again but from joy this time 
I didn’t actually use any (formal)curriculum until Jr. High. We just read good books and used a lot of “fun” type science books. We did Singapore math and that was the only subject that the kids really thought of as “school”. This has been an amazing journey that I will be sad to see end in two years, enjoy every minute…the time flies!!!