so i am going to be putting together a homeschool program for pre schoolers and i could use all of your help. ideas, and things that work for you.

One thing I used was my library reference section.  They have books called "story stretchers"  It is a book compiled of different children books.  Each story is listed with different  activities to be use with the story.

For preschool age, I would suggest regular trips to the library to get books that are of interest to the child and to enjoy storytime.  Go to the park and let him/her run and play.  Spend lots of time reading books and talking about books.  Cook together.  Think about the skills he/she needs and find ways to incorporate them in play.  If you are working on counting, count the blocks while you build or count the groceries as they are placed in the basket.  If you are working on colors, find all the green cars while you are driving.  At this age, I would only do sit down workbook type stuff if your child wants to and only when he/she wants to.  I have a 4 year old daughter who loves to sit down and do "workbooks," but my 3 year old won't have anything to do with a table and chairs unless there is food involved.  For my 3 year old, he does a lot of learning while jumping on the mini trampoline! 

Great advice from Amanda H--I wholeheartedly agree! 

Should your child crave the more structured activities (and some kiddos are like that!), there are some great resources online.  Two websites that have been extremely helpful to me and quite a few of my friends are:

www.letteroftheweek.com

and

www.starfall.com

The Letter of the Week site has fully fleshed out plans for a home preschool program.  It has activities and literature ideas for every letter, encouraging letter and phonemic recognition.  There is a book at my library called Art Across the Alphabet that would work nicely with LOTW.

If you are looking for something less structured, you might also try Ambleside Online's Year 0 plan: http://amblesideonline.org/00.shtml .  It's technically for Kindergarten age but has lots of info useful to preschool.  It is based on the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling--emphasis on 'living books' rather than workbooks and plenty of experience with nature and genuine home experiences.  The booklists on AO's site are great starting points for reading ideas.

Before Five in a Row is also a great, gentle preschool program.  You can find more about it at http://www.fiveinarow.com .  You can purchase this book used for fairly cheap, and I have found many of the books are available at the library.

http://www.dltk-kids.com/   DLTK Kids is a great site. I use it all the time for my 4 yr old. They have printables for everything!!! Crafts, coloring pages, the works!

http://www.123child.com/act/

http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/topics.html

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

http://www.childcareland.com/teach5.html

These are some I use. Hope the links work.

Holly mentioned the book "Story Stretchers". It's an excellent way to go about bringing books to life. I had a daycare resource trainer come into our home with the book Swimmy. She read the kids the book, then they made bottles filled with blue water mixed with oil, added glitter and a multitude of whatever the could find outdoors that would fit through the opening, everything from grass to small stones, sticks, pine cones, etc. Any book can be expanded on with activities, art, cooking. The important thing is to instill a love for learning and remain flexible.

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

Just one more :)

I am homeschooling two preschool age boys. I have some really fun lapbook units that I created for preschoolers posted at homeschoolshare.com website. You can get to them through my blog by clicking here - http://wordoftruthboysacademy.blogspot.com/search/label/Lapbooks . There are many other neat preschool units at homeschoolshare as well. My boys have enjoyed making lapbooks. I also am using the Handwriting Without Tears preschool materials for an awesome, hands-on way to learn the alphabet.