Mommy, YOU’RE the Best Homeschool Preschool Curriculum!
Homeschool Preschool
I shared my thoughts on The Best Homeschool Preschool Curriculum. You can also find so many helps and tips in the Mega List of Homeschool Preschool Resources.
Beyond all of that, friend, the BEST homeschool curriculum of any kind is the one that works for you. Remember that homeschooling is a gift. Breathe deeply and ENJOY! (Read more about this in 8 Things I Want New Homeschooling Moms to Know.)
Along with whatever wonderful homeschool curriculum goodies you may or may not want to mix in for your preschooler, I believe that living daily life right alongside mommy IS *the best* overall preschool curriculum. So while you’re gently doing phonics during the preschool years (or not), reading stories together, clipping/gluing, and mixing cookie batter, it’s the time that you’re pouring into your child’s heart that ultimately is the secret sauce in your family’s homeschool preschool.
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Taking Advantage of Natural Learning During the Preschool Years
I believe that during the homeschool preschool years children should be able to learn volumes through natural learning experiences. They need to be able to create, explore, and discover. Little ones are excited about their world. Show them that learning is an engaging part of everyday life! This love of learning carries on as the years’ march forward, and studies increase with growth and maturity.
- Read lots of stories together. You can never read too much to your child. Read whatever they want. If they bring you a stack of Clifford books, read them all. Take your preschooler to the library often and let them pick out big stacks of books! Look at the pictures together. Hold your finger under the words as you read and let them follow along. Even if you don’t think they’re interested in reading at the moment, they are still learning volumes through you.
As I shared on Instagram from Gabriel and Liam’s preschool years.
- Go to the library. Piggybacking on reading lots of stories together, many libraries have a free weekly story time. At these events, the librarian will read several stories, and usually, there’s a themed craft, snack, and other activities.
- Have play dates with friends. Many of our longtime family friends are relationships that I invested in when our teen boys were in their preschool years. We have several families that we can say many of our children have known their entire lives. What an incredible gift in these times, to truly have life-long friendships.
- Take advantage of free local events like movie nights at the park, cultural festivities, holiday parades, historical locations, museums and more. Go as a family and enjoy yourselves!
We like to scoot up to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum annually. It’s free! You can read about our recent trip up there here.
- Coloring and crafts. Again, this sounds so simple, but yes – let’s keep things simple. I like to load up on inexpensive craft supplies at The Dollar Tree, or in the summer when Walmart marks down school supplies. Here is one of my Walmart Homeschool Supplies Haul for more ideas.
- Cook together! That’s right, set up cooking situations where your preschoolers can get their hands dirty and feel like they’re helping mommy, too. We keep a simple step stool in our kitchen as little ones can cook with mommy at various times (of course I’m dreaming of something wonderful like this Guidecraft Kitchen Helper.)
- Let them play. So many children in this world are missing the gift of daily playtime. Let your preschoolers enjoy marvelous playtime each day. Save your big boxes from Costco. Let them make forts under the kitchen table. Get messy, but maybe not THIS messy. 🙂
- Grab a handful of cheap preschool learning workbooks from The Dollar Tree. I have a stack of these on hand. When my preschoolers want book work, it’s available and inexpensive. Here’s a fun Dollar Tree Homeschool Shopping Haul with lots of examples of learning workbooks available. Of course, there are thousands of free homeschool printables to download at a moment’s notice.
- Give them lots of hands-on opportunities. In this picture, Amelia is enjoying building with Magformers. We also have lots of LEGOs, Classic Wooden Building Blocks, KNex, MegaBloks, and Lincoln Logs available. Plus don’t forget super easy homemade playdoh!
Here Amelia loves to build with Magformers!
I’ve also shared more thoughts about how The Early Years of Homeschool look at our house. And this is a long-ago throwback post about a boy and his beans (hopefully it just shows you how everyday items such as a bag of beans for sensory play can go a long way 🙂
What Homeschool Preschool Currently Looks Like at Our House
Currently, in our house Amelia is the main preschooler. That means we’ve made it through five prior homeschool preschoolers (you can read here about Homeschooling with Little Ones Underfoot and Keeping Your Sanity).
From their homeschool preschool days shared on Instagram, “Gabriel is explaining in great detail about his robot factory picture to his younger brother Liam.”
Amelia has slowly transitioned from being the baby that I wear on my back during homeschool lessons to being engaged in daily homeschool learning as a family. She enjoys taking part in read-aloud picnics, working through little workbooks (I only do this when she’s interested), but along with that a lot of her “preschool” looks like this, this, and of course this!).
As your family grows, (I’ve found this to be true in our growing family) the preschoolers get very interested in the older students’ lessons as well. Learning is just part of what you do each day as a family! Not only are Gabriel and Liam working on their All About Reading lessons, but Amelia is also right there listening and many times participating too. When we work on Developing Story Telling Skills in the Homeschool using Story Starter Cubes, as I mention in this video, Amelia is right with us learning about Who, What, When Where, and SHE creates the Why. You can see more of Amelia working through her gentle homeschool preschool in our Homeschool Mom Life {Mid-Winter Edition} video and post.
Final Thoughts You Don’t Want to Miss, Friend
In closing, if you and I were sitting down for coffee on my country porch, I’d encourage you to go ahead and buy whatever you feel you need. If you’re drooling over *insert whatever curriculum name here,* and it’s what you feel is best, do it. Enjoy it. Remember Jamerrill sitting on the porch also saying, “make the curriculum work for you.” That being said, don’t lose sight of the idea that no matter what you purchase (or don’t purchase), YOU pouring God’s love and enjoying daily life with your preschooler is the *very best* overall homeschool curriculum in my humble opinion.
Liam’s afternoon catch
So read those stories. Snuggle close. Take nature walks. Make cooking messes and play in waterfalls! Talk through all the little questions that your preschooler asks. And enjoy these preschool years. They truly are gone in a flash, momma. xoxo