A favorite preparation for school is the Mennonite "ABC Preschool Series" published by Rod and Staff Publishers. Their workbooks include mode of goodness illustrations depicting farm life, happy home life with mother at home, worship of God, a service attitude, as well as showing little girls in dresses and pig tails.
And to avoid confusion, please note that the Amish and Mennonite community equates the word "preschool" with "kindergarten". In other words, their children do not officially start school until first grade. So their preschool series of workbooks are meant for children ready for kindergarten.
(Book A) ADVENTURES WITH BOOKS --
This is the first book in the series containing a variety of lessons such as colors and coloring; understanding top, bottom, up and down, left, right, open and closed; what is alike, what is different; matching; tracing lines; shapes; what is small, smaller, smallest; dot to dot pictures to complete; categorizing, sorting, and grouping what goes together; and a scripture story with a picture to color.
For devotees of Krsna it may seem preferable of course, to use a story from our own scriptures that is similar. For example, one story in one of the workbooks involved the story of Moses being put into a basket. I used the same cutouts of the woman and the baby in the basket and the river, except I told the story of Kunti and Karna instead.
Another exercise asks "What is missing?"; or to cut and paste a picture together like a puzzle. And there is a song at back of book. Usually these songs are easily adaptable or suitable enough that devotee children can learn them, too.
(Book B) Book B contains Bible stories only.This workbook was the only one I did not purchase. I think it also comes with a related coloring book. Since you do not have to buy all the books together in the series, this may easily be replaced with stories from a children's version of Krishna book and so on, along with corresponding coloring book pages to color. Thankfully, these kinds of materials are becoming available for devotee children.
(Book C) COUNTING WITH NUMBERS --
Basically children learn the numbers 1-10, counting with them, writing them, and using them in various ways.
There used to be a beautiful set of math workbooks A and B published for the gurukulas with detailed Krishna conscious illustrations. But sadly, these are no longer in print.
(Book D) DO IT CAREFULLY
This workbook contains lessons for letter writing practice and hearing sounds. Some material reinforces book A plus mazes, matching capital letters, matching the same pattern, matching the same word, practice for writing a child’s name, writing numbers, sequences and patterns, tracing lines, matching shaded shapes with pictures, things that make sounds, larger and smaller, same initial sounds, parts and the whole, "Which things are used together?" "Where does our food come from?" (garden, tree, animal), coloring a picture by letters, "Summer or winter?" (what activities are done when)
(Book E) EVERYWHERE WE GO --
Reviews material in previous workbooks as well as showing courtesy, jobs and places in a community, pictures that belong together, riddles, and contains a very useful hundred number chart on the back page. This will be very useful in future math homework.
(Book F) FINDING THE ANSWERS--
Book F challenges thinking skills such as what goes together, soft and hard, rhyming, "What comes next?", cause and effect, matching the same number, my telephone #, my birthday, ordering events, patterns, predicting what should happen next, sorting birds from insects, animal homes, animals that move the same, objects that move the same, drawing, following directions, "Made of wood or metal?", "What is it made of?"- leather, glass, cloth, wood or paper.
BOOKS G-H
I recently discovered more books being added to this series- Going on Eagerly and Hearing and Helping-but I have yet to check them out.
Click Here for ordering.
And for anyone wondering what a child should be taught before kindergarten? Prabhupada recommends letting them "eat and play." The madness of teaching children academics at younger and younger ages is for those competing with each other in the material world. Let them be children for those brief four years. If a child bugs you to teach them to read and write at age 4 though, that is a different story. One may wish to begin this series at that age and stretch it out for two years.
UPDATE: I have not reviewed them personally, but titles starting with I-J-K are now available!
And to avoid confusion, please note that the Amish and Mennonite community equates the word "preschool" with "kindergarten". In other words, their children do not officially start school until first grade. So their preschool series of workbooks are meant for children ready for kindergarten.
(Book A) ADVENTURES WITH BOOKS --
This is the first book in the series containing a variety of lessons such as colors and coloring; understanding top, bottom, up and down, left, right, open and closed; what is alike, what is different; matching; tracing lines; shapes; what is small, smaller, smallest; dot to dot pictures to complete; categorizing, sorting, and grouping what goes together; and a scripture story with a picture to color.
For devotees of Krsna it may seem preferable of course, to use a story from our own scriptures that is similar. For example, one story in one of the workbooks involved the story of Moses being put into a basket. I used the same cutouts of the woman and the baby in the basket and the river, except I told the story of Kunti and Karna instead.
Another exercise asks "What is missing?"; or to cut and paste a picture together like a puzzle. And there is a song at back of book. Usually these songs are easily adaptable or suitable enough that devotee children can learn them, too.
(Book B) Book B contains Bible stories only.This workbook was the only one I did not purchase. I think it also comes with a related coloring book. Since you do not have to buy all the books together in the series, this may easily be replaced with stories from a children's version of Krishna book and so on, along with corresponding coloring book pages to color. Thankfully, these kinds of materials are becoming available for devotee children.
(Book C) COUNTING WITH NUMBERS --
Basically children learn the numbers 1-10, counting with them, writing them, and using them in various ways.
There used to be a beautiful set of math workbooks A and B published for the gurukulas with detailed Krishna conscious illustrations. But sadly, these are no longer in print.
(Book D) DO IT CAREFULLY
(Book E) EVERYWHERE WE GO --
Reviews material in previous workbooks as well as showing courtesy, jobs and places in a community, pictures that belong together, riddles, and contains a very useful hundred number chart on the back page. This will be very useful in future math homework.
(Book F) FINDING THE ANSWERS--
Book F challenges thinking skills such as what goes together, soft and hard, rhyming, "What comes next?", cause and effect, matching the same number, my telephone #, my birthday, ordering events, patterns, predicting what should happen next, sorting birds from insects, animal homes, animals that move the same, objects that move the same, drawing, following directions, "Made of wood or metal?", "What is it made of?"- leather, glass, cloth, wood or paper.
BOOKS G-H
I recently discovered more books being added to this series- Going on Eagerly and Hearing and Helping-but I have yet to check them out.
Click Here for ordering.
And for anyone wondering what a child should be taught before kindergarten? Prabhupada recommends letting them "eat and play." The madness of teaching children academics at younger and younger ages is for those competing with each other in the material world. Let them be children for those brief four years. If a child bugs you to teach them to read and write at age 4 though, that is a different story. One may wish to begin this series at that age and stretch it out for two years.
UPDATE: I have not reviewed them personally, but titles starting with I-J-K are now available!
