Hi friends! As most of you know, we’ve been struggling with getting Gavin used to actually *going* to preschool (he’s almost 3 for reference). In order to help ease the transition, I have been trying to be really intentional about “playing preschool” at home with him while Spencer naps each morning. Since I am 0% creative and have no sort of teaching background, I was so excited to learn about ABC Teach and their learning resources for children.
I’ve been utilizing their printables for about a month now and have so many good things to say about the hard work they have put in to create an all-encompassing website for anything and everything you could possibly need to kickstart your toddler’s education at home. I can only imagine how helpful this would be for teachers, too!
Most of the resources I have pulled so far are from the “PreK/Early Elementary” section. Gavin is an extremely auditory learner and has a tough time sitting down and focusing on something visually, so the fact that some of these printables have actually captured his attention is amazing!
Some of our favorites are:
Alphabet Letter Patterns: great for working on letter recognition and learning to trace letters for their little hands
Sorting cards: SO good for little ones to learn the difference between different types of animals, foods, colors, sizes, etc.
Beginning Letters: love this as a precursor to reading - Gavin is getting so good at recognizing many letters and not just memorizing the order of the alphabet
Facial Expressions: we’ve got some BIG toddler feelings over here in our house and this section is so helpful for helping Gavin to distinguish what they are and how to handle them
Since I have a very young toddler, I can’t really speak to a lot of the materials, but I am really looking forward to exploring the Holiday/Seasonal, Montessori Materials, and Theme Units sections as Gavin grows. To be honest, I was extremely overwhelmed when I first logged onto the website, just because there is SO much material to explore! Instead of burying myself in the plethora of material, I decided to focus on prioritizing one section at a time to work through with Gavin (that looked like starting with PreK/Early Elementary for us).
I'm so grateful to have found ABC Teach when I have such young children, because I can see how beneficial it will be as they grow. Some ideas I have for how to use it moving forward are:
Tutoring resources when either of my kids need additional help in a school subject. I am NOT a teacher by any means and do not plan on homeschooling, but know I will need to figure out how to assist with homework as they get older!
Supplemental education during the summer months to keep some sense of "routine" when the kids aren't in formal school.
To come up with fun, teachable ways to introduce holidays, seasons, and other "random" times of the year to my kids.
So if you are looking for a way to teach your kids at home without having to put in any of the work in developing the material, this is the resource for you! Feel free to reach out with any questions you have or if you want more information on any specific section. AND if you decide to try it out for yourself and your family, please let me know which section you chose to start with and why!
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