Welcome to Home Plate Academy!! 

This area was known as B4PK on our old website but we felt that did not accurately portray what we were wanting to accomplish. In baseball, you come up to bat at home plate. You hit the ball, journey around the basis, and return home. This is our hope for the toddlers and preschoolers out there. 

Everything begins at home. The first lessons in life are often the most valuable. We learn to talk, walk, dress out selves, socialize, listen, clean, and so much more. All these skills are necessary for all our future successes in life. So our children first must graduate from Home Plate Academy  in order to succeed in life and graduate from Tuscan Sun Academy. We are hoping to have graduation certificates available for our little players sometime in the future.

2005-2006: It has only been a year since I last used Core PK and neither my middle child or I am ready to tackle it again. So, I decided to make my own curriculum SL style for my little guy based upon all the great suggestions I have received over the years. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. I will be tweaking it as we go along so please do the same to fit your needs.

2006-2007: We read through the books as we felt like it. Never really following much of a schedule. We had a lot of fun with these and plan on adding them to PK maybe in replacement of some of our not so favorite books or else just for some relaxing story for bed time.

   Big Thoughts for Little People We skipped the questions as some of the answers did not fit our religious beliefs (paedo-baptist) but I love the simplicity of the stories that it has to offer. I am not sure if I would recommend this or not... it all depends upon what you believe I guess. I will however, not be using this with my other children.

The Young Learners Bible

Harper Collins Treasury of Picture Book Classics  If you like the 20th Century Children's Book Treasury, you will sure to enjoy this one as well!

You Read to Me and I'll Read to you: Books from the 20th Century My older son laughs hysterically every time we read this book. It is like a mini script for a play you act out. Don't be afraid to do so and use different voices for the characters as well! There are several other You Read to Me and I'll Read To You Books as well. We have the whole collection. They are great for helping your beginning readers build confidence in their abilities.

Curious George Treasury The complete collection by the original author. Don't forget to read the original book Cecily G. and the 9 monkeys ... after all that is where George was originally found! There are many more Curious George books other than these that are out there but they are not by the original author ... although they are just as good.

  The Complete Collection of Thomas the Train If you have boys who love Thomas ... this will be a hit in your family! You can also get more stories about trains from watching the DVDs or playing with their toys. We have a wooden train set and table. The boys love acting out what they have read with this.

Leap Frog DVDs there are currently 5 available. We own most of these and the ones I do not own yet are on my wish list. These have been instrumental in helping my little ones learn the names and sounds of the letters of the alphabet.

Preschool Readiness available at RR by Abeka. I did not like this at all. Too much prep work for parents, not enough instruction, and not enough learning to be done in my opinion. Save your money and buy something else.) 

  Farmyard Tales Collection My son loves this and I have read this book so many times that I think I can read the stories in my sleep. The best part.... finding the duck on every page. From Usborne books.

Read Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young Fun poems for the whole family!

Climb Into My Lap Another great first book of poems

Lauri Manipulatives

Cuisenaire Rods with the following 2 books: On the Farm and In the Town

  I Spy An Alphabet in Art Beautifully done. A great addition to any household and a wonderful introduction to art and art appreciation!

Boys First Book of Manners A board book. Can be used at even the youngest ages to teach the basics. More for ages PK and up than infants/toddlers.

Lacing Beads

Teddy Bear Counters

Magnetic Letters

Various Computer Games  

Signing Time Videos You can read all about why I love these videos so much on the foreign language page. These are great for helping young ones build a vocabulary and communicate more effectively with others. There are currently 13 videos available in this series.

If you are looking for ideas for birth through preschool, I highly recommend the Letter of the Week website. While some things may be too advanced for some, simply skip over those areas and continue on with the rest. I will be using parts of it with my boys and the parts I have used so far, we have enjoyed a lot!

Copyright © 2006 Tuscan Sun Academy
Last modified: June 26, 2006