I guess the title tells it all. Although there is really no wrong way to home school your preschooler. I’ve suffered with this for quite some time as I am one of those freakishly “organized” moms. I put that in quotations because well, I like to plan to organize and sometimes I plan so much I’m just about too tired to actually do the project or whatever it is I am working on.
I’ve been researching for hours on methods to teach my little preschooler all he needs to know before his “big day” in an official school. Truth is, at this age, these little tikes learn best through interaction and play. My best curriculum should be focusing on letter recognition, the language and phonics, cognitive tools, pre-reading and science.
My house is in chaos at this moment and we are still trying to organize from our move. For the most part it’s like my husband took me away from veggies and sat me next to candy! I’m enjoying the fruit of my labor and I absolutely love being home to care for our home, nurture our children and love on my hubby. So what’s a girl to do? How do you effectively and consistently home school a preschooler? My answer by my opinion is this: Be consistent. And there will be days that are rough….but persevere and be consistent. When my little Hulk Smash is getting antsy or fed up with his current activity I move to something else. I always engage him with his own world. But I never press him to work. I find opportunities for him to want to do school work.
I am no expert in homeschooling but I do have a plan. Summers been busting up our routine and it’s time to get back on schedule. Here are a few resources that I’ve found to be helpful.
Devotions- I plan to start a consistent devotion with my toddler to start our day. I want him to be aware that apart from God he is nothing, so we start with God. (I also plan on doing a scripture for the month for our family….Our favorite one is Isaiah 33:2. He can say it all by himself!)
Learning the alphabet/phonics- We have started to go through each letter of the alphabet. Each week we will work on a different letter and practice sounds and recognition. I found a wonderful resource here and I plan to incorporate Jamie’s ABC bag idea into our weekly activities. I also plan to incorporate her alphabet book because it’s a great keepsake for my children as they get older.
- I also plan to make our own lap books as we progress through the year.
- I keep a dry erase board also for practicing letters. Sometimes it turns into drawing mommy but he gets it.
My goal for the year is to have him recognize all of the alphabet and learn the sounds they make. Also to write his name or know the letters that make up his name. It’s doable. This year I’d like my Hulk Smash to learn to recognize the numbers 1-20 and at least write 1-10. I plan to incorporate a number book just like the alphabet book. I also think we will begin to make a number collage from old magazine cut outs.
Cognitive thinking and math- This is a problem area right now for us. I plan on using a basic I spy game with numbers and letters to get his mind going. Puzzles will be in the works as well as blocks,Lego’s and computer time games. (Jumpstart is a great resource)
Shapes and colors- My current goal is to link the number and letter of the week with a color. We will categorize colors with numbers. (example-sensory activities) I’m still tweaking this at this moment but I think posting a color of the week around the house will be helpful. I plan to teach him shapes in our everyday activities. Everything has a shape! This will also help with critical thinking when we look for things in the house.
Art and science- I put these two together because we almost always are doing some type of craft! Science can be an art in itself and I plan to do some hands on crafting and science projects this year.
Check out these cool ideas on my pinterest board.
Music is a must in our house. So move and groove will be in order!
We are currently in our third week of preschool and it is going wonderful!
Check out these resources for preschoolers.
These are some of my favorite websites that I refer back to for different ideas when I can’t carry out my own.
How do you homeschool your preschooler? I’d like to hear!
Growing in Grace 
It sounds like you have a great plan and I’m so glad to hear your first few weeks have gone so well. Thank you so much for linking to my blog. Wishing you well with the rest of your year. I so agree about not pushing the work at this age but making it fun and something that they want.
Thank you Jody, it was my pleasure!!! It is so important not to lose sight of our little’s being little. Preschool is so fun for us!
Blessings!
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