We are officially joining the homeschool community this year! We are beginning homeschool preschool with Mr. Four this year, and this is the start of what I hope will be a long, beautiful home education journey. And today, I’m sharing what we’re using for our homeschool preschool curriculum this year, and I’m wildly excited!
Before I launch into what we’re doing for preschool this year, I’ll start by saying that I fall into the camp of people who believe that in general, preschoolers need
- a lot of free play, time to explore nature, and loads of quality books read to them;
- a gentle approach to preschool that doesn’t force too much on them too soon;
- time to let them be little, to foster their natural curiosity, and to encourage their desire to learn; and
- play-based, hands-on, child-led learning.
So basically, I don’t feel like kids actually NEED preschool in order to become successful in school (or life). I’ve been completely amazed by the things that Mr. Four has picked up without any direct instruction or sit-down lessons.
However, I also know that every family needs to do what works best for them. For us, that means starting preschool. Mr. Four has been asking to learn to read and write, and I want to be more intentional with our days. I need routine and structure, and I want some guidance on activities that will create rich experiences through which he’ll learn both academics and life skills.
Our Preschool Goals
Our big goals for our preschool year are pretty simple:
- Establish a solid routine and good habits;
- Teach Mr. Four some age-appropriate academic and life skills;
- Nurture an excitement about and love of learning; and
- Foster a love of God and an understanding of our faith.
So what homeschool preschool curriculum are we using?
A Year of Playing Skillfully
After mentioning that I was probably going to go ahead and start preschool with Mr. Four this year, a friend told me about The Homegrown Preschooler. I spent a bit of time on their website, and I loved what I saw because it completely fits the idea of letting young children play, explore nature, discover literature, ask questions, and let their curiosity lead, but it does it in a way that is intentional. Score! It’s also faith-based, so the activities are centered on the belief that everything in our amazing world was created by a God who loves us. Extra score!
What sold me on it, however, were the reviews I read. Because it’s a play-based curriculum (and really, we can use the word “curriculum” loosely here), parent after parent said that this curriculum was a gift to their families because they spent a year playing and making memories. They talked about how much this curriculum encouraged deep, rich experiences with their kids that they’ll forever be grateful for.
After sharing all of this with Blaise, he quickly agreed that this sounded like the right choice for us. This is our primary curriculum, and everything else is supplemental. We’ve completed our first 2 weeks of A Year of Playing Skillfully and we have LOVED every single activity!
I’m so excited about what the rest of the year will bring!
Preschool Math at Home
I read a LOT of really great reviews of Preschool Math at Home from fellow homeschooling mamas and because I want to give the boys a strong math foundation, decided to add this to our day. Each activity takes approximately 5-10 minutes, depending on what it is (most take 5 minutes, and one took about 20 because Mr. Four loved it and wanted to just keep playing).
Like AYOPS, it feels NOTHING like doing school, but it does go through several essential math skills. To Mr. Four, we’re just sitting down to play a quick game with his cars or counters or whatever else is handy, and that’s exactly how I want math to feel right now. Fun, easy, no stress!
The Good and The Beautiful Pre-K
We only just decided to add The Good and The Beautiful a little over a week ago. For several weeks, we had countless discussions about whether we should add an additional, language arts-specific curriculum to AYOPS.
I know that if we did AYOPS only (or nothing at all, really), Mr. Four would be perfectly fine! He would learn just by doing life, reading great books, and asking questions. However, the deciding moment was a couple of weeks ago. Mr. Four climbed up to sit at the table, picked up my pencil, and said, “I want to learn to write.”
We did Lesson 1 together to see if he’d even like it, and he loved it! I looked at Blaise and said, “Okay. I’m getting the curriculum.” Originally, we decided that we would NOT use any worksheets/workbooks for preschool, because they can learn everything they need to know through exploration.
However…
We went with this one after hearing a lot of other moms in the AYOPS group rave about how much they love it. It is a workbook that the kids work through, but the lessons are short and sweet, and include many hands-on games and activities. It’s a very gentle approach to teaching the alphabet, letter sounds, vowels, writing, and other skills. I loved that it’s open-and-go, the lessons are brief, and the curriculum is truly beautiful.
I debated on just creating my own Letter of the Week activities and working through the alphabet that way, but I felt like it was a lot on top of teaching online, working through AYOPS (there is a bit of prep time involved with many of the activities), and trying to manage our household. So the open-and-go part really appealed to me.
Our plan for this is to tack it on to our Morning Basket time, and not push. If he’s not in the mood, I will not force it. If he is, we’ll do as much as he wants to do. But honestly, he loves this kind of stuff and he was really excited the day it came in the mail!
Playing is the Goal for Our Preschool Homeschool
So that’s that. I feel like it sounds like a lot when I write it all out, but really, we spend no more than a couple of hours spread out over the whole day on preschool-specific activities. Most of the time, Mr. Four isn’t even aware that he’s “doing school” unless I tell him.
And that’s really how I want it right now!
I’d love to hear what your experiences are/were with preschool!
Here are links to the above curricula, if you are interested. I am not affiliated with any of the companies (except through Amazon), but want to make it easy for you to check them out if you want!
A Year of Playing Skillfully
Preschool Math at Home
The Good and The Beautiful Pre-K
