Summer Home-schooling Curriculum for Pre-Schooler?

Question:
We are situated in the UK and I've being toying with the idea of home-schooling for the past year or more. However I've decided to give our education system the benefit of the doubt and my 3 year old daughter will be starting Nursery next January part-time. She is currently in Kindergarten/Playgroup which she loves, but educationally I don't think they meet her needs, and I don't think Nursery will either.

I would like to try and help her with her reading and basic maths in a more formal way than we are doing at present - particularly over the summer holidays. We read together each day for a minimum of 5 minutes before bedtime upto a total of 30 minutes per day. I point to the words in the books and she has picked up a few words on some sight and say cards. We don't do so much maths but she has ploughed her way through 'Millies Math House' the only bit which gives her any trouble is 'Dorothy' when they have to put the same amount of items on the stage - she is great upto 4 but after that she seems to think that its complicated and refuses to do it (although she can tell me how to do it!! most times anyway).

I'd like to know where I can get some basic work books from of quality and at a competitive price similar to that used by primary teachers key stage 1. (I've looked at those in WH Smiths today and couldn't find anything suitable). Also I tried ordering teacher's notes and blue prints through the library, but the library refused to order them for me. (Apparently it's not the library's policy to stock teacher resources). Or perhaps someone can recommend some CD-ROMs, something a little more stretching than Millies but still aimed at pre-schoolers.

Are there any resources/blue prints available on the net?

Also, I decided to let my daughter decide what she wants to learn on her 'free' day (Thursdays). This week she wants to learn to make biscuits with chocolate chips and icing stripes - if anyone has a receipe I'd love to hear from you. How would you maximize the learning potential of this and other activities? How important is it to follow through with learning activities as and when they arise or is it effective to wait until there is time available, ie, her free day?

Answer:
We are a home educating family in the UK also - consisting of Imelda, Norman, CJ (9yrs) and Niall (4yrs). We are also members of the National Association for Gifted Children.

You say you're only toying with the idea of home education at the moment, but you're obviously keen to start your daughter's education now. If it is likely that she will go to school in a year or so, find out what the school are using in the way of books and methods. If you use a very different method, she could end up a very confused little girl! However, a word of warning here. I don't mean to sound cynical, but you may be creating a future problem. If your daughter enters school ahead of the rest of the class she could end up being bored, frustrated or just plain miserable. Given the current class sizes, teachers find it very hard to give proper attention to a child whose streets ahead of the others or whose learning style is different. If a problem does develop, the 'blame' is often placed on the parent for raising a 'precocious' child. We should know. That's why we ended up withdrawing CJ from the state system. The best all-round advice I can give is - relax! You are, understandably, anxious that your daughter gets the best start to her education. But her 'education' began on the day she was born and look what both of you have achieved already. Why not continue in the same vein? Follow her lead rather than the structured approach of some of the reading and maths books. Pick up on new interests and use them to introduce counting, reading and writing games. Whenever possible, follow these interests immediately and allow them to develop naturally until that passion wanes, then pick up on something new. The only rules I have are a) I must have some time to myself each day and b) I can't start something new while I am in the middle of cooking a meal!

I have never formally taught Niall how to write any letters but he is beginning to experiment with letter and word formation, including writing 'stories' and 'shopping lists'. The interesting thing is that the only time I have drawn letters for him, I have used lower-case. Niall, however, writes in upper-case most of the time! He has also begun to do simple mental arithmetic - apparently out of the blue!

I also know a number of home-educated children who can read, write etc. beautifully (often well in advance of the school-going peers) with little or no formal or structured instruction. The key appears to be to give them the opportunity and space to try out ideas and to treat these experiments seriously. Give criticisem. if asked, but keep it positive. Children really do want to 'get it right'. Above all, don't insist that they are 'doing' all the time. Try and leave a little space for just 'being'.