Preschool (3 years)

You can read about our Preschool Plans with a more detailed explanation.

Goals:

• Recognize and recite all capital letters.
• Use tactile exploration to begin writing capital letters.
• Recognize numbers 1-10.
• Recite numbers 1-20.
• Recognize colors and shapes.

Resources:

I will be using many different resources, as I continue to strive to find activities that are best for my son. He doesn’t favor coloring or painting or “crafts,” but he can get very excited for moment at a time.  I wrote more about allowing play time during these early years and following his lead here.

I will be using three main curriculums.  The Preschool Journey, Confessions of a Homeschooler Letter of the Week curriculum, and Royal Baloo Zoomin’ Movin’ Alphabet.

Some parents don’t want to skip around (like I like to do, so only pick one curriculum that is best for you!). Choose what is best for you!  I also recommend checking out Delightful Learning’s work with Little Hands to Heaven curriculum, which also looks excellent, and I may choose it for my daughter later on.

The Preschool Journey: Using craft, sensory, and book ideas from the complete preschool curriculum from Teaching Mama

Confessions of a Homeschooler – Letter of the Week curriculum

Royal Baloo — Zoomin’ Movin’ Alphabet curriculum

My First Hands-On Bible: I adore this Bible and could not recommend it more highly.  I devoted a whole post to “why” here, so check that out!

Poems taken from: 24 Preschool Chants & 12 Poems of Robert Louis Stevenson & Poetry Cards for Children

Five in a Row – Before Five in a Row

Abeka – Arts and Crafts with Amber Lamb 3s, Summer Fun with Amber Lamb, Art Projects K4, K4 Bible Activity Book

My Father’s World – Preschool Package

Sing the Word from A to Z cd

Sing the Word from A to Z Bible Verse Posters (coming soon on the blog!)

Themed printables and ideas from: 1plus1plus1equals1, Homeschool Creations, and Mamas Monkeys.

Making our Preschool Alphabet Book

Creating our ABC Felt Animals

ABC Learning Pinterest Board for further ideas:

Follow Wildflower Ramblings’s board ABC Learning on Pinterest.

Notes:

• Our schedule will mostly be for the day: Recitation, Counting, Literacy Work, Sensory/Craft/Practical Life time.
• Royal Baloo’s curriculum includes some developmentally appropriate handwriting skills. I plan on using these only if my son can draw a straight line. This may be in the middle of our curriculum year. That’s okay. The goal is just to familiarize. Next year (Pre-Kindergarten 4s) is when we will focus on handwriting. This year will be focused on sandpaper letters, puffy paint letters, and writing a letter (with help from me, the teacher) in sand, sugar, shaving cream, etc.
• Optional focus on colors and shapes: Confessions of a Homeschooler and other homeschooling sites listed above have many color and shape activities that I have printed and laminated, and so does 1plus1plus1equals1and Homeschool Creations There are so many fun ideas for this: color box collections, color books, etc.
• I will also be incorporating many of the literacy ideas from The Preschool Journey and from the Letter of the Week curriculum, created by Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler and from Royal Baloo’s Zoomin’ Movin’ Alphabet. They have an abundance of sources for literacy and mathematics learning.
• Though many activities are included, you know your child – see what your child enjoys doing the most — these should all be a fun learning time and shouldn’t feel “chore-like” to your little student-in-training.
• Notes on Tot School and Deliberate Play Time is included in Tot School for 2s curriculum.

Here are our plans for Tot School (2s) and Pre-Kindergarten (4s).

And here are our Tot School Posts (2 years)