Preschool resources were brought up in a conversation the other day and, although it's not something I think about at all anymore, I thought a post about what we used may be helpful to some...
One thing we always did and still do is read, read, read. There are a number of book sets by Moncure which is how our kiddos learned their letters and more about numbers. We loved Richard Scarry books and many Golden Books. We also greatly enjoyed Frog & Toad, Amelia Bedelia, Eric Carle books, Boynton books, Dr. Seuss, and so many more that I don't remember.
As far as books that supported their spiritual growth...we had a large variety of children's bibles (maybe 5-7) that we would just read through and rotate. Some of our favorites were the Rhyme Bible (the stories are very limited, but the rhymes are so much fun), Read and Learn Bible, The Golden Bible (much higher level...I would abbreviate at points), and Word and Song Bible (there are CDs of this bible and it was one of the best things we did for our kids when they were little...the CDs were always playing in the car inputting scripture into the kids, and my, head). We always wanted bible storybooks that had realistic type pictures, not totally cartoony and were accurate to the biblical text - some lines in some bibles were crossed out. Other good bible-like resources are My ABC Bible Verses, books by Dandi Daley Mackall, Leading Little Ones to God, Pictorial Pilgrim's Progress, and the Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories. I'm seeing as I try to look these up that a number are no longer in print...so try Ebay or Amazon Used if you'd like to purchase them.
We also did very little videos with them (and no tv except on vacations)...mostly Little People (Micheal does do some magic in them, but not in a bad way), some Baby Einstein, a couple of Veggie Tales (I am generally negative about Veggie Tales except for their character specific ones like Madame Blueberry...the other ones I feel dumb down scripture), Dr. Seuss, and a few Richard Scarry.
As far as academics, we never did official preschool or much of preschool type things at our house..mostly just pointing out colors, shapes, letters, numbers, etc., besides the lots of reading. The thought was just to let kids be kids and enjoy playing as well as helping around the house in whatever capacity they were able. I don't see at this point that not participating in early education has had any ill effect on my kiddos.
Those seem to be all the favorites I can think of right now. Also, just to throw this in...sleep was a priority for us in those years (and in many ways, still is)...I believe way too many kids are not getting the rest they need and it shows in their attitudes and ability to learn. Lots of rest, lots of structured and unstructured time to play, and lots of books are keys to a good early childhood in my opinion.
