Let me preface this by saying that these books were actually meant to be supplement materials, not a full curriculum.
The Bendon Pusblishing activity boks made a wonderful advanced preschool option for us! Plus, since they are available in a variety of characters, the motivation for school is built in. Characters available include:
- Sesame Street
- Disney: Princess, Fairies, Little Einsteins, Cars, Tigger and Pooh
- Mickey Mouse Club
- Handy Manny
- Hello Kitty
- Word World
- Littlest Pet Shop
- Marvel Heroes
- NASCAR
- Veggietales
This is no where near a complete list of what they have!
The particular book I used was the Disney Princess Alphabet. By the time we got to this book, we had worked our way through 4 Step Ahead books (see previous entry). This is NOT a book you want to start with, as it just jumps right in with the writing of letters on actual lines.
The book actually starts out with blank lined pages. The first thing I did was skip those and came back to them once she learned all the letters. The rest of the pages look a little something like this one.
I had her practice the uppercase and lowercase simultaneously. I know most curriculums and teachers prefer to do them separately starting with lowercase, but I find doing them together helps with letter recognition and lessens confusion when it's time to use the uppercase letters. Plus, I love that each page gives the student a word with that letter they've just practiced. The main thing I loved was that my daughter ask for "Princess School" every morning!
