My First Book Is Free February 19-23, 2014

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I am glad to announce the publication of my first book, “101 Tips for Preschool at Home.” Homeschooling through the preschool years does not have to be difficult. My book presents 101 ideas for the preschool years plus a bonus tip.

Starting on February 19, we offer the book for FREE for five days. Please download it, skim through it and then leave me a positive review if you enjoyed it. I read all reviews in order to learn and serve my readers better in the future.

101 Tips for Preschool at Home is a Kindle book available for free download Feb 19-23, 2014.

101 Tips for Preschool at Home is a Kindle book available for free download Feb 19-23, 2014.

Will you help me spread the word, too? Please let your friends who have preschoolers know about it.

Thank you in advance!

P.S. If you have Amazon Prime, you can download it for free through their lending program even after it’s no longer offered for free to the general public.


5 Facts About My First Kindle Book

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I am excited to announce the publication of my first Amazon Kindle book later this month. Homeschool Ways will keep you posted when my book will come out and when it is available for free, so please come back soon.

Kindle Paperwhite

My Kindle Paperwhite, which has come to dwell with me and my keyboard Kindle.

Here are 5 facts you may want to know about my first Kindle book:

  • coming out later this month
  • dealing with how to homeschool through the preschool years
  • presenting up-to-date resources and methods
  • written from a fresh, down-to-earth perspective
  • downloadable for free for the first five days

Don’t have a Kindle? Get one here. Or, sign up for the Kindle app for free.

On second thought, who needs diamonds and pearls for Valentine’s? Tell him to get you a Kindle. All the books you can read on it are like diamonds and pearls for your mind and heart.

If you know a mom with preschoolers, please tell her about this upcoming book. And thank you in advance!


Rod & Staff Preschool Workbooks

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Earlier this year, while my son and I were doing math, my daughter asked to do math, too. He is five. She is three. I use Singapore Math Earlybird Kindergarten with him and I really like it, by the way. But alas, Singapore Math does not publish a preschool workbook. What’s a homeschooling mother to do?

For a while, I printed worksheets for my daughter from the internet. When I got tired of it, I investigated around and found the Rod & Staff Preschool Workbooks. They come in two series: one for ages 3-4 and the other for ages 4-5. Since my son was still in preschool (technically speaking), I ordered both series.

My daughter loved her workbooks from the start. She finished one in two sittings. It was almost scary. She kept turning the page saying, “One more.”

Rod and Staff Preschool

Rod and Staff Workbooks for ages 3-4

She seems to be a natural pen-and-paper learner but, of course, she still likes hands-on activities, too – and we do plenty of those. As a younger sibling, she has been learning new concepts by osmosis on a daily basis. I work with my son and she plays nearby, within earshot. She absorbs information without realizing it.

I was amazed at how much she already knew as we worked through these booklets. The whole experience felt like a review of material I never covered with her. But it did not feel like a waste of time. We practiced important study skills like following directions, working on a page from top to bottom and from left to right, and stopping when the attention span wanes.

It also felt like the perfect way to ease her into the role of student and me into the role of teacher. For three years, I have been mommy. Now I am her teacher, too. We uncovered a new layer in our relationship.

The publishers have included cut and paste activities throughout, not just matching, drawing lines, coloring and tracing. The black-and-white format does not catch the eye, but it does the job. My daughter never objected to it in the beginning. However, after a few weeks of sitting next to her brother, who was working through his colorful Singapore Math workbook, she asked for a book “like his.” I told her she would get one “like his” when she gets to kindergarten.

I believe three-year-olds are too young to trace neatly. We skipped the tracing pages or, if she asked me to do it, I traced to show her the motions, by saying out loud, for instance, “To make a one, we go from top to bottom.”

As to my son, the workbooks for four- and five-year-olds never appealed to him, probably because (1) they were below his level and (2) Singapore Math offers tactile practice before asking a young child to show understanding of an abstract concept with pen and paper. So my daughter may inherit the Rod and Staff books for the next level.

Don’t you just love homeschooling? Things don’t always go as planned, but they work out in the end.