Noting that many parents who might teach their young children are often discouraged by a lack of information or fear of being labeled "pushy," this book provides parents with a step-by-step program for teaching preschoolers letters and numbers as a way of giving children a head start on formal education. The handbook consists of a teacher's training manual for parents and an activity workbook for children. Each chapter contains assignments for the parent to master, lessons for the parent to teach the child, and a summary of assignments to guarantee complete understanding of the lessons. Following an introductory chapter, chapter two shows parents how to bring love and sensitivity into the at-home classroom by accenting the positive and provides an initiation into effective and responsive teaching skills. Chapter three uses games which everyone in the family can enjoy to teach children coordination, logic, listening, and direction skills. Chapter four is a beginning reading program that uses a reading comic strip to teach children as young as three years old the sounds of the alphabet and how to read. Chapters five through seven continue the reading comic strip and the reading program, and show parents how to help children progress from reading words to reading books. Chapter eight is a basic math program based upon games, activities, and creative problem solving. Contains 80 references. (Author/SD)