For many years, we were the only homeschoolers in our neighborhood, our church and our family. We got used to being the oddballs. Even after homeschoolers began popping up in our town, we remained the only homeschoolers in our church (other than a brief period when Indiana Jane and her family attended there) and our family. Until now.

I have three sisters. Ironically enough, two work in the public school system. The third has been a radio personality in California for over 20 years. But last year, she lost her job when the station she worked at switched to Spanish-only programming. A single mom, she’d had her son in daycare during the day. But the daycare recently closed down because so many out-of-work parents had brought their kids home. So she’s decided to homeschool our 3-year-old nephew for a while.

I’m no fan of formally homeschooling a child before the age of five or six, but I understand why she wants to keep this very bright little guy challenged until she finds a job and puts him back into daycare.

She asked me for suggestions of online resources she can use with him. Here’s what I wrote back:

You’re homeschooling!  🙂

Read to him A LOT, do little fun crafts, play games like Chutes and Ladders so he picks up number concepts (not just identifying numbers) easily.  Keep it low-key, a little a day, very little desk work. Anything with music is a big plus.

Some cool sites with lots of free and fun stuff, like printables:

http://www.starfall.com/

http://www.dltk-kids.com/

http://www.letteroftheweek.com/index.html

http://www.learningpage.com/

http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/

http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/

Animal cams: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/default.cfm

Printable preschool games: http://www.preschoolprintables.com/filefolder/filefolder.shtml

Can any of you (particularly those homeschooling young children) recommend any other sites for them? Thanks!